Award-winning poet Stephen Kampa to offer reading at Flagler College

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Stephen Kampa

ST. AUGUSTINE, FL (03/18/2014)(readMedia)-- "Magritte had called it Personal / Values, but could have called it Bachelor Pad / For all that it was full / Of looming objects-eerie, bulksome, sly. / He worried that he lived his whole / Life in his notebook, and he wondered why / That didn't seem so bad."

So writes poet Stephen Kampa in the title poem of his second collection, "Bachelor Pad," to be released by The Waywiser Press on April 3. Kampa, a Florida Book Award gold medalist, will mark the book's release with a reading and celebration at Flagler College on April 2 at 7 p.m.

Kampa is one to watch: in addition to the Florida Book Award, his work has been recognized by the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize and the prestigious Theodore Roethke Prize, an honor shared with such historic luminaries as Robert Penn Warren, Carolyn Kizer, and Robert Pinsky.

A resident of Daytona Beach, Kampa was born in Missoula, Montana. He received a BA in English Literature from Carleton College and an MFA in Poetry from the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of two poetry collections: "Cracks in the Invisible" and the new book "Bachelor Pad." He divides his time between teaching poetry at Flagler College and working as a musician, most recently with Florida swamp blues master Robert "Top" Thomas and as a session player for WildRoots Records.

"Goodbye, plain style," wrote poet Mark Jarman about Kampa's work. "Here is a poet of high style, who writes with the passion of Henry Vaughan and the wit of Lord Byron, the sheer virtuosity of James Merrill and Anthony Hecht and a lexicon to make W.H. Auden look up from his daily crosswords in Paradise. The range of tone and subject is breathtaking."

The reading and discussion will take place on Wednesday, April 2 at 7 p.m in the Flagler Room of historic Ponce Hall. The event is free, and all are welcome to attend.

If you are a person with a disability and need reasonable accommodations, please contact Lynn Francisco at 904-819-6460. Sign Language Interpreters are available upon request with a minimum of three days' notice. Call (904) 819-6339 or visit www.flagler.edu/our-community/events/writers-in-residence for more information.

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Flagler College is an independent, four-year, comprehensive baccalaureate college located in St. Augustine, Fla. The college offers 29 majors, 34 minors and two pre-professional programs, the largest majors being business, education and communication. Small by intent, Flagler College has an enrollment of about 2,500 students, as well as a satellite campus at Tallahassee Community College in Tallahassee, Fla. A Flagler education is less than half the cost of similar private colleges, and competitive with many state universities. A relatively young institution (founded in 1968), Flagler College is also noted for its historic beauty. The centerpiece of the campus is the former Hotel Ponce de Leon, a grand resort built in 1888 by Henry M. Flagler, industrialist, railroad pioneer and co-founder of Standard Oil. The Ponce has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. For more on Flagler College, visit www.flagler.edu.