1990

January 29, 1990 Taylor Branch

• 10 a.m. The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian spoke on “Students in the Civil Rights Movement” and took questions from students from the (then) eight county high schools, plus delegations from the Glenelg Country and Park schools, Smith Theatre.

February 16, 1990 Paul Muldoon

• 8 p.m. Read his poetry at the twelfth annual Evening of Irish
• Music and Poetry, introduced by Irish Ambassador Padraic McKernan, followed by Celtic Thunder band in concert, Kittamaqundi Room, Rouse Building.

March 2, 1990 Pioneer Women

• 12:30 to 2 p.m. The Maryland acting troupe Voices performed a one-time show drawn from authentic diaries and letters of America’s nineteenth-century Westward migrants, with discussion following, for students from the (then) eight Howard County high schools, Smith Theatre.

March 17 and 18, 1990 Amiri Baraka, Patricia Hampl and Jonathan Yardley

• 3 p.m. Saturday, Baraka, Hampl and Yardley participated in a panel, “Shaping the Past,” moderated by Roland Flint, followed by interaction with the audience, Howard Community College.
• 3 p.m. Sunday Each of the three writers read their autobiographical writings, moderated by Roland Flint, Smith Theatre.

April 22, 1990 Chris Llewellyn and Rosemary Eisenhauer

• 4 p.m. The Walt Whitman Award-winning poet read from her poetry, after Rosemary Eisenhauer’s tribute to her late husband, the longtime HoCoPoLitSo board member Louis Eisenhauer, at the first annual Eisenhauer Reading, Lower Lounge, Howard Community College.

May 13, 1990 Prudence Barry

• 4 p.m. Reprised a portion of her The Belle of Amherst role as part of Howard County Day at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

May 16, 1990 Lucille Clifton and Ellen Conroy Kennedy

• 4 p.m. Read and discussed the French language poets of Africa, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean, in French and English, co-sponsored by the Maryland Museum of African Art, to celebrate International Museum Day at Oakland.

September 30, 1990 George O’Brien

• 4 p.m. Read from his award-winning memoir, The Village of Longing/Dancehall Days, introduced by Christopher Griffin, Lower Lounge, Howard Community College.

October 28, 1990 Hilary Tham and Henry Niese

• 4 p.m. The Chinese-Malaysian read her poems and the Cherokee Howard County resident read his short fiction, Howard Community College Lower Lounge.

December 1, 1990 Ellen Bryant Voigt

• 2 p.m. Led a poetry workshop, Howard Community College.

December 2, 1990 Peter Sacks and Ellen Bryant Voigt

• 4 p.m. Read their poetry, Howard Community College Lower Lounge.

1991

February 8, 1991 Mark Strand

• 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. The 1990 to 1991 National Poet Laureate gave a master class on American poetry, took questions from students from the (then) eight county high schools, and closed with a few poems of his own, Smith Theatre.
• 7:30 p.m. Read his poetry in the Lower Lounge, Howard Community College.

February 22, 1991 Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

• 8 p.m. Read her work at the thirteenth annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry, followed by the Celtic Thunder band in concert, Smith Theatre.

April 3, 1991 Prudence Barry

• 7 p.m. Reprised The Belle of Amherst, presented by the Howard County Library at the Miller Branch, with an afterword by Diane B. Rowland, in cooperation with HoCoPoLitSo.

April 17, 1991 Roland Flint and Lucille Clifton

• 12:30 p.m. Read their poetry and took questions from the Howard Community College faculty, students and general public at Smith Theatre.

April 28, 1991 Toi Derricotte and Michael Glaser

• 4 p.m. Read their poetry at Amherst House, thanks to the King’s Contrivance Village Board, at the second annual reading in memory of Louis Eisenhauer.

May 3, 1991 Lucille Clifton

• 12 p.m. Read her poetry to more than 300 at the annual Older Americans Day Luncheon, Florence Bain Senior Center.

November 3, 1991 Daniel Boorstin

• 4 p.m. The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Librarian of Congress Emeritus, spoke on the theme “Paths to Lifelong Learning” at a symposium on books, readers and reading in the 1990s, moderated by Andrew Barth, with panelists David H. Barrett, Stephen Hunter, Jean F. Moon and Virginia Pausch.

