I went back to school this semester. It’s been a minute. Or two. The traditional College Experience is something I never fully realized – even in my years as a full-time student, and the return to campus was rather akin to culture shock. The world of the sub-adult coed continues to be a baffling facet of society to me. College life. Curious. But while my own personal walk in the rich meadows of higher education is destined to be a long one (Class of 2016! Woo hoo!), I can take comfort that I am following in the footsteps of some decidedly great literary-minded fellows. Poet Laureate anyone? Kentucky’s current Poet Laureate, Maureen Morehead, will return to UofL’s halls of learning this week as part of the Axton Reading Series. Catch her for a free poetry reading this Thursday, September 27th, at 7:30pm.
Holding that English doctorate from the University of Louisville aloft, Maureen Morehead is the author of four published poetry collections, including In a Yellow Room, Our Brothers’ War, A Sense of Time Left and A Melancholy Teacher. With fellowships from both the Kentucky Arts Council and the Kentucky Foundation for Women under her belt, Morehead has dedicated much of her talent and status towards advocating the arts in the Bluegrass, both for pleasure and as a teaching tool. Morehead’s poetry as been published in the pages of America, The American Poetry Review, The Black Warrior Review, The California Quarterly, The Greensboro Review, The Louisville Review, The Southern Poetry Review, Poet and Critic, Poetry as well as countless others.
Hear campus calling your name? Take an easy saunter through Old Louisville and drop by Ekstrom Library’s Chao Auditorium as Morehead offers a free serving of her poetic prowess. College life may still pulse to a beat I can’t follow, but we can cozy it up together for the Axton Reading Series and get hip to the jive – at least for one night.
Photo: Courtesy of Morehead Writing Project website www.moreheadwritingproject.org
