University English professor Laura Mullen has been named Poet of the Month for April by PoetryNet.org, according to a University press release. PoetryNet.org is a Web site dedicated to publishing writers’ poetic accomplishments. Mullen is the author of three nationally published poetry collections — “The Surface,” “After I Was Dead” and “Subject” — and two poetry-prose hybrid books, including “The Tales of Horror,” a postmodern retelling of classic horror stories.Mullen is also the director of the University’s Readers and Writers program, which works to bring award-winning writers to Baton Rouge to speak and host readings. The Readers and Writers program will host its final event of the semester Friday when David Kirby holds a reading and book signing at the Old President’s House on Highland Road. The event will take place at 6:30 p.m.The LSU Press-published author was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award in Poetry.”She is the most superb colleague in the creative writing program,” said James Wilcox, professor and director of Creative Writing in the English Department. “We are so thrilled to have her on the [Master of Fine Arts] faculty.” Mullen is an internationally known author who has traveled to Taiwan and Finland to do readings of her work, Wilcox said.”The international scope of the work she’s done is very exciting,” Wilcox said. Mullen has received a number of honors including a Board of Regents ATLAS grant and a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in addition to Poet of the Month. Her poetry was placed in “American Hybrid,” a 2009 Norton anthology of poetry. Mullen also participated in the Taipei International Poetry Festival in 2009, according to her Web site. Rodger Kamenetz, English and religious studies professor, said Mullen has ventured into experimental writing with her poetry and fiction hybrids. Kamenetz has known Mullen since she came to the University in 2004, and he sat on the board that hired her.”She is a master of contemporary poetry,” Kamenetz said. —–Contact Matthew Jacobs at mjacobs@lsureveille.com