December 13, 1991 Lucille Clifton and Linda Pastan

• 12 p.m. The former and current Maryland Poets Laureate appeared in a special joint reading and took questions from 250 students from the (then) eight county high schools, Smith Theatre.

1992

January 19, 1992 Francoise Pfaff

• 4 p.m. The African film scholar presented and later led a discussion of Gaston Kaboré’s feature film Wend Kuuni (Gift of God), a joint venture of HoCoPoLitSo, the Columbia Film Society and the Maryland Museum of African Art, Oakland.

February 7, 1992 Edna O’Brien

• 8 p.m. Read from her fiction, introduced by Irish Ambassador Dermot Gallagher and followed by the Celtic Thunder band in concert, at the fourteenth annual Irish Evening, Smith Theatre.

March 6, 1992 Prudence Barry

• 12 p.m. Reprised The Belle of Amherst for students from the (then) eight county high schools, followed by a discussion of Emily Dickinson’s life led by Diane B. Rowland, Smith Theatre.

April 26, 1992 Richard Thorman and Stacy Tuthill

• 4 p.m. Recent Maryland State Arts Council Fellowship winners read their fiction and poetry in memory of Louis Eisenhauer at Amherst House, thanks to the King’s Contrivance Village Board.

July 1, 1992 Ashley Bryan

• 7 p.m. The author-illustrator read from his children’s books for a family audience, part of the Columbia Festival of the Arts, Wilde Lake Interfaith Center.

July 2, 1992 Ashley Bryan, Sook Nyul Choi, Lucille Clifton, Phyllis Naylor and Michael Dirda

• 7:30 p.m. The four children’s book authors spoke on the theme “Beyond Dick and Jane: The World of Children’s Books,” a symposium moderated by Dirda, children’s book editor of the Washington Post’s Book World, a Columbia Festival of the Arts event, Wilde Lake Interfaith Center.

October 11, 1992 Reuben Jackson and Bill Jones

• 4 p.m. The 1992 Columbia Book Award winner and the 1992 Baltimore Artscape Literary Award winner read their poetry at historic Christ Episcopal Church.

November 8, 1992 Sharon Olds

• 4 p.m. Read her poetry, introduced by Roland Flint, The Lower Lounge, Howard Community College.

1993

February to May 1993 Hilary Tham

• As HoCoPoLitSo’s poet-in-residence, Tham spent a day at the (then) eight county high schools. On May 7, Tham also read at the annual Older Americans Day luncheon at the Florence Bain Center.

February 19, 1993 John McGahern

• 8 p.m. Read his fiction at the fifteenth annual Irish Evening, introduced by George O’Brien, followed by the Celtic Thunder band in concert, Smith Theatre.

March 9, 1993 Mona Van Duyn and Henry Taylor

• 7:30 p.m. The 1992 to 1993 Poet Laureate and the Northern Virginia poet read their work, Lower Lounge, Howard Community College.

March 26 to June 2, 1993 Prudence Barry, John Harding and Diane Rowland

• With Barry as actor, Harding as director and Rowland as scholar/coordinator, the trio revived and toured William Luce’s The Belle of Amherst to five Maryland counties for fourteen performances and discussions at retirement centers, schools and correctional centers across the state.

April 25, 1993 Roland Flint

• 4 p.m. Moderated a reading of 16 poets chosen by former Maryland Poet Laureate Lucille Clifton: Karen Arnold, Prudence Barry, Linda Joy Burke, Deana El- Farouki; Kristine Holland, Natalie Lobe, Ebby Malmgren, Henry L. Mortimer, Jr., George A. Murrill, Joan Phillippi, Gale Prisaznick, Alison Radcliffe, Patricia VanAmburg, Sydney Wallace, Barrett Warner, and John Wesley. Reception followed, Amherst House, courtesy King’s Contrivance Village Board.

June 20, 1993 Lucille Clifton, Sharon Olds and Galway Kinnell

• 4 p.m. Read their work in a program called “The Poetry of Love,” a Columbia Festival of the Arts event, Slayton House.

October 24, 1993 Carolyn Forché

• 4 p.m. Read from her anthology Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness, Christ Episcopal Church.

November 12, 1993 Stanley Kunitz

• 8 p.m. The 1993 National Arts Medalist read his poems, introduced by Gregory Orr, Lower Lounge, Howard Community College.

