HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the June edition of the Wilde Reading Series, with Kathy MacMillan and Sam Schmidt, hosted by Laura Shovan. Due to the closure of the Columbia Art Center for renovations, this month’s reading will be held via online livestream: please join us on Zoom, Tuesday, June 11th at 7 p.m. through the following link: bit.ly/wildereadingjune24

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 in the chat when you arrive, or let us know in advance by contacting HoCoPoLitSo or the Wilde Reading Series hosts.

Below, get to know Kathy and Sam!

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

Kathy: My sister. She is 16 years older than I am, so we didn’t become close until we were adults, but I often find that she shows up in unexpected ways in my stories.

Sam: I would say my late father—because of all that went unresolved between us—followed by my wife Virginia Crawford (also a poet) and my eldest child Luca (pronouns they/them; singer-songwriter).

Where is your favorite place to write?

Kathy: An antique secretary desk in the corner of my living room. I try to keep that desk only for creative writing projects, not mundane things like paying bills.

Sam: I have a big Apple computer in the dining room—although sometimes I will speak or tap into my phone.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Kathy: Make a cup of apricot tea, light a candle, put on my writing sweater, pull up a chair next to my desk for my cat.

Sam: For my most recent book, Dark Bird, I took a picture of a particular tree each day. Thought about it all day while at work as my writing prompt. Then laid the poem down on the computer before going to bed.

Who always gets a first read?

Kathy: My critique partner (and sometimes co-author), Manuela.

Sam: My wife Virginia.

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

Kathy: Watership Down by Richard Adams, The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner.

Sam: For poetry, I regularly dip back into modernist classics: Leaves of Grass, The Wasteland, Wallace Stevens’ Harmonium and Idea of Order. I’m also a big fantasy fan. I have read The Lord of the Rings several times. When my kids were younger, I read the Harry Potter books several times, and not just for them. Right now I’m reading through Robin Hobbs’ Farseer trilogy for the second time.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Kathy: Meg Eden Kuyatt’s launch for GOOD DIFFERENT. I am one of her critique partners and it was incredible to see that book come to life.

Sam: A recent reading at Manor Mill (Monkton) featuring Bruce Jacobs and Mark Sanders has to be up there. They both write poems that vibrate emotionally and bring passion to their delivery. The open mic brought out more fine poets, well known and less well known.

• Kathy MacMillan (she/her) is a writer, nationally certified American Sign Language interpreter, librarian, and signing storyteller. She writes picture books, children’s nonfiction, and middle grade and young adult fiction. Her debut young adult novel, Sword and Verse, was a finalist for the Compton Crook Award. She has also published eight resource books for educators, librarians, and parents.

Kathy can be found online at kathymacmillan.com, and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as “kathys_quill”. Her books are available for purchase from major online retailers— and with author signatures from the online store of Deaf Camps, Inc., in support of a great cause.

• Sam Schmidt‘s books include Suburban Myths (Beothuk Books 2012) and Dark Bird (Galileo Press 2024). For more than a decade he edited and published WordHouse, a newsletter for Maryland writers, and hosted the WordHouse reading series at the Minas Gallery. His work has been published in such journals as Passager, Free State Review, and Gargoyle. He is a three-time recipient of the Maryland State Individual Artist Grant and has a Master’s Degree in Comparative Literature from Johns Hopkins University. His wife Virginia Crawford, also a poet, is the author of questions for water (Apprentice House Press 2021). Sam lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland.

Find Sam online at darkbirdpoetry.com, or on Facebook, where he accepts friend requests from actual people. His books are available for purchase from the publisher, Galileo Press, and from Amazon.

HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the May edition of the Wilde Readings Series, with Eric D. Goodman and Charles Rammelkamp, hosted by Linda Joy Burke. Join us at the Columbia Art Center on Tuesday, May 14th at 7 p.m., at 6100 Foreland Garth, 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 by calling the Columbia Arts Center at (410)-730-0075.

Below, get to know Eric and Charles!

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

Eric: That’s a hard question to answer because rather than base characters or situations on a specific person, I tend to base them on aspects of different people or occurrences. For example, a character may be inspired by traits or reactions or situations of a number of different people. Friends and family have certainly recognized themselves (or certain situations) in my fiction and poetry before.

