Howard County Poetry and Literature Society is honored to receive the award of a $10,000 grant from Maryland Humanities through the 2025 Marilyn Hatza Memorial Strengthening the Humanities Investment in Nonprofits for Equity (SHINE) Grant Program, with our deepest gratitude for the recognition and support of Maryland Humanities, Maryland Historical Trust, and the Maryland Department of Planning. The SHINE Grant Program closely aligns with HoCoPoLitSo’s values and mission to broaden the audience for contemporary literature and celebrate culturally diverse literary heritages, and these grant funds will help to support HoCoPoLitSo’s operations and literary programming throughout this 50th anniversary year. #MDHumanities @MDHumanities

The operations and programming of HoCoPoLitSo in 2025 are financed in part with State Funds from the Maryland Historical Trust, an agency of the Maryland Department of Planning which is an instrumentality of the State of Maryland. However, project contents or opinions do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Maryland Historical Trust or the Maryland Department of Planning.

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.

HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the February edition of the Wilde Readings Series, with Michael Ratcliffe and K.R. Raye, hosted by Laura Shovan. Please note this February 2025 reading will be held via online livestream, through Zoom and Facebook: we hope you will join us online February 11, 7–8:30 p.m.

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 Michael and K.R!

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

Michael: Two people show up most often in my writing— my great-great grandparents, John and Mary Ratcliff. They and their lives are the focus of the poems in my chapbook, Shards of Blue.

K.R.: It’s never a person that shows up in my writing, it’s themes. All of my stories speak about the power of friendship and faith (or the lack thereof). Whether I’m writing Horror, Drama, Romance, New Adult, or Young Adult Fantasy, friendship and faith play a role in some way.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Michael: I recently made and installed a bench at the far corner of our property where two stone walls meet in the woods. I think that’s going to be my new favorite place to write. There are a few other spots on the property, each with a large rock to sit on, that are great places to ponder and write. For now, it’s at my desk, looking out on woods and mountainside.

K.R.: I love writing in Florida on a screened-in back porch as the palm trees sway and the birds frolic in the lake.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Michael: I don’t have consistent rituals, but I generally prefer to write in the morning, with coffee featuring prominently in the process. Except in the summer, when mornings are devoted to cycling or gardening. Then, writing has to wait till later in the day.

K.R.: No, I don’t have any pre-writing rituals. I can typically write anytime and anywhere. Plus, I draw inspiration from my environment, so situations and settings spark me to write when I experience them.

Who always gets a first read?

Michael: My sister. She’s a professional copy editor and also a writer.

K.R.: My husband! He’s an excellent critic. I know if he questions something, I need to work on it and if he loves it, it’s solid. Plus, reading it first is his reward for patiently sharing me with my crazy characters during the writing process.

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

Michael: Fiction, Yasunari Kawabata’s Snow Country. Nonfiction, Karl Marx’s Capital, volume 1. And, in the some say fiction/some say nonfiction category: the Book of Mormon.

K.R.: I don’t tend to re-read books because my To-Be-Read pile is so large and I love diving into new characters and worlds. However, on my journey to getting our Young Adult Fantasy novel traditionally published, I’ve had to re-read The Hunger Games and Percy Jackson.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Michael: Any of the Mother Earth Poetry Series readings at Red Emma’s in Baltimore. Each had a vibe that I haven’t felt elsewhere. Also at Red Emma’s, Amanda Kolson Hurley reading from and talking about her book, Radical Suburbs. I’ve spent much of my professional career defining urban, suburban, and rural areas, and I have a general interest in radical communitarian groups, so we had a lot to talk about at that reading.

K.R.: Book Club discussions are always enlightening because readers share what they thought and how the story affected them. One in particular was hilarious because a reader kept swearing that I must have been a fly on her dorm room wall to have shared so many of her secrets in my novel.

• Michael Ratcliffe is a geographer whose is a geographer whose poetry often reflects his interests in landscape and spirituality. His poems have appeared in print and online, including in Maryland in Poetry, Peacock Journal, Fourth and Sycamore, and Poetry X Hunger. Mike lives with his wife on two acres on Catoctin Mountain outside Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he gardens, takes care of trees, and sets out on long bike rides.

