Poet and memoirist Toi Derricotte will give a reading on Thursday, March 22, at Appalachian State University in the Table Rock Room of Plemmons Student Union at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series. She will also present a craft talk titled “Poetry or Prose: Rethinking the Poetic Line” in Table Rock Room from 2-3:15 p.m.

Admission to all events is free. Book sales and signing will follow each reading.

Derricotte, a professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, is well known for her books of poetry and the power behind her writing. Her books of poetry are “The Undertaker’s Daughter (2011), “Tender” (1997), which won the 1998 Paterson Poetry Prize, “Captivity” (1989), “Natural Birth” (1983) and “The Empress of the Death House” (1978). Dericotte’s “The Black Notebooks” is a literary memoir that won the 1998 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Non-Fiction and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

She received the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, two Pushcart Prizes, the Distinguished Pioneering of the Arts Award from the United Black Artists, the New York Graduate School of Arts & Science Alumni Achievement Award, the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers Inc., the Elizabeth Kray Award for service to the field of poetry from Poets House, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Maryland State Arts Council.

In 1996, Dericotte and fellow poet Cornelius Eady, co-founded the Cave Canem Foundation, North America’s premier “home for black poetry.”

The Spring 2012 Visiting Writers Series is supported by the Appalachian State University Foundation; Appalachian’s Offices of Academic Affairs, Multicultural Student Development, and Cultural Affairs; the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of English, the Summer Reading Program, the University Bookstore, Belk Library and Information Commons, and The Appalachian Journal. Business sponsors are The Gideon Ridge Inn and The Red Onion Restaurant. Community sponsors include John and Marjorie Idol, Paul and Judy Tobin, Alice Naylor, Thomas McLaughlin and The High Country Writers.

The Visiting Writers Series is named in honor of Hughlene Bostian Frank, class of 1968, former trustee and generous supporter of Appalachian State University.

Parking is free on campus after 5 p.m. The library parking deck on College Street provides the nearest access to Plemmons Student Union. To reach the student union, cross College Street and follow the walkway between the chiller plant and the University Bookstore, passing the Post Office and entering the Student Union on the second floor. For further parking information or a map, see www.parking.appstate.edu or call the Parking and Traffic Office 828-262-2878. For further information on the spring season, call 262-2337 or visit www.visitingwriters.appstate.edu.