Charles: My wife, Abby.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Eric: There have been times that I’ve written on the fly, in a cafe or bar, park or restaurant. But my favorite place to write (unless I’m on a writing retreat) is at my own desk in my own home. Portions of all my books have been written at the same simple, pine desk that used to belong to my father, although most of my writing now takes place at the desk in my home office where my computer awaits.

Charles: At the computer.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Eric: I do my best writing in the morning, after a cup (or two) of coffee. When I’m submerged in a project, I tend to do a little reading or research for an hour or so before jumping into the writing.

Charles: Not particularly.

Who always gets a first read?

Eric: I have a small group of about half a dozen writer friends who always get gifted (or burdened) with a first read— but not until I feel my first draft is reader-ready. I’ve come to depend on these beta readers because I do believe writing in isolation without a sounding board can make for less clear writing. If three or four readers independently think something isn’t working, it probably isn’t working no matter how much I may want it to.

Charles: Of my writing? I have a few penpals I try things out on, writers/poets themselves.

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

Eric: There are many. I’m a big fan of Steinbeck and have read The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, and East of Eden several times. I’m also a fan of George Saunders and have read Pastoralia and Tenth of December more than once. And some of the books of Alice Monroe, Jonathan Franzen, and David Mitchell. Reading a book that you loved again is like comfort food. Even though my list of new books to read never gets shorter, I still take time to read old books again.

Charles: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Eric: I once participated in an anthology reading that had a negative audience-to-reader ratio. There were more readers than there were members in the audience. That was memorable, although not necessarily in a good way. We still had a fun time.

Charles: T.C. Boyle at AWP Minneapolis, 2015.

• Eric D. Goodman is author of seven books, including Faraway Tables (Yorkshire Publishing, forthcoming), Wrecks and Ruins (Loyola University’s Apprentice House Press, 2022), The Color of Jadeite (Apprentice House, 2020), Setting the Family Free (Apprentice House, 2019), Womb: a novel in utero (Merge Publishing, 2017), Tracks: A Novel in Stories (Atticus Books, 2011), and Flightless Goose (Writer’s Lair, 2008) and more than 100 published travel stories, short stories and articles. He’s also co-founder and curator of Baltimore’s Lit and Art Reading Series.

You can learn more about Eric and his writing at ericdgoodman.com, and on Facebook as edgewriter and Twitter @edgewrite.

• Charles Rammelkamp is Prose Editor for BrickHouse Books in Baltimore. His poetry collection, A
Magician Among the Spirits, poems about Harry Houdini, is a 2022 Blue Light Press Poetry winner. Another
poetry collection entitled Transcendence has also recently been published by BlazeVOX Books and a
collection of flash fiction, Presto, has just been published by Bamboo Dart Press. A collection of poems and flash called See What I Mean? will be published later this year by Kelsay Books.

Keeping it old-school, Charles does not maintain a personal website, but his books are available through Amazon and independent sellers, and a search for his name will turn up results in numerous online and print journals.

HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the April edition of the Wilde Readings Series, with Nancy Naomi Carlson and Esperanza Hope Snyder, hosted by Ann Bracken. Join us at the Columbia Art Center on Tuesday, April 9th at 7 p.m., at 6100 Foreland Garth, 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 by calling the Columbia Arts Center at (410)-730-0075.

Below, get to know Nancy and Esperanza!

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

Nancy: This is a great question! I’d have to say “me,” from my past and present life, as my work is deeply personal. It would be lovely to have the “me” from any past lives show up, but that would be an answer to a very different question.

Esperanza: Growing up in Bogotá I spent a great deal of time with my grandfather. He taught me about poetry. Memorizing poems and reciting them was our favorite pastime. My grandfather shows up a great deal in my writing because he was the first person who introduced me to the literary world. I feel he inspired me to pursue writing.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Nancy: I’m not one who can write or translate under a tree on a perfect spring day, nor can I write by a pool or lake. I can’t write “on demand” in a workshop or at a residency. Actually the only place I seem to be able to write is seated at my desk in my study (where I am right now), with everything I need at my fingertips. Even the necessary snacks.

Esperanza: I enjoy writing in my study, surrounded by my favorite books and photographs. It’s the space where I get the greatest inspiration for my work.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Nancy: Absolutely. I usually have to engage in a lot of pre-writing thinking, jotting down ideas (an image or thought; a possible title; a repeating line for a villanelle; a quote from a philosopher or writer, preferably French) on yellow stickies. This process can take days or weeks. I also pick up the pace of my journal reading, choosing ones that particularly inspire me, like The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, APR, hoping to find the “missing link” that connects the many ideas in my head and on the yellow stickies. Typically the inspiration comes (or doesn’t) on a Friday night, when I go to my computer with hardly any expectations, armed only with chocolate and chips. Invariably, after several hours, a new poem starts to take shape.

