Submissions for the WCPA’s Annual Poetry Contest: The Frank O’Hara Prize are now open. For 2022 our contest judge is Usman Hameedi, a Pakistani-American scientist, poet, and educator who serves on Mass Poetry’s Board of Directors.
Contest rules and submission details can be found on the 2022 Annual Contest Submission Guidelines page. The submission deadline is Saturday, April 30, 2022.
Online submissions are powered by Submittable.
The WCPA is thankful to receive a $10,000 Community Grant from the Greater Worcester Community Foundation! GWCF operating support will help us focus on our mission to celebrate the rich literary history and creative energy of Central Massachusetts through poetry.
On behalf of the Stanley Kunitz bequest to the Worcester County Poetry Association, the Medal committee is pleased to announce the opening of nominations for the 2022 Stanley Kunitz Medal, the eighth to be awarded since 2015.
The medal is presented annually to a person with a strong Worcester County (Massachusetts) connection who best exemplifies Stanley Kunitz’s life-long commitment to poetry and poets. The award recognizes an individual’s total commitment to poetry as Kunitz lived it: teaching poetry, mentoring poets, speaking poetry, publishing poetry, and supporting organizations which nurture poetry.
Letters of nomination should provide support explaining how the nominee nurtured poetry as defined above. Because the yearly award is singular and cannot honor all worthy applicants, past nominations may be reactivated for 2022 once the nominators notify the committee chair to keep the nomination active.
Nominations should be mailed to The Stanley Kunitz Medal, c/o Worcester County Poetry Association, P.O. Box 804, Worcester, MA 01613 between December 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022. The award announcement will be made in the late spring of 2022, with a ceremony at The Worcester Historical Museum coinciding with Kunitz’s birthday the last week of July. Please visit the Kunitz Medal page for more details.
The 2022 Stanley Kunitz Medal committee wishes to recognize and thank the following volunteers who have served to bestow this honor in the past: Rodger Martin, chair (2013-2021), Kent Ljungquist (2017-2021), Karen Sharpe (2019-2021), Robert Steele (2015-2016), E. Robert Cronin (2015-2018).
Respectfully,
Judith Ferrara, Committee Chair – Judy@PaletteAndPen.com -508-757-0524
Joe Fusco, Jr.
John Hodgen
Heather J. Macpherson
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
An Evening of Poetry will be held on Saturday, November 20th at the GB & Lexi Singh Performance Center at Alternatives’ Whitin Mill, 60 Douglas Road, Whitinsville, MA. A celebration of poetic excellence, this event features readings from four regional poets and an open mic segment following intermission. Scheduled from 7:00 – 9:00 pm, the event is free and open to the public with donations welcome.
The poetry showcase will spotlight Candace Curran, Paul Richmond, Karen Warinsky, and Gerald Yelle, who will all read during the first hour. Curran has twice been named Western Massachusetts Poet’s Seat laureate, while Richmond was honored as Massachusetts Beat Poet Laureate (2017-2019) and National Beat Poet Laureate (2017-2019). Warinsky has been a finalist in the Montreal International Poetry Contest. Her debut collection, Gold in Autumn, was released last summer. Yelle’s publications include The Holyoke Diaries and No Place I Would Rather Be. He is a member of the Florence, Massachusetts Poets Society.
Following intermission, community poets from the audience will be able to participate in an open mic segment, with five minutes allotted to each poet. Participants will be able to sign up to read at the start of the event.
This event is being hosted by ValleyCAST, the arts and culture arm of Open Sky Community Services. Following Open Sky’s COVID safety protocol, all attendees are required to wear a mask regardless of vaccination status.
For further information about this program or to learn more about participating, email Karen Warinsky: karen.warinsky@gmail.com. To learn more about ValleyCAST and/or Open Sky Community Services, visit openskycs.org.
Plein air painter and Plein air writer Sam Lalos invites you to a retreat at the Marie Joseph Spiritual Center (10 Evans Road, Biddeford Pool, Maine 04005),
MAY 11-15. WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY 2022 FOUR NIGHTS arriving Wednesday 1ish leaving Sunday 15 after lunch
Contact Anne or Sister Kate at the Marie Joseph Spiritual Center directly 207 284 5671 and ask for Sam Lalos’ Worcester painters and poets group
or contact Sam. 508 753 4319 slalos@worcester.edu and mention dates.
100 per night with a private room and three meals included for 100 total per night. Book other dates, an option you have.
