(Posted October 13, 2011)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Robin Becker and acclaimed poet and professor of English and women's studies at Penn State University, will give a reading of a variety of her poems at Juniata College at 7 p.m., Monday, Oct. 24, in Jaeger Commons in Beeghly Library.

The reading is free and open to the public. Jaeger Commons is the public are to the left of the visitor as they walk into the library's front entrance.

Becker has been poetry editor for the Women's Review of Books and also writes a column on poetry called "Field Notes." In 2010 she was named Penn State Laureate. The laureate is assigned half-time for a full academic year to "bring an enhanced level of social, cultural, artistic and human perspective and awareness to a broad range of audiences."

She has published a variety of volumes of her work, including "Domain of Perfect Affection" (2006), "The Horse Fair" (2000), "All-American Girl" (1996) and Giacometti's Dog" (1990).

She also publishes poems and book reviews in such journals as American Poetry Review, the Gettysburg Review, Ploughshares and the Boston Globe. She received the 1997 Virginia Faulkner Prize for Excellence in Writing from Prairie Schooner magazine.

She also has served fellowships at Radcliffe College's Mary Bunting Institute, the Massachusetts Artists Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2000, she received Penn State's George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching.

She earned a bachelor's degree in 1973 from Boston University and went on to earn a master's degree in 1976 from the same institution. Before coming to Penn State she taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has taught at Penn State since 1993.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.