McNeese Hosts Poet Alison Pelegrin for Reading 

McNeese State University will host outgoing Louisiana poet laureate, Alison Pelegrin, for a poetry reading on Friday, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. in the Stokes Auditorium, located in Hardtner Hall. This event is sponsored by the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program in creative writing and the Juliet Hardtner Endowed Professorship. This reading is free to the public.  

 Founded in 1981, McNeese’s MFA degree program is the oldest MFA program in Louisiana and one of the oldest in the Southeast. 

 Pelegrin is Writer-in-Residence at Southeastern Louisiana University and served as Louisiana Poet Laureate from 2023-2025.  

Pelegrin is the recipient of fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Louisiana Board of Regents, the Foundation for Louisiana and the Academy of American Poets. She was awarded a Poets Laureate Fellowship to support the Lifelines Poetry Project, which supports her work offering poetry workshops in Louisiana Prisons.  

Her most recent poetry collections include Our Lady of Bewilderment (2022) and Waterlines (2016) and her work has appeared in The Southern Review, The Missouri Review  and The Best American Poetry 2025.   

Persons requesting accommodations in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) should contact the Office of Campus Compliance and Civility at least 72 hours before the event. Additional information is available from the Office of Campus Compliance and Civility, located in the Burton Business Center, Suite 407, by phone at 337-475-5428, by fax at 337-475-5603, or by email at compliance@mcneese.edu.