LEMONT FURNACE, Pa. — The Coal and Coke Heritage Center at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, will host the book launch for "Shale Play: Poems and Photographs from the Fracking Fields," by Penn State faculty members Julia Kasdorf and Steven Rubin, at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 5.

"Shale Play," published by Penn State University Press in 2018, gathers stories and images about working people and everyday life from Appalachian Pennsylvania and the Marcellus Shale region. 

"The long sleep of the Appalachians has been dramatically interrupted by the sudden discovery of the Marcellus Shale," said Bill McKibben, author of "The End of Nature." "This book helps us see and understand what that has meant for the region. It's a classic tale, with echoes of the region's past — and deep implications for the planet's future."

Kasdorf, an acclaimed poet and professor of English and women's, gender, and sexuality studies at Penn State, has published three books of poetry: "Sleeping Preacher," "Eve’s Striptease," and "Poetry in America." Her awards include the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize and the Great Lakes College’s Association Award for New Writing, a Pushcart Prize, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry. 

Rubin worked for more than 20 years as a freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer. His photographs have been published in The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Time, Newsweek, and The Village Voice, and internationally in Stern, GEO, Focus, L’Express, and The London Independent Magazine. He is an associate professor of art, specializing in photography, at Penn State.

Kasdorf and Rubin will present and discuss work from the book. Refreshments will be served.This event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit http://www.psupress.org.