Esperanza: My pre-writing ritual includes journaling, meditation and drinking coffee.

Who always gets a first read?

Nancy: One editor/friend of mine has seen the first draft of almost every poem I’ve written for over a decade. (I don’t show him my translations, as I know if they’re “there” or not.)

Esperanza: When I feel the piece I’m working on is ready to be shared and I want feedback, if it’s a poem, I send it to a poet with whom I work closely. If it’s prose, I send it to my editor.

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

Nancy: Although I watch the same movies again and again, I don’t tend to re-read books, as there are so many I haven’t read yet.

Esperanza: I’m currently reading Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey, and I would read it again. It’s wonderful. In graduate school I fell in love with Don Quixote and have often returned to Cervantes’s masterpiece. I’ve also read Jack Gilbert’s poetry book, Refusing Heaven, several times.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Nancy: When I was in Calcutta conducting a master class in translation at the Seagull School of Publishing, I had the extreme pleasure of attending a reading by Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan and his translator. His reading was electric.

Esperanza: Due to my connection with the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, I’ve been fortunate to attend many memorable readings. Ilya Kaminsky‘s poetry reading was one of them. Additionally, I’ll never forget Stanley Plumly‘s reading of his poem, “Cancer”.

• Nancy Naomi Carlson‘s translation of Khal Torabully’s Cargo Hold of Stars: Coolitude (Seagull Books, 2021) won the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Delicates (Seagull Books, 2023), her co-translation of Wendy Guerra with Esperanza Hope Snyder, was noted in The New York Times, as was An Infusion of Violets (Seagull, 2019), her second full-length poetry collection. Piano in the Dark (Seagull Books, 2023), another full-length poetry collection, was recently published. She serves as the Translations Editor for On the Seawall.

Nancy can be found online at www.nancynaomicarlson.com.

• Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Esperanza Hope Snyder is a poet, a novelist, and a playwright. Honors include the Donald Everitt Axinn Award in Poetry for Bread Loaf, and fellowships for The Gettysburg Review and The Kenyon Review. Assistant Director of Bread in Sicily, co-coordinator of the Lorca Prize, her poetry book, Esperanza and Hope was published by Sheep Meadow Press (2018). Her co-translation with Nancy Naomi Carlson, of Wendy Guerra’s poetry, was noted in The New York Times.

You can find more from Esperanza at www.esperanzahopesnyder.com, or on Instagram, @esperanza_hope_snyder.

Nate Marshall headlines the Blackbird Poetry Festival to be held on April 25^th, 2024, at Howard Community College (HCC).  Now in its 16^th consecutive year, the festival is a day devoted to verse, presented in partnership between HoCoPoLitSo and HCC, and including a student workshop, multiple poetry readings, HCC Poetry Ambassadors, a recording session of HoCoPoLitSo’s writer-to-writer talk show The Writing Life—  and newly this year, the evening reading will welcome on-stage Howard County Executive Dr. Calvin Ball, to announce the inaugural Howard County Poet Laureate!

While the event is free and public, RSVP is required to attend the 7 p.m. Nightbird evening reading where the announcement will be made, available now through this link while limited seating lasts: bit.ly/blackbird16

The event kicks off with an 11 a.m. writing workshop in the Science, Engineering, and Technology Building room 101 (SET-101), led by HoCoPoLitSo’s 2023–2024 academic year Bauder Writer-in-Residence, Hayes Davis.  The afternoon Sunbird Reading features guest artist Nate Marshall, local authors, and Howard Community College faculty and students, at 2 p.m. in the same space, SET-101.

Finally, the festival culminates its daylong celebration of poetry with the Nightbird Reading, in the Rouse Company Foundation Studio Theatre of the Peter and Elizabeth Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center on HCC campus; doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. performance.  Nightbird features guest artist Nate Marshall; Howard County Poetry Out Loud winners; and the exciting announcement of the Howard County Poet Laureate appointee by the County Executive.  Complementary light refreshments are offered, including adult beverages to guests providing proof of age.  Reception, book sale and signing to follow the reading.

