Poetry reading by Brenda Marie Osbey

Native New Orleanian Brenda Marie Osbey reads from her works on Thursday.

Poet and native New Orleanian Brenda Marie Osbey will read from History and Other Poems, her newest collection, at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 27, at the Uptown location of Maple Street Book Shop (7529 Maple St.). She will be on hand after the reading to sign copies of her book.

Osbey writes in English and in French. She is the author of several books of poetry, including All Saints: New and Selected Poems (LSU Press, 1997), which won the American Book Award. She has a volume of collected works forthcoming in 2013, titled All Souls: Collected Poems. Her work has been included in many different publications, including Literature of the American South: A Norton Anthology; The American Poetry Review; Epoch; Callaloo; Creative Nonfiction; and Mondes Francophones. Her libretto Sultane au Grand Marais: A New Orleans Opera was directed by Elmo Terry-Morgan, artistic director of Brown University’s Rites and Reason Theatre.

Currently a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Africana Literature at Brown, Osbey was the first peer-selected poet laureate of Louisiana. She served in that position from 2005 to 2007. Some of her other achievements include awards and fellowships from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Read a selection from her newest collection, or hear Osbey discuss her work on The Reading Life with theater professor Thomas Keith.

This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

This article was reposted from Press Street: Room 220, a content partner of NolaVie.