COVID concerns? refunds up to a week or two before stay; that is Sam’s understanding. There is the possibility of eliminating the weekend days; check out the possibilities of booking your own or other dates. Separate sections for women. Religious services are optional and not required.
The Worcester Review publishes literary fiction and poetry by new and established writers, as well as critical commentary on aspects of Central Massachusetts literary culture and history. The Worcester Review is a print journal published by the WCPA.
We welcome and encourage contributions from under-represented writers. For Fall 2021/ Winter 2022 submissions, TWR will have a waived-fee option for BIPOC writers.
TWR does not want to miss out on submissions from any writer; if our submission fee is a barrier for you, please email the editor for options.
Submissions Periods:
We will open for submissions of poetry and fiction on October 1, 2021.
POETRY:
October 1, 2021 – January 31, 2022
FICTION:
October 2021 and January 2022
For more guidelines, please visit TWR’s Submittable page: https://theworcesterreview.submittable.com/submit
Image information – The cover of the 2020 volume of The Worcester Review features artwork by Abu Mwenye.
Join host Joe Fusco Jr. for a poetry-packed evening this Thursday, October 28, 2021, at Root and Press (623 Chandler St., Worcester). The reading starts at 6:00 pm.
Join them for an open mike then their Feature performer, the extraordinary poet, Tony Brown.
Tony has been writing, publishing, and performing poetry for more than fifty years.
A seven-time Pushcart Prize nominee, he is also the front person for local poetry and music band The Duende Project.
Sign up for the open mike in advance at jfjr6969@gmail.com.
Support a local business and an awesome performer!
Doors open at 5:30 pm. The kitchen will be open.
Applications will be accepted until November 15, 2021, and all interested in applying, nominating, or learning more are encouraged to attend a virtual Application Workshop Tuesday, October 26 at 4:30 pm.
The City of Worcester is accepting applications for its next Youth Poet Laureate!
The Youth Poet Laureate program is an exciting opportunity for a young individual to serve as an official ambassador to Worcester’s historic and vibrant cultures of poetry and literary arts. This role is open to Worcester residents who will be between 13 and 19 years of age on January 1, 2022. Those interested may be nominated or apply on their own. Candidates will be reviewed on the literary merit of their work, impact on the community, contributions to the literature of Worcester, and more. Applications must be submitted by November 15, 2021. Click here to learn more about guidelines and submit an application.
The chosen individual will serve a two-year term from January 2022 through December 2023. During this time, the appointee will represent the City of Worcester as they develop their own work, act as an ambassador to literacy, the arts, and expression, perform public readings, work with the public, and capture life in Worcester for future generations. In Youth Poet Laureate will receive a $2,500 scholarship, as well as a $500 annual stipend honorarium.
Prospective applicants and anyone thinking of nominating a candidate is encouraged to attend the virtual Youth Poet Laureate Application Workshop on Tuesday, October 26 at 4:30 PM. This comprehensive workshop will provide an application walk-through and the opportunity to hear from current Youth Poet Laureate, Amina Mohammed. Click here to register for this workshop on Zoom.
Learn more about the role through the eyes of current Youth Poet Laureate Amina Mohammed in a recent interview on WorcesterCulture.org: Writing, Expressing, and Healing: An Interview with Amina Mohammed, Worcester Youth Poet Laureate.
For questions, please email Culture@WorcesterMA.gov.
The information in this post was provided by the Worcester Cultural Coalition (WCC).
Our community survey closes this Friday, October 22, 2021. Visit https://bit.ly/WCPA-survey to get started.
As part of our 50-year celebration, we’re reaching out to our members and the community to collect information about what we’re doing well, where we could use some improvement, and how you’d like us to expand and change so we thrive for another 50 years!
This survey will take between 5-10 minutes to complete. We encourage you to be open and honest with us, so we can learn and grow. All of your answers will be held in complete confidence. The only person who will see the answers is our consultant, who will share the answers – without names — with the WCPA board in a summary format.
Visit https://bit.ly/WCPA-survey to get started.
The WCPA is partnering with Sarah B. Lange on this process.
Individual artists are essential to a vibrant, thriving arts ecosystem! That’s why the Greater Worcester Community Foundation (GWCF) is partnering with MASS MoCA’s Assets for Artists to offer The Business of Art, a 6-month, entrepreneurial program for Worcester artists of color and artists or those who identify as low to moderate-income.
