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| ANTRIM HOUSE EVENTS, AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS (All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise listed.) SUSAN ALLISON Laura Altshul will be honored at a Raise Every Voice Event on April 26, 2022, a conversation between Geraldine Brooks and Abdul-Razak Zachariah, a benefit for Horizons at Foote. Horizons at Foote advances educational equity through a robust academic and enrichment program that builds on long-term partnerships with families and communities to provide a joyful, safe, and inspiring learning environment that empowers students from New Haven Public Schools to thrive in an ever-changing world. Laura hopes you will consider joining this conversation about race, equity, and opportunity. Laura Altshul's poem "Afterwards" has been awarded Honorable Mention for The Robbie Award from the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. Laura will be reading at the Yale Bookstore on Saturday, November 6 at 1:00. This is an in-person event.
JAKE ANDERSON
See YouTube for a Friday, Nov. 4 interview of Marge Barrett in the Voices of Northeast video series. For a fine review of CALLED, see http://collegevilleinstitute.org/bearings/called-making-unmaking-nun/. For a stellar review of Called: the Making and Unmaking of a Nun, see http://www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/dec_16.htm#rc. We are sad to report that Bob died on Friday, December 18, 2015. Some of you may know that he was in poor health for some time before his death. With support from hospice and his family, he was able to stay at home, and he was alert and as comfortable as they could make him until the end. If you want to send a message, you can reach Hester Brooks at hesterbrx@mac com. For a witty, iconoclastic poem by Ginny on Your Daily Poem, visit http://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=2037. Ginny's "In the Museum of Cold Ideas" is an Editor's Choice" in the Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge feature. To read this gem of a poem, visit http://www.rattle.com/in-the-museum-of-cold-ideas-by-ginny-lowe-cnnors/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rattle%2FCNOS+%28Rattle%3A+Poetry+for+the+21st+Century%29. For Ginny Lowe Connors' engaging and illuminating review of Paul Mariani's The Whole Harmonium, a critical bioraphy of Wallace Stevens, visit http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/whole-harmonium. See the seminar section of the Antrim House website (www.antrimhousebooks.com/seminar.html) for information on a Teacher’s Guide for Ginny Lowe Connors’ new book, Toward the Hanging Tree. Also included is a Reviewers’ Guide. For an excellent article on Toward the Hanging Tree in West Hartford Life, visit https://view.publitas.com/p222-6222/whl_1116_layout1/page/24. And for a Mass Poetry piece on the book, visit http://www.masspoetry.org/towardthehangingtree. Visit http://www.versedaily.org/2016/bettyparrishearsonlyno.shtml for a Verse Daily poem selected from Toward the Hanging Tree. The Grayson Books anthology Forgotten Women will be launched in the River Wood Poetry Series on March 9th. Connecticut contributors will be reading selections from it. We are pleased to announce that Ginny Lowe Connors' Toward the Hanging Tree is a finalist for the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award and also the da Vinci Eye Award of the Eric Hoffer competition. Ginny's "The Wolf in Me" has won the New Millenium Writing's Monthly Muse award.You can read it at http://newmillenniumwritings.org/the-wolf-in-me/ Poets on Poetry. The Hartford Public Library, 500 Main
St., Hartford. BY ZOOM. In November, the Guilford Poets Guild welcomes poet Ginny Lowe Connors for its Second Thursday Poetry Reading. The reading will take place via Zoom on Thursday, November 12 at 7PM, hosted by the Guilford Free Library. Please register on the Library's website, www.guilfordfreelibrary.org. A Zoom link will be sent to you directly. Please join Cortney Davis and Wilton Library moderator Judson Scruton on October 7th at 5 p.m. as we discuss poetry and the poetic process and celebrate my new book, “I Hear Their Voices Singing: Poems New & Selected,” a casual session with time for Q&A and conversation. Registration is required. If folks tuned in to my reading from Wilton Library, I
will be reading different poems this time, and discussing various aspects
of the poetic process with Judson--shaping a "new & Selected"
collection, writing during a pandemic, and whatever else comes up! And
