The English department opens its 2007-08 Visiting Writers Series with a reading by poet Gabriel Fried, Bates Class of 1996, at 7:30 p.m. tonight in Skelton Lounge, Chase Hall, 56 Campus Ave. The public is invited to attend free of charge.

Fried returns to Bates with a major publication award in hand. He received the Katharine Morton Prize from Sarabande Books for his first collection of poems, Making the New Lamb Take (2007). Michael Ryan, who chose the book for publication in an open competition, wrote: “It’s impossible for me to imagine poems more fully integrated or more fully realized than those in this book, and it’s heartening to me that these poems were written by someone so young. That Gabriel Fried has the talent, skill, intelligence and wisdom to have an exceptional future as a poet is unquestionable, but this first book of his already represents a mature accomplishment of the art.”

Fried follows his Bates reading with appearances at the University of Virginia, the poetry reading series Observable Readings in St. Louis, Mo., and Rutgers University.

Fried grew up in upstate New York. His poems have appeared in a number of journals, including The American Scholar, Drunken Boat, The Gettysburg Review, The Great River Review, and The Paris Review. He lives in New York City, where he edits the poetry series at Persea Books.