Poet Laureate to Speak at WWSHS

Ted Kooser, America’s Poet Laureate, will share his work with the Wheaton and Warrenville communities at 7 p.m. Thursday, September 14 in the auditorium of Wheaton Warrenville South High School.  Community members, teachers, students and families are invited to hear from this University of Nebraska-Lincoln visiting professor of English as he reads from his selected works.

Mr. Kooser’s appearance in Wheaton is sponsored by Community Partners in Poetry, a group of Wheaton and Warrenville residents who came together in 2004 to unite the communities through poetry.  The group hopes that a greater appreciation of poetry will inspire an outpouring of original poems from the pens of Wheaton and Warrenville students and adults.

Mr. Kooser, named Poet Laureate in 2004, won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry last year for his book “Delights and Shadows”.  In addition, Kooser has authored 10 collections of poetry and prose.  His books will be offered for sale following his presentation and he will be available to sign those that are purchased.

Poets Laureate, appointed by the Library of Congress, are entrusted with raising the status of poetry in the everyday conscience of the American public.