there will be time for Q&A from the zoom audience. Priscilla Ellsworth, will read selected poems via Zoom as part of the Guilford Poets Guild reading series on Thursday, September 10 at 7PM. For an enthusiastic review of Food for a Journey, see http://www.gonzomeetsthepress.com. We are very pleased to announce that Tom Gannon's Food for a Journey has won the prestigious Book Excellence Award in Poetry. Tom Gannon's March 16, 2016 reading is streamable on the Takoma Park (MD) local access television website. A Little Bit of Land is out in the world! You can get a copy online or at your local bookstore! See below for some upcoming readings and events starting with a book launch reception at Village Books in Bellingham! As a long-time volunteer, I am grateful to be part of the Skagit River Poetry Festival which is returning to La Conner, WA this October after a long hiatus. More dates and details will be added to my website as fall rolls along. Jessica's Flood Patterns has been included in a list of new poetry from Gyroscope Review. It is a great pleasure to announce that Jessica Gigot's Flood Patterns is a poetry finalist in the 2016 Eric Hoffer Award competition! Jessica will be participating in the Tupelo Press 30/30 project (writing 30 poems in 30 days!). Jessica's Tedx talk "The Poetics of Food" has been published! Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeXvRjNUsqI. My second book of poetry, Feeding Hour, is being
published this fall by Trail to Table Press, an imprint of Wandering
Aengus Press. I am grateful for this wonderful opportunity and everyone
involved. I will keep you posted on availability, future readings, and
events. Stay tuned! It's almost here! My second poetry collection Feeding Hour will be available this fall (11/20/2020) through Trail to Table Press, an imprint of Wandering Aengus Press! I am so grateful to everyone that has helped me bring this book into the world and many thanks to Margaret Davidson for her beautiful artwork. I will have more information soon on my winter book launch event, upcoming readings, and where to purchase. Also, I still have space in my fall Hugo House class. Join me and let's write together! I am so grateful to bring this book into the world. You can purchase at your local book store or through my publisher's website. I am also very excited to share my new website which includes info on writing, readings, and classes. Scroll down below for some exciting upcoming events! I know these are strange times, but I appreciate the opportunity to share this work with you. Thank you for your support and be well! Jessica https://jessicagigot.com/ Jessica's Feeding Hour is a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Kudos. The Chinese version of My Father Humming was published as a special section in the April, 2016 issue of the Chinese journal POETRY MONTHLY, edited by Wang Mingyun. Nick Giosa's This Sliding Light of Day was a poetry finalist in the 2016 Eric Hoffer Award competition! Shall We Dance has been named a finalist in the Religion and Nature categories of the 2021 Best Book Awards competition. Kudos!
FROM MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW, by Diane Donovan https://www.amazon.com/Shall-We-Dance-Desire-Meditation/dp/1943826838 Shall We Dance? Poems of Desire and Meditation comes from a poet who has 40 years of teaching medieval literature. This background allows her to craft especially artistic reflections strongly rooted in poetic tradition and form: something the typical free-verse presentation too often eschews. Many of these reflections stem from literary experience, as in "After Reading Hafiz." Many of these poems will benefit from a literature-savvy reader: "Herbert tried. And Donne knew the body/was kin to the spirit,/but prayed to be battered rather than beloved." But one needs no literary background in order to appreciate the reflections on desire and gratitude embedded in many of these pieces: "In the gray of morning just before the/orange-red rising of the sun,/I put a flame to incense,/breathe gently on the ember glow,/watch bluish smoke rise,/a spiraling image of gratefulness/and supplication,/dispersing into air." As environment, desire, and life themes coalesce, Hagen ultimately celebrates the spirit reflected in nature with lyrical works that sometimes contain a surprise twist, as in "True Subjunctive." Each poem reflects "the difference between tourist and pilgrim." The fine lines explored here traverse human nature and contemplate interactions with the natural world. Hagen's works also reflect her professional familiarity with the works of Rumi and Hafiz's mystical poetic styles of observation. This will especially appeal to readers already familiar with these poets and their special blend of spiritual and nature observation. Poetry collections seeking modern works rooted in literary approaches of the past will find Shall We Dance? a fine celebratory collection.
READINGS St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Birmingham, AL, Red Door Arts Schedule for Fall: Sunday, September 19 at 3:00 p.m. in the church - Kicking off the season is a reading and book signing by parishioner Susan Hagen from her new book, Shall We Dance? – subtitled Poems of Desire and Meditation. Irish poet Joan McBreen likened Hagen’s work to themes of Mary Oliver, while her publisher at Antrim House Books called the poems “a treat for the heart and the mind . . . as lush as they are philosophical.” Her reading will feature the poems as well as their backgrounds, and signed copies will be available for $17.00. A reception will follow in St. Joseph's House.
