Exeter, NH (April 23, 2007)—On Thursday, May 3, 2007, at 7:00 p.m., Phillips Exeter Academy will host a reading and book-signing of Evidence of the Journey, the first book of poetry by English instructor and poet, Ralph Sneeden. The reading will be held in Rockefeller Hall on the main floor of the Class of 1945 Academy Library, which is located on Front Street. A reception will follow. These events are free and open to the public.

“Evidence of the Journey,” the title poem in the new collection, received the Friends of Literature Prize from POETRY magazine in 2004. The book was published in April 2007 by Harmon Blunt. Sneeden has also published poems in The Kenyon Review, New England Review, The New Republic, Ploughshares, Slate, Southern Review, and TriQuarterly, among others. His work has also been anthologized in The Second Set: Jazz Poetry Anthology (Indiana). Previous versions of the book manuscript were finalists for The Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, the Yale Younger Poets Award, The Brittingham/Pollack Prize at the University of Wisconsin, and the Kathryn Morton Prize at Sarabande Books.

Sneeden earned his Bachelor’s of Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts; his Master’s of Arts degree from Middlebury College; and a Master’s of Fine Arts from Warren Wilson College. From 1992–93, he was a Klingenstein Fellow at Columbia University. Afterwards, he worked at the Pingree School and Lake Forest Academy prior to coming to Exeter in 1995. He has also served on the faculty of the University of Michigan’s Bear River Writers’ Conference.

For further information, contact Jacquelyn H. Thomas, Academy Librarian at (603) 777-3328. A complete list of upcoming events is available on the Phillips Exeter Academy public events line at (603) 777-4309 and on our website at http://www.exeter.edu/. For directions, call (603) 777-4330.

Phillips Exeter Academy is a coeducational, independent preparatory school that was founded in 1781 and originated the system of instruction known as Harkness teaching in 1931. In the spirit of its charter to foster both goodness and knowledge, students come from a wide variety of geographic, economic, racial and religious backgrounds. The diverse student body comes from approximately 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and 26 foreign countries.

Read more about Ralph Sneeden.

Learn more about Exeter’s English Department and course offerings.