Tompkins Corners
Poets' Corner
New poets and published writers alike join us each month to listen and share their work. When possible, we meet on our outdoor stage.
In case of inclement weather we will meet either or in our historic Carriage House or indoors.
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Poets' Corner
Featuring Catherine GonicK
Sunday, July 13th, 3:00 pm
Ticket can be purchased at the door. Students are always free.
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Catherine recently published her debut full-length poetry collection, Split Daughter of Eve, from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions. Her poems have appeared in various literary journals, including Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Pedestal, The Orchards Poetry Journal, One Art, and The Nu Review. Her work is also featured in several anthologies, including plein air, Grabbed, Dead of Winter, Support Ukraine, and Rumors, Secrets & Lies: Poems About Pregnancy, Abortion and Choice.
Her favorite writing topics include the rift between Judaism and Christianity; feminist and other political issues; connections between neuroscience, psychology, and religion; and the natural world. A recipient of the Ina Coolbrith Prize for Poetry, she was a finalist in the Louisville Actors Theatre 10-Minute Play Contest. Originally from California’s Bay Area, she now lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband. Together, they run a company focused on slowing global warming through climate repair and restoration. An open mic will follow the reading. All writers are welcome! The reading will take place on our outdoor stage, weather permitting. Please spread the word and join us for this wonderful occasion! This event is funded, in part, by Poets & Writers with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
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Poets' Corner
Featuring Elizabeth Burk
Sunday, August 10th, 3:00 pm
Ticket can be purchased at the door. Students are always free.
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Elizabeth Burk is a psychologist and a native New Yorker who divides her time between family in New York and a home and husband in southwest Louisiana. Her debut full length poetry book, Unmoored, was published in November 2024 by Texas Review Press. She has three previous collections: Learning to Love Louisiana, Louisiana Purchase, and Duet-Poet & Photographer.
A Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems, prose pieces, and reviews have been widely published in various journals and anthologies, such as Atlanta Review, Rattle, Southern Poetry Anthology, Louisiana Literature, Pithead Chapel, Naugatuck River Review, PANK, Mom Egg Review and elsewhere. An open mic will follow the reading. All writers are welcome! The reading will take place on our outdoor stage, weather permitting. Please spread the word and join us for this wonderful occasion! This event is funded, in part, by Poets & Writers with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
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Poets' Corner
Featuring Ruth Danon
Sunday, June 8th, 3:00 pm
Tompkins Corners is pleased to welcome Ruth Danon, the 2025 Dutchess County Poet Laureate, to the Poets’ Corner.
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Ruth is the author of four poetry collections--Turn Up The Heat, Word Has It, Limitless Tiny Boat, and Triangulation From A Known Point—as well as a chapbook, Living with the Fireman, and a work of literary criticism, Work in the English Novel. For twenty-three years, she taught creative and expository writing in a program she designed and directed for adult undergraduates at NYU's School of Professional Studies. She is also a founding curator of The Beacon LitFest.
“You close this visionary book with a sense that things destroyed can also be put back together, that a fine and canny calibration of light in relation to dark may not rescue the planet but could save our souls.” - Natania Rosenfeld, on Turn Up The Heat. An open mic will follow the reading. All writers are welcome! The reading will take place on our outdoor stage, weather permitting. Please spread the word and join us for this wonderful occasion! Tickets are $10 and may be purchased at the door. This event is funded, in part, by Poets & Writers with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Tickets are $10 and may be purchased at the door. |
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Poets' Corner
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Tickets are $10 and may be purchased at the door.
The author of eight poetry collections, including The Job of Being Everybody (2004), Nameless Boy (2015), and In America (2017). |
Poets' Corner
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Poets' Corner
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Poets' Corner Season Finale
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Poets' Corner
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This event will take place on our outdoor stage or indoors if it rains. Please spread the word and join us for this great occasion!
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Poets' Corner
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An open mic will follow. Registration will be on-site on the day of the reading. All writers are welcome! Tickets may be purchased at the door.
