On Tuesday April 27th, nationally reknown poet Jean Valentine visited Hopkins to share her poetry with students and the Hopkins community.

April was National Poetry month, and to culminate a month's worth of poetry related events and readings, Jean Valentine was invited to campus by the Celebration of Poetry committee, an ad hoc committee comprised of English, Science and Development faculty. Ms. Valentine spoke to the students during the day and recited new and recent works. The students asked engaging questions about her writing process and asked to hear more of her work. Afterschool, Ms. Valentine gave an open reading to an intimate crowd of poetry enthusiasts. She read from her book, Lucy, published in 2009, inspired by the discovery of the three-million-year-old skeleton of the earliest known hominid at the time. She also read some new unpublished works.

Jean Valentine was the 2009 recipient of the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets. She has won many other poetry awards over her distinguished career and is currently New York State's Poet Laureate. She has published ten books of her own work and has been included in many poetry collections. To find out more about Jean Valentine and her work, visit her website: www.jeanvalentine.com/