Poets from the Keystone State will be coming together for "An Afternoon of Pennsylvania Poets." The poetry reading will be to benefit the Centre County Women's Resource Center from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday at Webster's Bookstore Café.

Dave Bonta organized the afternoon of poetry reading.

The event will benefit the women's center.

"I believe it's a good charity ... an essential charity," Bonta said.

Elaine Meder, co-owner of Webster's, 128 S. Allen St., encouraged people to attend the reading.

Meder wants a great deal of people to attend.

She believes they can enjoy the poetry and become more aware of domestic abuse and sexual assault.

"It's going to be a beautiful afternoon," Meder said.

"It's just going to be a lot of fun."

Meder said that she and co-owner Fred Ramsey have a soft spot in their hearts for the people who work for the women's center.

The two hope that the poetry reading will raise money and awareness for the center.

The women's resource center provides a valuable resource to the community by sheltering and counseling domestically abused and sexually assaulted women.

Eight poets will be performing during the four-hour reading.

Among the readers are three of Penn State's own professors.

Julia Kasdorf, an associate professor of English, and Gigi Marino, an English instructor, teach at University Park.

The third, Lisa Coffman is an assistant professor of English and a teacher at Penn State Altoona College.

All three are scheduled to read their own works Saturday afternoon.

"An Afternoon of Pennsylvania Poets" will also be featuring Marge Gaffron, Maya Spence, Gabriel Welsch and Don Feigert.

All four poets have been published writers.

There is no cover charge for the poetry reading.

Audience members will be encouraged to donate money to the resource center throughout the afternoon's performances.

Saturday's poetry reading is part of a longer celebration of language called Wordstock 2001.

The program runs from today through Thursday.

Wordstock's events include not only poetry readings, but also book signings, poetry slams, and a spelling bee.

It will take place at several locations in State College.