December 1993 to October 1994 Michael Dirda

• As HoCoPoLitSo’s writer-in-residence to the Howard County high schools, Dirda visited Howard, Wilde Lake, Atholton, Centennial, Mt. Hebron, Hammond, Oakland Mills and Glenelg.

1994

January 23, 1994 John Gregory Brown and Edward P. Jones

• 4 p.m. Read their prize-winning fiction, Lower Lounge, Howard Community College.

February 11, 1994 Seamus Heaney

• 8 p.m. Spoke on “Orpheus in Ireland” and read his poems at the sixteenth annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry, followed by the Celtic Thunder band in concert, Wilde Lake Interfaith Center.

April 22, 1994 Kay Redfield Jamison

• 2 p.m. Gave a talk, “Touched With Fire,” about literary creativity in writers such as Byron, Lowell, Sexton, Woolf, Roethke, etc., mania, and depression, in association with DRADA, the Depression and Related Affective Disorders Association, Meeting Room, the Ryland Building.

May 1, 1994 Michael Harper, Timothy A. Jenkins, Joetta Cramm and Alice Cornelison

• 4 p.m. On his 93rd birthday, the late Sterling A. Brown (1901-1989) was remembered with remarks by Timothy A. Jenkins; “Sterling Brown’s Howard County,” reports by local historians Joetta Cramm and Alice Cornelison on the Browns’ farm and the poet’s family background; concluding with a reading from The Selected Poems of Sterling Brown by Brown’s editor and fellow poet Michael Harper, Slayton House.

May 6, 1994 Henry Taylor

• 12 p.m. The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet read from his work at the annual Older Americans’ Day luncheon, Florence Bain Senior Center.

June 19 and 20, 1994 Roland Flint and Garrison Keillor

• 7:30 p.m. “Two Old Friends Reading Poetry,” a two-hour program in association with the Columbia Festival of the Arts, with poems by Keillor, A. E. Housman, Shakespeare, James Wright, Isabella Gardner, Flint and others, closing with 750 people in song.

October 8 and 9, 1994 W. S. Merwin

• 2 p.m. Saturday The first Tanning Prize winner gave a craft talk on creative writing, at Bryant Woods Neighborhood Center, limited to 50 registrants.
• 4 p.m. Sunday Read his poetry, Oakland Manor.

October 18, 1994 Michael Dirda

• Michael Dirda visited Glenelg High School, completing the residency he began in December, 1993.

Sunday, November 20, 1994 Lucille Clifton, Carolyn Kizer, Roland Flint, Reed Whittemore, Linda Pastan

• 4 p.m. Five prize-winning poets read at HoCoPoLitSo’s 20th Anniversary Celebration at Wilde Lake Interfaith Center. Admission included a copy of Twenty Years, Twenty Poets, 1974-1994.

December 9 and 15, 1994 Henry Taylor, Ann Darr, E. Ethelbert Miller and Hilary Tham

• The First HoCoPoLitSo Poetry Quartet read at Fairhaven Retirement Community, Sykesville, on December 9, 1994.
• On December 15, the foursome read to an assembly of 235 at the Park School and met with ten students, seminar style, for lunch. That evening they dined with students at the McDonogh School and read for ninety-five in the chapel.

1995

February 17, 1995 Eamon Grennan

• 8 p.m. Eamon Grennan read his poetry at HoCoPoLitSo’s 17th Annual Irish Evening followed by Celtic Thunder in concert. Introduction by Irish Ambassador Dermot Gallagher, Smith Theatre.

March 3 and 26 and April 11 and 28, 1995 Michael Collier, Kathy Mangan, Edgar Silex and Elaine Upton

• The Second HoCoPoLitSo Poetry Quartet read at the Maryland State Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup on March 3; at Vantage House in Columbia on March 26; at Holiday Park Senior Center in Wheaton on April 11. On April 28 they read to 300 middle school students at St. Paul’s School for Boys, Brooklandville, and led four workshops of fifteen students each.

April 13 1995 Gloria Naylor

• 7:30 p.m. Novelist Gloria Naylor read and talked about her beginnings as a writer, Smith Theatre. Co-sponsored with Maryland Humanities Council and Howard County Library.

