POETRY
Friday, July 7 at 6 PM, in the garden of the Maine Historical Society’s Longfellow House, 489 Congress Street, Portland, Maine https://www.mainehistory.org/events/dear-specimen/
Herbert will read from her National Poetry Series-winning collection, Dear Specimen, as well as new work.
I will be reading from my debut poetry collection Dear Specimen as well as selections of new work for the Seam Poetry Series. Please join me!
Please join me on Oct. 6, 2021 at 7 p.m. EDT for the launch of Dear Specimen, a 2020 National Poetry Series winner selected by Kwame Dawes. “These poems engage the most critical question humans have ever faced–and do it from the wellsprings of passion and grace that are the best thing about our species.”–Bill McKibben.
Betsy Sholl, former Poet Laureate of Maine will join me for a Virtual Reading and Conversation. The event is co-hosted by the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance and Print Bookstore in Portland, Maine. Juxtaposing a profound sense of intimacy with the vastness of geological time, Dear Specimen offers a climate-conscious critique of the human species—our search for meaning and intimacy, our capacity for greed and destruction. Dear Specimen is an extended love letter and dire warning, not only to the daughter its speaker leaves behind but to all of us.
Featured poets: W.J. Herbert, Mary Robles and Dennis James Sweeney
This virtual program is free to attend. Registration is required. Registration will be available soon, sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know.
To Emily Dickinson, phosphorescence, was a divine spark and the illuminating light behind learning — it was volatile, but transformative in nature. Produced by the Emily Dickinson Museum, the Phosphorescence Poetry Reading Series celebrates contemporary creativity that echoes Dickinson’s own revolutionary poetic voice. The Series features established and emerging poets whose work and backgrounds represent the diversity of the flourishing contemporary poetry scene. The 2021 Series will be a virtual event to ensure the health and safety of participants. While we are disappointed not to gather together in Amherst, we are excited to connect with a global community of friends and writers. Join us on the last Thursdays of each month to hear from poets around the world as they read their work and discuss what poetry and Dickinson mean to them.
Amherst Books is the preferred book seller for the Phosphorescence Poetry Reading Series.
BEST AMERICAN POETRY 2017 READING
Thursday, September 28, at 7p.m. to 9 p.m.
The Auditorium, Alvin Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall
66 West 12th Street, New York, NY 10011
I am honored to be reading my sonnet, “Mounting the Dove Box,” at the upcoming launch party for Best American Poetry 2017. The sonnet was chosen by David Lehman as second prize winner in the 2015 Morton Marr competition and originally appeared in The Southwest Review, Vol. 101, No.1. Pulitzer Prize-winner and nineteenth US Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey then selected it for inclusion in Best American Poetry 2017.
For the sixteenth consecutive year, the New School Writing Programs will sponsor the launch reading for this latest edition in the celebrated series, which offers “a vivid snapshot of what a distinguished poet finds exciting, fresh, and memorable” (Robert Pinsky.) For further details, click here.