NEPC in Worcester: Linda Carney-Goodrich, Steven Ratiner, Elaine Reardon

Please join the New England Poetry Club on November 9, 2025, as we rejoin the Worcester County Poetry Association for a reading at the Salisbury House. The reading is free and open to the public. An open mic will follow the featured poets. The building has limited access, with steps leading to the entrance.

Linda Carney-Goodrich is a writer and teacher from Boston. Her first book of poetry, Dot Girl (Nixes Mate, 2024) was a finalist for the New England Poetry Club’s Sheila Margaret Motton Prize. Her poems have been displayed at Boston City Hall and have been published in Solstice Literary Magazine, Lily Poetry Review, The MacGuffin, Literary Mama, Muddy River Poetry Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, Amethyst Review, Gyroscope Review and more. Linda is a recipient of a writing residency at T.S. Eliot House and an Artist Opportunity Grant through the Boston Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture. As Poetry Coordinator for the Menino Arts Center, she organizes a monthly reading series, poetry & wine pairings, and a mobile arts project that brings poets to elders in senior housing. She offers classes, tutoring, and educational consulting through her business, Home Scholars of Boston.

Steven Ratiner is the author of Grief’s Apostrophe, published by Beltway Editions in 2025.  He’s also published three poetry chapbooks and a collection of poetry interviews.  His work has appeared in scores of journals in America and abroad, including Parnassus, Agni, Hanging Loose, Poet Lore, Salamander, Vox Populi,  QRLS (Singapore), and Poetry Australia.  He’s also written poetry criticism for The Christian Science Monitor, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Washington Post.  Giving Their Word: Conversations with Contemporary Poets was reissued in a paperback edition (University of Massachusetts Press).  He is Poet Laureate Emeritus for Arlington, Massachusetts, and was elected in 2024 as President of the New England Poetry Club, one of the oldest literary associations in America.  His weekly Red Letter Poems features a diverse range of poets, from up-and-coming talents to some of the most important voices in contemporary poetry (stevenratiner.com).

Elaine Reardon writes in a forest in the north Quabbin area.  She’s an herbalist and former educator. Her work has been published  In the United States and Europe in a variety of journals. Elaine’s  first two chapbooks, The Heart is a Nursery For Hope and Look Behind You won first honors from Flutter Press. A new chapbook, Stories Told In A Forgotten Tongue, recently published by Finishing Line Press tells her family story from landing in the United States as refugees to assimilation.  www.elainereardon.wordpress.com