FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Poet Jane Shore to read at Bates Oct. 7

LEWISTON, Maine -- Poet Jane Shore, author of the award-winning collection "The Minute Hand" will read from her works at at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 7, in Chase Hall Lounge, Bates College. The public is invited to attend and admission is free.

Shore won the Lamont Poetry Selection of the American Academy of Poets for "The Minute Hand" and the Juniper Prize for her collection "Eye Level." The title of her third collection of poetry, "Music Minus One," refers to a record album that provides orchestral accompaniment for a person who plays a solo instrument at home.

Constructed like a novel comprised of interwoven narratives, "Music Minus One" begins with Shore's childhood in 1950s New Jersey, with memories of Jewish-owned shops along a city avenue, the tensions of the Cold War and Shore's childhood home above her parents' clothing store. Shore's father, George, who played clarinet and saxophone with the big bands of the 1930s and '40s, figures prominently in the book. Shore weaves the emotional dimensions of her childhood into the experience of her own motherhood, life in Vermont and a memorable elegy for her mother, Essie.