Paul Muldoon, Princeton University professor, poetry editor of the New Yorker and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, opens the International Poetry Forum's 42nd season Oct. 15.

The season also includes readings by one of Poland's leading writers and a rare appearance by Samuel Hazo, the founder and director of the forum.

Other poets and dates in the Forum lineup are Peg Boyers, Nov. 12; Hazo, Feb. 11; Ron Padgett, March 11; and Adam Zagajewski, April 14.

Muldoon, 57, is a native of Northern Ireland, author of 10 collections and is one of the most honored poets in the United Kingdom and the United States. He won the 2003 Pulitzer for "Moy Sand and Gravel."

Muldoon's series of critical lectures on the craft is collected in "The End of the Poem" (2006). He also has written opera and drama. The forum will honor him with its $2,000 Charity Randall Citation, the first of two Randalls awarded in the season.

Zagajewski, 63, one of Poland's major poets, is the second awardee. A leading dissent artist in his country during the Cold War, he's published widely in Europe and in translation in the United States. His books include memoir and essays.

The poet is visiting professor in the creative writing program at the University of Houston.

Boyers is both poet and translator, with two collections to her name, "Hard Bread" and "Honey With Tobacco." She's also published extensively in literary reviews and is the executive editor of Salmagundi magazine.

Padgett, 66, is chancellor of the Academy of American Poets as well as a prolific poet, translator and teacher in New York City. His latest book of poetry is "How to Be Perfect."

Hazo, one of Pittsburgh's most honored professors and poets, founded the organization in 1966, bringing to the city the world's major poets.

The McAnulty Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at Duquesne University and former state poet of Pennsylvania, Hazo received an honorary degree from his alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, last month.

Hazo's latest poetry collection is "The Song of the Horse: A Selection of Poems, 1958-2008."

Also on the schedule are two performances:

Actor and documentary film producer Yannis Simonides acts out Socrates' trial, guilty verdict and death sentence in his one-man show, "The Apology Project," Dec 10.

The Greek theme continues Dec. 12 in an evening titled "Greece in Poetry and Song," with Grigoris Maninakis and the Mikrokosmos Ensemble in the Carnegie Music Hall.

The forum programs are 8 p.m. in the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall, except "Greece in Poetry and Song." Tickets: 412-621-9893.

A program of readings from "Along These Rivers," the locally produced anthology of poems and photos, will be at 3 p.m. Saturday in the Three Rivers Arts Festival Gallery, 937 Liberty Ave., Downtown. Tickets are $5 at the door.

Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange founder Michael Wurster is having surgery this week, forcing a postponement of his June 12 poetry reading at Te Cafe, 2000 Murray Ave., Squirrel Hill.

The event will be moved to Sept. 11 at 7 p.m.