LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 24, 2008) − This weekend University of Kentucky Writer-in-Residence Erik Reece will participate in a local book signing for his most recent book "Field Work: Modern Poems form Eastern Forests," published by University Press of Kentucky. Reece, who served as editor of the new book of writings celebrating America's eastern woodlands, will give a reading and have a book signing at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 26, at Black Swan Books on East Maxwell Street in Lexington.

Reece was inspired to produce “Field Work: Modern Poems from Eastern Forests” when writing his acclaimed book, “Lost Mountain: A Year in the Vanishing Wilderness.” "Field Work" is an anthology of nature writing that celebrates the landscape and ecology of the eastern U.S. The book brings together work from nationally recognized modern American poets, as well as four classical Chinese poets, whose verse chronicled an area of southeastern China that is remarkably similar in landscape and ecology to the eastern woodlands of the U.S.

Other noted writers and contributors to the book will be on hand for the local reading and book signing with Reece. Among the writers scheduled to attend are Wendell Berry, James Baker Hall and Richard Taylor.

Reece is a lecturer and writer-in-residence with the UK Department of English. His work has achieved critical acclaim and been featured in such publications as Harper’s and Oxford American. Reece is the recipient of the Sierra Club’s David R. Brower Award and Columbia University’s 2005 John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism. He currently is working on a forthcoming collection of poems “A Short History of the Present.”

For more information on "Field Work," contact the University Press of Kentucky at (800) 839-6855.