Washington County residents have two different opportunities to spend time with Iowa’s poet laureate this weekend.

The Washington Public Library is hosting a reading and concert with Debra Marquart at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow, as part of the Humanities Iowa program. Face masks are required as per the library board of trustees’ policy. The library is also hosting a special Washington Writers’ Workshop “Sounding Our Place Hike & Write” with Marquart and Washington County Conservation Naturalist Megan Jorgensen at 10 a.m. Saturday at Marr Park near Ainsworth. This event is open to all ages, but those 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult. Participants are asked to bring a notebook and writing utensil, and do not have to go on the walk to participate.

Marquart is a distinguished professor of liberal arts and sciences at Iowa State University. She teaches in the Master’s of Fine Arts program in creative writing and environment and is the senior editor of Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment. She’s authored seven books, and this year was awarded a Poets Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets.