Columbia College's Department of English welcomes Dr. Ed Madden, author of the new, award-winning book of poetry Signals. As the 2008 Maxwell Visiting Writer, Dr. Madden will give a public reading on Tuesday, April 15, 2008. The reading is free and open to the public and will begin promptly at 7:00 p.m. in Breed Leadership Center 201/202. The event will be followed by a reception and book signing in the lobby at 8:00. Books will be for sale and are provided by the Happy Bookseller.

Signals was selected by Afaa Weaver as the third annual winner of the South Carolina Poetry Book Prize. Dr. Madden was selected by Natasha Trethewey for the anthology Best New Poets of 2007. He was also selected as one of the “Top 50 New Poets” by Meridian Magazine. He has twice received the South Carolina Academy of Authors fellowship in poetry.

Dr. Madden is currently the writer in residence at the Riverbanks Botanical Gardens and was the 2006 artist in residence for the South Carolina State Parks system. He also worked as writer in residence for the state's African-American Heritage Corridor project at Fort Moultrie in Charleston, SC.

He earned his B.A. in English from Harding University in Arkansas and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English from the University of Texas, Austin. Dr. Madden is an associate professor of English and is director of the undergraduate program in women's and gender studies at the University of South Carolina.