April Book Lovers Night features poet and author Joyce Sutphen

In honor of National Poetry Month, the featured guest at the April Book Lovers Night is poet and author Joyce Sutphen. Sutphen will read at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 3 in room 204, Gorecki Center, College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, Minn.

Her first book, "Straight Out of View," won the Barnard Women's Poets Prize. Other notable works by Sutphen include "Naming the Stars," which won the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry and "Coming Back to the Body," which was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award.

 Sutphen's poems have been published in Poetry, American Poetry Review, Atlanta Review, Minnesota Monthly and Water-Stone. Her work has been featured in Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry and in The Writer's Almanac. She has appeared on "A Prairie Home Companion," hosted by Garrison Keillor and co-edited the award-winning anthology "To Sing Along the Way: Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-Territorial Days to the Present."

In 2011, Sutphen was named the second Minnesota Poet Laureate by Governor Mark Dayton. She has also been the recipient of a McKnight Artist Fellowship and a Minnesota States Arts Board Fellowship.

Sutphen grew up on a farm near St. Joseph, Minn. and currently lives in Chaska, Minn. She holds a doctorate in Renaissance drama from the University of Minnesota, and has taught British literature and creative writing at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minn.

Sutphen will be available for book signing after her presentation.  This event is free and open to the public.

The CSB/SJU Bookstore will offer recommended books for sale at 20 percent off during the event. For more information, contact [email protected] or call 320-363-2119.