Book launch of Emerging Views in the Seabury Library reading series, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 16. The Canadian on-line literary magazine, Bibliosofia/Canada, has translated Lynn’s anthologized poem, “The Gift,” into Italian; the poem appears in the magazine’s latest issue at http://www.bibliosofia.net/Il_dono_The_Gift_Hoffman__1_.pdf. Sunday, October 11 at 2:00 pm, at The Mystic Museum of Art for a Green Poetry Cafe featuring Connecticut Poet Laureate Margaret Gibson, who will be joined by poets Joan Hofmann and Steve Straight, and cellist Theodore Mook. Kevin's latest Huffington Post article "How Does a Bi Marriage Really Work?" has attracted interest, and he was interviewed as part of HuffPostLive on Nov. 12, 2015 during the weekly 'Queer View' segment. For a stellar review of My Riastrad, see http://foundcraftygreenart.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/my-riastrad-by-kevin-hogan.html. Wednesday, Nov.18th, 9 pm-10:30 pm ET: interview on The Ann Walker Show with Scott Nevin (radio, Universal Broadcasting Network out of Hollywood, CA) as both a bi-sexual activist and a stigma expert. The video/telecast from Kevin's appearance on The Ann Walker Show will be re-aired this coming Wednesday 11/25 from 9-10:30 pm EST. Or the audio-only podcast can be downloaded at http://ubnradio.com/randy-jones-and-kevin-hogan/. During this adult-themed 'tell it like it is' program, Ann gets Kevin to open up about a variety of timely topics, and even gets him to read "The Gender Bend" from his collection My Ríastrad. Kevin will be a radio guest on Left of Str8 on Dec. 8th from 5-7 pm EST. It's a special show about stigma, trauma, and coping with depression before, during and after the holidays. How Kevin's writing, especially poetry, helps him stay positive and heal stigma will be discussed. My Ríastrad will be reviewed in the upcoming Winter issue of the Journal Polymath (http://www.vraeydamedia.ca/polymath) out of Vancouver, BC. Recently, one of Kevin's favorite poems from My Ríastrad ("A Lovelier World") was transformed into an animated video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_4bVYW01QY. "Beginning Feb 18 at 5pm EST (and running 5pm-6pm on Thursdays Kevin Hogan will be the co-host of "Healing Stigma on Left" of Str8 Radio (www.healingstigmaradio.com) - a weekly national radio program via the Universal Broadcasting Network. Kevin was recently interviewed by K-Town & Kim Style of "Same Sex Dialogue" out of Knoxville. They're one of the top 100 downloaded podcasts on iTunes: https://www.spreaker.com/user/samesexdialogue/nooo-im-bisexual-youre-confused-intervie. And here's the iTunes link for the show: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nooo-im-bisexual-youre-confused/id1069677478?i=363771460&mt=2. MassPoetry.org is now listing My Ríastrad as a hot new read amongst recently published Massachusetts Poets. See http://www.masspoetry.org/newbooks/. Kevin was recently interviewed by MassPoetry, the results of which will go live around March 7th in the series "Getting to Know." This just in: Kevin Hogan's My Ríastrad is a Lambda Literary Finalist! On June 6, 2016, Kevin will attend the 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards, as My Ríastrad has been named a 2016 Lambda Finalist. The event celebrates literary achievements in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender writing for books published in 2015. The red carpet gala will be held at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. For a passionate Huffington Post article by Kevin (“We the People Make America Great: