Cathryn Hankla's eleventh volume of poetry and second full-length collection of prose poems, Immortal Stuff, offers us an intimate catalog of what's remembered, what's observed, and what's imagined. Lyrical or narrative by turns, nuanced and deft, Hankla's prose poems range through the realms of reflection and imagination, finding them not so different: they rub shoulders and embrace like old friends. Significance pours in equal measures from relationships, objects, and situations meant to mark us, confound us, and change us continually from contact with the wondrous and the ordinary—and the insights we take away.
The voice guiding us is willing to encounter what comes, while surrendered to what happens next, to what has happened, and to living between knowing and wanting to know. Mature experience brings more mysteries than answers, and with that the sort of wisdom that can break into song or droll laughter. After all, "This is a heart trip not a head trip." Hankla wraps her arms around what matters: "Bringing everything to light one thing at a time" and us along for joy in the journey.

Cathryn Hankla is a native of Southwest Virginia and the author of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, including Galaxies, Lost Places: On Losing and Finding Home, and Not Xanadu. Hankla is professor emerita of English & Creative Writing at Hollins University, and the poetry editor of The Hollins Critic. She writes and paints in Roanoke, Virginia. Learn more about her at cathrynhankla.com.

Ed Falco is the author of Transcendent Gardening, as well as several previous books of poetry, novels, and short stories. He teaches in Virginia Tech's MFA program, and he edits The New River, an online journal of new media writing.

Cathryn will do a reading and take questions from Ed Falco and the audience.