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Poets' Corner
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Poets' Corner
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Poets' Corner
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Poets' Corner
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Poets' Corner
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Following Kateri’s reading will be an open mic. Registration will be available on-site on the day of the reading. All writers are welcome! Tickets are $10 and may be purchased below or at the door.
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Poets' Corner
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Open mic registration will be available on-site on the day of the reading. This event will be held outdoors, weather permitting. Please spread the word and join us for this wonderful event!
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Poets' Corner Open Mic
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Poets' Corner Open Mic
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Poets' Corner Open Mic
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Poets' Corner Open Mic
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This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
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Poets' Corner Open Mic
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Irene O'Garden
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Following our feature will be an open mic. Registration will be available on-site on the day of the reading. All writers are welcome!
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Charles Coe
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Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Henry S. Taylor said of Spirengs’s poems, “they are strong portrayals of failure and success, danger and safety, of doubt and certainty…which Spireng gets profoundly right time after time.”
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Matthew J. Spireng
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Christopher P. Gazeent
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"Christopher P. Gazeent is a young poet, composer, and multi-instrumentalist who is able to transfer his sensibilities as an accomplished musician in many genres to the spoken word. He is on the forefront of a new generation who approach poetry in the timeless tradition of painting a picture in a musical fashion. His work rouses the ear and eye, stimulates the mind, and enriches the spirit."
-David Amram, author of Offbeat: Collaborating with Kerouac.
-David Amram, author of Offbeat: Collaborating with Kerouac.
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Poets' Corner
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This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
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Open mic registration will be available on-site on the day of the reading. In case of inclement weather, the reading will be held indoors. There is a $10 donation for attending the reading. Please spread the word and join us for this wonderful event!
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Poets' Corner
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Poets' Corner
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Ken Holland, an award-winning poet nominated thrice for the Pushcart Prize, has won/placed in numerous contests, including those sponsored by Naugatuck River Review and the Stephen DiBiase competition ~ will be our feature. The reading will be on our outdoor stage and will be followed by an open mic for those who sign up to read. All writers are welcome!
Ken Holland’s poems have been widely published in such journals as Rattle, Tulane Review, Southwest Review, North Dakota Quarterly, The American Journal of Poetry and Tar River with poetry forthcoming in The MacGuffin and Sugar House Review, and several others. Ken’s work spans what he calls “the broad pond of poetry,” claiming that he “sometimes gets to the other side, but more often falls into the muddy waters.” He lives in the mid-Hudson Valley of New York. |
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B. Fulton Jennes, Poet Laureate of Ridgefield, CT, serves as poet-in-residence at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. Her poems have appeared in Comstock Review, Tupelo Quarterly, The Night Heron Barks, Limp Wrist, Anti-Heroin Chic, SWIMM, Pareidolia Literary, Tar River Poetry, Extreme Formal Poems: Contemporary Poets, Extreme Sonnets II, and many other journals and anthologies. Her collection Mammoth Spring (from which she read at Poets' Corner last fall) was a finalist for both the Two Sylvias Wilder Prize and the Small Harbor Press Laureate Prize.
At our July reading, she'll share work from her chapbook Blinded Birds (Finishing Line Press, 2022), which traces the journey of three generations of women through the anguish of depression and addiction. |
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Firas Sulaiman is a Syrian poet with multiple publications in Arabic including several volumes of poetry, two collections in English (Forgetting and Her Mirror is an Unarmed Hunter), and a collection in Spanish. He has also published two collections of short stories, two books of aphorisms, experimental fiction, and numerous articles. In addition to appearing in several anthologies, Firas’ work has been featured in several literary magazines as well as having been translated into many languages; he has also participated in many international poetry festivals. He currently lives with his wife in New York.
