Nancy Krygowski, literacy instructor for the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council, is winner of this year's Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize.

First awarded by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 1981, the selection brings Krygowski $5,000 and publication of the work, titled "Velocity," by the press next year. The contest is named for the press's first director.

"I was absolutely shocked," Krygowski said yesterday. "It's been a finalist in a lot of different competitions, so I have no idea what pushed it over the edge this time."

A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Krygowski is a graduate of Pitt's graduate writing program. She also is assistant artistic director of the Gist Street Reading Series. Her poems have appeared in such literary reviews as Prairie Schooner, Southern Poetry Review, Mid-American Review, River Styx and 5 A.M., a quarterly edited locally.

"The prize is a beautiful thing," Krygowski said. "Now I feel like I can finally start to write a new book."

The prize judge was Pittsburgh-born poet Gerald Stern. His comments:

"If I could find one word to express its heart, that word would be 'courage.' ... This is a wide-eyed, modest, assertive, wild, well-read, street-smart, edgy, loving, suffering, heaven-crazed poet. It's a joy to find her."

Local and literary

You might meet Krygowski Friday night when the Gist Street series returns after a brief hiatus.

On the bill will be Chuck Kinder, novelist ("Honeymooners"), West Virginia folklore expert ("The Last Mountain Dancer") and head of Pitt's creative writing program; and Ruth Ellen Kocher, St. Louis poet, author of three collections and professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

The series' home is 305 Gist St., Uptown, and doors open at 7:15 p.m. for the 8 p.m. reading. There's a $5 cover. Call 412-434-5629 for directions.

Authors en route

Sept. 9: Steve Hamilton, creator of the Alex McKnight crime series, 10 a.m., in the Coffee & Crime program at Mystery Lovers Bookshop, 514 Allegheny River Blvd., Oakmont. Fee: $5. 412-828-4877.

Sept. 14: Hilary Masters, author of "Elegy for Sam Emerson" and a Carnegie Mellon writing professor, 7 p.m., the Mattress Factory, 500 Sampsonia Way, North Side.

Sept. 15: Hillary Carlip, author of "Queen of the Oddballs and Other True Stories From a Life Unaccording to Plan," 7 p.m., Barnes & Noble Booksellers, the Waterfront, Homestead.

Sept. 15: Rebecca Drake, nee Rebecca Mertz of Pittsburgh, author of the crime novel "Don't Be Afraid," 7 p.m., Mystery Lovers Bookshop, 514 Allegheny River Blvd., Oakmont. 412-828-4877.