LUNCH WITH BOOKS: Wheeling Poetry Series: Jeff Worley

June 28, 2022
12:00pm - 1:00pm

Unfortunately, we will not have time to replace the Lunch With Books program for this Tuesday, June 28, 2022. We will see you on July 5, 2022 at noon for Hal Gorby's presentation on Wheeling's German Turnvereins.

The Wheeling Poetry Series, curated and hosted by West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman, returns to welcome Jeff Worley, the Kentucky Poet Laureate for 2019-2020.

Launched in September 2015, the “Wheeling Poetry Series” features readings by some of the finest poets from our Appalachian region and beyond.

The series came about as a result of an ongoing conversation with Harshman, who felt that there was a need for a dependable venue in which to present major American poets reading and talking about their work here in West Virginia and more specifically here in Wheeling. Harshman had long lamented the loss of the James Wright Festival which had been held for many years in Wright’s home town of Martins Ferry, Ohio. “That annual event was a towering success,” Harshman explained, “lauded by poets across the U.S., and I see no reason why such a success cannot be replicated here in Wheeling. And some will remember that frequently some of the programming for the Wright festival was, in fact, held at various locations in Wheeling.”

In addition to being in-person in the Library auditorium, this program will be available to watch live on Facebook Live, on YouTube, and on the OCPL website's LWB Livestream page.  Log into your Facebook or YouTube account during the program to leave questions for our presenters in the comments box. They will answer them during the live broadcast. 

PRESENTER BIO:  Jeff Worley, Kentucky Poet Laureate for 2019-2020, is the author of six book-length collections of poetry: The Only Time There Is (Mid-List Press, 1995), which won Mid-List’s yearly national first-book competition, A Simple Human Motion (Larkspur Press, 2000), Happy Hour at the Two Keys Tavern (Mid-List Press, 2006), Best to Keep Moving (Larkspur Press, 2009). Driving Late to the Party: The Kansas Poems (Woodley Press), and A Little Luck (Texas Review Press). The Poet Laureate of Aurora Avenue: Selected Poems will be published later this year by Broadstone Books.

Happy Hour at the Two Keys Tavern was named co-winner in the Society of Midland Authors Literary Competition, won 2006 Kentucky Book of the Year in Poetry (award given at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest), and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Worley has received three Al Smith Fellowships from the Kentucky Arts Council and a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship.

His poems have appeared in over 500 literary magazines and journals, including College English, The Threepenny Review, Poetry Northwest, Black Warrior Review, Chicago Review, The Georgia Review, Harvard Review, New England Review, Shenandoah, DoubleTake, The Sewanee Review, The Southern Review, The Missouri Review, and in the anthology Writing Poems (Pearson, Longman, 6th ed.).

His website is jeff-worley.com.

The Wheeling poetry Series is curated and hosted by West Virginia Poet Laureate, Marc Harshman.

FEATURED BOOK: A Little Luck. 

“In A Little Luck, Jeff Worley presents that rarest of commodities—a voice encyclopedic in its attentions, clever, self-aware, and deeply likeable. Worley’s humor throughout is dark and smart, his phrasings elegant. I would give A Little Luck to the reader who loves the work of Ted Kooser or Rodney Jones. I’d give this book to the reader who does not yet realize he loves poetry.”—Sandra Beasley, Final Judge

Sample Poems.

Lunch With Books Livestream starts at noon on Facebook and YouTube.

Subscribe to the Lunch With Books Youtube channel or like us on the Lunch With Books Facebook page or to receive notifications of our upcoming LWB broadcasts. To receive emails about our upcoming programs, visit our News page, click the "Subscribe" button to sign-up for our news blasts or download our free OCPL Connect app from your smartphone's app store. 

"Lunch With Books" is the library’s flagship program for adult patrons. These lunchtime programs feature authors, poets, musicians, historians, and more every Tuesday at noon. Bring lunch (to the Library Auditorium or your computer), feed your brain!