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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.

WPL poetry writing workshops

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2020 Stanley Kunitz Medal recipient, Susan Roney-O’Brien, is leading two more Poetry Writing 101 workshops with Worcester Public Library​.

Sign-up for this Saturday’s class, Poetry Writing 101 with Susan Roney-O’Brien: Sound, Resound​. It’s taking place on January 2, 2021. Or you can sign up for Poetry Writing 101 with Susan Roney-O’Brien: In Form, Conform, Reform​ on Saturday, February 6, 2021.  Registration links can be found in the event listings linked above.

Both workshops take place between 11 a.m. and noon.

a website banner with a winterscape background

2020 Clemente update

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Elizabeth Bacon, WCPA board member and Coordinator for Clemente Worcester, shared this update with Clemente Worcester supporters as the end of 2020 approaches.

Dear Clemente Worcester Supporters,

A table covered with a brown table cloth has multiple gifts including 2 apples, a blue graduation cap with an orange tassle, balloons, and a book

Graduation 2020 gifts

We HOPE this finds you well during these last, dark days of this difficult, still unfolding year.
2020 Worcester Clemente Graduation Program

We wanted to let you know that we paused our in-person program in March. With the ardent support of Mass Humanities, we provided all our 2020 students with Chromebooks and Hot Spots to finish on-line in October. All 20 students graduated, and faculty and staff delivered graduation gifts to each person’s home in mid-October. I have attached photos, a copy of this year’s graduation program, this year’s Graduation Speech, and a Welcome from Worcester County Poetry Association President Rodger Martin. All will bring you JOY and HOPE.

This summer, Professor Lucia Knoles taught an online course for alumni on Op-Ed Writing funded through a Mellon Foundation Grant in partnership with Mass Humanities and four other Clemente sites across the state. The result was a beautiful publication called, We, too, Are America. 2020 Worcester graduate Mallory Shelly’s writing was featured in the Clemente National newsletter on December 8th. Please explore her work and that of others through the link below. Our graduates bring us HOPE:

https://www.blog.clementecourse.org/post/for-mallory-shelly-everything-offers-a-chance-to-learn

Lorenza Villatoro and family members stand in front of several balloons

Lorenza Villatoro

Starting in February, Clemente Worcester faculty will offer a three-credit, on-line course to Clemente Worcester graduates and newly accepted students to the Class of 2021-22, and Clemente students from across the state will be invited to join a new writing class led by Mass Humanities and funded by the Mellon Foundation.

By September, we HOPE to be back in person at The Worcester Art Museum and Trinity Lutheran Church – resuming the life-giving connection to scholarship and community that has become Clemente Worcester’s hallmark. YOU are an important part of that Community, and we HOPE to see you back with us then.

Until then, THANK YOU for joining us in making this amazing opportunity possible for so many and for bringing HOPE in this time of isolation and challenge.

In solidarity – on behalf of all of us,

Elizabeth

PS: If you would like to make a gift this year, please go to:

www.worcestercountypoetry.org

#508Fridays – Main IDEA

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Main IDEA Youth & Arts empowers youth by providing quality accessible arts programs to under-resourced communities. The organization has offered free after-school and summer arts programs to youth in Worcester since 2011, with a priority given to youth residing in the Main South neighborhood.
 
As the year closes out, you can help Main IDEA by donating an art kit or art supplies at C.C. Lowell via an online portal. Your gift will help make 2021 a little brighter and colorful.