April 1st , 2010 First Thursday 6 pm at the Cucina Cafe in the GoggleWorks featuring Berks County Poet Laureate Heather Thomas

Dr. Heather H. Thomas is an award winning poet and professor of English at Kutztown University where she has taught since 1988. She earned her B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and her M.A. In English/Creative Writing from Temple University. Her Ph. D. was also earned at Temple. Thomas is the author of seven books of poetry including her most recent work, Blue Ruby. Some of her works have been translated into Spanish and published in Argentina. Her work has appeared in the anthology Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania and in more than thirty print and online journals including American Letters and Commentary, Chain, 13^th Moon, and mid)rib. Thomas is an associate poetry editor for the online magazine 5Trope and has published literary criticism, journalism as well as fiction and non-fiction essays. She has given readings in Argentina, Ireland and Russia as well as traveled the United States. She has won awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Gertrude Stein Awards in Innovative American Poetry and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Currently Thomas is serving as Berks County's Poet Laureate. Following the reading will be a book signing and an open microphone.