October 11, 2000
Media Relations Director
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass- The Amherst College Creative Writing Center presents a reading by Rachel Wetzsteon on Monday, Oct. 16, 2000, at 4 p.m. in the Porter Lounge on the third floor of Converse Hall at Amherst College. The event is free and open to the public.

Rachel Wetzsteon was born in New York City in 1967 and attended Yale, Johns Hopkins and Columbia universities. She is the author of two books of poems: The Other Stars, which was selected for the National Poetry Series and published by Penguin in 1994, and Home and Away, published by Penguin in 1998. She has received an Ingram Merrill grant, and is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY.

John Hollander writes: "The poems in The Other Stars would be outstanding for their formal authority alone, which today constitutes novelty. But Rachel Wetzsteon's poetry is more than merely refreshing. Her work is informed by a true imaginative power, a moral concern, and a serious wit that mark her voice and her sensibility, and it is not surprising to see how far these poems fly above the smarmy, the inane, or the merely pious. The Other Stars is a truly distinguished first book, and contains the most impressive verse I have seen by someone of her generation."

The Amherst College Creative Writing Center puts on a yearly reading series featuring both emerging and established authors. Participants in the 2000-2001 series include Lionel Garcia, Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Chandra, Colm Toibin, Forrest Gander, Agha Shahid Ali and J.D. McClatchy. See the Center's Website http://www.amherst.edu/~cwc, for more information.

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