A quick reminder that A virtual Thirsty Lab Poetry Reading with David Surette is five days away, on Tuesday, November 24th. Zoom registration info can be found in our event calendar.

Worcester Magazine continues to publish the occasional poem in a series they call “Poetry Town”.  The latest offering is from Worcester poet, Eve Rifkah.

/ I am a character in a Bergman film.

In heavy black dress

arms folded on the oak table

head at rest on arms. /

You can read it here.

Congratulations to Kate McIntyre, managing editor of The Worcester Review, on winning the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. The Worcester Review is our annual print literary/art journal.  The Worcester Review is our annual print literary/art journal.  The 2020 volume should be mailed to members within several weeks.

WPI Creative Writing Professor Honored with the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction 2020, Book Publication

The WCPA’s next (virtual) board meeting is tomorrow night, Wednesday, November 4, 2020. Are you interested in what the board is doing in these weird times we live in, or do you have an idea for a poetry reading, event, workshop, shindig that we want to pitch?

Visit the November 2020 Board meeting event, follow the Zoom registration link, and join us for 90 minutes for poetic sausage making.

The American Antiquarian Society is hosting a free, online event on Thursday, November 5, 2020, titled “Phillis Wheatley Peters and African Lineage and Kinship in The Age of Phillis”. Poet, writer and essayist Honorée Fanonne Jeffers will be presenting.

Born in West Africa, Phillis Wheatley Peters (c. 1753 – December 5, 1784) was sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America. She was purchased by the Wheatley family of Boston. The publication in London of her “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral” in September 1773, brought her fame both in England and the American colonies. Figures such as George Washington praised her work.

You can find details at the American Antiquarian Society website.

Earlier this month the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to poet Louise Glück. Read, and listen to, a sampling of her work at https://poets.org/poems/louise-gluck.

A quick reminder that A virtual Thirsty Lab with Jamie Samdahl is taking place tomorrow night (Tuesday, October 27th) at 7:00 pm.

You can find a Zoom sign-up link in our event calendar.

Jamie Samdahl is a poet and naturalist from Princeton, Massachusetts. Her poems have appeared in Rattle, Washington Square Review, Mountain Record: The Zen Practitioners’ Journal, and elsewhere. In 2013 John Yao, Mary Jo Salter, and Cleopatra Matthis named Jamie winner of the 90th Annual Glascock Poetry Contest. An environmentalist as much as a writer, Jamie has worked as a park ranger in New Hampshire, Colorado, Nevada, and California. She currently resides in Reno, Nevada.

It is with sadness that we share the passing of J. Philip O’Hara.  For over a decade, Phil and his wife Pat have supported the WCPA’s Annual Poetry Contest: The Frank O’Hara Prize. The contest was renamed in 2009 in honor of Phil’s brother, poet Frank O’Hara. Their support has allowed the Association to recruit talented judges and attract thousands of submissions. We will miss his presence at our annual Winners’ Reading, his advice, and his friendship.

Below are a few photos of Phil from the past few years. You can read his obituary here.

Congratulations to Meg Kearney on winning the 2020 Washington Prize for her collection All Morning the Crows! Kearney will read for the WCPA on November 8th in our Zoom into Poetry with Meg Kearney event.

A five-judge panel chose Kearney as the winner from a pool of eleven finalists. The annual prize includes a publication contract along with a monetary award.

Kearney is the author of two collections for adults, An Unkindness of Ravens and Home By Now, winner of the 2010 PEN New England L.L. Winship Award, as well as a heroic Crown published as a chapbook titled The Ice Storm, and a trilogy of novels in verse for teens.

Click here to read more about the Washington Prize.

The Worcester Review, the nationally recognized print journal of the WCPA, will soon release its 2020 volume. In addition to poetry and fiction, the feature section, titled “Stubborn Hope”, looks at South African activist and poet Dennis Brutus.

Cover art is by Abu Mwenye is a Tanzanian-American artist living in Worcester. His areas of specialty are acrylic paintings, oils, commission works, and anything that challenges his creative mind. View more of his work online at visionaryafrica.com.

Members of the WCPA receive The Worcester Review as one of the benefits. Anyone who renews or starts a membership with the WCPA by October 31, 2020, will receive a copy. Visit our membership page to renew or start a membership today.

P.S. – The Worcester Review is now on Twitter – check them out at @WorcesterReview.