Sharon Olds will present the sixth annual Joshua Ringel Memorial Reading at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 22, at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The event, which is co-sponsored by the New York-based Teachers & Writers Collaborative and Johns Hopkins' Center for Talented Youth, includes a reception that begins at 5:45 p.m. Both are free and open to the public.

Sharon Olds

Sharon Olds is a poet renowned for her use of raw language and startling images, and for her ability to convey truths about political and domestic violence, sexuality and bereavement. Olds gained national recognition after the publication of her first two, award-winning books: Satan Says (1980) and The Dead and the Living (1983). Her most recent work, The Unswept Room (2002), was a National Book Award finalist.

Olds, who received her undergraduate degree from Stanford and her doctorate from Columbia, is a professor of English at New York University. Her honors include a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest grant and the appointment as New York State Poet (1998-2000).

The Joshua Ringel Memorial Fund was established in 1998 by the Ringel family in memory of their son and brother Joshua, whose life was cut short in a motorcycle accident just before his 28th birthday. The Memorial Fund supports an annual lecture/reading dedicated to education, poetry and the imagination. Previous lecturers were Kenneth Koch, Robert Pinsky, Grace Paley, Yusef Komunyakaa and John Ashbery.

The Teachers & Writers Collaborative was founded 36 years ago by a group of writers and educators who believed professional writers could make a unique contribution to the teaching of writing and literature.

The Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins identifies, nurtures and develops academic talent in pre-collegiate students. It also sponsors summer academic and distance education programs. Joshua Ringel and his sister, Susannah, both attended CTY.
--Chuck Beckman