(Grand Rapids, Mich.) - On September 17, the Aquinas College Contemporary Writers Series presents poet and award-winning writer Gregory Orr. A master of short, lyric free verse, Orr is the author of eleven collections of poetry. His most recent volumes include: The River Inside the River, How Beautiful the Beloved, and Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved. His memoir, The Blessing, was chosen by Publisher’s Weekly as one of the fifty best non-fiction books of 2002. Recently he penned an op-ed for the New York Times, When a Child Kills: Reflections on a Shooting Range Death, From One Who Knows, which addresses the recent fatal accidental shooting of a gun instructor by a 9-year-old in Arizona and draws a parallel to Orr’s personal story of accidentally killing his younger brother in a hunting accident.

Much of Orr’s early work is concerned with seminal events from his childhood, including the hunting accident, followed shortly by his mother’s unexpected death and his father’s later addiction to amphetamines. Orr also had a near-death experience as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the civil rights movement, in which he was jailed and severely beaten. In poetry, Orr found the transformative power of language.

Orr has received many awards and fellowships, including an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, two NEA Fellowships and a Rockefeller Fellowship at the Institute for the Study of Culture and Violence.

Orr’s presentation at Aquinas College is free and open to the public.


WHAT: Aquinas College Contemporary Writers Series presents: Gregory Orr
WHEN: Wednesday, September 17, 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Aquinas College, Wege Ballroom, 1607 Robinson Road S.E., Grand Rapids, MI, 49506