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WCPA 2026 Annual Meeting
March 1 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
The annual meeting of the Worcester County Poetry Association will be held in the ball room of The Salisbury House, followed by a reading by new Worcester Poet Laureate Nicole “Nic” Jean Turner!
Nicole Jean Turner is the poet laureate of Worcester, Massachusetts for 2026-2028; a hand-patched, sticker-smattered, snagged-lace-layered writer. She writes in cursive to hide butchered spelling that might
otherwise raise suspicion about her master’s degree in writing.
That sleight-of-hand humor reflects Turner’s lyrical, relatable style. Formally described as drawing from
minimalist traditions in a post-confessional mode, her work intersects fragmented, voice-driven burnt tongue with layered metaphor across both poetry and prose, spanning a wide range of audiences, from inspirational children’s poetry to award-winning formal verse. Turner prefers to be described as just another one of the writers you might find in the dive bar that Worcester’s longest-running weekly poetry event, the Dirty Gerund Poetry Show, calls home. A regular reader for more than a decade, she coaches the slam team and organizes a traveling arm of the show, repackaging its late-night literary ruckus for museums, cafés, and other all-ages audiences. Turner first emerged from the spoken word poetry scene of Syracuse, New York, in 2012 under the stage name Nic Jean. Since then, she has strung literary heartstrings from the Pacific Northwest to New England, connecting stages, pages, and workshop spaces with those drawn to subversive, DIY, community-centric work.
Turner’s authenticity reflects her deep commitment to accessibility, prioritizing art that meets people where they are. Whether working within more traditional literary spaces or mentoring emerging writers outside a dive bar, she consistently encourages others to shed their preconceived ideas of what a writer should look or sound like and to claim their own distinct voices and stage presence.
Education: Turner holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Fine Art, and Creative Writing from Le Moyne College, and a Master of Arts in Professional Writing from Regis College.
Books: to Unfurl (2023) – Limited copies available through Turner
With Only Which She Could Carry (UWA, 2020) – Available to booksellers through Ingram
Media Kit: www.pw.org/directory/writers/nicole_jean_turner
Official Website: www.NicoleJeanTurner.com
Contact: Hello@poetry-journal.com