DURHAM, N.C. - W.S. Merwin, the 2010-11 United States Poet Laureate, will give a public reading at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 28, in the Gothic Reading Room at Duke University's Perkins Library. A reception and book signing will follow the event.

The reading is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Tickets can be picked up from the English department in the Allen Building beginning Oct. 25, or by emailing rebecca.gibson@duke.edu. Remaining tickets will be distributed at the door.

In addition to the public reading, Merwin will participate in a special question-and-answer session with students.

Merwin, the William Blackburn Visiting Poet at Duke, is a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize (twice), the National Book Award, the Tanning Prize, the Bollingen Prize and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. In 1999, he was named Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress for a jointly held position. He also received the 2004 Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award.

His most recent poetry collections include "Present Company," which won the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, "Migration: Selected Poems 1951-2001,"which won the National Book Award, and "The Shadow of Sirius," which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

The event is sponsored by the William Blackburn Fund, the English department, the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts, the Gothic Bookshop and the Duke University Libraries. For more information, visit http://english.duke.edu.