SEWANEE, Tenn. - Ringgold natives Kevin Cummings and Jeannie Babb are two of the featured poets in a new series of readings at Iona Art Sanctuary.

The event features five consecutive nights of readings beginning Aug. 31 at 7 p.m. (Central Time).

Babb will read her work along with other poets Aug. 31 and Sept. 1. From a little rock house in Sewanee, she is studying for her master’s of arts at The University of the South School of Theology. She also haunts darkened chapels to kneel before phantom priests, and drinks too much vanilla frappuccino. When not composing research papers, Babb writes magazine articles, historical novels and poetry.

Cummings, who recently moved back to the Chattanooga area from North Dakota, is a short story author, columnist and journalist. The former Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter and assistant editor of The Catoosa County News will read his “tattered-angel lemon-flavored banter” Aug. 31.

The Aug. 31 reading will also feature Don Shannonhouse; attorney and forester Peter Trenchi, who matriculates in The University of the South School of Letters and George Dick, a well-traveled Canadian, who lives in Sewanee, where he is renowned as the unofficial therapist of those who hire him for his painting services. Dick will read beat poetry, ancient Chinese poetry, and Rumi.