The Friends of Hanley Library will hold an Authors’ Series presentation featuring poet and author Helen Ruggieri at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 26, in Rice Auditorium in Fisher Hall at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.
Ruggieri has been writing for more than forty years, and her work has been published widely in magazines and anthologies in the United States and internationally. She has authored books and chapbooks, most recently, “Camping in the Galaxy,” a collection of essays and haibun (a Japanese prose poem) about the natural world; and a book of poems, “The Sapphires.”
Her other books include “The Kingdom Where Everybody Sings Off Key,” “The Kingdom Where No One Keeps Time,” “The Poetess,” “Glimmer Girls,” “Concrete Madonna” and “Rock City Hill Exercises.” She also edited with former Pitt-Bradford faculty member Linda Underhill, an anthology, “Written on Water: Writings about the Allegheny River.”
The subjects Ruggieri writes about include life in Western Pennsylvania and Western New York as well as her time living in Japan. Her works include traditional essays, fiction, short stories, and books of short prose pieces in the Japanese haibun form. Her book of poems “Butterflies Under a Japanese Moon,” a collection of haiku and traditional poems, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2012.
Helen Ruggieri earned a Master of Fine Arts in poetry writing from Pennsylvania State University. She taught in the creative writing and literature program at Pitt-Bradford for 20 years.
Ruggieri will read from her works and discusses her creative process. In addition, Pitt-Bradford students will read excerpts from poetry and prose that they have written. A light reception will follow the program. The events are free and open to the public.
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