Samantha Kostmayer Sulaiman is a writer, editor, educator, and translator from New York City. She graduated from Columbia University, CUNY, and the American University in Cairo with degrees in history, forced migration, and law; Samantha is currently completing her Ph.D in philosophy. She is writing a volume of short stories and her translations have appeared in The Wolf, The Manhattan Review, Washington Square, and various anthologies. Her writing has appeared in English, Swedish and Croatian This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. |
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Raphael Kosek returns to TCCC to celebrate the release of her new chapbook, Harmless Encounters, which won the 2021 Jesse Bryce Niles Chapbook Contest. An Open Mic will follow.
Raphael Kosek’s poems and nonfiction appeared in Poetry East, Southern Humanities Review, and many other journals. Her new chapbook, HARMLESS ENCOUNTERS, won the 2021 Jesse Bryce Niles Chapbook Contest. AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY was released by Brick Road Poetry Press (2019). ROUGH GRACE won the Concrete Wolf Chapbook Prize (2014). Her lyric essays won first place at The Eastern Iowa Review and Bacopa Literary Review, and her poems and CNF have received Pushcart Prize nominations. She served as the 2019-2020 Dutchess County, NY Poet Laureate. www.raphaelkosek.com This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. |
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Michael Steffen’s fourth poetry collection, Blood Narrative, has recently been published by Main Street Rag Press. He is the award-winning author of three previous poetry collections: No Good at Sea (Legible Press, 2002), which won the Legible Press Poetry Prize, Heart Murmur (Bordighera Press, 2009), which won the Bordighera Poetry Prize, appearing as a bilingual edition in both Italian and English, and Bad Behavior (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2012), which won the Brick Road Poetry Prize. While a resident of Pennsylvania, Michael was granted a 2002 Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and has had poems appear in literary publications such as Poetry, Potomac Review, Chiron Review, Poet Lore, and the American Journal of Poetry.
Sign up for open mic before we begin at 3:00. In case of inclement weather, the reading will take place on our indoor stage. Masks may be required. $5 donation. Spread the word! |
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Mary Newell will help us celebrate the start of the Poets’ Corner’s 4th season, at Tompkins Corner as featured poet reading on our indoor stage. She will be followed by our open mic for those who sign up in advance to read. All writers are welcome! Come at 2:30 to sign up.
Mary Newell authored the chapbooks Re-SURGE (Trainwreck Press 2021) and TILT/ HOVER/ VEER (Codhill Press 2019) as well as poems in journals including Talisman, BlazeVox, Spoon River Poetry Review and Poetry, and in several anthologies. She has published essays including “When Poetry Rivers” (Interim journal 38.3). She is co-editor of Poetics for the More-than-Human-World: An Anthology of Poetry and Commentary and the forthcoming Routledge Companion to Ecopoetics. Newell (MA Columbia, BA Berkeley) received a doctorate from Fordham University with a focus on environment and embodiment in contemporary women’s writing. A former Assistant Professor, she curates the Hudson Highlands Poetry Series and teaches occasional poetry classes. |
Past Events ~ 2021
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Anton Yakovlev will be traveling from NJ to be our fabulous feature this month. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Criterion, and more. And he will be the first to toss his poetry into the fire!
Something about FIRE has evoked a burning desire in our poets! We will be reading outdoors staying toasty around the fire pit. After Anton, the mic opens for those who wish to read. Anton Yakovlev’s latest poetry chapbook is Chronos Dines Alone (SurVision Books, 2018), winner of the James Tate Prize. He is also the author of Ordinary Impalers (Kelsay Books, 2017) and two prior chapbooks. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Criterion, The Hopkins Review, The Stockholm Review of Literature, Measure, upstreet, and elsewhere. His translations from Russian have appeared in Exchanges, Circumference, Lunch Ticket, Yes Poetry, National Translation Month, and On the Seawall, among others. The Last Poet of the Village, a collection of translations of poetry by Sergei Yesenin (1895-1925), was published by Sensitive Skin Books in 2019. Anton is a former education director at Bowery Poetry Club. He co-hosts the Carmine Street Metrics reading series in Manhattan and the Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow reading series in Rutherford, New Jersey. |
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D. Adam Boaz is a professional educator. He has been teaching literature and poetry for over 20 years. A childhood spent in the South, a Quaker education in Rhode Island, teacher training in the inner city, and years spent living on Cape Cod have offered him internal rhythms and sense memories that shape his work. He published his latest collection of poems, Voices From the Second Life, in August of 2021. It chronicles perspectives gleaned from a journey that includes racism, addiction, competition, disillusionment, and the eventual arrival at places of gratitude.
