August 18: Ala Khaki at the Lakes Gallery at Chi-Lin

All readings in the Poetry Summer Sundays series are free & open to all, including poetry lovers and doubters. Directions to the Lakes Gallery at Chi-Lin

Ala Khaki:   “A Poetic Return to the Persian Garden”
August 18, at 4:00 pm
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​In celebration of A Garden Dream Exhibit poet Ala Khaki will discuss the role of “Garden” in Persian art and life, both as a multi-dimensional metaphor and a physical place of serenity, and read thematic poems from classic and modern Persian poets in Farsi and English.

Ala Khaki, an Iranian American poet, is the author of two poetry collections, “Calling the Dawn” (“Sahar Khani” in Farsi), and “Return” (BookSurge Publishing.)  His poems have appeared in Iranian and American literary journals and anthologies including “The Book Review (Barrasi e Ketab),” “Feather (Par),” “Thought and Imagination (Andishe va Khial),” “The Poets’ Touchstone,” “The Worcester Review,” “The 2010 Poets’ Guide to New Hampshire,” and “Poets Showcase: An Anthology of New Hampshire Poets.”  In 1981, Ala Khaki was the subject of a documentary film titled “Resident Exile” by the celebrated documentary filmmaker and director Ross McElwee.

 

“Poems of New Hampshire” Poetry Contest

The contest, sponsored by the Peterborough Poetry Project, is open now, until September 30, 2019.

THEME: New Hampshire, past, present, future, or fantasy…or combination. Enter up to three poems per person.

Anyone living in, visiting, or intrigued by New Hampshire may enter by writing and submitting up to three (3) original unpublished poems for free. Submit poems by email to: peterboroughpoetry@gmail.com …or by mail to:

Peterborough Poetry Project (NH Poems)
PO Box 247
Peterborough NH 03458-0247

Additional Guidelines:

• Each poem must be at least 3 lines and no more than 28 lines; form is open. Rhyming, punctuation, and capitalization are optional. Please include the title (other than “NH” or “New Hampshire”) of each poem.
• Include your name, mailing address, and email address in the same email or on the same page as your poem(s). Poems will not be returned.
• Poems will be judged by members of the Peterborough Poetry Project.
• Writers of poems chosen for publication will be notified by email (or mail if no email address is provided).

Prizes and recognition are as follows:

1. The writers of the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place poems will win $75, $35, and $25, respectively.
2. The three winning poems will be published on our website.
3. In addition, the three winning poems as well as other poems chosen for honorable mention will be printed in a book to be published by Peterborough Poetry Project. The writer of each poem included in the book will receive one free copy of the book and may purchase an additional copy for a reduced price.

August 8, 2019: Rodger Martin and Robert Crawford Reading at Frost Farm

The Robert Frost Farm’s Hyla Brook Reading Series features Rodger Martin, along with Frost Farm Poetry Director and Derry Poet Laureate Robert Crawford, on Thursday, August 8, 6:30-8:30pm. 

The series, held at the Frost Farm located at 122 Rockingham Rd (Rt 28), is free and open to the public. An Open Mic follows the readings and all audience members are invited to share their work. 

Martin’s new book of poems in two languages: For All The Tea in Zhōngguó was released earlier this year.  His third poetry volume, The Battlefield Guide, (Hobblebush) uses locations on battlefields of the Civil War to reflect upon America today. Small Press Review selected The Blue Moon Series (Hobblebush), as its bi-monthly pick of the year. A translation of his work, On The Monadnock, appeared in China in 2006. Martin has received an Appalachia poetry award, an N.H. State Council on the Arts Fiction Fellowship, a series of Bruce Kellner/Monadnock Fellowships, and fellowships from The National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2012, he was chosen as poet to represent the U.S. at Hangzhou, China’s international cultural festival. He returned in 2015 to read and lecture on poetry at Nanjing University and Shanghai University of International Business and Economics. His poem, “The Anchor,” was etched in stone at a reflecting pool at Shanghai University for International Business and Economics. He serves as co-editor for The Granite State Poetry Series, and teaches journalism at Keene State College and co-advises its award-winning student newspaper, The Equinox.  

Also, appearing is Robert Crawford, Director of Frost Farm Poetry, and Derry’s first poet laureate. Crawford has published two books of poetry, The Empty Chair (2011, Richard Wilbur Award), and Too Much Explanation Can Ruin a Man (2005). His sonnets have twice won the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award. His poems have appeared in many national journals including The Formalist, First Things, Dark Horse, The Raintown Review, The Lyric, Measure, Light and Forbes. He co-founded the Hyla Brook Poets, and is a long-time member of the Powow River Poets of Newburyport, MA. He lives in Chester, NH, with his wife, the poet Midge Goldberg. 

The last Hyla Brook Reading Series event of the season is Thursday, Sept. 12, with a reading by Patrick Donnelly. 

Through September, the Hyla Brook Poets’ monthly writing workshop meets on the third Saturday of the month at 10am at its summer home at the Frost Farm, before moving to the Derry Public Library. 

About Frost Farm Poetry

Under the leadership of Robert W. Crawford, Derry Poet Laureate, Frost Farm Poetry’s mission is to support the writing and teaching of metrical poetry. The Hyla Brook Poets started in 2008 as a monthly poetry workshop. In March 2009, the monthly Hyla Brook Reading Series launched with readings by emerging poets as well as luminaries such as Maxine Kumin, Sharon Olds and Richard Blanco. From there, the Frost Farm Poetry Prize for metrical poetry was introduced in 2010, with the Frost Farm Conference beginning in 2015. 

For further information, email hylabrookpoets@gmail.com, or visit www.frostfarmpoetry.org or facebook.com/HylaBrookPoets or twitter.com/HylaBrookPoets

Vijay Seshadri Poetry Reading

Join the New England College MFA Program in Creative Writing for a poetry reading with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Vijay Seshadri. Seshadri is serving as the 2019 NEC MFA Elizabeth Yates McGreal Writer-in-Residence.

Vijay Seshadri was born in Bangalore, India, in 1954 and moved to America at the age of five. He is the author of the poetry books Wild Kingdom, The Long Meadow, The Disappearances, and 3 Sections, as well as many essays, reviews, and memoir fragments. His work has been widely published and anthologized and recognized with many honors, most recently the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and, in 2015, the Literature Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was educated at Oberlin College and Columbia University, and currently teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.

This event will take place in the Great Room at 98 Bridge Street in Henniker, NH on Saturday, July 20, 2019 at 7:30 PM.

BURLINGHAM FEATURED AT MOULTONBOROUGH JULY 2

MOULTONBOROUGH — Poet and artist Priscilla Burlingham will be the featured reader at the Moultonborough Library Poetry Night on Tuesday, July 2, at 7:30 p.m. An Open Mic will follow the featured reader.

Burlingham is a graduate of the Museum of Fine Arts School in Boston. Her poetry was first encouraged while on painting fellowships at Ragsdale and Yaddo. She works on her poetry and painting all the time at her studio on Lees Pond in Moultonborough. Since the 1970s she has pursued applied physics each January at M.I.T., with a special affinity for poetry and outer space. She also rescues animals and grows plants from seed, which adds to the number of children she cannot leave.

The founder of the Poetry Night, she has gathered poets, poet laureates, artists and musicians to read and perform at the Moultonborough Public Library on the first Tuesday of every month. Her animal drawings and paintings have been featured in a one-woman show at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston and at the Libby Museum in New Hampshire. She has read her poetry all over New England and has been featured in the New Hampshire Poet Showcase, sponsored by the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, and in several anthologies and periodicals, including The Other Side of Sorrow.

All are welcome to participate and to listen. Bring some words or a song and share it in the Open Mic portion. “This will be a wonderful opportunity to hear Priscilla’s poems and songs, and to note the many things she has done to support poetry in New Hampshire,” said Wolfeboro poet Bob Demaree, host for the July 2 event.

The Moultonborough Library is located at the junction of Routes 25 and 109 north, at the blinking light.

PSNH Reading Series: Jeffrey Zygmont and Rodger Martin

From the White Mountains to China

Join us at Gibson’s Bookstore on Wednesday, June 19th, from 5:30 to 7:00 for a reading that will take us from the White Mountains to China in one evening. An open mic will follow for other poets to take us on a journey of their own.

Jeffrey Zygmont is a professional writer and small publisher. His poetry books celebrating the White Mountains reach general readers at stores throughout New Hampshire. A full-time New Hampshire resident for more than three decades, Jeffrey speaks regularly about poetry and artistic inspiration at venues across New England.

