Marge Piercy, a poet and novelist whose 1991 book, “He, She and It” was this year’s summer reading for first-year Bluffton University students, will be the featured speaker Tuesday, Sept. 1, as Bluffton welcomes the class of 2019 at its annual opening convocation.

With faculty in regalia looking on, about 240 new first-year and transfer students will be introduced during the ceremony, which begins at 10:45 a.m. in the Sommer Center for Health and Fitness Education.

"Convocation officially marks the beginning of our school year, as we welcome students into our academic community,” notes Dr. Sally Weaver Sommer, vice president and dean of academic affairs. “We are delighted to have this opportunity to hear from renowned author Marge Piercy, as she urges all of us to enter deeply into learning and at the same time launches our civic engagement theme."

Piercy’s presentation, “Paying Attention Where It Counts,” will introduce Bluffton’s 2015-16 theme, “Gender Roles, Relationships, Realities.” Each year, the university focuses on a significant contemporary issue that is related to its mission and becomes the subject of cross-disciplinary exploration. For incoming first-year students, that exploration begins with the common summer reading.

“He, She and It,” which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction in the United Kingdom, is among Piercy’s 17 novels, as is “Gone to Soldiers,” a 1987 New York Times bestseller.

The Detroit native and Cape Cod resident has also written 19 books of poetry, and her work has been translated into 19 languages. She has presented readings, workshops or lectures at more than 450 venues in the U.S. and abroad.

A graduate of the University of Michigan and Northwestern University, she has also been active in antiwar, feminist and environmental causes.