The Kent State University Press and the Wick Poetry Center invite the public to celebrate the recently published “Dear Vaccine: Global Voices Speak to the Pandemic” on Wednesday, April 20, 2022, from 6 – 8:30 p.m. in University Library’s Harrick Garden Room, 1125 Risman Drive in Kent, Ohio. Attendees are encouraged to wear a mask. The program is free and open to the public, but reservations are appreciated. RSVP at https://bit.ly/DearVaccine. 

This unique and timely anthology, edited by Naomi Shihab Nye, David Hassler and Tyler Meier, features 160 poems from people around the world, reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine through poetry. The included works were selected from more than 2,300 submissions to the Global Vaccine Poem Project, launched in March 2021, as a collaboration between the Wick Poetry Center and the University of Arizona Poetry Center.

The event will include readings from some of the book’s poets, including Kent State President Todd Diacon, Ph.D., and Kent State Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Amoaba Gooden, Ph.D.

Refreshments and hors d’oeuvres will be served. Autographed copies of “Dear Vaccine” will be available for purchase.