HALLOWELL — The Harlow Gallery poetry series “The Bookey Readings” will present an evening featuring Poet Laureate Wesley McNair at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 20, at 160 Water St.

McNair’s reading will take up the theme of praise and celebration. Offered in the season of Thanksgiving, it will put aside life’s conflicts and imperfections, gathering participants around the common table of poetry to share one of poetry’s oldest inspirations: gratitude. How do you sing the praises of cigarettes, or reveal the blessings of a stroke, or celebrate a troublesome family dog? McNair finds a way in these poems of a grateful heart.

McNair is Maine’s fourth Poet Laureate. He has won grants from the Fulbright and Guggenheim foundations, two Rockefeller Fellowships, two NEA grants in creative writing and an Emmy Award. He has twice been invited to read his poetry by the Library of Congress. He was recently selected for a United States Artists Fellowship as one of America’s “finest living artists,” and in April of this year received the PEN New England Award for Poetry, given for his latest collection, “The Lost Child.”

Refreshments will be served. A $3 donation is appreciated at the door to benefit the Harlow Gallery.