Speakers announced for Northeast Texas Poetry Reading

McCourt (left) and Seabourne (right)

By: Dr. Andrew Yox, NTCC Honors Director

The annual Northeast Texas Poetry Reading on Friday, September 6 at 11 a.m. will again occur at the Foyer of the Whatley Center for the Performing Arts on the Northeast Texas Community College campus.  The public is invited for this free event, the twelfth of its kind in as many years. This year in addition to six readings of the highest-ranked poems of the adult and student divisions, and a presentation of winning Northeast Texas images, two speakers will share their perceptions of our region. 

Dr. Jim McCourt and Professor Tom Seabourne will both offer observations from the standpoint of having lived in many different kinds of areas.  McCourt was born in Connecticut, and was an air force captain in England.  He went on to have a distinguished career in pediatric dentistry, teaching at dental schools in South Carolina, and Oklahoma before coming to Northeast Texas to pursue cattle ranching.   Seabourne, who has lived in Japan, Germany, and Pennsylvania, has headed the Physical Education department of NTCC since 1988.  He was a silver-medalist in the World Taekwondo Championship in 1979, and achieved a place in the book of Guinness World Records in 2008 for marathon indoor cycling.