The 8th annual Sotto Voce Poetry Festival will be held in Shepherdstown, WV on October 5 and 6. This year’s festival will highlight the talent of Ellen Bryant Voigt, Michael Collier, Andrew Hudgins, and Stanley Plumly.

On Friday, Oct. 5 at 8:30 p.m., Ellen Bryant Voigt and Andrew Hudgins will be reading selections of their work at the Erma Orr Byrd Auditorium at Shepherd University. Ellen Bryant Voigt has published six collections of poetry and has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She has also served as Vermont’s Poet Laureate and developed the nation’s first low-residency MFA program. She currently teaches at Warren Wilson College. Andrew Hudgins teaches at Ohio State University and has published seven books of poems to high critical acclaim.

On Saturday, Oct. 6 there will be two workshops held concurrently from 9 a.m – 12 p.m. taught by Michael Collier and Stanley Plumly. Michael Collier is the director of the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference and teaches at the University of Maryland. He served as Maryland’s Poet Laureate and is the author of six books of Poetry, including “An Individual History” published this July. Stanley Plumly is the current Poet Laureate of Maryland and is the director of the University of Maryland, College Park’s creative writing program. His newest work, published in June, is “Orphan Hours.”

Also on Saturday, Peter Stitt will be giving individual consultations from 1:15-3:45 p.m. He is the editor of the Gettysburg Review and is a professor of English at Gettysburg College.

At 4 p.m., Andrew Hudgins will present “Out, Out…,” a lecture on Robert Frost at Four Seasons Books. Following the lecture there will be reception and book signing for all the Sotto Voce poets from 5-6 p.m. at Four Seasons Books.

Michael Collier and Stanley Plumly will give a reading at the Erma Orr Byrd Auditorium Saturday evening at 6:30 p.m.

The poetry readings, the lecture, and the reception are free and open to the general public. For more information, please call Four Seasons at 304-876-3486 or email at 4seasons@citlink.net.