Poet, essayist to read work Thursday at College of Chas.

Poet and essayist Albert Goldbarth, the Adele Davis Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Wichita State University, will read from his work at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Alumni Memorial Hall at the College of Charleston.

The event, part of the school's inaugural Visiting Writers Series, is free and open to the public.

Goldbarth has published more than 27 collections of verse, including "Saving Lives" and "Heaven and Earth: A Cosmology," both of which won the National Book Critics Circle award for poetry. Goldbarth remains the only poet to have received the award twice. His collection "Jan. 31" was nominated in 1975 for the National Book Award. His latest book is "The Kitchen Sink: New and Selected Poems 1972-2007."

Goldbarth has also written several collections of essays, including "Many Circles," winner of the PEN West Creative Nonfiction Award, "A Sympathy of Souls" and "Great Topics of the World," as well as a novel, "Pieces of Payne."

His work has been featured in numerous anthologies, including The Harvard Book of Contemporary Poetry. His honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.

For more information, call the College of Charleston Department of English at 953-5664.