Beth Ann Fennelly, a distinguished writer and Mississippi’s poet laureate from 2016 to 2021, will deliver a free public lecture at 7 p.m. tonight, Oct. 1, in the Trout Room of the Vada Sheid Community Development Center on the Arkansas State University-Mountain Home (ASUMH) campus. The event, part of ASUMH’s Terre Ware Author Lecture Series, requires no tickets and is open to the public.

Fennelly has earned acclaim for her work as an author, poet, and teacher. She serves as a faculty member in the master of fine arts program at the University of Mississippi, where she was honored as Outstanding Teacher of the Year. Her literary achievements include three poetry collections published by W.W. Norton: *Open House*, *Tender Hooks*, and *Unmentionables*. She has also authored the essay collection *Great With Child: Letters to a Young Mother* and co-written the novel *The Tilted World* with her husband, novelist Tom Franklin.

She is particularly celebrated for her micro-memoirs, concise works of nonfiction often spanning just a sentence or a few pages. Her 2018 collection *Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs* received widespread praise, with the *Atlanta Journal-Constitution* describing it as “wise, irreverent, and funny.” Her latest book, *The Irish Goodbye, Memoirs & Micro-Memoirs*, was released in March by Norton.

Throughout her career, Fennelly has garnered numerous honors, including grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, United States Artists, and a Fulbright to Brazil. Her work has been featured in over 50 anthologies, including multiple volumes of *Best American Poetry* and *The Penguin Book of the Sonnet*. She has also been recognized with a Pushcart Prize and was the first woman to receive the University of Notre Dame’s Distinguished Alumni in the Arts Award.

Fennelly is a contributing editor for *The Oxford American* and writes about topics such as travel, culture, and design. She lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with her husband and their three children.

Attendees at tonight's event will have an opportunity to purchase Fennelly’s books. Parking is available in the upper-level lot near The Sheid. For more information, visit asumh.edu or call 870-508-6280.