The program is part of the Creative Worcester Initiative, and the deadline to apply is October 18, 2021. For details and eligibility: https://www.greaterworcester.org/Grants/Grant-Opportunities/The-Business-of-Art.
Earlier this year we solicited short poems for a special public poetry project across Worcester which we called “A Walk in the Woo”. Over the past two weeks, a few volunteers painted stencils of the thirteen selected poems near bus stops (see the locations). What makes this public art project extra special is that the installed poems will only be visible when they get wet.
You don’t need to wait for the next rainy day to read the great work though. Visit the A Walk in the Woo page on our website.
Special thanks to our judges – Juan Matos, Poet Laureate, City of Worcester; Walter Molina, Clemente Alumnus; Elizabeth Bacon, Coordinator of Clemente Course in the Humanities; and Katherine Gregiore, WCPA Board Member.
The Worcester County Poetry Association is turning 50! As part of our 50-year celebration, we’re reaching out to our members and the community to collect information about what we’re doing well, where we could use some improvement, and how you’d like us to expand and change so we thrive for another 50 years!
This survey will take between 5-10 minutes to complete. We encourage you to be open and honest with us, so we can learn and grow. All of your answers will be held in complete confidence. The only person who will see the answers is our consultant, who will share the answers – without names — with the WCPA board in a summary format. The survey closes on Friday, October 22, 2021.
Visit https://bit.ly/WCPA-survey to get started.
The WCPA is partnering with Sarah B. Lange on this process.
The Clemente Course in the Humanities is an award-winning college-level seminar for highly motivated low-income adults seeking to build better lives for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Clemente Worcester is 10% short of the money it needs to support its class of 2022. To raise awareness and funds to support our program, we will be holding a virtual watch party of the award-winning documentary, A Reckoning in Boston, on Sunday, October 3 any time between 4 and 8 pm.
Please consider supporting this empowering program by joining their Viewing Party, and, if you are able, make a financial contribution. Additional details can be found at https://www.clementeworcester.com/support/.
The WCPA proudly serves as the fiscal agent for Clemente Worcester.
Join the winners of the WCPA’s 2021 Annual Poetry Contest: The Frank O’Hara Prize for a reading of their work and the work of contest judge, Pam Bernard. There will be an opportunity to mingle over refreshments as well. The reading will start at 3:00 pm US/Eastern.
Our 2021 Winners’ Reading will be held virtually via Zoom. Visit the Zoom registration link to receive information on how to join the reading. Zoom will send you an e-mail with the meeting details and a link to join.
This year’s winners include First Prize – Dean Gessie, Second Prize – Rhett Watts, Third Prize – Tom Driscoll, and Honorable Mentions – Therese Gleason Carr, Jennifer Freed, and Joyce Schmid. Contest Chairperson, Bob Gill, will moderate the ceremony.
Contest judge Pam Bernard is a poet, painter, editor, and adjunct professor who received her MFA in Creative Writing from the Graduate Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and BA from Harvard University. Her awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, two Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowships, and the Grolier and the Pablo Neruda Prizes in Poetry. She has published four books: three full-length collections of poetry, and most recently a verse novel entitled Esther, published by CavanKerry Press. Ms. Bernard lives in Walpole, New Hampshire.
Please join us for what is always a fun, and inspiring, event.
Rain poetry judges Juan Matos, Elizabeth Bacon, Katherine Gregiore, and Walter Molina have selected thirteen poems and seven honorable mentions as part of the WCPA’s 50th Anniversary celebration and community outreach. Each of the thirteen winning poems will be stenciled onto a sidewalk at a Worcester bus stop. All are posted in the “Program” section under “Walk in the Woo.” along with names and further details.
The Worcester County Poetry Association (WCPA) is pleased to announce that Dean Gessie of Midland, Ontario, Canada, has won this year’s WCPA Poetry Contest: The Frank O’Hara Prize. His poem “Diary of a Dead Eel Boy” was selected by contest judge Pam Bernard from the 191 poems submitted by 69 entrants.
Dean Gessie is a widely acclaimed author and poet who has won or placed in more than 80 international competitions. Gessie won the Enizagam International Poetry Contest in California and he was selected for inclusion by Black Mountain Press in both The Sixty-Four Best Poets of 2018 and 2019. In England, Gessie was shortlisted for the Anthology Poetry Award and the Latin Program Poetry Prize, and in Ireland, for the Fish International Poetry Contest. He was a finalist for the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize. He also won Third Prize in the Hungry Hill Writing Poets Meet Politics Competition. His short stories and poetry have appeared in numerous anthologies around the world. He has also published three novellas with Anaphora Literary Press: Guantanamo Redux; A Brief History of Summer Employment; and TrumpeterVille.
