Note from outgoing Interim President Linda Haviland Conte:
I am excited to announce that we have a new president for NEPC, STEVEN RATINER.
I’m so proud that the search committee has provided this extraordinary new leader, and I’m looking forward to the good he’ll bring to the Club.
Steven Ratiner has spent the better part of the last five decades––not only refining his own voice and vision as a poet––but also exploring a multiplicity of ways poetry can interact with other art forms, all to help enhance the life of the community. He’s collaborated with visual artists, musicians, choreographers and videographers.
In 2022, Steven completed his third term as the Poet Laureate for Arlington, Massachusetts. His Laureate project––The Red Letter Poems––is now in its fifth year and features, in its weekly installments, a diverse range of poets, from up-and-coming talents to some of the most important voices from America and abroad. His reviews of, and musings on, those poems are invariably a rewarding read––a talent, no doubt, he’s honed as a critic of and essayist on poetry, literature, and art for publications like The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Arrowsmith Journal, Horizon, and other magazines.
Steven has published three chapbooks and has been widely published in poetry collections and anthologies. His latest collection, Grief’s Apostrophe, will be issued by Beltway Editions in 2025.
We are delighted to have him as NEPC’s new President, helping to enhance our mission–especially now, in this challenging time for our country, where poetry and art will be even more vital.
Let’s welcome Steven Ratiner!