The 40th Salina Spring Poetry Series, sponsored and organized by Salina Arts & Humanities, concludes on Tuesday, April 30, with a reading by Patricia Traxler.
The reading will begin at 7 pm at Red Fern Booksellers (106 S Santa Fe Ave). Admission will be $5 cash at the door and free for students with ID.
Traci Brimhall, Kansas Poet Laureate, curated this year’s series. Brimhall selected poets with a broad range of perspectives who will share their work in Salina this month.
“What a privilege and honor to have one of the series co-founders help us celebrate the incredibly long life of this series. Patricia Traxler is a gifted poet whose work has spanned numerous books, awards, and publications in every esteemed venue in the U.S. and even Ireland. She is a devoted teacher, a community advocate, and a talented writer in every genre. She is undoubtedly one of Kansas's brightest literary stars, and Salina is lucky to call her their own,” says Brimhall.
In the decades since Patricia Traxler moved to Salina from San Diego, she has been active in the cultural life of the city. The founder and longtime director of Salina's Spring Poetry Series, she also taught at Kansas Wesleyan University for more than three decades. Traxler is the author of four volumes of poetry (most recently, Naming the Fires); a novel, Blood; and a short-story collection, In the Skin. She is currently at work on a book of essays, Don't Ask Me, and a volume of her collected poems, as yet untitled.