Media Contact: Matt Bowden
Email: mtbowden1@jhu.edu
Phone: (410) 735-6045 BALTIMORE Spring, 2008— The eleventh annual Joshua Ringel Memorial Reading celebrates Mother's Day again this year on Sunday, May 11, at 5 p.m. when poet Linda Pastan takes the Shriver Hall stage on the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus. 1998 National Book Award nominee is "at the height of her powers"
Ms. Pastan is the author of Queen of a Rainy Country (2006); The Last Uncle (2002); The Imperfect Paradise (1988); Carnival Evening: New and Selected Poems 1968-1998 (1998); and other works. Poet Michael Collier has said that Linda Pastan is "one of America's truly fine poets working at the height of her powers." Of her work, poet May Sarton said, "[Her] poems are full of foreboding and acceptance, a wry unsentimental acceptance of hard truth.” Among Ms. Pastan’s many awards and honors are a Pushcart Prize, a Dylan Thomas Award, the 2003 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and two nominations for the National Book Award. The Joshua Ringel Memorial Fund (www.cty.jhu.edu/ringel) was established in 1998 by the Ringel family in memory of this former CTY student whose life was tragically cut short in a motorcycle accident just before his 28th birthday. The Memorial Fund supports an annual lecture/reading dedicated to education, poetry, and the imagination. Past visiting poets have included Kenneth Koch, Robert Pinsky, Grace Paley, John Ashbery, Sharon Olds, and Billy Collins. A 4:30 reception precedes the event, with a book signing immediately after. Books will be available for purchase at the door. The reading is free, but seats are limited, so please email ctypr@jhu.edu with your name and number of seats requested. More info, including event directions, is available at www.cty.jhu.edu/ringel. Photo: Margaretta K. Mitchell # # # The Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (www.cty.jhu.edu) conducts the nation's oldest and most extensive academic talent search and offers educational programming for students with exceptionally high academic ability. CTY parallels, and complements, a gifted child’s regular school experience. CTY’s programs and students have been profiled in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, and other premier American publications. The Gilman School (www.gilman.edu) founded in 1897, is a diverse K-12 independent school community dedicated to educating boys in mind, body, and spirit through particular emphasis on academic excellence, athletic participation, and aesthetic appreciation. Gilman seeks to produce men of character and integrity who have the skills and ability to make a positive contribution to the communities in which they live and work. Gilman remains committed to the ideas established by its founder Anne Galbraith Carey more than a century ag helping boys develop in mind, body, and spirit while preparing them for college and life of honor and service. Teachers & Writers Collaborative [T&W] (www.twc.org) is a New York-based nonprofit founded on the belief that professional writers could make a unique contribution to the teaching of writing and literature. T&W sends writers into schools; publishes a magazine and books on teaching writing; offers readings and events in New York; and hosts a website with a national forum for educators and writers. WYPR 88.1FM (www.wypr.org) is Baltimore's National Public Radio station, and a media sponsor for this year's reading. # # # | 
