World-renowned poet Naomi Shihab Nye will visit the Granite State in an event sponsored by the NH Humanities Council’s Connections adult literacy program.

Shihab Nye will offer a public reading and discuss her work on Wednesday, May 5 at 7 p.m. at the Palace Theatre at 80 Hanover Street in Manchester. A book signing will follow the program with books available for purchase at the event from Gibson's Bookstore.

This event is free and open to the public. It has been moved to a larger venue due to popular demand. Registration is not required but it is recommended.

Shihab Nye was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother and grew up in St. Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio. Drawing on her Palestinian-American heritage, the cultural diversity of her home in Texas, and her experiences traveling in Asia, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America and the Middle East, Shihab Nye uses her writing to attest to our shared humanity.

Shihab Nye is the author and/or editor of more than 25 volumes. Her books of poetry include 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East , A Maze Me: Poems for Girls , Red Suitcase, Words Under the Words, Fuel, and You & Yours (a best-selling poetry book of 2006). Other works include seven prize-winning poetry anthologies for young readers, including This Same Sky, The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems & Paintings from the Middle East, and What Have You Lost?

She has been a Lannan Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Witter Bynner Fellow (Library of Congress). She has received a Lavan Award from the Academy of American Poets, the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, four Pushcart Prizes, and numerous honors for her children’s literature, including two Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards. Her collection 19 Varieties of Gazelle was a finalist for the National Book Award.

She has been featured on two PBS poetry specials: "The Language of Life with Bill Moyers" and "The United States of Poetry" and also appeared on NOW with Bill Moyers. She has been visiting writer for full semesters for The Michener Center at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Hawai’i. In January 2010 she was elected to the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets.