Poet Norah Pollard to Give Literary Reading

Connecticut poet Norah Pollard, daughter of famed racehorse jockey Red Pollard, will be the featured reader on May 21 at Westminster School’s Friday Night Readings series. The series features readings given by guest writers, Westminster faculty and students on selected Fridays during the 2009-2010 academic year. The faculty reader will be mathematics teacher Dan Aber, and the student reader will be Westminster Fifth Former Chris Sailor.

Pollard, who lives in Stratford, Conn., has published three books of poems: “Death & Rapture in the Animal Kingdom,” “Leaning In” and “Report from the Banana Hospital.” Reviewers have been thrilled by her beautiful storytelling and the ride her poems give them. Many of her poems provide a compelling portrayal of her father, who was the most renowned jockey of the 1930s as Seabiscuit’s primary jockey. She received the Academy of American Poets Prize from the University of Bridgeport and for several years edited “The Connecticut River Review.” Garrison Keillor has read her poems on “The Writer’s Almanac.”

The Westminster School reading is free and open to the public and will take place from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Gund Reading Room of the school’s Armour Academic Center. Refreshments will be served at the conclusion of the reading and ample parking will be available in the parking lot adjacent to the Armour Academic Center. Anyone wishing additional information should call (860) 784-1865.