PORT ANGELES — Poet Alice Derry will read from her newest collection of poetry, “Asking,” at Studium Generale on Thursday.
The event is free and open to the public, and will begin at 12:35 p.m. in the Little Theater at the college’s Port Angeles campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd. It also will be live-streamed via Zoom at https://pencol-edu.zoom.us/j/82308557946, The meeting ID is 823 0855 7946.
Derry is Peninsula College’s faculty emerita of English, literature and German. She directed the Foothills Writers Series for three decades at the college.
In 2013, she helped plan the 75th Raymond Carver Birthday Celebration and delivered its keynote address. In 2017, she was Peninsula College’s 17th Writer in Residence. She lives and works on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.
“Asking” is Derry’s sixth full collection of poetry. Her fifth book, “Hunger,” appeared from MoonPath Press in 2017. Her fourth book, “Tremolo,” appeared from Red Hen in 2012. Poet Tess Gallagher of Port Angeles wrote of the book: “Tremolo is a tour de force of vibratory power that marks Alice Derry as having come into her own as one of our very best poets.”
Derry’s “Strangers to Their Courage” (Louisiana State University Press, 2001), was a finalist for the 2002 Washington Book Award. Li-Young Lee writes: “This book … asks us to surrender our simplistic ideas about race and prejudice, memory and forgetfulness, and begin to uncover a new paradigm for ‘human.’”
“Stages of Twilight” (Breitenbush, 1986), won the King County Publication Award, chosen by Raymond Carver. “Clearwater” appeared from Blue Begonia Press in 1997. Derry has three chapbooks: Getting Used to the Body (Sagittarius Press, 1989), Not as You Once Imagined (Trask House, 1993), and translations from the German poet Rainer Rilke (Pleasure Boat Studio, 2002).
Derry’s M.F.A. is from Goddard College (now Warren Wilson).
Copies of Alice’s book, Asking, will be available at PC’s Bookaneer bookstore and she will offer a book signing there following her reading.
