FARMINGTON — Award-winning poet Amy Woolard will be the second reader of the season for the Visiting Writers Series at the University of Maine at Farmington. Woolard will read from her work in a remote live reading at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22. The reading will be followed by a question-and-answer talkback with the poet.

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The event will only take place online. To receive a link to the free, virtual reading, email Amy Neswald, UMF professor of creative writing, at amy.neswald@maine.edu.

Woolard’s debut poetry collection, “Neck of the Woods,” was awarded the 2018 Alice James Award from Alice James Books. Her poems have appeared in the New Yorker, The Paris Review and Poetry, among others. Woolard’s nonfiction essays and articles have been featured in The Rumpus, Slate, The Guardian and The Virginia Quarterly Review. By day, Woolard is a legal aid attorney working on civil rights policy and legislation.

The Visiting Writer Series is sponsored by the UMF Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program. As the only such program in the state, and one of only three in all of New England, the UMF program invites students to work with faculty, who are practicing writers, in workshop-style classes to discover and develop their writing strengths in the genres of poetry, fiction and nonfiction.

Small classes, an emphasis on individual conferencing and the development of a writing portfolio allow students to see themselves as artists and refine their writing under the guidance of accomplished and published faculty mentors. Students can pursue internships to gain real-world writing and publishing experience by working on campus with The Sandy River Review, a student-run literary magazine; Ripple Zine, a feminist magazine; The Farmington Flyer, a university newspaper; or Alice James Books, an award-winning poetry publishing house.