Archives for April 2021

Action Plan

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April 19, 2021: In response to an ill-considered, offensive, and disrespectful public engagement on social media by a member of our board on April 16, 2021, the Worcester County Poetry Association is embarking on a strategic pause in programs and activities to begin our crucial work in developing a diversity, equity, and inclusion action plan. We can, and must, do better in engaging, including, promoting, and amplifying the voices of all members of our diverse community, particularly BIPOC, as creatives, collaborators, and audiences.

The WCPA Board has voted to immediately pause our programming for a minimum of three months so that we can reevaluate our practices, policies, and programs in a sustained and meaningful way. The WCPA intends to embark on a path of exploration to identify how to build the core values of diversity, equity, and inclusion into all our activities, as well as how to model those values as we advance our mission. We will be engaging in a professional evaluation by a third-party consultant experienced in assessing and facilitating diversity, equity, and inclusion plans to better engage diverse creatives in our programming, membership, and leadership.

We look forward to engaging in further discussions about combating inequity and building community through poetry. Please stay tuned for more information about concrete steps we will take in this effort, which will be ongoing and extend beyond this pause. We will communicate actions for which we will be transparent and accountable as an organization as they are developed during our evaluation process. Thank you again for your passion for poetry, your past service to the WCPA, and your commitment to making Worcester an inclusive and welcoming space for all.

2021 College Contest Results

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Congratulations to the winners of the WCPA’s 2021 College Poetry Contest: the Elizabeth Bishop Manuscript Prize and the Etheridge Knight Performance Prize.

Christopher McClure of Anna Maria College and North Grosvenordale, CT won the Elizabeth Bishop Manuscript Prize for “All I Do is Wait” Christopher’s poem will be published in an upcoming volume of The Worcester Review, the WCPA’s print journal.

The winner of the Etheridge Knight Performance Prize is Isabella Sampino of the College of the Holy Cross and Bay Shore, NY.

Kat Gatto of Assumption University and Webster, MA received an Honorable Mention in the Manuscript Prize for “Where I Am” and an additional Honorable Mention in the Performance Prize.

McClure, Sampino, and Gatto were joined by finalist Marina Petrillo of WPI and Worcester, MA.

Many thanks to our contest judges, Nicole DiCello and Susan Roney-O’Brien. The 2021 College Contest was organized by Craig Blaise of Anna Maria College.

Gather in Poems on Tuesday, April 13

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Join organizer and host Eve Rifkah for a virtual poetry reading on Tuesday, April 13, 2021, at 7:00 pm. In this time of pandemic, poets lack a regular forum for performing, and we lack the ability on our parts to see/hear what poets are writing.

In the virtual reading, each poet will read one poem of his/her own and one of another Worcester area or Worcester connected poet. The reading will be aired live and recorded and available through the WCPA archive to preserve our voices and a link that will have the poems read in print.

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.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Worcester Arts Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

Zoom into Poetry with Charles Coe – tomorrow!

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The next Zoom into Poetry virtual reading will take place on Sunday, April 11, 2021, at 7:00 pm.  Host Christopher Reilley welcomes Charles Coe to our virtual stage.  Register via Zoom to join the virtual audience or view the reading on Facebook Live.

Charles Coe is the author of three books of poetry: All Sins Forgiven: Poems for my Parents, Picnic on the Moon, and Memento Mori, all published by Leapfrog Press. He is also the author of Spin Cycles, a novella published by Gemma Media. Charles was selected as a Boston Literary Light by the Associates of the Boston Public Library and is a former artist fellow at the St. Botolph Club in Boston and a current artist-in-residence at the Manship House in Gloucester.

Join us Saturday for the College Poetry Contest

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Join us on Saturday, April 10, 2021, at noon for the WCPA College Poetry Contest where we will award the Elizabeth Manuscript Prize and the Etheridge Knight Performance Prize.  In its thirteenth year, area colleges send representatives to compete for bragging rights, complimentary membership in the WCPA, and the publication of a poem by the manuscript winner in The Worcester Review.

We are excited to hear the poetry of Kat Gatto (Assumption College) and Marina Petrillo (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) with additional readings by this year’s judges (Susan Roney-O’Brien and Nicole DiCello) and the contest chair (Craig Blais).

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.

Join our e-mail list (and help wanted)!

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One of the challenges of the past year is keeping connected with our members.  Our traditional method of sending periodic postal mailings with a few flyers became near-impossible with social distancing.  As a volunteer organization, we also struggle with burdening any one person with the effort needed to create flyers, make sufficient copies, collate, fold, seal, and organize a bulk mailing.

So we’ve created an e-mail mailing list that we’ll use to send out periodic updates on events and happenings of poetic interest.  You can join it today by filling in the short form below.

The fine print – we will never share the information you share with us with others. We may, on rare occasions, use the mailing list to cross-promote an event by another organization.

Help Wanted – if you are interested in helping to promote poetry in central Massachusetts, and are comfortable with Facebook, Twitter, and websites, then we’d love to chat with you.  Coordinating postings on our website and Facebook takes a bit of work.  Adding a mailing list is a new wrinkle, and an extra hand would help spread the burden.  Drop an e-mail wcpaboard at yahoo dot com if you are interested in chatting.

Here’s the e-mail mail list sign-up form.

 

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Reminder – submissions are open for our annual poetry contest!

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Submissions for the our Annual Poetry Contest: The Frank O’Hara Prize are open through Friday, April 30, 2021. The contest is open to all members, Worcester County residents and students, and employees of Worcester County businesses. Winning poems are published in The Worcester Review, and the poets are honored with a winners’ reading.

Winners are notified in June and a Winners’ Reading is held each September.

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.

Online submissions are powered by Submittable – https://theworcesterreview.submittable.com/submit.

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25 Years of National Poetry Month

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Launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996, National Poetry Month reminds the public that poets have an integral role to play in our culture and that poetry matters.  That’s half the time the WCPA has existed but it’s still a pretty awesome anniversary! 🙂

All teasing aside, here are some ways you can celebrate National Poetry Month.