Sweet Briar will kick off its fall 2005 Writers Series with a reading by Janet Sylvester, assistant professor of English and creative writing at SBC. The free event will be at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, in the Wailes Lounge at the College’s Florence Elston Inn and Conference Center. A book signing and reception will follow.

Janet Sylvester's "The Mark of Flesh" explores themes such as the Vietnam War and ideas about violence, feminism, and love and friendship.Sylvester, a former SBC Margaret Banister Writer-in-Residence, will read from two published books of poetry, “That Mulberry Wine” and “The Mark of Flesh,” and a third, “A Visitor at the Gate,” which is in progress. The works span her 30-year career, during which she has discovered that the types of people who appreciate poetry can be surprising.

“It’s the academic types who are queasy about it,” said Sylvester, who recently joined Sweet Briar’s faculty after a five-year position at Harvard University.

Dana Roeser will read her poetry on Nov. 7.Among those who have loved her readings are coal miners in Price, Utah, drunken Vietnam vets in Salina, Kan., and working class people in Lowell, Mass. “All passionate about poetry,” she said.

For Sylvester, poetry’s appeal is intrinsic. “I love language. The combination of music and metaphor in poetry is fabulous.”

And she knows when listeners respond to readings. “I see the amazement. They feel in their gut something that I felt in mine, and it communicates. That surprises them and always touches me. You know when someone’s reaction is genuine,” she said.

Sylvester has won numerous awards, including the Grolier Poetry Prize, a PEN Discovery Award, and a Pushcart Prize for her poem “Baby.” Her works have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Best American Poetry, TriQuarterly, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Morrow Anthology of Younger American Poets.

Dana Roeser is next in the series lineup on Nov. 7. Her first book of poems, “Beautiful Motion,” won the 2004 Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize. Most recently a visiting professor of creative writing at Butler University in Indianapolis, Roeser is serving an appointment as the 2005-06 Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in-Washington at George Washington University.

Wrapping up the fall series on Nov. 15 will be Charles D’Ambrosio. He is the author of “The Point” and other stories, and a finalist for the PEN Hemingway Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

D’Ambrosio, who grew up in Seattle and still makes his home there, is due to publish a new collection of stories, “The Dead Fish Museum,” in 2006. His works — winners of prizes such as the Michener Fellowship and the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction — have been published in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, and in numerous anthologies, including Best American Short Stories.

One of the purposes of the annual series is to allow SBC students to meet with practicing writers. In addition to the readings, the writers meet with creative writing classes to discuss their own work and the students’ work.

All readings — which are free and open to the public — will be at 8 p.m. in the Wailes Lounge at the Florence Elston Inn and Conference Center. A reception and book signing will follow. For information, please e-mail John Gregory Brown, SBC professor of English, at brown@sbc.edu or call (434) 381-6434.

— By Jennifer McManamay, SBC staff writer