Archives for January 2021

Clemente Worcester students part of anthology

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The WCPA serves as the fiscal agent for the Worcester Clemente Course in the Humanities, an award-winning college-level seminar for highly motivated low-income adults seeking to build better lives for themselves, their families, and their communities. Last summer, in the midst of the chaos created by COVID-19, Clemente pivoted to an online writing program.

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette recently published an article on an anthology that came out of the experience for Clemente Worcester, and other Clemente courses in Massachusetts. Give the article a read and consider picking up a copy of the anthology (you can get it through the Harvard Book Store.)

You can read the article at https://www.telegram.com/story/lifestyle/2021/01/24/clemente-students-offer-vision-nation-we-too-america/4159514001/.

New YouTube video – Jamie Samdahl @ the Thirsty Lab

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Our video editing volunteer has delivered another recording to our YouTube channel for your enjoyment.  Today we are pleased to share the wonderful reading by Jamie Samdahl.  The recording was made on October 27, 2020, at the virtual Thirsty Lab Poetry Reading.  Susan Roney-O’Brien hosts.

You can find the video at https://youtu.be/P8W8ayjO3Jk.

Jamie Samdahl

“Take Me Out to the Ballgame!”

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A Special edition of “The Issue,” WCPA’s semi-regular poetry anthology series returns with the boys of summer, as we celebrate not only our 50th anniversary year but National Poetry Month and the opening day of the WooSox at Polar Park!

Submission of your best baseball poetry is now open until the day after Valentine’s Day, 2021. Submit your poems in the body of an email, along with a brief bio and a head shot, to c.reilley@usa.com.

Jennifer Freed at the Thirsty Lab Poetry Reading.

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A week from tonight (Tuesday, January 26, 2021) the WCPA will support A virtual Thirsty Lab with Jennifer Freed at 7:00 pm. Registration is required; click here to be taken to the Zoom registration page.

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvc-isqTMoHNVEdqYuxmFsu6GNCHX8TM5Y

Jennifer L. Freed (she/her) has poems appearing in various print and on-line journals including Atlanta Review, Comstock Review, Connecticut River Review, Naugatuck River Review, The Worcester Review, and Zone 3, as well as in various anthologies, such as Forgotten Women, a Tribute in Poetry. ​ Her chapbook, These Hands Still Holding, was selected as a finalist in the 2013 New Women’s Voices Competition (Finishing Line Press). She was awarded the 2020 Samuel Washington Allen Prize for a long poem or poem-sequence (New England Poetry Club) and has been a finalist for the Frank O’Hara prize multiple times.

Celebrating Pat Fargnoli on January 24, 2021

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WCPA is honored to support Celebrating Pat Fargnoli next Sunday, January 24, 2021, at 3:00 pm. Fifteen readers will each read one of her poems. Pat is scheduled to finish off the reading with three poems if she is able.
 
Registration is required to attend. Visit https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvf-qvrjkjG9RcjRN5p5swwymzHSmjNEWo to register and Zoom will email you the link to join the event.
 
Patricia Fargnoli, the New Hampshire Poet Laureate from 2006-2009, is the author of six poetry collections. Her newest book is Hallowed: New and Selected Poems (Tupelo, 2017). Her other three full-length books, Then, Something, Duties of the Spirit, and Necessary Light were each award-winning (The Sheila Mooton Award, The ForeWord Magazine Silver Award for Poetry, The May Swenson Award, and The NH Literary Award for Outstanding Poetry). She has also published three chapbooks: Small Songs of Pain, Lives of Others, and Greatest Hits. A retired clinical social worker, “Pat” has been a Macdowell Fellow and is a past Associate Editor of The Worcester Review. She has been on the faculty of The Frost Place Poetry Festival and its teaching conference and has taught at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, for Road Scholars, and in the Lifelong Learning Program (CALL) of Keene State College. She currently teaches privately. Awards for her poems include an honorary B.F.A. from The New Hampshire Institute of Art, The Robert Frost Foundation Award, and five Pushcart nominations. She was twice a finalist for The Nation, Discovery Award. A native of Connecticut and a graduate of Trinity College, Hartford College for Women, and the University of Connecticut School of Social Work, she has published more than 300 poems in such journals as Poetry, Ploughshares, The Harvard Review, The Massachusetts Review, Barrow Street, Alaska Quarterly, et al. A member of The New Hampshire Writer’s Project and the New England Poetry Club, she’s lived for over twenty years in New Hampshire.

Board Meeting Schedule change

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At our January 4, 2021 meeting the WCPA the board voted to move our future meetings to the second Tuesday of each month. This move will provide more time to complete financial reports.

The WPCA board meeting monthly from September through June, taking a break from official meetings in July and August each year. If you want to join us for a future board meeting the dates through June 2021 include February 10, March 10, April 14, May 12, and June 9.

2021 Annual Poetry Contest Submission are open!

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Submissions for the WCPA’s Annual Poetry Contest: The Frank O’Hara Prize are now open. For 2021 our contest judge is Pam Bernard, an adjunct professor of writing at Franklin Pierce University.

Contest rules and submission details can be found on the 2021 Annual Contest Submission Guidelines page. New for 2021 – the submission deadline will end on Friday, April 30, 2021. It seemed to make sense to extend submissions through National Poetry Month.

Online submissions are powered by Submittable.

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2021 Stanley Kunitz Medal Nominations

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Nominations for the Stanley Kunitz Medal, which is presented annually by the Worcester County Poetry Association, are now open. The award recognizes the total commitment to poetry as Kunitz lived it: teaching poetry, mentoring poets, speaking poetry, publishing poetry, and supporting organizations that nurture poetry.  Past recipients include Judith Ferrara, Carle Johnson, Dan Lewis, Fran Quinn, Susan Roney-O’Brien, and Michael True.
Nominations for this year will close on March 1, 2021.
 
Additional information can be found on our Stanley Kunitz Medal program page.
Michael True and Carle Johnson

Michael True (left) and Carle Johnson at the 2017 Kunitz Medal presentation.

 

Zoom into Poetry with D. Keali’i MacKenzie on January 10th

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January 10th we continue our monthly virtual poetry feature series with Zoom into Poetry with D. Keali’i MacKenzie. Born in western Massachusetts, he is a past member of the Worcester Poetry Slam Team which represented the Poets’ Asylum at the National Poetry Slam.

Join us at 3:00 pm (Eastern) on Sunday, January 10, 2021. Registration is needed to join the event. Visit the Zoom registration link and fill in the form. A meeting link will be e-mailed to you.