The Modesto Junior College Visiting Author Series presents a Reading by Gary Soto on Tuesday, April 5 at 6:30 p.m. in Forum 110 on East Campus, 435 College Ave., Modesto. The event is free and open to the public. Campus parking is $2 without a permit.

Soto, who was raised in Fresno, is the author of 32 books including 11 poetry collections. He was a 1995 finalist for both the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the National Book Award.

His poems have appeared in many literary magazines, including Ploughshares, Michigan Quarterly, Poetry International, and Poetry, which has honored him with the Bess Hokin Prize and the Levinson Award and by featuring him in the interview series Poets in Person.

In 1999 he received the Literature Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the Author-Illustrator Civil Rights Award from the National Education Association, and the PEN Center West Book Award for Petty Crimes, a collection of short stories about Mexican American children on the brink of adolescence who are trying to find their place in a world ruled by gangs and violence.

The Visiting Author Series is sponsored by the Associated Students of Modesto Junior College and the MJC Literature and Language Arts Division. For more information on this event contact Jim Beggs, professor of English, at (209) 575-6164 or beggsj@mjc.edu.