HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the November edition of the Wilde Reading Series, which this year proudly celebrates its tenth season of highlighting local authors in Howard County. This month’s reading features Geoffrey Himes and Linda Rabben, hosted by Linda Joy Burke. Please join us at independent bookstore Queen Takes Book on Tuesday, November 11th at 7 p.m., at 6955 Oakland Mills Rd, Suite E, Columbia MD, 21045. Please spread the word— bring your friends, family and students! Light refreshments will be served and books by the readers available for sale.

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, and sign up when you arrive.

Below, get to know Geoffrey and Linda!

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

Geoffrey: My wife.

Linda: Too many people to name here.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Geoffrey: Anywhere—as long as the words come.

Linda: Anywhere.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Geoffrey: I always carry a notebook in my pocket, just in case.

Linda: No.

Who always gets a first read?

Geoffrey: My poetry writing group on Zoom.

Linda: Nobody always gets a first read. Sometimes my husband, sometimes a friend.

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

Geoffrey: The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens.

Linda: Middlemarch.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Geoffrey: Allen Ginsberg at HoCoPoLitSo.

Linda: Jan Karski, Polish diplomat who denounced German genocide during WWII, spoke at the University of Iowa about 40 years ago.

• Geoffrey Himes’ poetry has been published by Best American Poetry, December, Gianthology, Innisfree, Salt Lick and other publications. He has written about popular music and theater for the Washington Post, New York Times, Rolling Stone and many more since 1977. His book, In-Law Country: How Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash and Their Circle Fashioned a New Kind of Country Music, was published in 2024, followed by his book, Willie Nelson: The Stories Behind the Music, in 2025. His two books of collaborative poems with Grace Cavalieri, Fables from Italy and Beyond and The Third Voice, were published in 2025. His first book of solo poems, Today I Am an Orphan: The Shorter Poems of Geoffrey Himes, is due in 2026.

Geoffrey’s podcast and most recent writing can be found at the Hard Rain & Pink Cadillacs on SubStack.

• Author, anthropologist and human rights activist Linda Rabben did research in and on Brazil for more than 30 years, worked as a researcher for Amnesty International, and coordinated a project for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Linda’s 12 published books include Book of Changes, a collection of her poems, and Through a Glass Darkly: The Social History of Stained Glass in Baltimore. She is an associate research professor of anthropology at the University of Maryland.

Linda’s home on the web is found at wordworker.net.