Viewpoint of an American Bisexual”), visit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-hogan2/we-the-people-make-americ_b_9865388.html?utm_hp_ref=bisexual. In the July-August 2016 number of The Gay & Lesbian Review you will find a guest editorial by Kevin Hogan on "Healing Stigma" as well as his poem "The Gender Bend." See http://www.glreview.org/article/healing-stigma-in-the-age-of-social%E2%80%88media/. Kevin Hogan recently gave a poetry reading (“A Lovelier World” from My Ríastrad) as part of the White House Bisexual Community Briefing held at the White House on Monday, September 26th. To experience his reading, visit https://youtu.be/vNQ-UHFfen8?t=1h40m52s. Kevin Hogan's newest blog concerns the vital necessity of reducing hate-crimes in these post-election times: http://www.healingstigma.com/single-post/2016/11/22/Healing-Stigma-and-Reducing-Hate-Crime-in-Post-Election-America. Kevin Hogan's latest blog can be read at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/divided-we-fall_us_58c80125e4b03400023f4b4d. Kevin Hogan's latest blog can be read at http://www.healingstigma.com/single-post/2017/08/10/Why-a-Stigmatizer-in-Chief-Benefits-No-Americans On October 1, Kevin Hogan will be interviewed for an hour on the "Studio A" program of WKCR 89.9 FM New York. This is one of the longest running literary shows in the U.S.and emanates from Columbia University). On Oct. 21, Kevin Hogan's most recent blog was published: "Reading Poetry and Healing Stigma on Columbia University’s WKCR Studio A.” For more information, see www.healingstigma.com. February 13, 1 pm," Poetry of the Heart," sponsored by the Mystic Paper Beasts. Virtual reading along with 10 other poets. For link: Contact Marya at mybeasts@aol.com. Sara Ingram is performing with The Hygienic Egg Company in a theatre piece based on Emily Dickinson on March 8, 2020 at 12:30 pm. The Hygienic Galleries, Bank Street, New London. Brooke Herter James is part of a group that reads from 5:00 to 7:30 PM on the first Thursday of each month at The Mont Vert Cafe, 67 Central St, Woodstock, VT. Joel Johnson's poem, "An Idea She Got from Oprah" was featured on the Rattle website as a poem of the day: http://www.rattle.com/poetry/an-idea-she-got-from-oprah-by-joel-f-johnson/ An interview with Joel Johnson as been posted on "Geosi
Reads": https://geosireads.wordpress.com/2015/03/28/interview-with-joel-f-johnson-author-of-a-map-of-what-matters/. Feb. 27, East Hartford Public Library (with John Stanizzi), time TBA. Thurs., Oct. 15, 7 pm reading with a few others in the Wintonbury Poetry Series. Kirkus Reviews has issued a glowing review of Joan's newest book, Fading into Focus. Visit https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/joan-kantor/fading-focus/. Joan Kantor's Fading into Focus has won First Place in the Poetry category for the Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards. Kudos! On February 27th, 2016, Joan's poem "In Between" was featured on "Your Daily Poem." We have lost a great spirit. Les Kay passed away in late September, 2016 after a lingering illness. We will miss him. He has left behind his prose poetry memoir, Kilo Co, as a lasting legacy. MARGARET KEANE - SISTER MARIE MICHAEL KEANE Haystack Book Talks Festival in Norfolk, CT Announces
Festival Program for October 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Self-Portrait with Hourglass, Kenneth Lee's fourth book is now available. Information can be found at krlee900@gmail.com. Poetry for a Greener World ~ Celebrating Earth Day Poetry Reading (with Karen Ciosek) on Thursday, October 13 at Oxford (CT) Library, 6 PM.
