Central Lakes College’s Verse Like Water series will kick off its fifth year with Pulitzer Prize winning poet Vijay Seshadri. The event starts with a reading at noon on Sept. 30 in the Chalberg Theatre, Brainerd campus. After, he will sign books and host an informal craft talk on creativity and the imagination at 1:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Born in Bangalore India, Seshadri has risen to the top of America’s literary scene as a poet, critic and essayist. He is also a professor of genius at Sarah Lawrence.

“Vijay Seshadri’s poetry is an intense exploration of what is possible with language. Like all great poets, he has a sense of humor, but he seems most interested in putting in collision everyday experience with the epic, with the surreal,” said Jeff Johnson, proprietor of Verse Like Water. “One moment you are reading about possible versions of the apocalypse, and then you observe him taking a package for his neighbor Gus from the mail deliverer a few lines later.”

Johnson added, “He likely will offer an account of his long journey from Bangalore India, to a life in literature in Brooklyn, New York. No doubt, this will be another first rate literary event for the Brainerd lakes region!”

This literary event is sponsored by the CLC English department, Five Wings Arts Council, and Minnesota Public Radio.