OLEAN, N.Y. — Olean Public Library will celebrate National Poetry Month with a reading from poet Allison Joseph.

Joseph will from from her work at 7 p.m. April 20 at the library. As well as being a poet, she is an editor, professor and author of six poetry collections, most recently “My Father’s

Kites: Poems.” She also edits an online call for submissions with more than a thousand subscribers.

Born in London to parents of Jamaican heritage, Joseph grew up in Toronto, Ontario

Canada, and the Bronx. She graduated from Kenyon College with a bachelor of arts degree and from Indiana University with a master of fine arts degree. She teaches at Southern Illinois

University, Carbondale, and is director of the Young Writers Workshop at SIUC, which she

founded in 1999. She was one of the founding editors of Crab Orchard Review and is the

magazine’s poetry editor.