The Sweet Briar College Writers Series continues on Thursday, March 23 with a reading by poet Thomas Sayers Ellis at 8 p.m. in the Wailes Lounge of the Florence Elston Conference Center. The series is free and open to the public.

An associate professor of English at Case Western University and co-founder of the Dark Room Collective, Ellis was a 2005 recipient of a $40,000 Whiting Writers Award.

Ellis grew up in Washington, D.C., hanging out at go-go clubs, one of which — the Maverick Room — he immortalized in the title of his recently released book of poetry. Inspired by his days in the District, Ellis’ poetry is “cutting edge, brilliant and down-home, all at once,” his colleague, SBC associate professor of English Janet Sylvester, said.

Sylvester describes Ellis as a “master of music, drawing his lines, as [famed African-American poet] Michael Harper says, out of the rhythms of ‘neighborhood and native speech.’ ”

The series wraps up on Wednesday, April 5 with Sweet Briar’s own J.C. Hallman. Hallman is the Margaret Banister Writer-in-Residence at Sweet Briar and the author of two books, “The Chess Artist: Genius, Obsession and the World’s Oldest Game” and “The Devil is a Gentleman: Exploring America’s Religious Fringe.”

“The Chess Artist” chronicles Hallman’s adventures in the chess subculture. “The Devil is a Gentleman,” to be published by Random House in May, details another journey, this time through a wide range of contemporary religious movements. At the reading, Hallman — a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars — will share excerpts from his most recent book.

A reception and book signing will follow the readings. For more information, contact John Gregory Brown at 381-6434 or brown@sbc.edu.