Southern Illinois native to give poetry reading at Southeast

Angie Macri, winner of the annual Cowles Poetry Book Prize from Southeast Missouri State University Press, will perform a reading of her work at 7 p.m. Oct. 21 in room 125 at Crisp Hall.

The reading is free to the public, and a book signing will follow. The reading is sponsored by the Missouri Arts Council and the University Press.

Macri's winning manuscript is titled "Underwater Panther," a reference to the mythological and monstrous spiked cat important to Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Algonquin and Mississippian Native American tribes, among others, according to a university news release.

Macri's poems explore the geographies and denizens of the shores of the Mississippi River, combining myth and history into lyrical poems that are an homage to the region.

Macri was born and raised in Southern Illinois, where her mother's family has lived for more than two centuries. After studying at the University of Arkansas, she has worked in Arkansas as a technical writer and educator. An Arkansas Arts Council fellow, she lives in Hot Springs.

Her poems have been included in "Arts & Letters," "Best New Poets," "Cimarron Review," "A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry," "New Madrid," "The Southern Review," "The Spoon River Poetry Review" and other journals, the release said.

Her chapbook "Fear Nothing of the Future or the Past" -- which works with H.D.'s "Helen in Egypt," the mounds around Helena, Arkansas, and the paintings of deceased artist Carroll Cloar -- was published by Finishing Line Press. "Underwater Panther" is her first full-length book publication.

Southeast Missouri State University Press' Cowles Poetry Book Prize is an annual award, open to all full-length manuscripts of poetry. The prize -- $2,000, publication and distribution of the winning book by the University Press -- is provided in memory of Vern Cowles.