LEWISTON, Idaho – Derek Sheffield, Washington State Poet Laureate, will speak at 44th annual Stegner Lecture. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will take place on Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. at the Lewiston City Library (411 D Street).
Sheffield's topic is "In Whose Presence: On the Nature and Language of Place and Poetry," looking at his relationship with the physical and psychological territories in which he resides, as outlined by the annual lecture’s theme.
Derek Sheffield
Sheffield is the eighth poet laureate of Washington State (2025-2027). He received a 2024 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award for “Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry.” His other collections include “Not for Luck,” winner of the Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize judged by Mark Doty, “Through the Second Skin,” runner-up for the Emily Dickinson First Book Award, and “Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy.” He teaches at Wenatchee Valley College and Western Colorado University, and edits poetry for Terrain.org.
The Stegner Lecture is named after Wallace Stegner and has been an area literary cultural highlight since Stegner gave the first lecture in 1982. Stegner has often been called “The Dean of Western Writers” and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1972.
For more information on the talk visit the event website.