Poet Laureate of Florida Peter Meinke to Give Reading at UT Dec. 3

Peter Meinke, who was appointed poet laureate of Florida in June, will give a reading at The University of Tampa on Thursday, Dec. 3, as part of the 2015-2016 Writers at the University series. The reading will be held at 7 p.m. in the Scarfone/Hartley Gallery on campus and is free and open to the public.

Meinke has published eight books of poems in the prestigious Pitt Poetry Series (University of Pittsburgh Press), the most recent being Lucky Bones (2014). His first book of short stories, The Piano Tuner (University of Georgia Press 1986), received the Flannery O’Connor Award. His work has appeared in Poetry, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The New Yorker and dozens of literary magazines. He has received numerous awards, including two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, three prizes from the Poetry Society of America, two O’Henry Awards and many others.

Beginning in 1966, he taught literature and directed the Writing Workshop at Eckerd College, taking early retirement in 1993 to focus on his own writing. Before and since then, he has been writer-in-residence at several colleges and universities, most recently with the UT MFA in Creative Writing program.

In 2009, he was appointed the first poet laureate of St. Petersburg, FL, and in 2015, Meinke was appointed to a three-year term as poet laureate of Florida.

For more information, contact Lynne Bartis at lbartis@ut.edu or (813) 257-3514.