Eric Potter
Grove City College’s Department of English will celebrate national poetry month and a favorite faculty poet during its annual Writers Conference on April 15 and 16 on campus.
Dubbed Potterpalooza in a playful nod to Dr. Eric A. Potter, a highly regarded poet and English professor, the conference will feature guest lecturers and nightly poetry readings. Due to ongoing COVID-19 protections, in-person events are strictly for members of the Grove City College community. All events will be livestreamed at gcc.edu/livestream.
Potter will open the conference at 9:25 a.m. Thursday in Harbison Chapel with a talk, “Singing in Babylon: Poetry of/in Exile.”
Visiting poet and scholar L.S. Klatt will deliver an address, “Say Green, Say New: Language as a Renewable Resource,” at 4 p.m. Thursday in the Great Room of Breen Student Union. Klatt teaches American literature and creative writing at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His poems have appeared in a number of journals and his first book, “Interloper,” won the Juniper Prize for Poetry.
Klatt will join Potter and visiting poets Christine Perrin of Messiah University and David Craig of Franciscan University of Steubenville for a poetry reading at 7:15 p.m. Thursday in Harbison Chapel. A second Potterpalooza poetry reading is set for 7 p.m. Friday in Sticht Auditorium of the Hall of Arts and Letters on campus. It features Potter and Zoe Endicott ’13, Sam Leuenberger 13 and Anna Potter.
The English Department has hosted the Christian Writer’s Conference annually since 2001. The conference sometimes focuses on a particular Christian artist or writer, and sometimes hosts a conference with a broader focus. For more on the Conference or the College’s Department of English, follow the department on Instagram @gccenglishdept.