WESSON – Copiah-Lincoln Community College’s Institute of Learning in Retirement will sponsor a luncheon featuring Patricia Neely-Dorsey Thursday.

Neely-Dorsey will speak on “Celebrating the South and promoting a Positive Mississippi.” The luncheon will begin at 10:30 a.m. at The Thames Center on the college’s Wesson campus.

A poet, author, speaker and workshop facilitator, Neely-Dorsey is a 1982 graduate of Tupelo High School. She received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts. After living for almost 20 years in Memphis working in the mental health field, she returned to her hometown in August 2007. Her first book of poetry, Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia – In Poems was published in February 2008. Her second book, My Magnolia Memories and Musings-In Poems was published in February 2012. She calls both books “a celebration of the South and things Southern.”

Neely-Dorsey considers herself a “Goodwill Ambassador” for Mississippi and the South and hopes, through her poetry, to promote more positive images, rather than all of the negatives usually portrayed.

Following the luncheon, she will have her books available for purchase and signing.

She currently lives in Tupelo with her husband James, son Henry, and miniature schnauzer, Happy.

Reservations for the luncheon are recommended and tickets may be purchased in advance, no later than Wednesday, Oct. 29. The luncheon cost is $10 for ILR members and $15 for non-members. For more information contact Marilyn Brown at (601) 643-8701.