Contributors to Rivers, Ridges, and Valleys: Essays on Rural Pennsylvania will read from the collection at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 13, in the lobby of Haas Gallery on the Commonwealth University-Bloomsburg campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Ridges, Ridges, and Valleys is co-edited by CU English Professors Jerry Wemple and Anne Dyer Stuart. The book contains essays by 27 writers from around the vast interior of the Keystone State. While about two-thirds are native Pennsylvanians, others hail from places as wide-ranging as North Carolina, Utah, California, China and the Philippines. The focus of the essays varies as well. There are essays dealing with environmental issues, such as the aftermath of coal mining and the more recent hydraulic fracturing. Some essays celebrate the outdoors, whether it is backyard camping or fishing in an isolated trout stream. Others deal with family legacy and the history of people and places. The anthology was recently nominated for the Writers Conference of Northern Appalachia’s Book of the Year award. It is one of eight semifinalists. 

Among the event’s participants are others with CU connections: English Professor Claire Lawrence, Music Professor Charisse Baldoria, and Matt Perakovich, a Bloomsburg graduate and adjunct faculty member. Also reading are Grant Clauser, a Bloomsburg graduate, noted poet, and New York Times senior editor, poet and professor Michael Hardin of Danville, and poet and prose writer Abby Minor of Centre County.  

Copies of Rivers, Ridges, and Valleys will be on sale at the reading. It is also available at the CU-Bloomsburg University Store or from online retailers. The event is part of the Big Dog Reading Series, organized by the university’s Creative Writing program, which brings regional and nationally known poets and writers to campus to work with students and give public readings.