PORTLAND — Richard Blanco will read from his work at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 3, in the University Events Room on the seventh floor of Glickman Family Library at the University of Southern Maine.

Blanco’s visit is scheduled to correspond with National Hispanic Heritage Month. The reading is free and open-to-the-public and will be followed by a signing by the author.

A news release describes Blanco’s poetry as follows:

Blanco’s acclaimed first book of poetry, “City of a Hundred Fires,” explores the yearnings and negotiation of cultural identity as a Cuban-American, and received the Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press. His second book, “Directions to the Beach of the Dead,” won the Beyond Margins Award from the PEN American Center for its continued exploration of the universal themes of cultural identity and homecoming. A third collection, “Looking for the Gulf Motel,” was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2012.

His poetry has appeared in The Nation, The New Republic, Ploughshares, Michigan Quarterly Review, and TriQuarterly. His poems have appeared in anthologies including The Best American Poetry, Great American Prose Poems, The New American Poets and American Poetry: The Next Generation.

Blanco’s family moved from Cuba to Madrid just a few months before he was born, and then 45 days after his birth they emigrated from Madrid to New York City. He was raised in Miami and received his bachelor of science degree in civil engineering in 1991 as well as his master of fine arts in creative writing in 1997 from Florida International University.