Pattee Library's Foster Auditorium will be filled with the lyrical lines of awardwinning poet Allison Joseph tonight.

Joseph's hour-long poetry reading, which will begin at 8 p.m., is the second reading in this year's Allegheny Mountains Reading Series.

"While the master's of fine arts program in English has always hosted visiting writers for public readings, the Allegheny Mountains Reading series, by name, has existed since 1997," said Gabriel Welsch, associate director of the master's of fine arts program in creative writing at Penn State and coordinator of the series.

The series strives to bring professional writers to campus to enrich students' exposure to literature.

It is supported by the master's of fine arts program, the Rolling Fund, the University Libraries, the College of the Liberal Arts and the English department.

This year, different members of the master's of fine arts faculty chose the featured readers. Julia Kasdorf, associate professor of English, chose Joseph.

"Allison Joseph was my choice because I am teaching the graduate poetry workshop this fall, focusing our readings and conversation on the use of narrative in poetry," Kasdorf said.

She added that Joseph was an appropriate choice because she does use narrative in her pieces.

"Although narrative has fallen out of fashion in some circles, Joseph is a young poet who uses it for her own purposes, so she seemed a good choice," Kasdorf said.

Joseph's poems often focus on issues dealing with popular culture, race, gender and those things that "are of importance to a generation that grew up in the '70s and '80s," Kasdorf said.

Joseph has published several poetry collections: In Every Seam, Soul Train and What Keeps Us Here. She has won an assortment of awards, most recently the Peralta Press nonfiction prize for her essay, "Those Seventies Shows: Reruns, Race, and My Father."

Joseph, an associate professor at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, is the director of the Young Writers' Workshop, a summer creative writing conference for high school students.

Kasdorf said Joseph is a valuable resource to students interested in publishing because she is the editor of the Crab Orchid Review, a nationally circulated literary journal. A book signing will follow the reading and Joseph will also be available for an informal question and answer conversation at 11 a.m. tomorrow in the Joseph L. Grucci Poetry Center in 14 Burrowes Building.