Poet Bill Griffin to visit Asheboro library as Poetry of Conservation continues

Poet Bill Griffin, a family doctor and geriatrician from Elkin, will keynote a poetry reading and open mic at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 12, at the Asheboro Public Library.

Griffin’s appearance is part of the Poetry of Conservation project sponsored by the NC Zoo, the Randolph County Public Library and the Randolph Arts Guild. He is poet-in-residence at the zoo during the week of July 8.

Local poets are invited to join Griffin and read their work – especially nature themed work – during the open mic, which is free and open to the public. The library is located at 201 Worth Street.

Griffin is author of four poetry chapbooks, including Snake Den Ridge, a Bestiary,  in which each poem takes the voice of a creature from the Great Smoky Mountains. In 2009, he received the North Carolina Poetry Society’s Poet Laureate Award.

His most recent book is little mouse, a collection of 32 poems, each 20 lines and each with the title “little mouse.” His work has appeared in regional and national journals, including Southern Poetry Review, Tar River Poetry, POEM, NC Literary Review and Pembroke Magazine.

Griffin also will be featured at a free Lunch and Learn at noon Wednesday, July 11, at the Randolph Arts Guild, and  will conduct workshops at the zoo. For more information, visit nczoo.org.

The Poetry of Conservation is a program that brings 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 select lines of nature-related verse to be sculpturally installed in public areas of the zoo.

Griffin’s library visit also is part of “Between the Covers,” the Summer Reading Program for adults. For more information and complete Summer Reading schedules for children, teens and adults, visit www.randolphlibrary.org/summerreading.html.