Kick off National Poetry Month at the Loft in downtown Minneapolis this Thursday at 7 p.m. St. Paul poet Greg Hewett will be reading from his new book, darkacre, published by Coffee House Press.

From Coffee House:

“Greg Hewett is the author of The Eros Conspiracy, To Collect the Flesh, and Red Suburb, which was an Indie Bound Poetry Top Ten selection, Publishing Triangle Award winner, and Minnesota Book Award finalist. He has received Fulbright fellowships to Denmark and Norway and has lived in Japan and France. A former HIV interviewer for the Centers for Disease Control, he is currently Associate Professor of English at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. “ 

Lightsey Darst of Minneapolis will read from her first collection of poetry, Find the Girl.

 Again, per Coffee House:

“From Snow White to the Yde Girl and Helen of Troy to JonBenét, this lurid and lyrical debut explores the transition from girlhood to womanhood and America’s almost pornographic fascination with missing and exploited children. Topical and timely, Darst’s poems draw from both the oldest tales and the current vein of child / young woman endangerment horror–recalling and responding to true-crime exposés, pulp detective fiction, classic fables, modern novels like The Lovely Bones, and TV shows like Law & Order.”