Kansas Poet Eric McHenry to Speak at SCCC Library on Monday

BY PHILLIP LEE

LIBERAL, Kan. – Seward County Community College Library will host Kansas poet and author Eric McHenry on Monday, August 29 at noon at the SCCC Library.

McHenry’s presentation “Turning Life into Legend” will explore the ways in which writers — and especially poets — blur the line between fact and fiction, autobiography and imagination. He will also discuss his writings and inspirations for his work.

McHenry, who was named 2015-2017 Poet Laureate of Kansas, has been featured in many publications, including The Harvard Review, Slate, and Poetry Northwest, whose editors named him winner of the Theodore Roethke Prize for best poems published in the magazine in 2010.

McHenry, a fifth-generation Topekan and a graduate of Topeka High School, attended Beloit College, and did graduate work at Boston University where he earned his MA in creative writing. He currently lives in Lawrence and teaches creative writing at Washburn University in Topeka.

Pizza and refreshments will be served. The presentation is free and open to the public.

McHenry is part of the Saints Scribe speaker series program through a grant by the American Library Association with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Three other speakers will take part during the fall semester as part of the Saints Scribe program.

For more information, contact Seward County Community College Library at (620) 417-1160.