Additional winners:
Second Place – Rhett Watts of Auburn, MA for “Blues for Betty”
Third Place – Tom Driscoll of Framingham, MA for “This isn’t the first time”
Honorable Mention – Therese Gleason Carr of Worcester, MA for “Pee Wee Valley Kentucky: 1965”
Honorable Mention – Jennifer Freed of Holden, MA for “The Others”
Honorable Mention – Joyce Schmid of Palo Alto, CA for “Returning to Where I Grew Up”
The winning poems will be published in the next edition of The Worcester Review, the nationally recognized journal of the WCPA. The winners also receive a cash award. The WCPA will invite all the winners to read their work at the Winners’ Ceremony and Reading on Sunday, September 26, 2021, at 3:00 p.m. The Winners’ Reading will be held at the First Unitarian Church, 90 Main Street, Worcester. We hope that contest judge Pam Bernard will also be able to join us.
Contest judge Pam Bernard is a poet, painter, editor, and adjunct professor who received her MFA in Creative Writing from the Graduate Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and BA from Harvard University. Her awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, two Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowships, and the Grolier and the Pablo Neruda Prizes in Poetry. She has published four books: three full-length collections of poetry, and most recently a verse novel entitled Esther, published by CavanKerry Press. Ms. Bernard lives in Walpole, New Hampshire.
The contest, which was established in 1973, was renamed the Frank O’Hara Prize in 2009 and continues to be generously supported as a tribute to the late poet Frank O’Hara by the O’Hara family.
RIFKAH co-founded Poetry Oasis, Inc. (1998-2012), a non-profit poetry association dedicated to education and promoting local poets. She was the founder and editor of Diner, a literary magazine and earned her MFA from Vermont College. She also teaches poetry with the WISE program at Assumption University.
Rifkah is the author of Dear Suzanne (WordTech Communications, 2010) and Outcasts: The Penikese Island Leper Hospital 1905-1921 (Little Pear Press 2010). Her next book Lost in Sight, will be coming out in 2021 from Silver Bow Publishing. Rifkah has published two chapbooks: Scar Tissue (Finishing Line Press, 2017), and At the Leprosarium, 2003 winner of the Revelever Chapbook Contest. Her single poems, flash fiction stories and essays have appeared in many journals.
Eve Rifkah will receive her medal at an event presented by the Worcester County Poetry Association at the Worcester Historical Museum on Thursday, August 19, 2021 at 6:30 p.m.
Please note: Because the event is indoors, and the Covid-Delta variant is still about, masks will be required.
Broadside – 2021 Kunitz Medal honoring Eve RifkahDownload
Press Release – 2021 Kunitz MedalDownload
We have updated our Action Plan after continued reflection. You can read about our plans at this link.
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.
If you missed Tuesday’s Gather in Poems, a virtual reading organized and hosted by Eve Rifkah you can watch a recording of it on Facebook Live.
Visit https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=231825038688007.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Join the WCPA tonight for the (sorta) rare 5th Tuesday Thirsty Lab. You can register via Zoom or join us on the WCPA’s Facebook page and view the program on Facebook Live.
Register for Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwscO2vrj4qHty22fKA-grIzouMUgMLohX5.
A native of northern Minnesota, Francine Sterle has an MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson College and has furthered her studies in a variety of settings, including Oxford University, Oxford, England, the Spoleto Writers’ Workshop in Spoleto, Italy, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Her awards include multiple Pushcart Prize nominations, a Loft-McKnight Foundation Award, a Jerome Foundation Travel, and Study Grant, a Lake Superior Contemporary Writers Award, residencies at the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, the Leighton Studios at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Blacklock Nature Sanctuary, a Career Initiative Grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council as well as both a Fellowship Grant and a Career Opportunity Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Her poems have been published widely in such literary journals as The North American Review, Ploughshares, Poetry International, Nimrod and have been anthologized in To Sing Along the Way: Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-territorial Days to the Present, 33 Minnesota Poets, The Cancer Poetry Project, and Broad Wings, Long Legs: A Rookery of Heron Poems, forthcoming in 2022. Her poetry collections include The White Bridge (Poetry Harbor, 1999), Every Bird is One Bird (Editor’s Prize, Tupelo Press, 2001), Nude in Winter (Tupelo Press, 2006), and What Thread? (David Martinson-Meadowhawk Prize, Red Dragonfly Press, 2015).
