New beginnings

The First Annual Grayrock Poetry Festival will be held today in the Hatton Gallery, located inside of the Visual Arts Building on the CSU campus in Fort Collins, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. and 7:30 until 9 p.m.

Poet, professor and Colorado State University Reading Series Director Matthew Cooperman conceived the festival as a springboard for highlighting up-and-coming Front Range poets, bringing national and local writers into conversation and, hopefully, planting the seeds for an annual poetry conference.

Though Cooperman’s new festival shares the Grayrock name with a previous CSU summer writing program, he asserts that this is a separate event that coincidentally holds the familiar moniker. Tonight’s inaugural event will feature six established and bourgeoning poets, including Bhanu Kapil and Amy Catanzano from Naropa University in Boulder as well as Kevin Prufer, Wayne Miller, Joshua Kryah and John Gallaher. In addition to readings, the evening will also include discussions on craft and the state of poetry in America.

The event is free and will feature a reception afterward. Call 491-6428. — Elliott Johnston