Poets Pauletta Hansel of Cincinnati and Marjorie Maddox of Lock Haven, Pa., will be the guests for Lit Youngstown’s next First Wednesday Readers Series.

Hansel’s books include “Heartbreak Tree,” “Friend,” “Coal Town Photograph” and “Palindrome,” winner of the 2017 Weatherford Award for Appalachian poetry. Her work has appeared in Oxford American, Verse Daily and Poetry Daily.

She is Cincinnati’s current Poet Laureate and past managing editor of Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel.

Before the reading, Hansel will offer a poetry writing workshop titled Finding the Poem in Family Stories. In this generative workshop, she will provide several examples of poems that use story to do their lyrical work and provide some prompts to get participants started in writing their own poem. All experience levels are welcome. The workshop registration fee is $20.

Maddox, a professor of English at Lock Haven University, has published 13 collections of poetry and four children’s books. “In the Museum of My Daughter’s Mind” will be published in 2023.

The event starts at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Soap Gallery, 117 S. Champion St., Youngstown. Erica Putro will co-host the free reading, which will be followed by an open mic.

For more information, go to www.LitYoungstown.org.

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