Award-winning poet Sheila Black will read April 24 as part of NMSU’s Nelson-Boswell Reading Series, with a free event open to the public

Sarah Kimmerly, New Mexico State University

LAS CRUCES - Author, poet and non-profit founder Sheila Black will take the podium at an upcoming public reading at New Mexico State University, where she’ll share her exploration of midlife, love, loss and recovery in her newest poetry collection “Cinnamon Fire.” Her reading begins at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 24 at NMSU’s CMI Theater in Milton Hall, Room 171.

Black’s presentation is part of the Nelson-Boswell Reading Series hosted by La Sociedad para las Artes. The reading is free and open the public and copies of “Cinnamon Fire,” along with another of her books “For the Loneliness of Walking Out,” will be available for purchase.

Black has written over 40 books for children and young adults, five full-length novels and co-edited two anthologies. Her poetry and essays have appeared in “Poetry” magazine, “New York Times,” the “Spectacle” and others, and she was a 2012 winner of the Witter Bynner Fellowship from the Library of Congress. She is also the co-founder of Zoeglossia, a non-profit organization that works to build a community for poets with disabilities and is the assistant director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University.

The Nelson-Boswell Reading Series invites visiting writers to NMSU to share their work with the community. La Sociedad para las Artes is seeking to establish a permanent endowed fund through the NMSU Foundation whose earnings will support creative writing programs, including visiting writers and reading series as well as creative writing workshops for children in Las Cruces Public Schools.

Sarah Kimmerly writes for New Mexico State University. She can be reached at kimmerly@nmsu.edu.