You can find more on Michael at michaelratcliffespoetry.wordpress.com.

• K.R. Raye lives in Maryland with her husband and two sons. She is the author of The Colors Trilogy, award-winning, Amazon best-selling contemporary New Adult novels. Throughout her diverse career working as a mechanical engineer, adjunct professor, and in sales, she continues to weave her love of marketing, computer information systems, and operations together with her passion for writing.

K.R.’s homepage is krraye.com, and she maintains a presence on several social media fronts, including BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

The deadline for the 2025–2026 Youth Poet Laureate term applications has been extended to Friday, May 9th, at 11:59 p.m.

The Howard County Youth Poet Laureate program, a partnership between HoCoPoLitSo, Howard County Arts Council, and the Office of County Executive Calvin Ball, in the last year proudly welcomed our inaugural youth laureate, Mai-Anh Nguyen, at the announcement made in September 2024 at Busboys and Poets in Columbia, with several events since completed or planned around the county, including a Wilde Reading from Mai-Anh in June.

The role of the Youth Poet Laureate is an honorary position formally appointed by the County Executive, who will act as an ambassador for literary arts, and amplify the voice of youth expression in our community through participation in public events and readings across their one-year term. Applications for the 2025–2026 academic year are open NOW for eligible young poets, ages 14–21, who either reside in or will be able to present at in-person events in Howard County. The next Youth Poet Laureate will serve from September 2025 until July 2026, and receives an honorarium of $500 in two equal payments.

Eligible candidates may apply now by clicking HERE! The deadline for submissions has been extended until May 9, 2025. Full program guidelines can be found on the Howard County Arts Council grants homepage; for questions on the application process, please contact grantsandprojects@hocoarts.org, or by phone call to (410) 313-2787 during regular business hours.

Please note this contest is open to current students of public and private high schools in Howard County, Maryland.

Hosted by Howard County Poetry & Literature Society (HoCoPoLitSo) since 1981, the annual All-County Writing Competition recognizes the literary talents of Howard County students across four categories: poetry, personal essays, short stories, and short plays.  All current students of Howard County public or private high schools may enter in as many or as few categories as they wish— please submit a separate form for each.  Personally chosen book awards, in many cases signed by past HoCoPoLitSo visiting writers, are presented for each category at high school award ceremonies.

Entries are accepted now, via the Google Form accessible here at bit.ly/allcounty25, via the QR code below, or by postal mail to HoCoPoLitSo, 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, MD 21044.

And calling all teachers and students—

Coming up soon is HoCoPoLitSo’s 47th annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry, featuring Seán Hewitt, hosted by Cóilín Parsons, and music by Poor Man’s Gambit. A special discounted rate of $30 is offered for all educators and students, available now up to the day of the event online or by calling the Horowitz Center Box Office at 443-518-1500, Wed.–Fri., 12–4 p.m. We hope you will join us for what is sure to be another memorable evening in February.

HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the January edition of the Wilde Readings Series, with David Drager and Sally Rosen Kindred, hosted by Jared Smith. Please join us at independent bookstore Queen Takes Book on Tuesday, January 14th 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. Sign up when you arrive, or in advance via this online form.

Below, get to know David and Sally!

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

Sally: My mother. She was a poet, and I think my earliest poems were attempts at conversations with her. I’m still writing some poems to her ghost.

Where is your favorite place to write?

David: Any place I can be alone, and when no one notices that I am missing.

Sally: My desk at home, upstairs where I can see the tops of the trees, or the couch downstairs where a dear dog and cat keep me company.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

David: No.

Sally: Most days I walk in the woods first, and I always make a cup of tea.

Who always gets a first read?

David: The audience at an open mic.

Sally: I’m so lucky to have three dear friends—two I’ve known since middle school, once since my early twenties—who are longtime, thoughtful first readers. And of course my spouse.

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

David: The Stranger by Albert Camus.

