HoCoPoLitSo

In 2021, Howard County Poetry and Literature Society launched the Ellen Conroy Kennedy Poetry Prize in honor of its founding member, Ellen Conroy Kennedy. Now in its forth year, contest judges evaluated many submissions for mechanics and technique, clarity, style/music for our contemporary age, imagery/sensory power, and emotional resonance. Congratulations to honorable mention winner, Jared Smith, and the poem “Reaching Into Rivers”. Read on to learn a little about the winning poet and to hear the poem recited.

Tell us about your poem “Reaching Into Rivers”. How did it come about? What sparked or inspired it

“Reaching Into the Rivers” was written after spending a day at the Conowingo Dam and witnessing the incredible power of the waters behind it, how the waters have been held back in the name of progress. I meditated about the miles of watershed above that dam, and the miles ahead before it enters into the Chesapeake. My musings about that combined with my readings in The New York Times and The Washington Post about the volume of water and pollutants that were carried in an average thundercloud as it moves across America, the volume of dust and pollution and industrial waste that sustains our society contained within that average thundercloud, the source of all our waters. I thought of how many rivers have been covered over in our search for progress by urban highways and other infrastructure as they move toward Chesapeake Bay and the oceans in general. Those rivers, I came to visualize, carry the pollution and hopes and rags of infrastructure development from all across our nation deep into the earth beneath Baltimore and our other cities as they move to the ocean. They carry our dreams, our efforts, and our history deep beneath the roads and buildings we move among and are aware of in our day-to-day lives, and without them our cities and our way of life would not exist. It is necessary to understand all that they carry within their life-giving waters in order to understand who and what we are. And this is doubly true because their presence is hidden from us. We do not see what they carve away from our foundations, nor what they add. Poetry is like this too, I think, in that it moves with tremendous force beneath the fabric of society and shapes the society, yet for many is largely hidden.

What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?

I first began to learn about the power of language when I was eight years old and attended a reading by Galway Kinnell from his first book, What A Kingdom It Was. That hooked me on poetry. I later developed a love for the epic poetry of Homer, and the lyric poetry of A.E. Housman and Robert Frost, followed by the formal intellectual poetry of Auden and the imagistic poetry of the young T. S. Eliot. The poetry and essays of Robert Bly then captivated me with the power and insights he illumined in nonlinear contemporary poetry. Ginsberg, Levertov, Sexton, Merwin, and their contemporaries set me free, with their devotion to the struggles and concerns of the common citizen. All of these poets have helped shape the culture of their time and ours through the power of their words and visions. I think of them as engaging in an eternal discussion across time contributing to an understanding of our place in the cosmos, and the dignity of the common man.

As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?

My spirit animal is a wolf…a spirit that roams across the width of the American wilderness, demanding respect but making do with what it can.

Tell us about a writer or a book that you return to over and over for inspiration.

Poetic sources I reach back into most frequently include Walt Whitman, Bob Dylan, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the Germanic epic The Neibelungenlied. These are diverse sources to bring to bear upon current contemporary poetry, but I think that the masters of the past give enhanced perspective to the works of our current poets and visionaries.

What are you working on next and where can we find you?

My vision and writing is generally driven by natural landscapes, though I have lived in both urban and rural settings. Although I started out as a poet in Greenwich Village, every book I have written draws on wilderness imagery and insights from a remote and primitive cabin I maintain in Colorado’s Roosevelt National Forest. My current home in Ellicott City, MD, backs onto a stretch of woodland populated by deer and foxes, and with a pond that is filled with frogs and all other manner of aquatic life. I walk the rivers and the seashore and the mountains. Through studying nature and meditating on it, I am better able in my writing to reach a better understanding of mankind, how we shape nature to our institutions, our struggle for simple human dignity, and our place in the cosmos. I will continue writing as long as it expands my knowledge. My website is at www.jaredsmith.info.

Jared Smith is the author of 17 books of poetry, two multi-media plays, and two spoken word CDs. His work has appeared in hundreds of domestic and international journals and anthologies. He has served on the editorial staffs of The New York Quarterly, Home Planet News, The Pedestal Magazine, and Turtle Island Quarterly, as well as on the boards of literary and arts non-profits in New York, Illinois, and Colorado. He has served on the faculty of LaGuardia Community College (CCNY), as Vice President of an energy and environmental consulting company, as technical and policy advisor to several White House Commissions under President Clinton, and Special Advisor to Argonne National Laboratory. He currently lives in Ellicott City, MD. His website is www.jaredsmith.info

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 Howard County Poetry and Literature Society (HoCoPoLitSo) is pleased to announce that Mickie Kennedy of the Baltimore area has been awarded first prize in the 2024 Ellen Conroy Kennedy Poetry Contest for the poem “Aubade With Peaches, Eggs, and Hissing Garlic.” Judges shared they appreciated the rich, incisive sensory language; skilled technical precision and powerful restraint within the form; and deep emotional resonance of this both contemporary and timeless love poem. A $500 cash prize was awarded, and the poem was published in the Winter 2025 edition of The Little Patuxent Review.