For a WPKN discussion of CT Arts Day with other panelists, visit http://archives.wpkn.org/bookmarks/listen/138066/community-programming-the-cultural-alliance-of-farfield-county For a television interview with guests Julia Morris Paul and Rennie McQuilkin, see https://youtu.be/rzvE9hLuxsc. For a radio interview preceding Rennie's reading at the Institute Library in New Haven, see https://soundcloud.com/new-haven-independent/at-the-moment-connecticuts-poet-laureate. To hear Rennie discuss his new book, A Quorum of Saints, visit http://www.healingstigmaradio.com/9-1-rennie-mcquilkin. We are delighted to announce that Letter from Italy, 1944 has won honorable mention in the Legacy category of this year's Eric Hoffer competition, the only book of poetry recognized in that category. Nancy is once again directing the Guilford Poetry Guild, whose monthly offerings are well worth a trip to the Guilford Free Library, where events occur. See the "Special Events" section below for listings. Nancy's book Simple Absence has been named runner-up in the 2020 Eric Hoffer contest. Praise from a Hoffer Contest judge, in response to Simple Absence being named a runner-up for the 2020 Hoffer Award in poetry: These are intensely resonant and important poems. The sound is gorgeous, with liquid language that is never overdone. The soaring music of her work is stunning. Every word seems self-invented. Descriptions are precise, crisp, and specific. Love of poetic form is apparent and skillfully done. Every poem is like a whetstone, honing the reader. She's not afraid to start a poem with a brutal, unadorned truth and does not shrink from the absolute worst moments of being a human, then transforms them into something vital and useful. She can take a small, interior moment and build it into a masterpiece. This is a poet who is paying the most attention. The book is also a Finalist in the 2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards (NGIBA). Eleven Sundry Flowers was named a finalist for the 2022 Eric Hoffer Award for Poetry. Eleven Sundry Flowers has been awarded a silver medal by Reader Views (the Reviewer's Choice Awards, 3021-2022). Eleven Sundry Flowers Reviewed by Amy Lignor
for Reader Views (12/27)
Reviewed by Bruce Arrington for Readers' Favorite Eleven Sundry Flowers The book begins with “Pocket Full of Posies,” which states that for eleven days, the writer has promised his “sweet Nancy…buds perfumed-soaked in spring loaded praise.” Mundo, comparing poetry to flower buds, continues this metaphor by saying that he will nurture his words by “toiling in the garden,” and if his “thumb-picked pick fails to stun, then flowery I’ll beg for her pardon.” This technique of comparing love to nature is continued throughout the entire book, and I thought that it really added a lot to the poems. I appreciated how descriptive Mundo was and how creative he got with his metaphors about his love for Nancy. The book continues by taking the reader through the expression of Mundo’s love. After initially trying to write like famous “masters,” Mundo realizes he must write from his heart, and that he sure does! My favorite poem was “March Madness,” where Nancy has fallen ill due to March’s weather. Mundo offers chicken noodle soup, orange juice, vitamin C, and other remedies to make the love of his life well again. The poem perfectly encapsulates the nurturing side of a relationship, where one wants nothing more than to make the one they love well and happy again. I also really enjoyed “Darling Buds of May.” This poem serves as a reminder that time is fleeting; one day we will grow old and have no time left to enjoy the precious moments that make life worth living. Mundo ends this poem truthfully saying, “Hear me now, underneath the crescent moon: live today for tomorrow dies too soon.” One of the biggest enhancers of this poetry collection
is the illustrations done by Keith Draws. The detail and intricacy
of each of these images is phenomenal. The illustrations themselves
take up pages, with each illustration correlating with one of the
eleven days of Mundo’s writing. With so many parts to each drawing,
I really stopped page to page to admire Draws’ work and understand
what the images were conveying. Although this definitely supplemented
Mundo’s poetry, I did find some of the drawings to be a little
distracting from the work itself; I spent more time trying to follow
what was happening in the extensive illustrations than appreciating
the poetry. JOHN MURO Since the publication of John’s first volume of poems, In the Lilac Hour, in the fall of 2020, he has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize and, most recently, he was nominated for a Best of the Net award. Since 2020, his poetry has appeared in dozens of literary journals and anthologies, including such highly selective journals as Acumen, Barnstorm, Euphony, Grey Sparrow, MORIA, Penumbra, River Heron, and Sky Island. In 2021, John was also profiled and selected as a “featured writer” in the Freshwater Literary Journal, and, in 2022, as a “featured author” in OpenDoor Magazine. He has also been invited to provide readings of his work on behalf of various national and international poetry journals, including Agapanthus, Barnstorm, Blue Muse, Freshwater, MockingOwl Roost, Sein und Werden, Sheepshead and Writer Shed Stories. His second volume of poems, Pastoral Suite, was published in June of 2022. John’s poems have solicited praise from such nationally recognized poets as Kelli Russell Agodon and Robert Cording, as well as numerous literary journal editors. John’s books can be purchased on Amazon and you can contact him directly on Instagram @johntmuro. It is a great pleasure to announce that Paul Petrie's COMPLETE POEMS has been named runner-up for the 2016 Eric Hoffer Award in poetry! Photo of John Radacsi Rowing for BU
Martha will be signing books at the Hotchkiss Library, on the Green in Sharon, CT from 5:30 to 7:30 on August 5, 2022. CHIVAS SANDAGE & WRITE LIKE A RIVER WORKSHOPS. Chivas offers women’s writing workshops on a regular basis in Collinsville, CT and Northampton, MA under the auspices of Write Like a River. She also offers services as an editor, writing consultant, and tutor. For more information, go to http://www.writelikeariver.com and contact her at writelikeariver@gmail.com. Chivas is at work on Salt Wind Redemption: Love & Murder in South Texas, a narrative nonfiction book about the 2012 rape and double shooting of Kristene Chapa and Mollie Olgin, a young lesbian couple who were attacked while on a date in Portland, Texas. Salt Wind Redemption explores tragedy and a search for justice set against changing attitudes about sexual orientation and gender identity in the contemporary American South. Ms. Magazine just republished Chivas' essay, "The Trouble with Confidence," on their blog at http://bit.ly/2zKwdTF.
