Linda Pastan is making a return visit to Aquinas on Tuesday, March 20 and will present a reading and discussion at 7:30 p.m. in the Wege Student Center Ballroom. Pastan’s first visit to Aquinas was on October 3, 2002, and she is reading as a part of the Contemporary Writers Series 10th anniversary celebration. The event is free and open to the public. Pastan’s appearance is sponsored by Aquinas Alumna, Kate Pew Wolters.

Pastan is the author of the following books: Queen of a Rainy Country (W. W. Norton, 2006); The Last Uncle (2002); Carnival Evening: New and Selected Poems 1968-1998 (1998), which was nominated for the National Book Award; An Early Afterlife (l995); Heroes In Disguise (1991), The Imperfect Paradise (1988), a nominee for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; PM/AM: New and Selected Poems (l982), which was nominated for the National Book Award; The Five Stages of Grief (l978), and A Perfect Circle of Sun (l971).

Her many awards and honors include a Pushcart Prize, a Dylan Thomas Award, the Di Castagnola Award, the Bess Hokin Prize, the Maurice English Award, the Charity Randall Citation, and the 2003 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. She was a recipient of a Radcliffe College Distinguished Alumnae Award. Having earned an undergraduate degree from Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts , Pastan went on to receive her master of arts from Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts. From 1991 to 1995, she was the Poet Laureate of Maryland and was among the staff of the Bread Loaf Writers Conference for twenty year. Currently, she lives in Potomac, Maryland.

The Aquinas College Contemporary Writers Series was founded by a grant from Tony Foster, M.D. ’73 and Linda Nemec Foster ’72. The series kicked off in 1997 by bringing well-known authors to Aquinas College for a public reading and a workshop with students. For information on the Series, call (616) 632-2127 or click here.