Poet and actress Amber Tamblyn said she is excited about her first visit to Iowa — she called the Hawkeye State’s corn crop “sexy” and said she is impressed with the prestigious things she has heard about Prairie Lights Books.

“My publisher was like, ‘If you get a chance to perform [at Prairie Lights], it’s a big deal,’ ” she said. “It’s considered one of the great performance places for poets to read their work — if you’re invited there, it’s a really great thing.”

Tamblyn will read selections from Bang Ditto at 7 p.m. today at Prairie Lights, 15 S. Dubuque St. A book signing will follow the event, which is free to the public.

Although she is famously known for her acting career, especially as the rebellious, sarcastic Tibby in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and as Joan in “Joan of Arcadia,” she has been writing poetry for the majority of her life. In fact, she had her first poem published at the age 12.

“Sometimes, I think we pick the art forms we’re involved in, and sometimes, I think they pick us,” she said. “[Poetry] was something I’ve been interested in since a young age — then it just sort of came about that it wasn’t just a hobby but a lifestyle, and something that I really love to do.”

When it comes to the passion she has for acting and poetry, Tamblyn said she loves them both equally.

“It’s like choosing between two children,” she said.

She writes when she has the chance, even if that means while she’s working on a film.

“I’ve written poems on my Sidekick, which is hilarious,” she said. “Whenever I was doing movies, I think a lot of people on-set would think I was this stuck-up actress who wouldn’t talk to anybody, when really I was on the verge of this brilliant poem.”

Bang Ditto took four years to come together.

“It’s really on you to make it something that’s special or unique,” she said. “[Creating a poetry collection] is its own long process.” She labeled Bang Ditto as the “most intimate and honest work [she’s] ever written” because it’s “very much about finding a personal and truthful connection with [her] audience.”

Tamblyn said she writes because she has a fondness for the art of storytelling. She compared writing poetry to a meditative state.

“You have an idea, and it’s almost hard to explain how the poem finds you and how it attacks you,” she said. “In that way, the poem can be kind of a terrorist.”

Much of the work in Bang Ditto is very personal — she even divulges the names of those who served as inspiration for certain poems in the collection.

“Some of those pieces were written for those very specific people,” she said. “The people that you want to identify as the people who were or are very important people to you … I feel as though it’s really important for growth, in general, as human beings to discuss the things that are hard to discuss, impossible to discuss.”

Bang Ditto not only refers to a poem in the collection, it also represents the idea behind the book’s cover design — on which the author is split down the middle, possessing both a conservative and rebellious half.

“One side is as powerful as the other,” she said. “[The title] captured the image and then by default captured the poetry inside, which is very much about the public and personal me.”

Tamblyn believes everybody will relate to something in the book and that different people will enjoy it for different reasons. Although she is writing for an audience, she said, for her, nothing is greater than finishing a piece.

“It is the greatest feeling when you’ve written something you feel is so powerful or passionate,” she said. “You could win all the awards in the world or could get all the praises in the world for your job, and I think once you’ve created something and have been able to tell something in such a unique way, there’s no greater feeling.”