Free tickets can be reserved while seats last through the Horowitz Center Box Office, at bit.ly/blackbird16 or by phone to 443-518-1500 Wed.–Fri., 12–4 p.m.  Find more information on hocopolitso.org/blackbird-poetry-festival.

• Nate Marshall is a poet, playwright, performer, educator, speaker and rapper, and the award-winning author and editor of numerous works including Finna, Wild Hundreds, The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, and the audio drama, Bruh Rabbit & The Fantastic Telling of Remington Ellis Esq.  He is an assistant professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He has previously taught at a number of institutions including Colorado College, Wabash College, Young Chicago Authors, Northwestern University, InsideOut Literary Arts, and the University of Michigan.  Nate was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago.

• Hayes Davis is a poet and educator who has taught English in Washington, D.C. area independent schools for 24 years, and currently teaches at Sandy Spring Friends School where he serves primarily as Assistant Director of Institutional Equity, Justice, and Belonging.  His first collected volume of poetry, Let Our Eyes Linger, was published by Poetry Mutual Press in 2016, and his work has appeared in many journals and anthologies.  Hayes lives in Silver Spring, MD with his wife, poet Teri Ellen Cross Davis, and their two children.

Entering its semicentennial in autumn of 2024, the Howard County Poetry & Literature Society— HoCoPoLitSo for short— has for the past near-50 years nurtured a love and respect for the diversity of contemporary literary arts in Howard County.  The society sponsors numerous literary readings; the Bauder Writer-in-Residence program providing for a current working author to visit Howard County high school classrooms; produces The Writing Life talk show; and partners with many other cultural arts organizations to support the arts in Howard County, Maryland.  More information is available at hocopolitso.org, and tax-deductible donations are always welcomed.

HoCoPoLitSo is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and receives funding from Howard County Government, Howard County and Maryland State Arts Councils, Community Foundation of Howard County, Dr. Lillian Bauder, The Reis Foundation, and generous individual contributors.  The Howard County Poet Laureate program is administrated in partnership between HoCoPoLitSo, Howard County Arts Council, and the Office of the Howard County Executive.  Proceeds support live and recorded literary programs produced by HoCoPoLitSo for student and general audiences.

GET NIGHTBIRD TICKETS HERE

Last year, HoCoPoLitSo announced the establishment of the first-ever position of Howard County Poet Laureate, created in partnership with the Office of County Executive Calvin Ball and the Howard County Arts Council.  Today, we are excited to open applications for the first term of the Howard County Youth Poet Laureate position for all eligible young poets!

The Youth Poet Laureate, an honorary one-year position formally appointed by the County Executive, will act as an ambassador for literacy, arts, and youth expression in Howard County, demonstrating their passion for poetry, and its power to connect our local community through participation in public readings and civic events.

The next Youth Poet Laureate will serve from August 2024 – June 2025, and will receive an honorarium of $500 for their one-year term.  The position is open to young writers, between the ages of 14–21 at the time of application, who either reside in or will be available to present at in-person events in Howard County— for example, those attending a college or university next year within commuting distance.  Applications are open now, until May 30^th, 2024.  To learn more about the program please visit the HCAC program landing page here or review the complete program guidelines.

Eligible candidates may apply now by clicking HERE!  The deadline for submissions is May 30, 2024.

HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the March edition of the Wilde Readings Series, with Fran Abrams and Jared Smith, hosted by Linda Joy Burke. Join us at the Columbia Art Center on Tuesday, March 12th at 7 p.m., at 6100 Foreland Garth, 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 by calling the Columbia Arts Center at (410)-730-0075.

Below, get to know Fran and Jared!

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

Fran: My mother who passed away over 50 years ago. She not only shows up but also inspires my writing. I credit her with encouraging my love for the arts and humanities.

Jared: The people I write about most often are working people who find dignity in the jobs they do and who respect those around them. They are thoughtful types who enjoy music, art, and the world around them rather than money or thinking about getting ahead. I have very seldom written in my poetry about individual people I have known, but rather what has been accomplished by them or experienced by them. I seldom mention them by name.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Fran: At my dining room table. Even though I have an office and a desktop computer, I love the afternoon light that comes into my dining room and enjoy writing on my laptop in that setting.

