North Carolina Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti will read at the St. Andrews University Writers' Forum Thursday evening.

The forum, which is free and open to the public, begins at 8 p.m. in Pate Main Lounge.

"Joseph Bathanti is an award-winning poet and novelist with a robust commitment to social causes," said former Gov. Bev Perdue in naming Bathanti the seventh poet laureate. "He first came to North Carolina to work in the VISTA program and has taught writing workshops in prisons for 35 years. As North Carolina's new poet laureate, he plans to work with veterans to share their stories through poetry - a valuable and generous project."

A former St. Andrews professor, Bathanti is currently a professor of creative writing at Appalachian State University, where he is also director of writing in the field and writer-in-residence in the University's Watauga Global Community. He has taught writing workshops in prisons for more than three decades and is former chair of the N.C. Writers' Network Prison project.

Bathanti, who received the Sam Ragan Fine Arts Award from St. Andrews in 1995, is a two-time recipient of Literature Fellowships from the N.C. Arts council and received the 2012 Ragan-Rubin Award from the N.C. English Teachers Associ-ation. He won the 2002 Linda Flowers Prize from the North Carolina Humanities Council, the 2006 Novello Literary Award, and the 2006 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction, among many other recognitions.

His poetry books include "This Metal," "Restoring Sacred Art," "Land of Amnesia," "Anson County," "The Feast of All Saints" and "Communion Partners." He has published two novels, "Coventry" and "East Liberty," along with a book of short stories, "The High Heart."

For more information about call (910)-277-5310, email press@sapc.edu or visit www. sapc.edu.