Mark Doty is practicing a balancing act in his long and popular career as poet and autobiographer, splitting his writing life between both fields.

Doty, 55, released his first poetry collection in 1991 and his eighth this year, "Fire to Fire." In both his poetry and four memoirs, he has established himself as a powerful voice of the gay community.

Friday, he's the keynote reader for "Passages of Gay Pride: Literature That Has Inspired the Gay Community," presented by the American Shorts Reading Series and co-sponsored by Persad.

"I'm planning to read poetry and prose Friday, a little bit of both," Doty said last week. After emerging as a prize-winning poet in the 1990s, he turned to prose because "I wanted a broader canvas for my writing," he explained.

"Poems can tend to focus on the specific, but I found that the memoir gives me little breathing space to tell stories, especially at that time when poems aren't coming."

While poetry remains "something I do a little bit all the time, I want to always be receptive to the urge to let things unfold in my writing, and sometimes that can be prose."

His latest autobiographical work, "Dog Years," published in 2007, recounted the last days of his longtime canine companions. The dogs were a source of comfort during the fatal illness of Doty's partner, Wally Roberts.

"I wrote 'Dog Years' to explore about why people care about living with animals," he said. "It also gave me the opportunity to write about writers and poets like Emily Dickinson and their relationship with animals."

He's "in between dogs right now," Doty said, but planning to get a new one shortly.

As part of Friday's program, Doty will include poems by the 20th-century Greek poet C.P. Kavafy, who died in 1933.

"He's a hero of mine, a pioneering poet of same-sex love," Doty said. "Kavafy's work is very direct, very powerful."

Included in Doty's resume is teaching every fall at the University of Houston. His subject is creative writing -- poetry and memoir.

Although controversy over truth has dogged the latter genre lately, Doty believes the writing of memoir is an important craft.

"It seems there are some readers who demand that these books are totally true. They want a 'Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval' on them," he said, "where others are accepting of a little fiction here and there.

"Memoirs are important because they can give you an entrance into the way other people see the world," he added.

"Sadly, there's still a degree of conservatism that holds on in the literary world. People still like to read about people like themselves, women on women, gay men on gay men, etc., rather than experiencing the lives of others."

The American Shorts program is 7:30 p.m. Friday in the New Hazlett Theater, North Side. Also reading selections will be Rosemary Welsch, WYEP-FM producer, and Jeffrey Nytch, composer. The Academy Award-winning documentary "Freeheld" will be shown in the second half of the program. Tickets are $10; 412-622-8866 or www.pittsburghlectures.org.

More happenings

Tomorrow: The New Yinzer presents fiction writers Julie Albright and Savannah Schroll Guz and poet Jerome Crooks along with guitarist Raymond Morin at Modern Formations, 4919 Penn Ave., Garfield, at 8 p.m., $4 at door.

Thursday: Samuel Hazo, founder of the International Poetry Forum, marks the publication of his latest poetry collection, "Song of the Horse: A Selection of Poems 1958-2008" at Te Cafe, 2000 Murray Ave., Squirrel Hill, at 7 p.m. Free.

Friday: Hazo is joined by Richard St. John for poetry readings at the Most Wanted Fine Art Gallery, 5015 Penn Ave., Garfield, at 8 p.m., $5 at the door.