GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN (February 26, 2004) - As part of the celebration of Women's History Month. Aquinas faculty member are having a "Tandem Poetry Reading" on Thursday, March 18 at 7 p.m. in the Cook Carriage House, Moose Cafe. Faculty members presenting their original works pertaining to women's issues are Pamela Waterbury, assistant professor of English; Vicki McMillan, assistant professor of English; and Michaeleen Kelly, Ph.D., professor of philosophy. Winners of the Women's History Month creative writing contest will also read their works. The contest's participants submitted poetry, non-fiction or vignettes that celebrate women or women's issues. The Aquinas College Jane Hibbard Idema Women's Studies Center is sponsoring this free event.

Waterbury has taught writing and literature courses for perspective English teachers since joining Aquinas College in 1989. She serves as the College's chairperson for the Michigan Council of Teachers of English. In addition to publishing a children's literature textbook, An Invitation: Children's Literature, Waterbury has also been published in the Language Arts Journal of Michigan.

McMillan has taught at Aquinas College since 1997. Her writing has appeared in Sky, Controlled Burn, Voices, The Kalamazoo Reader, Fourth Genre, and Grand Rapids Cosmopolitan Home.

Kelly is a self-taught poet specializing in feminist theory, political philosophy and philosophy of Law. Her current research centers on the question of the impact of computerization in academia on accountability, relationships of power within academic institutions and on professional development. In 2002, Kelly won the Dyer-Ives Foundation Poetry Contest for a poem that was published in Voices.