HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the May edition of the Wilde Reading Series, with Howard County Youth Poet Laureate Mai-Anh Nguyen and Leona Sevick, hosted by Ann Bracken. Please join us at independent bookstore Queen Takes Book on Tuesday, June 10th at 7 p.m., at 6955 Oakland Mills Rd, Suite E, Columbia MD, 21045. Please note this event is the final Wilde Reading for this year’s season; the monthly event is expected to resume in September, and will again be presented at Queen Takes Book.

An open mic follows the featured authors and we encourage you to participate. Please prepare no more than five minutes of performance time, about two poems. Sign up when you arrive, or in advance via this online form.

Below, get to know Mai-Anh and Leona!

Who is the person in your life (past or present) that shows up most often in your writing?

Mai-Anh: I often feel uncomfortable writing about real people or even taking inspiration from my interactions with my friends and family—unfortunately for anyone who attends my readings, this means that the majority of my poetry is centered around myself. I like to say that I write about the intricacies of being a teenage girl, something I would say I am an expert on.

Leona: My answer to this question has changed over time, but I have always written most about some member of my family. At first, my children featured prominently in my work. With my father’s death a year ago, he has occupied much of my mental and writing space in my recent work.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Mai-Anh: Most of my writing is done in the comfort of my room, more specifically bundled up in my bed. I believe the words flow best there, in the place between dreams and waking.

Leona: I have a second story porch with comfortable Adirondack chairs. I call this place my “writing porch.” I also write at my kitchen table.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Mai-Anh: I don’t think there’s anything special about my writing process. The majority of my poems begin at the end—meaning I typically think of the last line first, then work around it.

Leona: I always read a poem or two in a journal I love in order to prepare me for writing.

Who always gets a first read?

Mai-Anh: I typically keep my poems to myself until I read them in front of an audience, like ripping off a band-aid.

Leona: My friend, the poet Lauren Alleyne, almost always gets first read.

What is a book you’ve read more than twice (and would read again)?

Mai-Anh: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I own two copies and hope to collect more in the future. With every reread, I feel as though I discover a new emotion or joke within the pages that I had failed to notice before. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Leona: Sharon Olds’ Stag’s Leap.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Mai-Anh: I’ve attended very few live poetry readings, but my favorite so far has been a reading by a good friend who was published in the first edition of Navigating the Margins.

Leona: I had the great pleasure just last week of hearing Andre Dubus III read at the Longleaf Writers Conference. That reading from his memoir will stick with me for a long time.

• Mai-Anh Nguyen is currently a junior at Oakland Mills High School, where she serves as the president of the National Art Honor Society and participates in orchestra, Youth Climate Institute, and Spanish National Honor Society. Mai-Anh was appointed as the inaugural Howard County Youth Poet Laureate in the 2024–2025 academic year. In her free time, she enjoys playing tennis, drawing, and writing.

• Leona Sevick‘s work appears in Orion, Birmingham Poetry Review, Blackbird, The Southern Review, and The Sun. Leona serves on the advisory board of the Furious Flower Black Poetry Center and is provost and professor of English at Bridgewater College in Virginia, where she teaches Asian-American literature. She is the 2017 Press 53 Poetry Award Winner for her first full-length book of poems, Lion Brothers. Her second collection of poems, The Bamboo Wife, is published by Trio House Press (2024). Leona’s home page is leonasevick.com.