Jared: I take notes in my head for lines of poetry wherever I am, whether at work, or walking in the forest, or observing people at a coffee shop, or any of the other activities I’m involved in each day. These phrases, lines of poetry and the images they come from flow together over a period of time until they begin to lead to a new vision or understanding of some aspect of life that is new and exciting to me. Then I go into my study where I begin to put them down on paper, generally working on my computer because the visions and thoughts flow faster than I can write longhand.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Fran: No. I write when inspiration hits— no time for rituals. I send myself rough drafts by email on my phone, and as I noted, I write at my desk and at the dining room table. Sometimes I will simply stop in the middle of checking emails or other tasks and start writing, picking up a thread that just ran through my mind.

Jared: I’ve always found it important to have a ritual to prepare my mind for entering into the nonlinear poetic trance necessary to my writing. Key for me is my study, which is covered on three walls with bookshelves bulging with both hardcover books and hundreds of small press magazines and journals dating from the European Romantics to the present day. The other walls contains abstract art paintings and drawings. Having those books, journals, and artworks surrounding me somehow infuses me with and makes me a part of the unending conversation all poets and creative people enter into across time as to what life is and how rich it is.

Who always gets a first read?

Fran: I spend a great deal of time revising my own poems. However, I am very fortunate to participate in two workshop groups. When I feel a poem is close to being finished, but not quite there, I share it with one of those groups.

Jared: Generally my wife gets the first read.

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

Fran: One of my favorite books of poetry is Scattered Clouds by Reuben Jackson who sadly passed away recently. I have read it many times and expect to read it again. I’ve also written a Golden Shovel poem based on one of his poems.

Jared: There are so many books I read and re-read for pleasure . . . books of poetry, novels, essays. I have hundreds of volumes of poetry and novels in my study but I guess that The Wasteland And Other Poems by T.S. Eliot has to be the book of poetry I’ve gone back to most often. Among novels I’ve gone back most often is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and The Lord Of The Rings by Tolkien. Looking For Dragon Smoke by Robert Bly is the best essay I’ve come across on how modern poetry works.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Fran: A reading by Aaron Caycedo-Kimura at the Gaithersburg Book Festival was the most memorable. His two books—a full-length collection titled Common Grace and a chapbook titled Ubasute—include some of the most moving poems I’ve encountered, and his reading of the poems was superb.

Jared: There have been so many! The earliest was one I attended by Galway Kinnell, when I was a young boy and went up to talk with him afterwards and he told me that he thought I would become a good poet. Somewhat later I took a two hour bus trip to head to a reading by Robert Bly, and that led to many years of correspondence with him. A reading by Beat poet Gregory Corso in New York led to the two of us hanging out together for several months. A reading W.S. Merwin gave to celebrate the publication of his book Migration led to an extended talk with him and resulted in my reviewing the book for The Pedestal Magazine. And then there are all the wonderful meetings and talks I have had with both known and unknown poets at open mics over the years! It is wonderful to listen to poets converse as well as read their works.

• Fran Abrams’ poems have been published in Cathexis-Northwest Press, The American Journal of Poetry, The Ravens Perch, Delmarva Review, Gargoyle, and many others. Her poems also appear in more than a dozen anthologies. Her autobiographical book of poems titled I Rode the Second Wave: A Feminist Memoir was published in November 2022. Her first chapbook, The Poet Who Loves Pythagoras, was released in April 2023. Her second chapbook, Arranging Words, was published in November 2023.

Fran lives in Rockville, Maryland and can be found online at franabramspoetry.com, and on Facebook as Fran Abrams, Poet.

• Jared Smith is the author of 16 books of poetry, as well as two stage productions. His poems, essays, and commentary have appeared in hundreds of journals and anthologies in this country and overseas. He is Poetry Editor of Turtle Island Quarterly, and served on the editorial boards of New York Quarterly, Home Planet News, and The Pedestal Magazine, along with the boards of arts and literary nonprofits in New York, Illinois, and Colorado.

You can find more on Jared at his home page, jaredsmith.info.

HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the February edition of the Wilde Readings Series, with Joseph Ross and Michael Salcman, hosted by Laura Shovan. Join us at the Columbia Art Center on Tuesday, February 13th at 7 p.m., at 6100 Foreland Garth, 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 by calling the Columbia Arts Center at (410)-730-0075.

Below, get to know Joseph and Michael!

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

Joseph: What an interesting question. My husband, Robert, probably shows up most but he is often whispering within the poems, even if he isn’t mentioned. Martin Luther King shows up in many of my poems too.

Michael: My father and my wife Ilene.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Joseph: Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C.

