News Release

Poet Steven Huff Reads May 1 to Celebrate Arts at Bucks

Huff will be joined by Elizabeth Rivers of Cheltenham, who won the college’s annual Robert Fraser Open Poetry Competition

Nationally acclaimed poet Steven Huff (pictured, left) comes to Bucks County Community College Friday, May 1, for a free reading as part of the college’s Arts at Bucks celebrations. Huff will be joined by Elizabeth Rivers, a Montgomery County writer who won the college’s annual Robert Fraser Open Poetry Competition.

The reading takes place at 7:30 p.m. in the Orangery building on the Newtown campus, where there is ample free parking.

As the college’s Fraser Distinguished Visiting Poet, Huff served as judge of the contest. He’s the author of two books of poems, More Daring Escapes and The Water We Came From, and a chapbook, Proof, which won the Editors Choice Award from Two Rivers Review. Huff is also a Pushcart Prize winner in fiction. The Rochester, N.Y., resident teaches writing at the Rochester Institute of Technology and in the MFA program at Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Mass. He also hosts a weekly radio show on two NPR-affiliate stations.

Reading with Huff will be Rivers (pictured, right), who rose to the top of many entrants to win the Fraser contest. A native of New York City, Rivers currently lives in Cheltenham, Pa. She has won the Milton Dorfman Poetry prize and the Portland Pen Contest, and is the 2008 Poet Laureate for Montgomery County. She is particularly interested in promoting poetry writing among children and youth and has helped launch a new program, Poetry Wits (Writers in Schools), to showcase their works.

The Robert Fraser Open Poetry Competition honors the late director and founder of the Writing Clinic at Bucks County Community College. This year, funds raised through entry fees will be applied towards a scholarship in memory of Fraser’s former colleague, Bev Stuoghton, a former Bucks County Poet Laureate who recently passed away.

The May 1 reading is sponsored by the college’s Wordsmiths Reading Series. It’s also part of the college’s annual Arts at Bucks celebrations, showcasing the talent and academic excellence available at the public, two-year school.

Bucks County Community College is located at 275 Swamp Rd., Newtown, Pa., 18940. For more information, contact Dr. Christopher Bursk at 215-968-8156.