April 26, 1995 Joetta Cramm and Michael S. Harper

• In “Celebrating Sterling A. Brown,” historian Joetta Cramm outlined the late Poet Laureate of Washington’s Howard County roots and Michael S. Harper, editor of Brown’s Collected Poems, read his work for 235 students from seven high schools bused to the Wilde Lake Interfaith Center.

May 11, 1995 Ann Darr

• 12 p.m. Poet and World War II pilot Ann Darr read at the Older Americans’ Day luncheon, Florence Bain Senior Center, Columbia.

June 18, 1995 Mary Gordon

• 4 p.m. Fiction writer and essayist Mary Gordon read from her memoir, Losing My Father, at the seventh Columbia Festival of the Arts.

September 29, 1995 Michael Collier, Kathy Mangan, Edgar Silex and Valerie Jean

• Read for eighty-five students in the auditorium of Wilde Lake High School at River Hill in the morning; and in the afternoon, the foursome read to 235 students in the auditorium at Howard High School.

October 1, 1995 Marta Knobloch, Peter Klappert and Myra Sklarew

• 4 p.m. Read from their poetry and mingled at the reception afterwards, Amherst House, Columbia.

October 29, 1995 Francine du Plessix Gray and David Levering Lewis

• 5 p.m. The prize-winning biographers discussed their work and took questions from the audience. Moderated by Jerrold Casway, Smith Theatre, Howard Community College.

November 19, 1995 Li-Young Lee

• 4 p.m. Read from his poetry and his memoir, The Winged Seed; introduced by Lucille Clifton, Howard Community College, Lower Lounge.

November 20, 1995 Li-Young Lee

• The poet met for 90 minutes with fifty students at Hammond High School.

1996

February 16, 1996 Eavan Boland

• 8 p.m. The poet, introduced by Irish Ambassador Dermot Gallagher, read her poetry at HoCoPoLitSo’s 18th annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry, followed by Celtic Thunder in concert, Smith Theatre.

February 23, 1996 Sunil Freeman, Edgar Silex, Rose Solari and Rod Jellema

• The Third Poetry Quartet, led by Jellema, read to an assembly of 100 eighthgraders at The Severn School, led workshops of twenty students each and lunched with faculty.

March 26 and 27, 1996 Robert Hass

• 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, the National Poet Laureate read his work and answered questions, Smith Theatre. Followed by a reception hosted by the Howard Community College president, Dwight Burrill.
• 9:30 to 11 a.m. Wednesday, he read and answered questions from the audience of 760 high school students from Howard County public schools, Glenelg Country and McDonough schools.
• 12 p.m. Wednesday, the National Poet Laureate spoke to the Columbia Town Center Rotary Club, introduced by Maryland Poet Laureate Roland Flint, The Columbia Inn.

April 18, 1996 Sunil Freeman, Edgar Silex, Rose Solari and Rod Jellema

• 7:30 p.m. The Third Poetry Quartet joined boarding students for dinner before reading for students in the McDonogh chapel.

May 9, 1996 Reed Whittemore

• 12 p.m. The poet read his works to senior citizens at the Florence Bain Senior Center’s annual Older Americans Day luncheon.

June 23, 1996 Mary Oliver

• 1 p.m. Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning poet led a poetry workshop for readers and writers, with participants submitting one poem each. Oliver chose several to discuss. Slayton House. Co-sponsored with the Columbia Festival of the Arts.
• 4 p.m. Read her poetry in the auditorium at Slayton House as part of the Columbia Festival of the Arts. A reception and signing followed.

October 10, 1996 Henry Taylor

• 4 p.m. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Henry Taylor read at a tea for high school English department heads and selected other teachers at 10446 Waterfowl Terrace.

November 17, 1996 Nancy Hirsche and Marija Temo

• 4 p.m. Saetas del Alma: HoCoPoLitSo held its first Spanish language program of readings from the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca, with English narration by Nancy Hirsche and flamenco guitar accompaniment by Marija Temo at Smith Theatre.

1997

May 7, 1997 Virginia Bates

• 12 p.m. Howard County poet Virginia Bates read at the Florence Bain Center’s annual Older Americans Day luncheon.

June 22, 1997 Robert Bly

• 2:30 p.m. Poet Robert Bly led a workshop at Howard Community College and read in Smith Theatre from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Co-sponsored by the Columbia Festival of the Arts.