Michael: In bed at home in the early hours before rising on my iPad; next best, at anchor in a sailboat.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Joseph: I straighten the things on my desk before I write.

Michael: New ideas and first lines on iPad or paper notebook come at any time; new drafts occur at my desk computer. In the early hours editing on the iPad quickly goes through several drafts.

Who always gets a first read?

Joseph: There’s no one person who reads my work first. I share with very few people.

Michael: My wife Ilene and less so poet friends in New York & Baltimore; Ilene is usually in the kitchen and if I read her a new poem and my eyes get watery I know I have landed a good one. She gives me a rating but doesn’t cry.

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

Joseph: Martin Luther King’s Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?

Michael: Complete poems of Wallace Stevens more than twice, ditto Geography III by Elizabeth Bishop, Crow by Ted Hughes, and New and Selected Poems of Tom Lux, my teacher; recently finished my second reading of all seven volumes of Proust’s Remembrance of Lost Time (no third one is on the horizon).

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Joseph: Naomi Shihab Nye reading at one of the early Split This Rock Poetry Festivals.

Michael: Ilene and I hosted a reading and celebration by Richard Wilbur at the Century Association in New York; I invited Tom Lux and Edward Hirsch to give a joint reading at the City Lit Festival in Baltimore. They were terrific.

The Howard County Poetry and Literature Society (HoCoPoLitSo) is pleased to announce that Steph Sundermann-Zinger of the Baltimore area has been awarded first prize in the 2023 Ellen Conroy Kennedy Poetry Contest for her poem “A Dream of Solitude.” Judges noted the poem’s “gorgeous language” and “strong imagery, alliteration, and meter.” One said, “this poem has the strongest voice,” and another called it “a mature poem that is a moment in time.” A $500 cash prize was awarded, and the poem was published in the Winter 2024 edition of The Little Patuxent Review.

Larraine Denakpo of Columbia was awarded second place with a $100 cash award for her poem “Lullaby for Daughters,” in recognition of the poem’s effective usage of restrained form, while conveying what one judge called “universal resonance.” Another said, “this neatly packed, tiny poem is so enjoyable to read.” In addition, the review panel awarded honorable mentions to Joshua Ward of Dayton for his poem “Some Thrushes on Migration,” and to Eileen Wu of Clarksville for “Why Storms Have Human Names.”

Contest judges evaluated submissions from 60 poets residing throughout Maryland and Virginia for mechanics and technique, clarity, style/music for our contemporary age, imagery/sensory power, and emotional resonance. Each author receiving an award or honorary mention was invited to be interviewed for a blog post hosted at hocopolitso.org.

The Ellen Conroy Kennedy Poetry Prize was established to honor HoCoPoLitSo co-founder Ellen Conroy Kennedy, who passed away in 2020. Ms. Kennedy, who was nominated for the National Book Award in Translation in 1969, translated Francophone African and Caribbean poets, and published her landmark work, The Negritude Poets, in 1975.

Kennedy founded HoCoPoLitSo in 1974, a nationally recognized, community-based nonprofits arts organization that has brought hundreds of writers to Howard County, Maryland, now soon to enter its 50^th year of operation. She served as president and CEO for 30 years, opening her home and sharing her table with an array of literary icons. She also developed and produced The Writing Life, originally a cable television series, featuring conversations with writers, now available free on HoCoPoLitSo’s YouTube channel. In 2019, the Kennedys donated more than 1,500 books, most of which featured authors who read for HoCoPoLitSo audiences, to the Howard Community College library; the Kennedy Collection is housed in a reading room open to the public during normal business hours.

HoCoPoLitSo works to cultivate appreciation for contemporary poetry and literature and celebrate culturally diverse literary heritages. The society sponsors literary readings; the Bauder Writer-in-Residence outreach program to local schools; produces The Writing Life; and partners with the public schools and cultural organizations to support the arts in Howard County, Maryland. For more information, visit www.hocopolitso.org.

Out of consideration for the year-end holidays, the deadline for application to the newly-created position of Howard County Poet Laureate has been extended to Monday, January 22nd, at 11:59 p.m. Don’t miss your chance to be the next, and first-ever Poet Laureate to our local community!

This program, presented in partnership between HoCoPoLitSo and Howard County Arts Council with the office of the County Executive, offers a stipend of $5,000 for each year of the appointed poet’s service representing poetry and the arts in Howard County. You can review all of the information at bit.ly/howardcountypoetlaureate on HCAC’s grants portal, and apply now!