Saint Mary’s College fellow and writer Maria Melendez will be reading from her works at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 16, in Room 1001, Wiekamp Hall, Indiana University South Bend.

Her presentation is part of the 2005 Wolfson Awards. The awards are presented each spring to students who have demonstrated excellence in creative writing. The evening is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

Melendez taught creative writing and multi-ethnic environmental literature as a writer-in-residence at the University of California Davis Arboretum. She is currently a fellow with the Center for Women’s InterCultural Leadership at Saint Mary’s College. She teaches creative reading and multi-ethnic literature. She has edited or co-edited nine poetry collections by new and emerging poets through her work with Swan Scythe Press, Momotombo Press and California Poets in the Schools.

Her own poetry, articles and short fiction appear in a number of magazines and journals such as Ecological Restoration, Puerto del Sol and International Quarterly. Her chapbook, Base Pairs, appeared in 2001 from Swan Scythe Press. Her first-full length collection of will be published in 2006.