Check out this video with Adam and his students reciting poems from December 2020 King School Poets. |
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B. Fulton Jennes will be this month's featured poet. Immediately following will be our open mic for those who have signed up to read. All writers are welcome!
Jennes is Poet Laureate of Ridgefield, CT and is the poet-in-residence for the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. Her poems have appeared in the Comstock Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Night Heron Barks, Tar River Poetry, Stone Cane, and more. In 2021, her poem "From the Room of an Unknown Girl" was awarded the Leslie McGrath Prize for Poetry by Helix magazine: another poem, "Other Hungers", won the Bea Gonzalez Prize for Poetry. Find her work online. Blinded Birds, a chapbook, will be published by Finishing Line Press in the spring of 2022. A graduate of SUNY Albany, Jennes has an MS in Education and is currently a student of Jennifer Franklin, Rachel Hadas, Joan Houlihan, and Martha Rhodes. |
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Bill Christophersen will be this month's featured poet. Immediately following will be our open mic for those who have signed up to read. All writers are welcome!
Bill Christophersen is author of the poetry collections Where Truth Lies, Tableau with Crash Hemet, The Dicer's Cup and Two Men Fighting in a Landscape. His poems have been published in Rattle, RHINO, Hanging Loose and Poetry magazine. Bill was also a frequent book reviewer for the New York Times Book Review and other publications. Formerly, a professor at Fordham University and currently a fiddling member of several well-known string bands, Bill resides in Manhattan. |
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Dr. Lucia Cherciu will be this month's featured poet. She'll be followed by an open mic for those who have signed up to read. All writers are welcome!
Ms. Cherciu is a Professor of English at Dutchess Community College and the 2021 Duchess County poet laureate. She is the author of five books of poetry: Train Ride to Bucharest (Sheep Meadow Press, 2017), which received the Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize, Edible Flowers (Main Street Rag, 2016), Lalele din Paradis / Tulips in Paradise (Editura Eikon, 2017), Altoiul Râsului / Grafted Laughter (Editura Brumar, 2010), and Lepădarea de Limbă / The Abandonment of Language (Editura Vinea, 2009). She writes both in English and in Romanian. Her poetry was nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize and twice for Best of the Net. Her work appeared in “Antioch Review,” “Connecticut Review,” “Poetry East,” and in many Romanian literary magazines, such as “Timpul,” “Hyperion,” “Contrapunct,” and “Astra. Her web page is http://luciacherciu.webs.com. Her Twitter handle is @CherciuLucia. |
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Alison Woods will be this month's featured poet. She'll will be followed by an open mic for those who have registered to read. All writers are welcome!
Alison Woods has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize and was a finalist in the Lyric Recovery Festival at Carnegie Hall. She is the author, most recently, of a full-length book of poetry, Bless This Home, by Finishing Line Press - a personal chronicle that explores the roles of daughter, wife, single mother and lover and her quest to find a “blessed home” out of the troubled specters of her past. Her first collection, Dark Forest, won the New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition. Woods’ poems have been published widely in literary journals including The Paris Review, Poetry East, Western Humanities Review, Rattapallax and The Connecticut River Review, among many others. She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University in New York City and currently lives in Dobbs Ferry, New York. |
Tompkins Corners welcomes Raphael Kosek as the featured poet at our Poets’ Corner Open Mic. Following Raphael, the mic opens to all who wish to read, with a five-minute limit. Pre-registration is required to read but not to attend. Writers of all kinds are welcome!