The WCPA is thrilled to present Charles Coe in our ongoing Zoom into Poetry series, Sunday, April 11 at 7 PM. Registration is required, visit https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEufuqspjMvGdXC_8ssB2ZDpHM3lwy_ID0z, fill out the form and Zoom will e-mail you the link to join the event.
The annual Princeton Women’s Reading moves online this year and is taking place tomorrow night (3/24/2021) at 7:00 pm via Zoom. We know it can be difficult for folks to find the link to register so here it is – https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtce2srzMuH9FJ8Rr25HNJ9ILSglhlt8B4.
The following poets are scheduled to read – Pam Bernard, Polly Brown, Therese Carr, Devon Evans, Kathleen Fagley, Rushelle Frazier, Jennifer Freed, Joyce Heon, Emily Judkins, Maura MacNeil, Cheryl Perreault, Catherine Reed, Eve Rifkah, Susan Roney-O’Brien, Francis Sterle, Nancy Strong, Beth Sweeney, Rhett Watts, and Kate Zebrowski.
It’s a busy week in the world of virtual poetry readings with three events for you to join if you so desire.
Tonight, 3/21 @ 7:00 pm – Zoom into Poetry with Karen Friedland
Tuesday, 3/23 @ 7:00 pm – A virtual Thirsty Lab with Curt Curtin
Wednesday, 3/24 @ 7:00 pm – Princeton Women’s Reading
Registration via Zoom is needed to join the actual events; you’ll find a link in each calendar event.
Reminder – join the Worcester Black History Project, Worcester Historical Museum, and the WCPA tonight at 7:00 pm for Sisters Outsider: Black Women Creating Poetry. Moderators Tina Gaffney and Lydia Fortune will host Worcester poets Rush Frazier, the Reverend Dr. Catherine Reed, Xaulanda Thorpe, Zoe Vilicic, and Ashley Wonder.
Register via Zoom to join us live; details are in the calendar event.
Our featured reader from our last Zoom into Poetry session, Jeff Walt, shared a fascinating website with us – Broadsided Press @ https://broadsidedpress.org.
Broadsided Press connects poets and visual artists in the creation of the beloved broadside. The WCPA has a long history of creating broadsides and you can find digital versions of some of them in our Broadside Archive.
What’s interesting about Broadsided Press is that they create a collaboration between art forms and then make the result available via their website for anyone to distribute.
Take a look at the broadside created for Jeff Walt’s poem, “After the Fight” at https://broadsidedpress.org/broadsides/after-a-fight/. And let us know if you have a favorite broadside.
Etheridge Knight, who we honor each year with The Ethridge Knight Performance Prize as part of our annual College Poetry Contest, died on this day in 1991 of lung cancer.
Born in 1931 in Mississippi, he saw active duty in the Korean War. While serving an eight-year prison term in the Indiana State Prison, Knight wrote poetry. In 1968 Knight saw his first book published, Poems from Prison (Broadside Press). Knight entered into a successful period during the early 1970s, enjoying Popularity and recognition. He led Free People’s Poetry Workshops, gave numerous readings, and was a poet in residence at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Hartford, and Lincoln University. His critical acclaim included a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (1972) and a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation (1974). In 1980, Knight published Born of a Woman and received a second National Endowment for the Arts grant. In 1986 he published The Essential Etheridge Knight.
After making Fran Quinn’s acquaintance at the Great Mother Conference, he began giving readings in Worcester regularly and eventually moved to Worcester. While Knight lived in Worcester, he continued the Free People’s Poetry Workshop in area bars. Knight explained that if someone reads poetry and can stop a drunk man with a bladder full of beer on his way to the bathroom, you know it is a good poem.
Join us (virtually) on Saturday, April 10, 2021, for our annual College Contest Reading. Details can be found on the event listing.
Submissions for the WCPA’s Annual Poetry Contest: The Frank O’Hara Prize are open through Friday, April 30, 2021. 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.
Join us tomorrow, Sunday, March 7, 2021, for Zoom Into Poetry with Jennifer Martelli. visit this Zoom registration link, fill out the form, and Zoom will send you an e-mail link. The reading starts at 7:00 pm.