For an alternative way of purchasing Jean Sands' posthumous poetry collection Clost But Not Touching, visit http://jacksheedy.homestead.com/jean-s-book-.html. POP Lineup for Sept 2019-Dec 2019 The Hartford Public Library, 500 Main St., Hartford Poet Moderator Date Southington Public Library, 255 Main Street, Southington Rumi Mark Sheridan Oct 7
Russell Library, Middletown Rumi Mark Sheridan Oct 17 Wallingford Public Library, Julie Rio Sylvia Plath Mark Sheridan Oct 16 Click here for a podcast concerning the biking adventure that led to Jane Schapiro's Let the Wind Push Us Across. In-person reading Sunday, June 11, 2023 @ 2 pm at Buffalo Street Books 215 North Cayuga St Ithaca, NY 14850-4329. Phone: 607-273-8246. Come to Buffalo Street Books on Sunday, June 11th at 2:00
p.m. for a reading and book signing by author Ellen Schmidt, seen here
holding a copy of her new collection “Armed to the Teeth”.
Photo provided. “I have been, as I think many people are, struggling with the notion of how to find hope or do we throw up our arms in despair,” Schmidt said. “I can be up and down over the course of a day, or maybe an hour. I wanted to connect with others who were experiencing a similar range of emotions. That is why I put these poems out there, to connect.” STEP RIGHT UP & TRY YOUR LUCK Just one bolt of lightning The poem “Step Right Up and Try Your Luck” ends with the line “Armed to the Teeth” with Hope,” yet Schmidt chose to leave off the last two words in the title. “A friend of mine suggested that I let people guess, to allow them to fill in the blank with whatever they need to develop that is strong and sturdy,” Schmidt said. “The word ‘armed’ is provocative in this country at this point in time, but maybe my poems can offer a counterpoint to that other type of arming.” Schmidt is well-known to many in the Ithaca area and beyond as a community educator and writing mentor. After retiring from her position with Suicide Prevention and Crisis Center, Schmidt created Writing Through the Rough Spots, a series of classes and writing circles which enable students to create clarity about challenges in their lives through writing (WritingRoomWorkshops.com). In her workshops, Schmidt’s personal warmth and empathy for others create an environment of trust that allows participants to open up and write from the heart. These inherent traits are also evident in her poetry. “I sometimes feel that there is very little skin between me and the rest of the world. It can be kind of a double-edged sword, but I feel it more as a gift than any downside,” Schmidt said. “Writing poems is exhilarating, so that doesn’t take a toll. Teaching is also, I feel filled from that.” Schmidt’s keen observance of nature, both human and otherwise, not only lends texture and color to her poetry but also provides a rich source of metaphor. In “A Nest in the Country,” an ominous paper wasp nest hanging overhead threatens to split open “sending out my thousand rages.” The tree swallows in “The Thing With Feathers (a nod to Emily)” build their nest under “murderous clouds.” Schmidt’s version of hope clearly does not depend on turning a blind eye to the reality around her. It is not naive or innocent, but almost defiant. Promotional material for the book states that many of the poems were written in response to “climate change and the social divides of our larger world.” “I think there is a difference between optimism and hope. It takes courage for us all to have hope,” Schmidt said. “A lot of young people are inspiring to me. They get it and they are not standing by. What gives me hope also are all the stories that you don’t hear about in the media, the everyday human interactions.” Though Schmidt has always been a writer (as by her own definition “a writer is someone who writes”), “”Armed to the Teeth”” is Schmidt’s first full-length published work. She’s led writing workshops at Cornell and Star Island, N.H., edited manuscripts and helped nursing home residents document and record their life stories. Yet it wasn’t until 2017 that Schmidt began submitting her own poems for publication. “In the last decade I experienced an explosion of poem writing,” Schmidt said in her online bio. “I have been writing for most of my life, but at age 70, five years ago, I decided to submit some poems for the first time publicly.” Since then, Schmidt’s works have appeared widely in journals such as Poetry Quarterly, The Avocet, Passenger and Bluff & Vine. Her chapbook “Oh, say did you know,” was published in 2020 and won the Helen Kay Chapbook Prize. In 2021, she was the Connecticut Poetry Society Award Winner. Schmidt admits that she sometimes finds the idea