January 22, 2002 SELINSGROVE, Pa. - Award-winning writer Gary Fincke will read from his newly published book of poetry Blood Ties: Working-Class Poems on Monday, Feb. 11, at 7:30 p.m. in the Benjamin Apple Lecture Hall of Bogar Hall at Susquehanna University. Fincke, a professor of English at Susquehanna, was born and raised in what he calls "a working class, blue collar attitude" near Pittsburgh. "Blue collar not meaning a union and punching in for work," says Fincke. "Blue collar in that the jobs were hands-on type where you had to show up everyday." The sensible attitude taken from the hard-working men he saw growing up, especially his father, inspired Blood Ties, Fincke's 12th book, available from Time Being Books. Fincke has published 11 books of poetry and short fiction, most recently The Almanac for Desire, a collection of poems in 2000, and Emergency Calls, a short story collection in 1996. "I dedicated the book to my father because I thought this was the one to do it because it has his sensibility," Fincke says. "He ran a bakery and was the boss, but also the working force as well." "There are eight or 10 working class poems," he says. "Basically, I just tried to pull together 60 or 70 poems under some sort of umbrella. I think the title more or less reflects my attitude and upbringing and what it brings to the writing rather than what the poems are actually about." Along with the dedication to Fincke's father, the thread of family laces into the cover of Blood Ties as well. "I suggested to the publisher that my daughter Shannon (a Susquehanna graduate) do the cover work and they liked the idea," Fincke says. "This is exciting for her, but for me as well since I just passed along the manuscript and let her interpret the work." Fincke, in addition to teaching duties as a professor of English at Susquehanna, also heads the university's Writers' Institute where he teaches introductory and advanced classes in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Winner of the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry Magazine and the Rose Lefcowitz Prize from Poet Lore, Fincke has received a PEN Syndicated Fiction Prize as well as six fellowships for creative writing from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. His work has appeared in such periodicals as Harper's, Newsday, The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, The Georgia Review, American Scholar, and Doubletake. Copies of Blood Ties will be available for purchase at the reading. Contact: Sam Alcorn 570-372-4119 #sa/1493#