Marvin Bell

UNC Asheville's Creative Writing Program will host an evening with acclaimed poet Marvin Bell at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24, in UNC Asheville's Reuter Center. Bell is the author of 19 collections of poetry and essays and is widely regarded as an American icon. The event is free and open to the public.

A native of New York, Bell holds masters' degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa. Among his 19 published volumes are "Iris of Creation," "The Book of the Dead Man," "Nightworks: Poems 1962-2000" and his latest collection, "Mars Being Red." His 1977 book, "Stars Which See, Stars Which Do Not See," was a finalist for the National Book Award, and in 1969, "A Probable Volume of Dreams" was a Lamont Poetry Selection of The Academy of American Poets. Bell's other honors include the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, two terms as Iowa's Poet Laureate and Senior Fulbright appointments to Yugoslavia and Australia. For many years Bell was the Flannery O'Connor Professor of Letters at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He now teaches for the brief-residency master's of fine arts degree at Pacific University in Oregon. Bell divides his time between Iowa City, Iowa, and Port Townsend, Wash.

For more information, call UNC Asheville's Literature & Language Department at 828/251-6411.