Media Contact: Matt Bowden
Email: mtbowden1@jhu.edu
Phone: (410) 735-6045 BALTIMORE Spring, 2007— Anniversaries deserve special recognition, especially when they fall on Mother’s Day. The tenth annual Joshua Ringel Memorial Reading celebrates both with a truly phenomenal bill Sunday, May 13, at 5 p.m. when poet Billy Collins takes the Shriver Hall stage on the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus. 2001-2003 U.S Poet Laureate a modern-day Robert Frost
 Billy Collins is an American phenomenon. No poet since Robert Frost has managed to combine high critical acclaim with such broad popular appeal. The 2001-2003 U.S. Poet Laureate, Mr. Collins has appeared regularly on National Public Radio, as well as in a variety of periodicals including The New Yorker and The Paris Review. He is a Guggenheim fellow and a New York Public Library “Literary Lion”. In October 2004, Collins was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Poetry Foundation’s Mark Twain Award for humorous poetry. He is currently a professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York. "Luring his readers into the poem with humor, Mr. Collins leads them unwittingly into deeper, more serious places,” says the New York Times, “a kind of journey from the familiar to quirky to unexpected territory, sometimes tender, often profound." Mr. Collins has published eight collections of poetry, including Nine Horses and Sailing Alone Around the Room: New & Selected Poems. “Poetry can and should be an important part of our daily lives,” says Mr. Collins. To make the point, Collins, with the Library of Congress, has spearheaded the “Poetry 180” program (http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/), which seeks to have a poem read each day to the students of American high schools across the country. “Hearing a poem every day,” Collins says, “especially well-written, contemporary poems that students do not have to analyze, might convince students that poetry can be an understandable, painless and even eye-opening part of their everyday experience.” 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 Galway Kinnell. # # # 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 a media partner for the 2007 Ringel Memorial Reading. 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, or call (410) 735-4103, and we’ll be happy to save space for you.
More info, including event directions, is available at www.cty.jhu.edu/ringel. # # # | 