Sally: A book of contemporary poems I return to often—and have read more than twice just recently—is Jessica Cuello’s Liar. It does striking work with language, syntax, repetition, and the child’s idiosyncratic perspective on her world.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

David: Patricia Smith at the Pratt Library when Blood Dazzler was recently released.

Sally: I was fortunate enough to hear Lucille Clifton read twice—once at College Park in the early 90s, and again in 2007 in Columbia. Like her poems, she was fierce, witty, celestial—a singular presence and voice.

• David Drager is “an oral poet…a denizen of poetry world divers…a wolf in beloved’s clothes…a moment’s hesitation before storm…a wanderer between silence and of sky…a word racing, gracing noting, mess of grammar lack.”

He has been known to log into Facebook once or twice a year.

• Sally Rosen Kindred‘s third book is Where the Wolf (2021), winner of the Diode Book Prize and the Julie Suk Award. She is also the author of No Eden and Book of Asters, and three chapbooks. She’s received two poetry awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, and her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Kenyon Review Online, Image Journal, Shenandoah, and New Ohio Review. She teaches online for The Poetry Barn.

Sally’s homepage is sallyrosenkindred.com, and she can be reached online via Facebook @sallyrosenkindred and Bluesky @sallypoet.bsky.social.

HoCoPoLitSo’s annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry
on Saturday, February 15th, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. presents
The Language of Landscape:
Seán Hewitt on Place, Identity, and Belonging
featuring writer Seán Hewitt
in conversation with Cóilín Parsons,
and music by Poor Man’s Gambit.

In-person admission available for purchase now

HoCoPoLitSo’s 47th annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry on Saturday, February 15th, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. presents The Language of Landscape: Seán Hewitt on Place, Identity, and Belonging, featuring poet, memoirist, novelist and literary critic Seán Hewitt, reading from his work including his memoir All Down Darkness Wide, followed by a conversation moderated by Cóilín Parsons, Georgetown University Associate Professor and Director of Global Irish Studies. The evening also features music by Poor Man’s Gambit; Ireland’s Deputy Ambassador to the United States, Fionnuala Quinlan, has been invited to continue the long-standing tradition of providing opening remarks.

The evening program commences at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 15th, 2025 in the Smith Theatre of the Horowitz Visual & Performing Arts Center on the campus of Howard Community College; guests may be seated starting at 7 p.m. Irish beverages will be offered for sale to patrons aged 21 and up at a CASH-ONLY bar in the lobby prior to the stage show, and during intermission. Non-alcoholic refreshments and scones will be provided free to attendees. A book signing follows the reading and discussion, and books by the featured authors will be available for purchase. After intermission, Poor Man’s Gambit will play a concert of traditional Irish music.

General in-person admission is available NOW for $50 up to the day of the event, with a discounted rate of $30 offered for educators and students, online or by calling the Horowitz Center Box Office at 443-518-1500, Wed.–Fri., 12–4 p.m. We hope you will join us for what is sure to be another memorable evening in February.

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You can find more information on this year’s event, including artist biographies, as well as on the history of HoCoPoLitso’s Irish Evening on its dedicated page, here. All proceeds from the event are used to underwrite HoCoPoLitSo’s literary programs in the community, and the production of The Writing Life, a writer-to-writer talk show now seen worldwide by more than one million viewers on youtube.com/hocopolitso, and through Howard Community College’s Dragon Digital TV.

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In-person event tickets:
https://ci.ovationtix.com/32275/production/1223209

Today the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society (HoCoPoLitSo) is celebrating its 50th anniversary. For half a century it has been cultivating an appreciation for contemporary poetry and literature, celebrating a culturally diverse literary heritage, and broadening exposure to the literary arts for everyone.

HoCoPoLitSo was the brainchild of Ellen Conroy Kennedy, a translator of Negritude poetry who had moved to Columbia with her husband, Pat Kennedy, the first president of the Columbia Association. Building on Ellen’s idea for a local literary group, she recruited two like-minded neighbors to help establish the organization: the actress, playwright and poet Prudence Barry, and publicist Jean F. Moon, then a journalist. Ellen Kennedy, who provided direction for HoCoPoLitSo for decades, died in 2020. Barry died in 2021.

