KU to Host Poetry Reading of Late Professor Nov. 5

KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Kutztown University will host a poetry reading celebrating the publication of Going Across the Water: New and Selected Poems by Harry Humes, 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, 223 MSU. Humes was a longtime KU professor and nationally recognized poet, who passed away in 2025. The collection was edited by KU alumnus Dr. Daniel Donaghy ’93 to celebrate Humes' life, work and influence.

KU faculty, alumni and former students of Humes will read selections from his work and honor his enduring legacy as a poet and educator. The event is free and open to the public.

Copies of Going Across the Water: New and Selected Poems will be available for purchase through the KU Campus Store.

This event is sponsored by the KU English Department. Contact Dr. Robert Fillman (fillman@kutztown.edu) for more information.

Humes carved out a unique place in American literature by chronicling Appalachian working-class life, natural landscapes and disappearing rural traditions in Appalachian Pennsylvania with rare lyricism, humility, and precision. He wrote unflinchingly about the austerity and horrors of extraction as well as his deep connection with family and the area mountains and valleys not gutted by the anthracite coal industry.

This volume of Humes' new and selected poems not only preserves the work of a significant American poet, offering scholars, teachers and general readers a generous overview of the clarity, beauty, craft and emotional depth of his substantial body of work. It allows future generations to rediscover poetry that deepens our understanding of how our labor, our landscapes and our love shape us and change the ways we live and what we care about.