Jacqueline Lyons. Photo credit: Brian Stethem

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - A California Lutheran University faculty member will share poems she wrote based on her experiences in southern Africa at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3.

Jacqueline Lyons, who joined the faculty as an assistant professor of English in 2011, will read and discuss excerpts from her 2004 book “The Way They Say Yes Here” in Ullman Commons 100 on the Thousand Oaks campus. Her three-year stint serving in the Peace Corps in Lesotho inspired the poems.

Lyons has received a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Poetry, a Nevada Arts Council Fellowship in Nonfiction and a Utah Arts Council Literary Award in Poetry and Nonfiction. The Somis resident wrote the 2009 poetry chapbook “Lost Colony” and has published more than 50 poems and literary essays in national journals including Bellingham Review, Colorado Review, The Journal, Quarter After Eight and Sonora Review.

In addition to poetry, her areas of expertise include literary nonfiction, world literature, literature by women, and critical reading and writing. Lyons previously taught at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Colorado State University. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English and sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Colorado State and a doctorate in literature and creative writing from the University of Utah.

Ullman Commons is located on the north side of Memorial Parkway between Pioneer and Regent avenues.

The free event, sponsored by the English Department and the Office of Alumni & Parent Relations, is part of Cal Lutheran’s Books and Brew series. Coffee and cookies will be served. The next events in the series will be a book club discussion of “Claire of the Sea Light” by Edwidge Danticat on March 4 and a talk by poet Andrew McFayden-Ketchum on March 18.

To RSVP or for more information, contact Stephanie Hessemer at hessemer@callutheran.edu or 805-493-3161.