NACOGDOCHES, Texas-The Stephen F. Austin State University Department of English and Philosophy will host award-winning poets Gerry LaFemina and Amy Fleury as part of the department's spring reading series.

LaFemina is the author of several poetry collections including "The Parakeets of Brooklyn," and he directs and teaches at the Frostburg Writing Center in Frostburg, Md. Fleury is the author of a collection of poems titled "Beautiful Trouble," which won the Crab Orchard First Book Award and was named a top ten book of 2004 by the Kansas City Star.

The SFA reading series strives to "promote literacy by introducing accomplished writers to the community and allow them to witness literature first hand as an ongoing and living process," said Dr. Daryl Farmer, assistant professor of English and coordinator of the event. This reading is the first of three in a series scheduled this spring.

The reading will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, in Liberal Arts North, Room 102, on the SFA campus. The reading is free of charge and open to the public.