BETHEL — Gould Academy will kick off a third year of its Richard Blanco Visiting Writers and Retreat Program with author and poet Richard Hoffman at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9, in Bingham Auditorium. A reception will follow.

The program is a partnership between the school and local award­-winning inaugural poet Richard Blanco, who will introduce Hoffman.

Blanco and Hoffman will be available for questions at the book signing and event reception in the nearby IDEAS Center following Hoffman’s talk.

Hoffman is author of “Half the House: A Memoir,” and the poetry collections, “Without Paradise” and “Gold Star Road.” He will work with English Department students and faculty, and present to the greater community during a free reading.

A fiction writer as well, Hoffman’s “Interference & Other Stories” was published in 2009. His new memoir is “Love & Fury.” He is senior writer in residence at Emerson College.

The Richard Blanco Visiting Writers Program and Retreat aims to engage students with contemporary writers, helping to create new generations of readers, writers, and appreciators of poetry.

Visiting writers are also provided with a two­-week stay in Blanco’s cottage in Bethel.

For more information visit gouldacademy.org.