HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the February edition of the Wilde Reading Series, proudly continuing its ongoing tenth season of highlighting local authors in Howard County. This month’s reading features Alan Britt and G. H. Mosson, hosted by Laura Shovan. Please join us at independent bookstore Queen Takes Book on Tuesday, February 10th at 7 p.m., at 6955 Oakland Mills Rd, Suite E, Columbia MD, 21045. Please spread the word— bring your friends, family, and students!

Our warm and welcoming open mic follows the featured authors and we hope you will let us hear from your stories, poems, or other piece. Please prepare no more than five minutes of performance time (about two poems) and sign up when you arrive. Books by the featured authors will be available for purchase.

Below, get to know Alan and Mosson!

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

Alan: William Blake.

Mosson: My poetry generally is imagistic more than narrative, not just in voice but in lyric expression. In my most recent book of poems, Singing the Forge (2025), there are six poems based on Whistler prints, and two based on sculptures by Henry Moore, so these artists win the hat of showing up the most. My children make two brief appearances at the end.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Alan: Outside in nature.

Mosson: From 2022 through 2026, my favorite place to write has been the chair beside my bed, with the sunrise peaking through the window, or that preface hue of blackish-green-bruise.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Alan: No.

Mosson: If I write, it most often early in the morning. It’s true, I’ve likely had coffee first.

Who always gets a first read?

Alan: Myself.

Mosson: Hmm, I read my own work first, indeed.

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

Alan: The First Decade by Duane Locke.

Mosson: My favorite version of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass is his first, 1855, which is available from Penguin Classics; while I have read it ten or more times; I surely will read it again. Well, I have just finished my second tour through the Collected Poems of C. P. Cavafy, the Greek Alexandrian poet, this time translated and arranged by Daniel Mendelsohn. This particular curation is wonderful, and I plan to read it again soon, so it’s about to qualify. I could go on.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Alan: Tough! Perhaps Robert Bly’s reading with HoCoPoLitSo at Howard Community College. (In a writing workshop at Smith Theatre in 1997, co-sponsored with Columbia Festival of the Arts. —Ed.)

Mosson: I saw Gary Snyder talk as well as read at The Guggenheim Museum in NYC in conjunction with an Asian art exhibit, and the evening was an intellectual and aesthetic highlight combining art, lived ideas, and poetry. It is hard to forget hearing Allen Ginsberg along with several others read Whitman’s entire “Song of Myself” at St. John’s Church in NYC some decades ago. These two readings immediately come to mind, for sure. Further, I saw Stanley Kunitz read at the Library of Congress, which moved me, as has Li Young-Lee, twice.

• Alan Britt has been nominated for the 2021 International Janus Pannonius Prize awarded by the Hungarian Centre of PEN International for excellence in poetry from any part of the world. Previous nominated recipients include Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Charles Bernstein and Yves Bonnefoy. Alan has published 25 books of poetry and was interviewed at The Library of Congress for The Poet and the Poem. A graduate of the Writing Seminars at John Hopkins University, he currently teaches English/Creative Writing at Towson University.

• G. H. Mosson is the author of three books and three chapbooks of poetry, including Singing the Forge (David Robert Books, 2025), Family Snapshot as a Poem in Time (Finishing Line Press, 2019), and Questions of Fire (Plain View Press, 2009). His poetry has appeared widely in periodicals, and been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize. He practices law, raises two wonderful kids, and enjoys day hikes.

His website, ghmosson.com, is a good place to start connecting, but right now he is very proud of his Baker Artist page.