of poetry competitions a bit silly, but they can be an effective way to reach a larger audience. In fact, it was the Connecticut Poetry Society award that brought Schmidt’s work to the attention of Rennie McQuilkin, the publisher with Antrim House books who worked with her to develop and publish “Armed to the Teeth”. “In her exquisite poems, Ellen Hirning Schmidt faces life’s perils courageously,” McQuilkin said in an email correspondence. “Being armed with the powers of family, the natural world, and a strong heart full of love, she emerges victorious.” To hear the author read select poems and get a signed copy of “”Armed to the Teeth””, come to Buffalo Street Books on Sun., Jun. 11 at 2 p.m. The event is free and all are welcome to attend. Copies of this book may be purchased at local bookstores, online from Amazon Books, or directly from the author (send checks for $17 per book plus $4 shipping to Ellen Schmidt, 8 Genung Circle, Ithaca, NY). More information is available at antrimhousebooks.com/schmidt.html.
For a stellar review of Ancestral Intelligence, visit http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/words-have-no-word-words-are-not-true#.VJD6Mnuvw3M. Paul Scollan's Unacounted For has won second place in the Royal Dragonfly Book Awards for poetry. ADDITIONAL REVIEWS Jack T. Scully is going to sit you down in the easy chair
of your mind. With metric simplicity and an uncanny choice of evocative
words, Scully will take you to Mianus Village—a real place for sure,
and the setting for many autobiographical tales, but also a place that
is emblematic of the commonalities within all of us … For those
of an age, there is a universality and nostalgia to the tapestry he weaves.
Whether it is fretting over the fear of “lockjaw” when you
first heard about it at age six, or pounding a baseball to pieces until
it trails threads like a jellyfish, Scully hits his own home run in Mianus
Village, while taking us on a leisurely jog around its bases.
Mianus Village by Jack Scully This manuscript and it’s author, Jack Scully, takes the reader on an insightful journey into a place in time that was his world inside the affluent town of Greenwich, Connecticut in the 1950’s and 1960’s. His recall of people, places, and events sheds a fascinating and colorful retrospective on a time of life that was not only formative for him, but speaks to a more simplistic period, especially measured by today’s standards. Mr. Scully’s insights into the formative years of our lives, the trials and trepidations of youth and the anxieties we all encountered, in some form, with a flair for the lighter side of those events that so unceremoniously influenced who we are as adults. His slight of the written word and tongue-in-cheek recall of his formative years, lessons learned, friendships engaged and nurtured, all contribute to a delightful and memorable read we all can easily identify with. I’ve read it several times and each time provokes a new perspective on my personal experiences of those times. An intuitive work I can highly recommend. David Fox, Retired Aflac Insurance Executive and New Hampshire Court-Appointed Child’s Advocate
Jack T. Scully has written one of the best books of poetry I have ever encountered, and I’m an editor, so I encounter a lot! This gem of a book is like sharing life with a friend, rewarding, warm, revealing, funny, insightful. Scully’s imagery and detail are easy to read, accessible, and yet surprising and “just the right way” to get his point across. He has a knack for telling a story [the book is a series of narrative poems about growing up in this river-side town in Connecticut some few years ago], and then he drops in a little surprise here and there, not so much about what happened, but in the way he experienced it. Delightful! For instance, talking about watching Dwight Eisenhower’s inaugural address on TV when Scully was about four-years-old [his mother wanted him to experience history], he writes: “Ike, as mother called him, / was bald and serious / and talked long enough / for me to eat a box / of animal crackers / and fall asleep.” Through the entire wonderful poem, I did not expect that, but it was perfect — I remember boxes of animal crackers and how slowly Ike spoke, and I knew immediately what that moment was like for Jack Scully. The book is full of little bits and surprises like that, some just the right word, some the image, some the long story coming to a fruitful end. Read about the neighborhood changing … you will feel something. Better yet, read the whole book. —Pat Goudey O'Brien, a former president of the League of Vermont Writers, is a consulting editor and author.
