West Virginia University faculty member Mary Ann Samyn will mark the publication of her latest poetry collection,Purr,with a public reading at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23, in the Wise Librarys Robinson Reading Room.

Samyn is an assistant professor in the Eberly College of Arts and SciencesDepartment of Englishsponsors of the free reading.

Her other poetry collections areRooms by the Sea,winner of the 1994 Kent State UP/Wick Chapbook Prize;Captivity Narrative,which claimed the 1999 Ohio State UP/The Journal Prize; andInside the Yellow Dress,a 2001 New Issues Press/Green Rose Selection.

Samyns poems have also appeared in several literary journals, including Field, Denver Quarterly, Kenyon Review, The Ohio Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Verse, Mississippi Review, The Bitter Oleander and Pleiades, and the anthologyAmerican Poetry: The Next Generation.

Were very lucky to have Professor Samyn on our creative writing faculty here at WVU ,said Jim Harms, director of the departments creative writing program.The publication ofPurris further affirmation of her talent, not to mention her place at the forefront of younger American poets.

Samyn received her masters degree from Ohio University and her masters of fine arts degree from The University of Virginia, where she was a Hoyns Fellow. A 2001 Creative Artist Grant recipient from ArtServe Michigan, Samyn has also been awarded the Emily Dickinson Prize from the Poetry Society of America.

A reception and book-signing will follow the reading. For more information, call 293-3107 ext. 33451.