Professor Emeritus McKean to share essays, poetry at Mount Mercy

Professor Emeritus Jim McKean will return to Mount Mercy University for a special question and answer session and reading of his creative nonfiction work of essays and poetry on Thursday, November 8. The Q&A will begin at 3:30 p.m. and the reading will take place at 7:00 p.m. Both events will be held in Basile Hall's Flaherty Community Room and are free and open to the public; seating may be limited.

McKean, professor emeritus at Mount Mercy who also teaches in the M.F.A. program at Queens University in Charlotte, writes poems and nonfiction. He holds a Ph.D. from The University of Iowa and is a graduate of the prestigious University of Iowa Writers Workshop. McKean retired from Mount Mercy in 2009, having served the institution since 1990.

He has published two books of poems, "Headlong" and "Tree of Heaven." "Headlong" won a 1987 Great Lakes Colleges Association's New Writer Award, and "Tree of Heaven" won a 1994 Iowa Poetry Award. His latest poetry manuscripts, "We Are the Bus," won this year's 2011 X.J. Kennedy poetry prize and will be published in the fall of 2012 by Texas Review Press.

His nonfiction has appeared in magazines and collections such as The Iowa Review, Gettysburg Review, and The Best American Sports Writing 2003, and has received a Pushcart Prize. His latest book is a collection of essays titled "Home Stand: Growing Up in Sports."

As a Catholic institution, Mount Mercy University welcomes speakers who address diverse topics and represent various backgrounds in the pursuit of educational discourse. During public occasions, guest speakers may express opinions that do not necessarily reflect the mission and values of Mount Mercy or are necessarily endorsed by official institutional positions and policy.