Two English professors who are National Book Award finalists for poetry will read from their works May 7.

Margaret Gibson and Marilyn Nelson will read at a publication party at the UConn Co-op at 4 p.m. The public is invited.

Gibson will read from Earth Elegy, a book of new and selected poems published by Louisiana State University Press.

Gibson is the author of five other books of poetry: The Vigil: A Poem in Four Voices, a finalist for the national Book Award; Out in the Open; Memories of the Future: The Daybooks of Tina Modotti, co-winner of the Melville Cane Award of the Poetry Society of America; Long Walks in the Afternoon, a Lamont Selection, given by the Academy of American Poets; and Signs.

Nelson will read from The Fields of Praise published by Louisiana State University Press. She is the author of eight books and monographs including: Magnificat; The Homeplace, a finalist for the National Book Award; and Mama's Promises. She is a recipient of the Annisfeld-Wolf Award for poetry, and was selected for a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship in France.

SF