It will be a mix of poetry and drama to mark the 40th season of the International Poetry Forum starting in October.

The poetry is in capable hands, to say the least. On the schedule are W.S. Merwin, Karen Kovacik and Ted Kooser.

The drama is supplied by Forum founder Samuel Hazo, who is staging his verse play, "Sexes: Marriage Dialogues." The performers will be Bingo O'Malley, Kate Young, Holly Thuma and Tony McKay.

And, who can be more dramatic than Anna Magnani, the sizzling Italian film actress of the 1950s? Playing her will be Theresa Gambacorta in a one-woman play, "La Magnani."

Here's the schedule:

Oct. 11: "Sexes."

Nov. 15: Merwin, who will be awarded the forum's Charity Randall Citation.

Dec. 6: "La Magnani."

March 7: Kovacik, who will also be awarded the Randall Citation, presented by fellow poet Linda Pastan.

April 11: America's poet laureate, Kooser, who won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

The programs will be at Carnegie Library Lecture Hall, Oakland, at 8 p.m. Tickets: 412-621-9893.

Autumn House contest

Entries for the $2,500 Autumn House Poetry Prize are open until June 30.

The Mount Washington publisher is now accepting full-length poetry manuscripts, which must be postmarked by June 30. First prize includes publication by Autumn House.

For information, call 412-381-4261 or go to www.autumnhouse.org.

Readings around town

Michael Wurster of the Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange presents eight of his Center for the Arts School students in a reading next Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Hemingway's Cafe, 3911 Forbes Ave., Oakland.

June 2 is the night of the academic poets, when Carnegie Mellon's Anthony Butts, Penn State-Erie's George Looney and Pitt-Johnstown's Eric Schwerer climb the unfinished stairs at the Gist Street Reading Series. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. at the venue, 305 Gist St., Uptown; $3 at the door.

Paterson Poetry Prize finalist Barbara Crooker reads at June 9 at 8 p.m. at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, 2705 E. Carson St., South Side. Her poetry collection is "Radiance."

The Big Mis-Read

We reported here last Tuesday that the National Endowment for the Arts that day officially launched "The Big Read," a program encouraging reading modeled after one-book-one-community projects in America and Great Britain.

Although we had all the details correct -- 10 cities getting a total of $265,000 in project money -- we described the wrong program. That was a Big Read pilot plan the NEA started at the end of last year.

The full-scale effort unveiled by the NEA in New York last week calls for enrolling 100 communities and is funded by a $1 million grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Communities must apply for grants ranging from $10,000-$20,000 and select a title from this list of novels:

"Fahrenheit 451," "My Antonia," "The Grapes of Wrath," Their Eyes Were Watching God," "A Farewell to Arms," "The Great Gatsby," "The Joy Luck Club" and "To Kill a Mockingbird."

For more information, call the NEA at 1-202-682-5400 or visit www.NEABigRead.org.

The NEA's communications office refused to release details of The Big Read launch in time for our May 9 story. Instead, we were referred to a Web site where the outdated information was posted.

However, both the Associated Press and USA Today were given advance information exclusively by the NEA for their May 9 reports.