With a small $1,000 grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, HoCoPoLitSo was officially launched in 1974 with a visit by poets Lucille Clifton and Carolyn Kizer, who read at the Women’s Center at the Wilde Lake Interfaith Center in Columbia, then walked across the parking lot to meet with students at Wilde Lake High School. With that initial programming decision, HoCoPoLitSo embarked upon a half century of championing diverse voices and personal connections between authors and audiences.

The 50th Anniversary season features the schools-based residency of Nigerian American fiction writer and essayist Tope Folarin. In addition, the popular annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry showcasing writer Sean Hewitt is slated for Feb. 15. Collaborations are set with Howard Community College to present the Blackbird Poetry Festival in April and with the Downtown Columbia Partnership to participate in the Books in Bloom festival in May.

“For the past 50 years, HoCoPoLitSo has distinguished itself with world-class literary programs. We are calling our anniversary year ‘Beyond Words, Beyond Borders’ in recognition of our desire to expand understanding and response to universal truths as expressed in the literature of extraordinary writers and thinkers,” said HoCoPoLitSo Co-Chair Tim Singleton.

“HoCoPoLitSo makes and holds space within our community for people to come together in recognition of our human need to connect through language, ideas, and common experiences. Literature is not only educational but enlightening, enlarging, elevating, and enjoyable. We greet each other in fields of words and learn we are not alone,” said HoCoPoLitSo Co-Chair Tara Hart.

HoCoPoLitSo has often partnered with other local institutions and nonprofit organizations, most notably with Howard Community College, where its programs are often presented and where its offices are located. Other partners have included Columbia Association, Columbia Festival of the Arts, Columbia Film Society, Columbia Pro Cantare, Downtown Columbia Partnership, Howard County Library System, Howard Hughes Holdings, Little Patuxent Review, The Mall in Columbia, Residences at Vantage Point, Toby’s Dinner Theatre, numerous faith communities and other organizations.

The Howard County Public School System has been a substantial beneficiary of HoCoPoLitSo, which has been providing literary artists for student programs for half a century. Through the years, local students heard and saw some of the finest writers and thinkers of the 20th century, including Derek Walcott, Gwendolyn Brooks, Issac Bashevis Singer, Saul Bellow, Richard Wilbur, Grace Paley, Robert Bly, Mark Strand, and Amira Baraka. More than 30 authors have taken part in what is today the Bauder Writer-in-Residence Program, offering visits to all 13 Howard County public high schools, the Homewood Center, and Howard Community College.

Most recently, HoCoPoLitSo has partnered with Howard County Government and the Howard County Arts Council in establishing a local Poet Laureate program. The inaugural appointee, Truth Thomas, was announced at the Blackbird Poetry Festival in April of this year. A Howard County Youth Poet Laureate, Oakland Mills High School junior Mai-Anh Nguyen, was announced in September by Howard County Executive Calvin Ball.

The HoCoPoLitSo Board of Directors has always served as the group’s programming and audience development arm. Members today include Co-Chairs Tara Hart and Tim Singleton, Recording Secretary Susan Thornton Hobby, Treasurer Marie Davidson, and member-at-large David H. Barrett, Kathleen Larson, Ryna May, Faye McCray, Anne Reis, E Welsh and Laura Yoo. Neal Goturi, a senior at River Hill High School, serves as a Bauder Youth on Board member. Judy R. Young coordinates the Bauder Writer-in-Residence Program as HoCoPoLitSo’s school liaison.

For more information, we welcome you to contact us at info@hocopolitso.org, or by phone at 443-518-4568.

Jean F. Moon
Founding Member, Director Emeritus & Honorary Chair of the 50th Anniversary Committee

HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the November edition of the Wilde Readings Series, with Ona Gritz and Daniel Simpson, hosted by Laura Shovan. For 2024, please join us at our NEW venue, independent bookstore Queen Takes Book on Tuesday, November 12th 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. Sign up when you arrive, or in advance via this online form.