Rodger Martin’s new book of poems in two languages: For All The Tea in Zhōngguó was released in 2019. His third poetry volume, The Battlefield Guide, (Hobblebush) uses locations on battlefields of the Civil War to reflect upon America today. Small Press Review selected The Blue Moon Series (Hobblebush) as its bi-monthly pick of the year. A translation of his work, On The Monadnock, appeared in China in 2006. Rodger has received an Appalachia poetry award, a N.H. State Council on the Arts Fiction Fellowship, a series of Bruce Kellner/Monadnock Fellowships, and fellowships from The National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2012 he was chosen as poet to represent the U.S. at Hangzhou, China’s international cultural festival.

NHPF Workshops Announced

The New Hampshire Poetry Festival organizers are thrilled to announce the workshops and leaders for the 5th annual festival, to be held at New England College in Henniker on 14 September 2019. The workshops below require registration in advance to ensure a quality experience for participants. Registration will open in a few weeks.

• “Self-Portraits: Describing, Naming, Transforming” led by Chen Chen
• “Trying on Another Poet’s Clothes” led by Patrick Donnelly
• “The The Way to a Poet’s Creativity is Through The Ear” led by Maudelle Driskell
• “The Art of the Unsaid” led by Joan Houlihan

For a complete description of the workshops, as well as leader bios, please visit https://nhpoetryfest.org/schedule/workshops/

Ben Moeller-Gaa Wins Haiku Foundation Award

Wishbones’ trophy (photo courtesy of the Haiku Foundation)

Wishbones, a collection of haiku and senryu by PSNH member Ben Moeller-Gaa, recently won the Haiku Foundation’s 2018 Touchstone Distinguished Books Award. The judges also commended PSNH member Jessi Graustein for her calligraphic treatment of Ben’s poems. Two poems from the book were reprinted in the Autumn 2018 issue of The Poets’ Touchstone (pg. 16-17). You may also read samples and the judges’ comments at the Folded Word website.

PSNH Reading Series: Anders Carlson-Wee and Mark DeCarteret

On May 22nd, the 4TH WEDNESDAY of the month, the Poetry Society of New Hampshire will feature two special poets in a rare reading. Anders Carlson-Wee and Mark DeCarteret will be at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord NH from 5:30 to 7:00. There will be a Q & A time and an open mic at the end. Come early and meet the poets. Stay late and chat with them. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to hear these two highly popular poets at the same time.

Anders Carlson-Wee is the author of The Low Passions (W.W. Norton, 2019). His work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly Review, New England Review, Poetry Daily, The Sun, Best New Poets, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the McKnight Foundation, Bread Loaf, Sewanee, and the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, he is the winner of Ninth Letter’s Poetry Award as well as the 2017 Poetry International Prize. His work has been translated into Chinese. Anders holds an MFA from Vanderbilt University and lives in Minneapolis.

Mark DeCarteret, a former Portsmouth NH Poet Laureate, has appeared next to Charles Bukowski in a lo-fi fold out, Pope John Paul II in a hi-test collection of Catholic poetry, Billy Collins in an Italian fashion coffee table book and Mary Oliver in a 3785 page pirated anthology. His sixth book For Lack of a Calling was released last summer by Nixes Mate Books. Read more about Mark here in the announcement of his latest book launch last September: https://www.waterstreetbooks.com/event/book-launch-mark-decarteret-author-lack-calling

Hope to see many of you there.

Tammi J. Truax Named Poet Laureate of Portsmouth

In April, the Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program announced that PSNH member Tammi J. Truax would serve as their 12th Poet Laureate of Portsmouth. Her term will span 2019-2021. Truax works with young readers and writers at a Portsmouth elementary school and as a Connections program facilitator for the NH Humanities Council teaching new adult readers. She is an MEd candidate in school librarianship. She is also serving as the Maine Beat Poet Laureate for 2018-2020.

Her latest novel in verse, For to See the Elephant (Piscataqua Press, 2019), tells the story of an enslaved boy tasked with caring for the first elephant brought to America. Upon arrival in the city of New York, he and the elephant are sold together and spend decades walking through the country until the day they can be together no longer. The realities of William’s life and the lives of elephants forced to live away from their herd and home are realistically portrayed. The novel, based on real events, is told in a series of poems and incorporates songs, news clippings and diary entries from the period. Much of the story is set in Maine and New Hampshire. A book launch will be held at the Portsmouth Public Library on June 29 at 2 PM.