FARMINGTON — Erika Meitner, a 2009 National Poetry Series winner, will be the first reader in the University of Maine at Farmington’s spring Visiting Writers Series.

The free event will take place at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 10, in The Landing in UMF’s Olsen Student Center. It will be followed by a book signing.

Meitner was chosen as a National Poetry Series winner for her second published work, “Ideal Cities.” Her first book, “Inventory at the All-Night Drugstore,” won the 2002 Anhinga Prize for Poetry and was a finalist for the 2004 Paterson Poetry Prize. “Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls,” Meitner’s third book, is due out this month.

Meitner has received numerous fellowships and was named the Diane Middlebrook Poetry Fellow at the University of Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. Her poems have been published in The Southern Review, Slate, Prairie Schooner, The Kenyon Review, Tin House, The New Republic and American Poetry Review.

Meitner teaches English at Virginia Tech and is pursuing her doctorate in religious studies at the University of Virginia.