Writer George Looney to read from his work March 3

Reading will kick off Hard Freight Café Open Mic
Book Cover: What Light Becomes: the Turner Variations
Credit: Provided

ALTOONA, Pa. — Poet and fiction writer George Looney will read from his work at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 3, in the Titelman Study of the Misciagna Family Center for Performing Arts at Penn State Altoona.

Looney’s reading will kick off the spring Hard Freight Café, an open mic event presented by Penn State Altoona’s student literary magazine.

Looney is author of 11 books of poetry, most recently “What Light Becomes: The Turner Variations,” winner of the 2018 Red Mountain Poetry Prize. His novel, “Report from a Place of Burning,” published in 2018, was co-winner of the Leapfrog Press Fiction Award. His individual works have been published in such journals as “The Southern Review,” “New England Review,” “The Kenyon Review,” “Quarterly West,” “Prairie Schooner,” “Alaska Quarterly Review,” “The Ohio Review,” and “Indiana Review.” Looney’s honors include the Larry Levis Editors' Award in Poetry from “The Missouri Review,” a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, two grants from the Ohio Arts Council, and a $10,000 fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. For eight years he served as editor-in-chief of “Mid-American Review,” for which he is now translation editor. He is editor-in-chief of “Lake Effect” and chair of the creative writing program at Penn State Behrend, where he is a distinguished professor of English and creative writing.

The reading and open mic are sponsored by Penn State Altoona’s English program and the Division of Arts and Humanities. Both events are free and open to the public.

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