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Raphael Kosek’s poems have appeared in such venues as Poetry East, Catamaran, Southern Humanities Review, and Briar Cliff Review.
Her latest chapbook, Rough Grace won the 2014 Concrete Wolf Chapbook Prize. Her lyricessays won first prize at Bacopa Review (2017) and Eastern Iowa Review (2016). She won the Bacopa Review’s 2019 poetry contest. American Mythology, a finalist at Brick Road Poetry Press, was released in 2019. Garrison Keilor has chosen two poems from it for The Writer’s Almanac. Her poems and essays have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She has taught English at Marist College and Dutchess Community College where her students kept her real. She has served as the 2019-2020 Dutchess County NY Poet Laureate. www.raphaelkosek.com |
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Eric ZORK Alan, a 11x National Slam Poet competitor. Mr. Alan will tell you he is probably best known for standing on chairs. He is also known for gratuitously dropping names... like that he is the only poet ever to have his book [appropriately called “I am NOT a poet”] blurbed by Davy Jones, Dobie Gray & Wild Cherry. Zork has Featured at the hottest poetry venues in America including Chicago’s legendary Green Mill where slam started. He has toured across America visiting High Schools and colleges in his mission to make more poets. He has produced and been featured in a series of "PG Safe Slam" DVDs from the National Poetry Slam to help get Slam poetry into the schools in an educational friendly and appropriate manner. He also performs at and hosts ZorkSlams [student-based events] at Barnes & Noble Bookstores Nationwide. He hosts Westchester County, NY's largest poetry series and slam master for the PSI Westchester Slam series @ The White Plains Public Library.
Find more on ZorkYouTube |
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Jonathan Andersen’s most recent full-length collection of poetry, Augur (Red Dragonfly Press, 2018), was the recipient of the David Martinson-Meadowhawk Prize and a finalist for the 2019 Connecticut Book Award in Poetry. Other books include Stomp and Sing (Curbstone Press/Northwestern University Press, 2005), and, as editor, Seeds of Fire: Contemporary Poetry from the Other U.S.A. (Smokestack Books, 2008). He has been a featured reader throughout the eastern United States, the United Kingdom, and Serbia, including at the Ledbury Poetry Festival, the 49th International Festival of Literature in Belgrade, and the 42nd Smederevo Poetry Autumn. His poems have appeared in many print and online publications, including Blue Collar Review, The Café Review, Chiron Review, Counterpunch, Exposition Review, Freshwater, HeART, Here, New Square, North American Review, The Progressive, and Rattle, among others. For twelve years he was a high school English and special education teacher, and since 2008 he has been a professor of English at Quinebaug Valley Community College in Danielson and Willimantic, Connecticut.
WEBSITE: www.jonathanandersenpoet.com ORDER BOOKS: http://jonathanandersenpoet.com/index.php/order-books/ |
Past Events ~ 2020
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Poet Gold ~ A rare talent who grabs you by the heart and says “Recognize” – Poet, author, performer, songwriter, community “Artivist” and speaker, Bettina “Poet Gold” Wilkerson is pushing the boundaries of poetry and the spoken word. Living with a chronic illness since childhood, Poet Gold, or as she is affectionately known as “Gold”, brings a soul-searching insight about the human existence, love, dreams, challenges, and triumph.
