'Poetry of Conservation' poet Pat Riviere-Seel to conduct children's writing workhop, keynote open mic

Acclaimed poet Pat Riviere-Seel will visit the Asheboro Public Library during the week of June 25 to conduct a writing workshop for children and headline a poetry “open mic.”

Her appearances are part of The Poetry of Conservation, a partnership among the North Carolina Zoo, the Randolph County Public Library and the Randolph Arts Guilds that places poets in residence at the zoo to celebrate the beauty and wonder of nature in verse.

School-age children are invited to “Tiger, Where Did You Get Those Stripes?”, a free poetry writing workshop at 10 a.m. Wednesday, June 27 at the Asheboro library.

“Wild animals (domestic ones too!) and places are full of mystery and magic. Have you ever wondered how something got to be the way it is? What would you ask the tiger? Or the bear?  In this workshop we’ll use poetry to talk to the animals and explore their mystery,” Riviere-Seel says.

Local poets are invited to join Riviere-Seel and read their work – especially nature themed work –during an open mic at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 28, at the Asheboro library. Following the open mic, Riviere-Seel will share her work and answer questions.

The open mic is free and the public is invited.

Riviere-Seel teaches in UNC-Asheville’s Great Smokies Writing Program and is the author of two poetry collections, The Serial Killer’s Daughter (2009) which won the NC Literary and Historical Society’s Roanoke Chowan Award for Poetry and No Turning Back Now (2004) which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She earned her MFA in Poetry from Queens University of Charlotte and is a past president of the North Carolina Poetry Society.

The Poetry of Conservation is a program that will bring three poets to the Zoo through September for week-long residencies to explore nature and conservation in verse, conduct readings and workshops at the zoo and in the community, and to select lines of nature-related verse to be sculpturally installed in public areas of the zoo.

Riviere Seel’s library visits also are part of “Dream Big: Read!”, the library’s Summer Reading Program for children, and “Between the Covers,” the Summer Reading Program for adults. For more information and complete schedules, visit www.randolphlibrary.org/summerreading.html