Authors support WMU writing award with fundraiser

Contact: Deanne Puca

KALAMAZOO—Eleven poets and writers with ties to Michigan will come together Saturday, Oct. 5, on the campus of Western Michigan University to read from their works and celebrate the life and contributions of author, editor and publisher Robert J. Bixby, a WMU alumni who died last October.

This event at 2 p.m. in the Richmond Center for Visual Arts is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Creative Writing Program and the Department of English. Refreshments will be served and a book signing follows the reading.

All of the participating writers have had books published by Bixby, former publisher of March Street Press. They will donate the proceeds from sales of their books at the event to help fund the Robert J. Bixby Award in Creative Writing, established this spring with a gift from Bixby’s widow, Kathy Bixby.

The authors include Arnie Johnston, Debby Johnston, Josie Kearns, Elizabeth Kerlikowske, Lynn Pattison, Beverly Matherne, Ken Meisel, Keith Taylor, Rosalie Sanara Petrouske, John Rybicki and Eric Torgersen.

For more information, contact Dr. Arnie Johnston at arnie.johnston@wmich.edu or (269) 870-0703 or Anne Tappan Strother at anne.t.strother@wmich.edu.