Jennifer Martelli is the author of “My Tarantella” (Bordighera Press) and “The Uncanny Valley” (Big Table Publishing Company), as well as the chapbook “After Bird” from Grey Book Press. Her work has appeared in The Aeolian Harp Anthology, The Superstition Review, The Bitter Oleander, Thrush, Carve, Glass Poetry Journal, The Heavy Feather Review, and Tinderbox Poetry Journal. Jennifer Martelli is the recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant in Poetry. She is a poetry editor at The Mom Egg Review.
Congratulations to WCPA member Curt Curtin on the release of his newest poetry collection, “Kerry Dancers.” Curt has a number of virtual readings and events scheduled this month as part of a virtual book tour. You can find the ones we are aware of at https://worcestercountypoetry.org/events/.
We’ve learned that former New Hampshire poet laureate Patricia Fargnoli passed away on February 18. We were honored to help support a tribute to Pat back in January. The image we share here is from the final poem she shared with us that afternoon. You can watch an edited recording of the January 24, 2021 “Tribute to Pat Fargnoli” on our YouTube channel.
Thanks to everyone who joined our Annual Meeting today. Despite being all virtual we had genuine engagement and discussion. Tim Mayo shared a wonderful reading of his poetry.
Please join me in thanking long-time board member Jim Cocola for his commitment to the WCPA over the past decade. Newer board members Irena Kaci and Lyndsey Uvanitte are also stepping down. We thank all of them for their service.
The following individuals were voted to serve on the WCPA board for 2021-2022. Their first meeting as a board will be on Wednesday, March 10, 2021.
Elizabeth Bacon
Robin Boucher
Therese Carr
Nicole DiCello
Joe Fusco Jr.
Robert Gill – Treasurer
Kate Gregoire
Johnhaynes Honeycutt
Carle Johnson
Jay Lavelle
Sam Lalos
Ann Marie Lucci
Rodger Martin – President
Kate McIntyre – Editor, The Worcester Review
Laura Jehn Menides
Carolyn Oliver
Christopher Reilley – VP, Programming
Susan Roney-O’Brien
Karen Sharpe
Robert Steele
Linda Warren – Treasurer
Sonia Sanchez is an American poet, writer, and professor. She was a leading figure in the Black Arts Movement and has authored over a dozen books of poetry. The Black Arts Movement was an African American-led art movement, active during the 1960s and 1970s. Through activism and art, it created new cultural institutions and conveyed a message of black pride.
Join us tonight for A virtual Thirsty Lab with Beth Sweeney. Beth will be joined by composter Matthew Jaskot, with whom she is collaborating on a sequence that includes eight poems she wrote for musical adaption.
Just a reminder that you need to register using the link in the event in order to join the virtual reading on Zoom.
Corrine Bostic served on the Worcester County Poetry Association’s founding executive committee at its creation in 1971. She served as its vice president from 1972 to 1973, on The Worcester Review editorial board, and as a board member until she died in 1981.
A poet and playwright, Corrine contributed to Worcester’s culture through her books, teaching, public appearances, and readings. In her book of poetry, “Requiem for Bluesville,” she states her obligation as a Black poet to “pour out / The lamentations of my people.”
She also edited an anthology of work by local writers, Messages in Black, which contained what are considered two of her best poems, “These Riotous Days” and “Ballad for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..” Additional publications include The Horns of Freedom, Other Places, Other Faces, and Go Onward and Upward.
Corrine was born on March 28, 1927, in Providence and had seven siblings. She served in the Army Medical Corps during the Korean War. In 1953 Bostic moved to Worcester to attend Worcester Junior College. She later graduated from Clark University. The Corrine Bostic Memorial Scholarship from Worcester State University is awarded annually in her honor.
Join us this Sunday, February 14, 2021, at 3:00 pm for our next Zoom into Poetry virtual reading. This month we welcome western Massachusetts poet Dane Kuttler. Dane Kuttler has been writing heretical prayers since 2016. She gives a darn good reading and loves zoom.
This is a free event, however, registration is required. You can register at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUkd-ygrT8rG9ZrObGi1q1TCwTJLdTg5Wev
Please join us.
The WCPA has added a new video to our YouTube channel. Today we share an edited recording of “Celebrating Pat Fargnoli”, a virtual poetry reading that took place on Sunday, January 24, 2021.
As with all WCPA activities we rely upon volunteers to create our content. We couldn’t share these videos, have updates to our website, or continue to hold virtual poetry readings without dedicated individuals. If you have a talent you would like to share with the WCPA or poetry lovers of central Massachusetts please e-mail wcpaboard@yahoo.com.
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/.
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.
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.
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.