Poet Laureate of Virginia to read, speak at Greenwood Library April 14

Virginia Poet Laureate Ron Smith will speak and read at Longwood University in celebration of National Poetry Month.

Smith, a longtime professor and celebrated poet, is currently writer-in-residence at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond. He is the author of Running Again in Hollywood Cemetery, Moon Road and Its Ghostly Workshop. He will speak and read from his poetry on April 14 at 7 p.m. in the Greenwood Library atrium. The event is free and open to the public.

"I’m excited to bring Ron Smith, poet laureate of the Commonwealth, to speak at Longwood during National Poetry Month," said Suzy Szasz Palmer, dean of Greenwood Library. "Virginia is rich in its history but also in its depth of literary writers. Fiction and nonfiction typically garner more public attention, but it’s vitally important to celebrate the role of poetry in our culture. Virginia’s poet laureates serve for two-year terms, and Mr. Smith is the third poet laureate we’ve hosted since I came to Longwood in July 2011, thanks to the Friends of the Greenwood Library."

Many of Smith’s poems center on his time in college at the University of Richmond, where he played football on the Tangerine Bowl championship team. He also holds a master’s degree from VCU.