Free evening event.

Saturday, April 23, 7:00 p.m.
Tipton Meeting House.
UC Sedgwick Reserve.
3566 Brinkerhoff Avenue, Santa Ynez.

The Santa Ynez Valley Natural History Society and UC Sedgwick Reserve are pleased to host a poetry reading in honor of Earth Day with former Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara Paul Willis. The human relationship to the natural world and wild places is a major theme in much of the writing by Professor Willis, and in this special evening program he will share a selection from his extensive body of work. Prior to the reading, the gates of the Reserve will open at 5:00 p.m. for those who would like arrive early to enjoy a picnic supper under the oaks.

Paul Willis is a professor of English at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, where he has taught creative writing and British Renaissance literature for the last 28 years. He grew up in Oregon, attended Wheaton College in Illinois, worked as a mountain guide in the Cascades and Sierra Nevada, and earned his graduate degrees at Washington State University. His poems and essays have appeared in well over a hundred journals and several anthologies, including The Best American Poetry 1996 (Scribner’s). His poetry chapbook The Deep and Secret Color of Ice was selected for the Small Press Poetry Prize in 2002 by Jane Hirshfield. More recently his poems have been featured on Verse Daily and The Writer’s Almanac. He completed a term of service as Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara for 2011-2013.

Feature photo: Paul Willis backpacking in the John Muir Wilderness, at Tomahawk Lake. Photo by Susan Willis