Poetry will hit home at Eastern today.

Visiting speakers Kevin Smith and Gerald Murray, co-editors of “Illinois Voices: an Anthology of Twentieth Century Poetry,” will present a tribute to Illinois poetry and poets at 4 p.m. today in the Tarble Arts Center.

Smith and Murray will read from the collection, talk about the tradition and history of poetry in the state of Illinois and discuss the nature of editing, Bruce Guernsey, English professor, said.

“I think what they’re trying to do is both honor and recognize a remarkable century of poetry in the state,” Guernsey said.

The anthology, published as a way of recognizing the end of the millennium, includes work by 78 Illinois authors, Guernsey said.

He said work by Carl Sandburg, Gwendolyn Brooks and Earnest Hemingway is included in the collection.

“The anthology represents people writing in the earlier part of the 20th century until now,” Guernsey said. “Every kind of diversity that we can imagine is in there.”

Critic David Baker said the anthology presents not only poetry from Illinois, but also a microcosm of 20th-century American poetry, Guernsey said.

“I think what he meant was that Illinois is a mini-America in the writing that has come from the extraordinary variety of people that live here,” he said. “It’s both big city and real country.”

Smith, an English professor at Bradley University, has written five books and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council, Guernsey said.

Murray, a creative writing professor at the University of Illinois Chicago and corporate communications consultant, also has written several books, Guernsey said.

He welcomed students, faculty, staff and community members to come, and said the audience should be diverse because of the presentation’s historical and cultural interest.

The anthology will be on sale at the event.