Neha Misra of Silver Spring was awarded second place with a $100 cash prize for the poem “Vanishing Gardens Return,” in recognition of the poem’s skillful use of form, vivid and original imagery, and compact storytelling. Judges noted their appreciation for the work’s familial, social, and cultural resonance.

Judges selected an additional three poets’ entries for honorable mention: Lauren Benoit of Russell, Massachusetts for “A Poem for Robert Bly”; Kari Martindale of Ijamsville for “The Beaches of Normandie”; and Jared Smith of Ellicott City for “Reaching Into the Rivers.”

Contest judges evaluated 46 submissions from poets residing across six states for mechanics and technique, clarity, style/music for our contemporary age, imagery/sensory power, and emotional resonance. Each author receiving an award 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, and this year celebrates its 50th anniversary. 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 where it has been seen by more over a million lovers of literature from around the world. 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 http://www.hocopolitso.org.

In 2021, Howard County Poetry and Literature Society launched the Ellen Conroy Kennedy Poetry Prize in honor of its founding member, Ellen Conroy Kennedy. Now in its forth year, contest judges evaluated many submissions for mechanics and technique, clarity, style/music for our contemporary age, imagery/sensory power, and emotional resonance. Congratulations to this year’s winner, Mickie Kennedy and the poem “Aubade With Peaches, Eggs, and Hissing Garlic.” Judges shared they appreciated the rich, incisive sensory language; skilled technical precision and powerful restraint within the form; and deep emotional resonance of this both contemporary and timeless love poem. Read on to learn a little about the winning poet and to hear the poem recited.

Tell us about your poem “Aubade With Peaches, Eggs, and Hissing Garlic”. How did it come about? What sparked or inspired it?

Last year, I took a virtual poetry class (“Food in Poetry”) taught by Melanie Tafejian. She offered weekly prompts, and the first draft of this poem was actually a response to a prompt where she challenged us to write about being in the kitchen with somebody else. In further drafts, the poem found its way inside its current shape: a meditation on the surprise of domesticity, as the speaker (recently out of the closet) resists an easy togetherness he never thought he’d have.

What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?

When I was five, quite new to reading, I kept encountering a mysterious phrase: off ice. On a walk through town: off ice. On drives with my Grandma: off ice. In winter and summer, night and day. I knew what ice meant. I knew what off meant. But off ice was a door I couldn’t pass through. I asked my Grandma what it meant, and she wasn’t sure. “Stay off the ice?” she guessed, but it was summer, so hot we kept the windows down. A few days later, while Grandma was gassing up the car, I saw the word again, painted on the side of a building. “There it is!” I said, pointing. Grandma looked, and then laughed and laughed. “That’s not off ice,” she said, “That’s office, a place where people work.” And just like that, language grew strange. Slippery. Opaque. A site of transformation. A place to hide.

As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?

My animal avatar would have to be a tardigrade, which is an eight-legged micro-animal. They’re rugged survivalists, more prolific than roaches, and they can withstand hostile environments, under extreme conditions of lack, for literal decades by entering a death state, then springing back to life when the conditions soften. They’re also called mossy pigs. So much to love. And I channeled their resilience, moving through the hostile environment of my childhood.

Tell us about a writer or a book that you return to over and over for inspiration.

Richie Hofmann’s A Hundred Lovers. Lithe. Sensual. Brimming with crystalline images that refract the world back cleaner, somehow. And more strange. I’ll be reading this book for years.

What are you working on next and where can we find you?

“Aubade With Peaches, Eggs, and Hissing Garlic,” is from a manuscript called Worth Burning (my first book!), which is set to be published in February 2026 by Black Lawrence Press. So I’ll be promoting that project till the mossy pigs come home! You can find me on social media platforms @MickiePoet. Or visit my website: https://mickiekennedy.com.

Mickie Kennedy is a gay writer who resides in Baltimore County, Maryland. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in POETRY, The Threepenny Review, The Southern Review, The Sun and elsewhere; his first book of poetry Worth Burning will be published by Black Lawrence Press in February 2026. Follow him on social media @MickiePoet or his website mickiekennedy.com.

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.