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Virginia's Former Poet Laureate Celebrates National Women’s History Month at Wesleyan
By Megan Z. Shearin | February 9, 2010
Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Va. â€" Virginia Wesleyan College†s Women†s Resource Office, the Honors and Scholars Program and the Intercultural, Cultural and Educational (ICE) committee of the Wesleyan Activities Council present †Celebrating the Power of Poetry,†with Virginia's former Poet Laureate Carolyn Kreiter Foronda and Virginia Wesleyan†s Batten Professor of English and Poet-in-Residence Vivian Teter at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 25 in the Shafer Room of the Boyd Dining Hall. This event is free and open to the public.
This event honors the nationally recognized Women†s History Month, an annual declared month in the United States that celebrates the historic achievements of women. The overarching theme for this year†s 30th anniversary is Writing Women Back into History.
†We are thrilled to have the highly distinguished Carolyn Kreiter Foronda on the Virginia Wesleyan campus for this poetry event,†said Coordinator of the Women's Resource Office and Associate Professor of Health and Human Services Ms. Sharon Payne. †This collaborative event will bring together regional writers, creative writers and poets, and will be an academic treat for the entire campus community and the public.â€
This event is also in conjunction with Minds Wide Open: Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts, the first statewide celebration of its kind. Between March and June of 2010, thousands of special events will occur to honor contributions by women to arts and culture.
About the Women†s Resource Office
The Women†s Resource Office promotes a campus community that is safe, equitable and supportive for women; that celebrates their achievements; and recognizes and welcomes their diversity. The Women†s Resource Office exists as a place of support, service and education for all students, faculty, staff and community members.
Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda served as Virginia's Poet Laureate from 2006-2008. Her poetry honors include three Pushcart Prize nominations, an Edgar Allan Poe first place award, three Artist-in-Education grants and one Arts-on-the-Road grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts. She is the author of four books and her poems and writings appear widely in magazines, journals and anthologies. In 1969, she graduated from Mary Washington College (now the University of Mary Washington) with a B.A. in English. She holds two masters degrees and a Ph.D. from George Mason University, where she received the first doctorate presented by the school.
Vivian Teter began teaching at the College in 1987. In 2007, she received two Pushcart Prize Nominations, one from The Spoon River Poetry Review, and the other from Toadlily Press. Teter received her B.A. in English from Hollins College, and in 1982 completed her M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Arizona.
For more information, contact Sharon Payne at 757.455.3413 or spayne@vwu.edu.
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