June 29, 1997 John Gregory Brown and Carrie McCully Brown

• 5 p.m. Fiction writers John Gregory Brown and Carrie McCully Brown took part in a “Writers’ Homecoming” reading and craft talk at Slayton House; cosponsored by the Columbia Festival of the Arts.

September 29, 1997 Maxine Kumin

• 7 p.m. Maxine Kumin, introduced by Henry Taylor, read her poetry at the East Columbia Library. Co-sponsored by the Howard County Library.

November 10, 1997 Anne Caston and Michael Collier

• 7:30 p.m. Anne Caston and Michael Collier read their poetry, introduced by Maryland Poet Laureate Roland Flint, Smith Theatre.

1998

February 20, 1998 Colum McCann

• 8 p.m. Fiction writer Colum McCann read from his stories and novels, introduced by Irish Ambassador Sean O’Huiginn at HoCoPoLitSo’s 20th Irish Evening, followed by Celtic Thunder in concert at the Jim Rouse Theatre.

June 23, 1998 Clear Pictures

• 7 p.m. With the Columbia Festival of the Arts, HoCoPoLitSo presented Clear Pictures, a documentary film on writer Reynolds Price by four-time Oscar-winner Charles Guggenheim. Slayton House.

June 28, 1998 Reynolds Price

• 4 p.m. Reynolds Price, introduced by Charles Guggenheim, read from his novel Roxanna Slade at Slayton House. Co-sponsored by the Columbia Festival of the Arts.

1997 to 1998 Michael Collier

• Poet and Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference Director Michael Collier was HoCoPoLitSo’s writer-in-residence to the ten Howard County high schools.

September 27, 1998 Amiri Baraka

• 3 p.m. Under the auspices of HoCoPoLitSo, Amiri Baraka read his poetry during the Baltimore Book Festival at the Main Tent, Mt. Vernon Square.

September 28, 1998 Amiri Baraka

• Amiri Baraka read his poetry, talked and took questions from Howard County high school students bused to the Jim Rouse Theatre.

October 13 to 14, 1998 A Celebration of Sterling Brown

• Board member Lucille Clifton and founder Ellen Conroy Kennedy took part in a two-day “Celebration of Sterling A. Brown: American Poet” held at the Library of Congress in Washington. Clifton gave the keynote address on Friday evening and Kennedy took part next morning in a panel presentation on “Sterling A. Brown: His Life and Achievements.”

1998-1999 Barbara Goldberg

• Barbara Goldberg was HoCoPoLitSo’s poet-in-residence to the Howard County High Schools for 1998-99. At the Teachers’ Tea held on October 14 she was introduced to heads of the ten high school English departments by a predecessor Ethelbert Miller (poet-in-residence 1996-97).

November 22, 1998 Moshe Dor

• 5 p.m. “Israeli Poems on War and Peace,” a group reading moderated by Israeli poet and scholar Moshe Dor, with translators Barbara Goldberg and Linda Pastan, took place at the Meeting House, Columbia. This event was co-sponsored with the Columbia Jewish Congregation.

1999

February 19, 1999 Colm Tóibín

• 8 p.m. Irish fiction writer Colm Tóibín was featured at HoCoPoLitSo’s 21st Annual Irish Evening of Music and Poetry, introduced by His Excellency Sean O’Huiguinn, Ambassador, The Republic of Ireland. Dominick Murray provided music along with members of Celtic Thunder and champion stepdancers from the O’Hare School of Detroit.

April 17, 1999 Roland Flint

• 8 p.m. HoCoPoLitSo presented Maryland Poet Laureate Roland Flint at the Jim Rouse Theatre as part of the Howard County Arts Council’s Second Annual Celebration of the Arts, a gala evening to benefit the Council’s grants and programs.

June 20, 1999 Rita Dove

• 5 p.m. Former National Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner Rita Dove read from her new book On the Bus with Rosa Parks at Slayton House under the auspices of the HoCoPoLitSo and the Columbia Festival of the Arts.

September 26, 1999 Roland Flint, Linda Pastan and Reed Whittemore

• Under the auspices of HoCoPoLitSo, three Maryland poets laureate read at the Baltimore Book Festival, Mt. Vernon Square, Baltimore. (afternoon event)

November 1999 to April 2000 Edgar Silex

• As poet-in-residence, Silex visited youth classes in ten county high schools, McDonogh School, Our House (an alternative school) and the Disabled Services Group.