Oct. 3, 2019

Media Contact:
Derek Sheffield, WVC English faculty, 509-682-6737
Libby Siebens, community relations executive director, 509-682-6436 (Mon.-Thurs.)

There will be a Wenatchee Valley College Visiting Writers Series reading on Thursday, Oct. 24, at 7 p.m. in The Grove Recital Hall, WVC Music and Art Center (MAC). Readers will include Washington State Poet Laureate Claudia Castro Luna, WVC faculty Derek Sheffield and a selection of WVC students. This event is sponsored by the Wenatchee Valley College English Department, Icicle Creek Center for the Arts, Write on the River and the WVC Foundation. The reading is free and open to the public.

Luna will be visiting WVC English classes earlier in the day and will lead a free poetry workshop with Sheffield from 5-7 p.m. in the MAC, room 1519. The workshop is open to the public and includes dinner, but space is limited. Those interested in attending should email Sheffield at dsheffield@wvc.edu to reserve their spot.

Luna is the Poet Laureate of Washington State (2018-2020). She served as Seattle’s first Civic Poet from 2015-2017 and is the author of “Killing Marías” and of “This City.” She is a Hedgebrook and Jack Straw alumna and the recipient of a fellowship from the Academy of American Poets. Born in El Salvador, she came to the United States in 1981 fleeing civil war. Living in English and Spanish, Claudia writes and teaches in Seattle where she gardens and keeps chickens with her husband and their three children.

Sheffield is a professor of English at WVC. Winner of the James Hearst Poetry Prize, he has received fellowships from Artist Trust and the Sustainable Arts Foundation. His collection of poems, “Through the Second Skin,” was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. He is the poetry editor of Terrain.org and a co-editor of “Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance and Democracy.”

Parking for the poetry workshop and reading will be free in the MAC and Wells Hall parking lots.

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Wenatchee Valley College enriches North Central Washington by serving educational and cultural needs of communities and residents throughout the service area. The college provides high-quality transfer, liberal arts, professional/technical, basic skills and continuing education for students of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds. Visit our website, wvc.edu. 

Wenatchee Valley College is committed to a policy of equal opportunity in employment and student enrollment. All programs are free from discrimination and harassment against any person because of race, creed, color, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, or the use of a service animal by a person with a disability, age, parental status or families with children, marital status, religion, genetic information, honorably discharged veteran or military status or any other prohibited basis per RCW 49.60.030, 040 and other federal and laws and regulations, or participation in the complaint process. The following persons have been designated to handle inquiries regarding the non-discrimination policies and Title IX compliance for both the Wenatchee and Omak campuses:

• To report discrimination or harassment: Title IX Coordinator, Wenatchi Hall 2322M, (509) 682-6445, title9@wvc.edu.
• To request disability accommodations: Director of Student Access, Wenatchi Hall 2133, (509) 682-6854, TTY/TTD: dial 711, sas@wvc.edu.