The Tryon Area Branch of the Association of University Women (AAUW) will host the third annual Porcelain, Poetry and Prose, a fundraising tea for the Eileen White Scholarship Fund, on Saturday, Oct. 12 at 2 p.m. at Sunnydale In Tryon.

Joseph Bathanti, N.C. Poet Laureate, will be one of the featured speakers for the event. Dr. Bathanti came to North Carolina as a VISTA volunteer in 1976 to work with prison inmates. Professor of Creative Writing at Appalachian State University, he is also Writer-in-Residence and Director of Writing in the Field for the University’s Watauga Global Community. He was installed as the seventh North Carolina Poet Laureate on Sept. 20, 2012.

Dr. Bathanti’s works include eight books of poetry. His book, “This Metal”, was nominated for the National Book Award and won the 1997 Oscar Arnold Young Award from the North Carolina Poetry Council. His first novel, “East Liberty”, published in 2001, won the Carolina Novel Award. His latest novel, “Coventry”, published by Novello Festival Press in Charlotte, N.C., won the 2006 Novello Literary Award. His new book of personal essays, “Half of What I Say is Meaningless”, winner of the Will D. Campbell Award for Creative Nonfiction, is forthcoming from Mercer University press in 2014.

Greenville author and writing workshop conductor Mindy Friddle, Dr. Kirk Neely, Spartanburg minister, educator and humorist, and Susan Snowden, journalist, novelist and editor currently residing in Hendersonville, N.C., will also present.

AAUW is a nationwide network of university women whose mission is to advance equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy and research.

The Tryon Area Branch AAUW Eileen White Scholarship Fund was established to provide financial support for women who are returning to the classroom. The annual scholarship benefit is dedicated this year to the memory of Nancy McPherson, former AAUW treasurer and organizer of the first tea. The event is by reservation only. Seating is limited and early reservations are suggested. For ticket information, please call 828-817-2443.

– article submitted by Audrey Ortiz