LEWISTON – In a rare East Coast appearance, Joanne Kyger, a towering figure in California poetry, will read from her work at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 2, in the Benjamin Mays Center at Bates College.

For decades, Kyger has played a crucial role in California’s poetry scene. Her work has been influenced by her studies in Zen Buddhism and her connection to the poets of Black Mountain, the San Francisco Renaissance and the Beat Generation.

Kyger’s reading is part of a Maine tour celebrating the publication this year of “About Now,” her collected poems, by the Orono-based National Poetry Foundation. A question-and-answer period will follow the reading.

Born in 1934, Kyger was involved in the Beat and San Francisco Renaissance poetry scenes of the 1950s. She has lived in Bolinas, Calif., since 1968. Besides writing, she edits a local newspaper and teaches at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colo.

The reading is open to the public at no cost. For more information, call 786-6490.