UPCOMING READINGS Presentation Title: Mianus Village in History and Literature
For a Mianus Village presentation before the Retired Men’s
Association in Greenwich on Oct 6, 2021, please visit
Alexandrina Sergio is now editor for a monthly poetry column, “Poetry Here And Now” in the Glastonbury Citizen. The column will provide an opportunity for local poets at all levels to share their work. Current or former local residents, persons who work in town or have a regular connection with a Glastonbury organization, and students attending Glastonbury schools are invited to submit one to three poems of no more than 25 lines via E-mail to poet.laureate@glastonbury-ct.gov. Submissions must include name, phone number and a biographical line or two. Poems must have titles. Previously published work is allowed. If computer access is not available, poems may be sent or brought to the Welles Turner Memorial Library, addressed to the Glastonbury Poet Laureate.
Joan Seliger Sidney's poem "On Approaching Seventy" was read by Garrison Keillor on THE WRITER'S ALMANAC, Sunday, February 15, 2015. Joan's Body of Diminishing Motion was a finalist in the Legacy Category of the 2015 Eric Hoffer Book Awards. Feb. 27, East Hartford Public Library (with Marilyn Johnston), time TBA. Rhett Watts has a group of poems online in PoetryMagazine.com and one appearing in the November issue of Sojouners. N.B. Rhett is now living in Auburn, MA. 7 pm, Nov. 19 virtual reading with Michael Lepore in the Wintonbury Poetry Series. Register for a Zoom link at www.bpl.org. Upcoming Readings and Events Reading of new and elected poems at the Stonington Free Library on Sunday, March 12, at 5:00 p.m. April 30: 5:00 p.m. at Hygienic Art, at 79 Bank Street in downtown New London. It's free. And you'll get to look at swell art too. https://www.hygienic.org/events May 5: 6:00 p.m. at Savoy Bookshop, at 10 Canal Street in downtown Westerly RI. This, too, is free. And the Savoy is the prettiest book store anywhere. https://www.banksquarebooks.com/event/savoy-christie-max-williams-wages-love-author-talk-and-q/a Book sales and signings will follow the readings.
I'm writing to invite you to what promises to be a very cool occasion on September 6, at Bank Square Books, that will feature the brilliant playwright-poet-essayist Sarah Ruhl. Ms. Ruhl will read from her just-published book Love Poems in Quarantine. Her reading will be followed by a Q&A conversation, led by yours-truly. Sarah Ruhl has won a MacArthur Genius Prize and is widely regarded as one of America's best playwrights. Her historical-comedy in the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play had a long Broadway run and was nominated for a Tony Award and as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The Clean House was likewise a Pulitzer finalist. Indeed, her many prize-winning plays have been performed on stages across the country and all over the world, and have been translated into 14 languages. She is also the author of a wonderful memoir called Smile: The Story of a Face, and the superb 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write. But Ruhl has always maintained that she is first and foremost a poet, which makes the upcoming evening at Bank Square Books something special. Here's what you need to know: Where: Bank Square Books (on Main Street in Mystic) And it's free! Here's a link: https://www.banksquarebooks.com/event/sarah-ruhl-love-poems-quarantine Barry Zaret is now an invited blogger with the Huffington Press. For his blogs, visit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barry-l-zaret-md/a-doctorpatient-special-a_b_8221124.html. His first essay was posted in early October. Dr. Zaret's most recent blog is a beautiful tribute to the life-saving power of writing. To read it, visit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barry-l-zaret-md/healing-and-curing_b_8758746.html. Barry's latest Huffington Post blog can be read at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barry-l-zaret-md/a-patient-a-swastika-a-decision_b_9087738.html. An even more recent blog by Barry is at
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barry-l-zaret-md/i-will-still-be-your-doct_b_10116878.html. Geraldine Zetzel has been posting a monthly poem on her website, www.geraldinezetzel.com. Check out the latest one; its full of zest. |
