Heather Sellers of the Hope College English faculty is author of "The Boys I Borrow," a new book of poetry published by New Issues Press.

The poems are a real-life look into marriage, raising teen age boys, and Nintendo. Sellers looks back at her own childhood in Orlando, Fla., contrasting her experiences there while watching stepsons come of age in the Midwest. Billy Collins has praised the collection as "sensitive and clever," and Beth Ann Fennelly has described the world evoked in the book as "rendered with painterly precision and tender humor."

Sellers recently gave readings at Georgia State College and University and Montgomery Community College in Philadelphia. On Friday, Nov., 16, at 7 p.m., Third Stone Art Gallery, located at 120 E. Main in downtown Fennville, will host a book party that will include a short reading and book signing as well as music and refreshments. The event is free and open to the public.

Sellers has been a member of the Hope faculty since 1995. A professor of English, she teaches poetry, fiction and nonfiction workshops, as well as a course designed for teachers who want to write.

She is the author of two previously published volumes of poetry: the chapbook "Your Whole Life," and "Drinking Girls and Their Dresses." Her fiction includes "Georgia Under Water," a collection of short fiction; and, with Amy Young as illustrator, the children's book "Spike and Cubby: Ice Cream Island Adventure!" Her books also include two guides for writers: "Page after Page: Discover the confidence and passion you need to start writing and keep writing (no matter what)," and "Chapter after Chapter: Discover the Dedication and Focus You Need to Write the Book of Your Dreams." She also has a textbook for the introductory creative writing classroom forthcoming, and this fall is on a leave of absence from teaching in order to complete her memoir, "Face First," about her experience with prosopagnosia, or, face blindness.

Nearly 50 of her poems have appeared in journals, anthologies and magazines, including "Louisiana Literature," "Ascent," "The New Virginia Review," "Gulf Coast," "Hawai'i Review," "Barrow Street," "The MidWest Quarterly" and "So To Speak."

Her short fiction, memoir and creative nonfiction appear in journals, anthologies and magazines, including "The Best Stories of the New South" and "Falling Backwards: stories of fathers and daughters." Excerpts from "Face First" appear in "The Best Creative Nonfiction" (W.W. Norton & Co. Inc.), and the work is one of 100 notable essays included in "Best American Essays."

Her short story Hunting" from "The Chattahoochee Review" was listed in the "100 Distinguished Stories of 1991" section of the "Best American Short Stories." Recent prose has appeared in "The Sun," "The Madison Review," "The Southeast Review," "The Writer," "Writer's Digest," "Beloit Fiction Journal," "Five Points" and "The Massachusetts Review."

Sellers was one of only 41 writers nationally to receive a National Endowment for the Arts grant for 2000-02 to create original work or translate work, through which she completed "Georgia Under Water." "Georgia Under Water" was named a finalist in the 2002 "Paterson Fiction Prize" competition and in 2001 was recognized in the "Discover Great New Writers" program of Barnes & Noble bookstores.

She holds her bachelor's, master's, and doctorate from Florida State University.