Founded in 1974, HoCoPoLitSo this year rejoices in its golden 50th anniversary of bringing world-renowned authors to Howard County to broaden the audience for contemporary literature and celebrate culturally diverse literary heritages. As we charge forward in this joyous season, we recognize that it would not have been possible to get here any other way than one step at a time— and certainly not without the generous support of our many friends, peers, and partners. In that spirit, Susan Thornton Hobby, Recording Secretary and The Writing Life Producer, penned the cover story of our FY2024 annual report: “We All Contribute to 50 Years of Stone Soup.”

This past year, leading up to the anniversary, was defined by new and expanded collaborations: in late 2023, HoCoPoLitSo partnered with Howard County Arts Council and Howard County government through the office of County Executive Calvin Ball to create the first-ever positions of Howard County Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate; we hope you will be able to join us for events featuring the inaugural appointees, Truth Thomas and Mai-Anh Nguyen— and applications are open now for the second youth laureate term.

Now in 2025, this year’s Bauder Writer-in-Residence, Tope Folarin, is making visits to county schools throughout the remainder of the school term, and applications are currently accepted for this year’s All-County Writing Competition. The Wilde Reading Series has moved to the newly-opened independent bookstore in the heart of Columbia, Queen Takes Book, and the annual Lucille Clifton Reading was held in partnership with the Howard County Conservancy this past October. Ahead of us are our signature events in collaboration with Howard Community College: HoCoPoLitSo’s Irish Evening coming soon on February 15th — tickets on sale NOW — and the Blackbird Poetry Festival, to be held April 24th, and we hope you can join us for all this and more.

As we reflect on the past half-century, we also look forward to how HoCoPoLitSo can change and adapt to best meet the needs of our community for another 50 years to come. Recently, new members of HoCoPoLitSo’s board of directors took the initiative to produce an updated online newsletter, distributed through hocopolitso.substack.com, which we call: HoCoPoLitSo’s “Rhyme and Reason.” If you were not previously receiving e-mails from HoCoPoLitSo, we hope you will subscribe to keep abreast of quarterly happenings in the world of lit, and future annual reports.

let there be lit.