FAIRHOPE, Ala. - The Pensters Writing Group will begin its 45th season Saturday at the Fairhope Public Library with the appearance of Jeanie Thompson, whose most recent book of poems, “The Seasons Bear Us,” was published last year.

Thompson, poet, teacher and head of the Alabama Writers Forum, will talk about the craft of poetry, read from her last book and from a current work in progress about Helen Keller.

“I especially wanted Jeanie to speak to the group because not only is she a published writer, but she is also founding director of an organization that supporters writers through the state,” said P.T. Paul, the Pensters’ president, who is also the Eastern Shore Coordinator of Poetry Out Loud.

An informational meeting for POL, a competitive poetry reading and writing program for high school students with training and scholarships for the winners, will follow the Pensters event.

The Pensters was founded in 1965 by a group of writers who wanted to share their common interests and goals and to improve their craftsmanship and marketing of their works. The group has about 60 current members, which includes amateur and professional writers, as well as non-writers who enjoy the programs and fellowship, said Paul, whose first book of poems, “To Live and Write in Dixie,” was published in April.

The writing group meets monthly in the Giddens Conference Center at the library. The speakers for the season that runs through April are: Tony Crunk, Oct. 9; Bonnie Roberts, Nov. 13; Frank Turner Hollon, Jan. 8; Barry Marks, Feb. 12; T.K. Thorne, March 12; and Sue Walker, April 9.

“This season’s roster is especially exciting to me because all of the speakers have an Alabama connection, but their accomplishments are on a national or international level,” Paul said. “Frank Turner Hollon is a local attorney and internationally known author, and one of his novels will soon be released as a movie.”

Paul added that Thorne’s debut novel, “Noah’s Wife,” won the 2009 Book of the Year Award for Historical Fiction and that Walker is the state’s poet laureate, founder and editor of Negative Capability Press, the Stokes Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of South Alabama and an internationally known poet, playwright and author. Walker is also the regional coordinator for the Poetry Out Loud program.

Thompson, who lives in Montgomery, says she dates her consciousness of being a writer to when she was about 14 and in the 9th grade in Decatur.

“Writing became something I could do that allowed me to talk to myself in a way that helped me live my life,” she said during an interview last week. “I think what poetry does is articulate the longings of the human heart and the desires that we have to be better human beings.”

Thompson, who has published several books of poems, was one of the founders of the literary magazine Black Warrior Review, where she was among the first students to receive a master of fine arts in creative writing at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. In addition to her work as executive director of AWF, she also teaches at the Spalding MFA in Writing Program, recently named as one of the top 10 low-residency creative writing programs in the country by Poets & Writers magazine.

She said she is looking forward to visiting Fairhope, where her mother lives.

“My father was from Mobile, and I have ancestral roots in Baldwin County that are pretty deep,” she said. I always feel renewed when I come down there. I love coming to Fairhope.

The Saturday event is from 10 a.m. to noon, this Saturday, Sept. 11, at the Giddens Conference Center at the Fairhope Public Library. Refreshments will be served. For more information about the Pensters Writing Group, contact Paul at phphantazein@gmail. com. For more information about the Alabama Writers Forum, visit www.writersforum.org.

Editor’s note: Writers' Workshop is an occasional series about writing and the writing arts in and around Fairhope and beyond.