University Park, PA -- A statewide search by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book for the "Best Unpublished Poet in Pennsylvania" has selected Margaret Almon and her poem "The Earliest Memory" as the winner. Almon, originally from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, has resided in the United States since 1985. She works as a medical librarian at Montgomery Hospital in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and lives in Lansdale. Poet Robert Pinsky named her as Montgomery County Poet Laureate for 2000.

Almon's poem is featured on the center's Web site and will be printed as the final 2002 Public Poetry Project poster. The project, an initiative by the late Kim Fisher, the first Paterno Family Librarian for Literature at Penn State, brings poetry into people's daily lives and highlights poets with a connection to Pennsylvania. This year's series will print poems, by five published poets as well as Almon's poem, and distribute posters to interested libraries, universities, and schools across the Commonwealth.

Two honorable mention winners in the contest include Anna Manahan Bowman, for "Sometimes I Dream of Freeways," and Alyce Wilson, for "Song of the Seeing Eye Dog." Bowman lives in Hanover, Pennsylvania; teaches adult education for Lincoln Intermediate Unit #12; and works for York and Adams County literacy programs. She also helped to found York Poets and Hanover Poets, where she hosts monthly poetry workshops and readings. Wilson has a M.F.A. in English with an emphasis in poetry from Penn State, lives in Lansdowne, and works at The National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia. In 2001, she co-founded WildViolet.net, a quarterly online literary magazine.

The Pennsylvania Center for the Book, sponsored by the Penn State University Libraries, is one of forty-five similar organizations nationwide established by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. Public service hours are Tuesdays, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Wednesdays, 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., in 201 B Pattee Library. Its mission is to study, honor, celebrate, and promote books, reading, libraries, and literacy to the citizens and residents of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. For more information, visit www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu or contact Steven L. Herb, director, Pennsylvania Center for the Book, at slh@psulias.psu.edu or 814-865-0401.