Appointed the 2017 and 2018 NYS Dutchess County Poet Laureate, Poet Gold is the recipient of numerous awards. With countless recitations, she has opened for Grammy-nominated artists and has spoken at renowned organizations such as Omega Institute and Self Employment in the Arts. Presently she is the co-host for the iHeart Radio podcast “Finding Out with Pete and The Poet Gold”. Her distinct voice will be heard, playing the role of God, in the upcoming animated short film “The Creation” poem by James Weldon Johnson, directed by award winning animated film maker, Steve Leeper. Poet Gold is an activist of the heart. Her words inspire to explore the essence of humanity. To learn more about “Poet Gold” visit one of her pages in social media: Facebook, Linkedin, Podcast, IG |
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Jo Pitkin, a Hudson Valley native is author of the chapbook, The Measure, and four full-length books of poetry--Cradle of the American Circus: Poems from Somers, New York; Commonplace Invasions; Rendering; and Village: Recession. She is also the editor of the anthology Lost Orchard: Prose and Poetry from the Kirkland College Community. Her award-winning poems have been published in numerous journals and anthologies including The New York Review of Books, Little Star, Quarterly West, Salamander, Southern Humanities Review, Terrain.org, Crab Orchard Review, Mom Egg Review, Stone Canoe, A Slant of Light: Contemporary Women Writers of the Hudson Valley, Even the Daybreak: 35 Years of Salmon Poetry, Like Light: 25 Years of Poetry & Prose by Bright Hill Poets & Writers, and Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Workspace. Jo lives within walking distance of the Hudson River where she works as a teaching artist at The Poetry Barn and as a freelance educational writer specializing in K through Grade 12 student and teacher materials. www.jopitkin.com
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John A. McKenna is a public affairs specialist in the mass media and nonprofit space. He is founder of KENNASCOPE, a consulting company operating at the intersection of content creation and social impact, launching MusicUnits which introduces, develops and promotes music therapy within healthcare and wellness centers. Appointed Executive Director of Operation Respect, he leads innovative efforts to promote peace building and conflict resolution through creative and positive forms of expression, including music. In such capacity he led the mission in the presentation and performance of student-songwriters from Parkland, Florida, amplifying their voices in the wake of the mass shooting in their community.
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M.A. Scott’s poetry has recently appeared in Sugar House Review, Heron Tree, The Mid-American Review, and Pretty Owl Poetry, and is forthcoming in Gargoyle Magazine and Moon City Review. M.A. is also a classical clarinetist, collage artist, and tarot enthusiast, as well as host of HVWC's monthly Submission Sunday. She grew up in Rhode Island and currently lives in New York's Hudson Valley where she likes to spend time with trees. |
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Amy Holman is a poet, literary consultant, teacher, and artist living in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of a collection, Wrens Fly Through This Opened Window (Somondoco Press, 2010), four chapbooks, including the prizewinning Wait for Me, I’m Gone (Dream Horse Press, 2005), as well as a reference guide for writers. Both poems and an essay have been nominated by magazine editors for Pushcart Prizes, and a poem once landed in The Best American Poetry. Recent poems have been accepted at BigCityLit, Blueline, Chiron Review, concis, Gargoyle, and great weather for MEDIA’s 2019 anthology, Birds Fall Silent in the Mechanical Sea. She is currently in that spiral of shuffling and revising poems for a new collection. |
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More about our July Feature:
SUSANA H. CASE is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Dead Shark on the N Train in 2020 from Broadstone Books. Drugstore Blue (Five Oaks Press) won an IPPY Award in 2019. She is also the author of five chapbooks, two of which won poetry prizes. Her first collection, The Scottish Café, from Slapering Hol Press, was re-released in a dual-language English-Polish version, Kawiarnia Szkocka by Opole University Press and she now serves on the Slapering Hol Press Advisory Committee. Poems by Case have appeared in Calyx, Catamaran, The Cortland Review, Portland Review, Potomac Review, Rattle, RHINO and many other journals. Case is a Professor and Program Coordinator at the New York Institute of Technology in New York City. Susana H. Case website: https://susanahcase.com/ New—Dead Shark on the N Train: http://broadstonebooks.com/Susana_H_Case.html |
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More about Ann Graue
Our feature on June 14th - Anne Graue the author of Fig Tree in Winter, available from Dancing Girl Press. Her poems have appeared in The Westchester Review, American Tanka, Random Sample Review, The New Verse News, The 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly and The Plath Poetry Project. Additional poetry is forthcoming in Blood and Roses: An Anthology In Honor of Aphrodite and Rivet: The Journal of Writing that Risks. She has reviewed literary magazines and poetry chapbooks for New Pages. |
Past Events ~ 2019
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2019
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