Below, get to know Ona and Dan!

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

Ona: My late sister Angie—sometimes as herself, sometimes in fictional form, always as a source of longing.

Dan: I’ve written the most poems about my father, but my identical twin brother Dave, my wife Ona Gritz, and a collection of guide dogs aren’t far behind.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Ona: In my home office.

Dan: In my office (a converted attic) of my 115-year-old house on a cul de sac. It gives the feeling of being slightly removed from the world.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Ona: I make a cup of tea, ensure I have chocolate nearby, and read the work of an author I feel will inspire the project I’m working on. Before all this, I procrastinate for longer than I care to admit.

Dan: Definitely breakfast first with maybe some music or a brief listen to the news, then immediately to my desk without checking email. I used to read before writing, but sometimes the reading was so good, I wasn’t getting to the writing, so have had to save that for afterward.

Who always gets a first read?

Ona: My husband, Dan Simpson.

Dan: When my brother was alive, it was often he, but now it’s Ona.

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

Ona: Three Things I Know Are True by Betty Culley.

Dan: Ulysses by James Joyce.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Ona: A reading by poet Gary Snyder back in 1981. Listening to him, I could feel my teenage self falling in love with poetry.

Dan: My brother Dave‘s last reading, just months before he died from ALS. It took Dave a superhuman effort to get there from Philadelphia, but I’ve never heard anyone more present, grounded, and connected to his audience during a reading. I’ll always be deeply grateful to Marie Howe, who arranged the reading at NYU and introduced Dave, with such love and appreciation.

• Ona Gritz’s new memoir, Everywhere I Look, won the Readers’ Choice Gold Award and is an Independent Book Review 2024 Must-Read. Her poems and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Ploughshares, Brevity, and elsewhere. She is the author of two 2024 YA verse novels, The Space You Left Behind, featured in The Children’s Book Council’s Hot Off the Press roundup of anticipated best sellers, and Take a Sad Song.

You can find Ona online at onagritz.com.

• Daniel Simpson’s latest book, Inside the Invisible, won the inaugural Propel Poetry Prize and was nominated for the American Academy of Poets Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. His work has been anthologized in About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times, Welcome to the Resistance: Poetry as Protest, and Beauty Is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability, and has appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Cortland Review, and many other journals.

You can learn more and reach Dan at insidetheinvisible.wordpress.com, and on Facebook as Dan Simpson.

HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the October edition of the Wilde Readings Series, with Rahne Alexander and Maritza Rivera (or Mariposa), hosted by Linda Joy Burke. For 2024, please join us at our NEW venue, independent bookstore Queen Takes Book on Tuesday, October 8th 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. Sign up when you arrive, or in advance via this online form.

Below, get to know Rahne and Maritza!

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

Rahne: I don’t know if this is for me to say! My recent MFA project was centered on my mother, so the last several years, she’s been the dominant force. In the wake of that project, I’ve been thinking about so many of my mentors, those who nurtured me in some way—materially, culturally, spiritually or otherwise. But over the years I’ve also spent a lot of time and energy writing about jerks. Are any of them the same guy? I’ll never tell.

Maritza: My grandmother, AKA abuela, was a very influential figure in my life and often appears in my work.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Rahne: They used to have these places called cafés where you could sit at a little table and order coffee all day long. Some of them would even be open until midnight! There were a whole bunch of them, each with a different vibe and it was great. You could go there with your little moleskine notebook and look off into the mid-distance, maybe order a little sandwich or a pastry. Then Starbucks came along and now every place closes at 3 p.m.

