The North Bend Public Library hosts a free poetry reading for Peter Sears, Oregon’s new Poet Laureate. The event will be held in the library’s large meeting room on Saturday, April 4th, 2015 at 2 pm. Peter Sears holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Yale and an MFA in writing from the University of Iowa. He served as a linguist for the U. S. Army Intelligence from 1959 until 1962. Sears moved to Oregon in 1974 where he accepted the post of writer-in-residence at Reed College. He went on to become one of the state’s most active poets, educators, and literary activists. Sears’ poems have appeared in many periodicals including Saturday Review, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Rolling Stone. He is the author of eight collections and chapbooks including The Brink (1999) which was the winner of the Peregrine Smith Prize and The Western States Book Award. His collection, Small Talk: New and Selected Poems, was released by Lynx House Press in 2014. In addition to writing, Sears has taught writing at both the public school and university levels. As community services coordinator for the Oregon Arts Commission, he assisted writers and local organizations in working with the national Endowment for the Arts, Leila Wallace Foundation, and Western Arts Foundation. Peter Sears remains an active writer, teacher, and editor. He lives with his wife, Anita Helle, in Corvallis. This program is free and open to the public.
