Exeter, NH (October 9, 2009)—On Thursday, October 22, at 7:30 p.m., Naomi Shihab Nye, poet/author, editor, teacher and musical performance artist, will be the first poet in Phillips Exeter Academy Library’s Lamont Poetry Program for 2009–2010. The reading will be held in the Assembly Hall, located on the second floor of the Academy Building on Front Street. The event is free and open to the public.

Nye has been a Lannan Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Witter Bynner Fellow (Library of Congress). She has received a Lavan Award from the Academy of American Poets, the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, four Pushcart Prizes, and numerous honors for her children’s literature, including two Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards. Her collection, 19 Varieties of Gazelle, was a finalist for the National Book Award.

As a regular columnist for Organica and poetry editor for The Texas Observer, Nye’s work has been presented on National Public Radio on “A Prairie Home Companion” and “The Writer’s Almanac.” She has been featured on two PBS poetry specials: “The Language of Life with Bill Moyers” and “The United States of Poetry,” and also appeared on “NOW with Bill Moyers.” Nye has been a visiting writer for full semesters for The Michener Center at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Hawaii.

Born in 1952 to a Palestinian father and American mother, Nye grew up in St. Louis, MO; Jerusalem; and San Antonio, TX. Much of her work draws on her Palestinian-American heritage, the cultural diversity found in southwest Texas, and experiences of traveling throughout several continents around the world, focusing on the human connection and shared humanity among all people.

Nye’s first collection of poems, Different Ways to Pray, explores similarities and differences between cultures; another common theme in her work.

Other books include poetry collections: 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, Red Suitcase and Fuel; a collection of essays entitled Never in a Hurry; a young-adult novel called Habibi (the autobiographical story of an Arab-American teenager who moves to Jerusalem in the 1970s); and a picture book, Lullaby Raft, which is also the title of one of her two albums of music.

Nye has edited many anthologies of poems, for youth and adult audiences, including: This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems from around the World, which contains translated works by 129 poets from 68 different countries, and her most recent anthology, Is This Forever, Or What?: Poems & Paintings from Texas.

Her poetry is described as frank and accessible, often using ordinary images in startling ways. A self-described “wandering poet,” Nye has conducted writing workshops and readings for the past 30 years, inspiring students of all ages. She says her chief mission is “to endear poetry to children so they’ll want to read more and be encouraged to write.” More recently, she has begun helping American youth see the better side of the Middle East, and to help kids in other countries also see the good in America.

Today, Nye lives in San Antonio, TX, with her family.

The Library’s Lamont Poetry Series is supported by the Lamont Fund, established in 1982 by Corliss Lamont ’20. Two poets are invited each year to read their poetry and attend English classes. Each visiting poet is photographed and asked to present the library with a manuscript poem, which is framed and hung on the fourth floor of the library. The collection of framed manuscript poems includes the works of such noted poets as Jorge Luis Borges, Seamus Heaney, Gwendolyn Brooks, Joseph Brodsky and Allen Ginsberg. The series continues to bring remarkable poets to Exeter and remains a testimony to Mr. Lamont, who died in 1995.

For more information, please call Academy Librarian Jacquelyn H. Thomas at 603-777-3328 or visit the library’s events page. For directions to Phillips Exeter Academy, call 603-777-4330. A complete list of upcoming events is available on the Phillips Exeter Academy public events webpage, or at 603-777-4309