Readings by 2007 New Issues prizewinner Sandra Beasley and Joanna Lin Want, who earned an Academy of American Poets honorable mention, will highlight the 2008 Foxcroft School Poetry Festival, scheduled for Jan. 18-19, 2008. The public is welcome to attend the festival, which also includes a Poetry Slam, Coffee House and a number of formal readings. Please call 540-687-5555 for more information.

The Poetry Festival, a Foxcroft tradition which has brought famed poets of all styles to the independent school's campus, kicks off Friday evening with a Poetry Slam and Open Mic/Coffee Shop. On Saturday morning, Beasley and Want will read from their work in the Audrey Bruce Currier Library. The visiting poets will also work with students in class and in open workshops Friday during the school day.

Beasley won the 2007 New Issues Poetry Prize for her book Theories of Falling. Her poems have also been featured on Verse Daily, in magazines such as SLATE, Agni (Online), 32 Poems and Blackbird, and in the 2005 Best New Poets, selected by George Garrett. Awards for her work include the 2006 Elinor Benedict Poetry Prize from Passages North and fellowships to Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Jenny McKean Moore Workshop, the Indiana University Writers' Conference, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. Beasley lives in Washington, D.C., where she received her M.F.A. from American University and serves on the editorial staff of The American Scholar.

In 2006, Want earned an MFA in creative writing, poetry focus from Indiana University, where she taught classes in fiction, poetry and freshman composition. She has served as an adjunct lecturer at IU, adjunct faculty member at Ivy Tech Community College and, most recently, as an instructor at Western Michigan University. Want, whose work has been published in Five Fingers Review and Mudfish, has won several awards for her poetry, including an Honorable Mention from the Academy of American Poets.

The Poetry Slam is a much-anticipated event each year. A "Slam" is an informal approach to sharing poetry -- the let-your-hair-down, audience-involved kind of reading that has become popular in college towns and coffee houses across the nation. Original works, presented dramatically by their student-authors, will be judged by students and the visiting poets in an elimination-round format.

At 1:30pm Saturday, formal poetry readings will be held in FoxHound Auditorium. Competitive student readings, which culminate a month-long selection process, will feature students from each grade who have been nominated by their peers and qualified by faculty judges. Non-competitive readings – by students and faculty -- of original poetry, poetry written in a language other than English and favorite published poems follows.

For more information on the visiting poets, visit the Foxcroft website at www.foxcroft.org.