Maritza: On the beach in Puerto Rico, my happy place.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Rahne: I have a tried and true ritual: I start by checking my to-do calendar so I can remember how much past deadline I am and rekindle how bad I feel about myself. Then I take the empty glasses and plates from my desk to the kitchen where I do some dishes, and the running water makes me need to run to the bathroom, which pressingly needs cleaning and if so I do that too. Since I’m going back downstairs anyway I take a load of laundry to the basement where, what the heck, since I’m down here why not get a load started. Then I go back up to the kitchen where I get that kombucha I drank half of yesterday and return up to my desk, where an email has arrived that I must respond to forthwith, and so I do. Then I’m tired. I go lie down for a moment to rest my strained eyes, but also maybe it’s my turn on my favorite little word game app which is called WELDER, and the cat comes along for a snuggle and she insists I put my phone down to pet her. I doze off for five to thirty minutes and wake with a start — the cat is gone and my phone battery is drained. I plug in my phone, return the warmed kombucha to the fridge and start a coffee to perk me up. While the water boils, I go down to switch over the laundry, bring up a load of clothes from the dryer, and then I’m usually ready to write, immediately after I check Twitter.

Maritza: I don’t really have a ritual except that I write everything by hand first. I then type and edit on the computer. I wrote a poem once about Rita Dove’s ritual but I don’t have one like hers.

Who always gets a first read?

Rahne: It’s usually just me, and in the best of cases, the audience. Since the days of dial-up BBSes through blogging and microblogging to now, I love going direct to the audience. When I hit that sweet spot, the cathexis between performance and writing—for me, that’s where the magic is.

Maritza: My children, Maria Teresa and Antonio Roberto are always the first to read and hear my poetry. They don’t cringe and run away anymore. LOL!

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

Rahne: I don’t re-read books very often, so it’s funny to be asked that at this moment, in which I’m concurrently re-reading three. I was recently given a 1928 reprint of Dorothy Parker’s Enough Rope so I’ve been spending time with some of my oldest favorite poems; and I’m revisiting Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower because that story began in 2024. I’ve also been re-reading James Baldwin’s The Devil Finds Work, his memoir of the cinema. It’s among my favorites of his writings.

Maritza: Pinecrest Rest Haven by Grace Cavalieri and Meeting Bone Man by Joseph Ross. Please don’t make me choose.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Rahne: There are so many I could mention here, so I’ll keep to the one that came to mind first, which was seeing Diane DiPrima at Bookshop Santa Cruz circa 2000. She was spectacular, and helped clarify my perspective on the beat poets.

Maritza: When Grace Cavalieri read from Pinecrest Rest Haven at The Writer’s Center, I laughed and cried. It was very emotional for me. This was many years ago but when I think about it, I still feel the impact of her words.

• Rahne Alexander is an intermedia artist and writer from Baltimore, Maryland. She holds an MFA in Intermedia+Digital Arts from UMBC, and her visual and performance works have been exhibited across the U.S. and around the world. Her writing has appeared in BmoreArt, The Hopkins Review and the Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology Take Me There: Trans and Genderqueer Erotica. Her essay chapbook Heretic to Housewife was awarded the 2019 OutWrite nonfiction prize.

Rahne can be found on most social media platforms as @rahnealexander. Her personal website, which is going through some changes as of this writing, is rahne.com, and she publishes a blog called Paradise Is Not For Sale.

• Marita Rivera, AKA Mariposa is a Puerto Rican poet and Army veteran who resides in Rockville, MD and San Juan, PR. She has been writing poetry for over fifty years and is the creator of a short form of poetry called Blackjack. Maritza is the author of About You; A Mother’s War; Baker’s Dozen; Twenty-One: Blackjack Poems and the Blackjack Poetry Playing Cards. Since 2011, she hosts the Mariposa Poetry Retreat and the Mariposa Reunion Reading. Her work appears in literary magazines, online publications, and the public arts project, Meet Me At the Triangles located in Wheaton, MD. In 2022 Maritza and Jeffrey Banks co-edited Diaspora Café: DC, an Afro-LatinX anthology published by Day Eight. In 2023 she translated the poetry collection, Inquilinos Mudos/Silent Tenents by Alberto Roblest from Spanish into English.

Maritza is on Facebook under her name, The Blackjack Poets Group and the Mariposa Poetry Retreat. Poems from A Mother’s War can be found on milspeak.org.