There are a growing number of poetry books ‘set’ in another time, and are often referred to as ‘docupoetics.’ There are many varieties of docupoetics that can be traced to ancient times. Famous 20th century books that are now being called antecedents of the current wave of docupoetics include Muriel Rukeyser’s The Book of the Dead, Paterson by William Carlos Williams, Testimony by Charles Reznikoff, Octavio Paz’s Sunstone, and many others. In this century two classics are Kevin Young’s Ardency and Whereas by Layli Long Soldier.
Member Mark Pawlak publishes new memoir
Mark Pawlak’s memoir My Deniversity: Knowing Denise Levertov is now available from MadHat Press, Amazon, and selected independent bookstores. About the book Much more than the story of Mark Pawlak’s apprenticeship to … Read more
NEPC Member Cindy Veach publishes new book
Congratulations to NEPC Member Cindy Veach for the publication of her latest book, Her Kind, released this October from CavanKerry Press.
About Her Kind
Set against the historical backdrop of the Salem Witch Trials, Her Kind is a book about women who are innocent and are used or disregarded by their cultures: women viewed as witches, women making their own choices, women fighting for freedom. The poems in this collection skillfully braid together narratives of the female victims of the Salem Witch Trials with the experiences of contemporary women viewed as witches for their personal histories, their political circumstances, or for speaking out and making their own choices. A blend of lyrical and narrative poems, Her Kind celebrates women refusing the victim role and reclaiming their magic.
Congratulations to NEPC Board Member Jennifer Markell on the publication of her new book!
NEPC Board Member Jennifer Markell’s 2nd book of poems, “Singing at High Altitude” has just been published and is available from her website as well as from the publisher’s website, The Main Street Rag.
NEPC member Terence Culleton publishes new collection
Congratulations to NEPC member Terence Culleton for the release of his new collection of poems, A Tree and Gone, now out through Future Cycle Press. A Tree and Gone is … Read more
New Poetry & Open Mic, November 14, 3 pm, with Susan Eisenberg, Julie Danho, Beth Kress
Please register in advance. Confirmation email will give info for joining reading:
https://us02web.zoom.us/…/tZMrc…Featured readers followed by Q & A and an
Open mic sign-up in Zoom chat at beginning of event (limit 1 page/1 poem).
Susan Eisenberg is a poet, visual artist, and oral historian who works within and across genres. Stanley’s Girl (Cornell)—a Mass Book Award Must Read!—is her fifth poetry book. She is a Resident Artist/Scholar at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center, where she directs the On Equal Terms Project.
Julie Danho’s poetry collection, Those Who Keep Arriving, won the 2018 Gerald Cable Book Award from Silverfish Review Press. Her chapbook, Six Portraits, received the 2013 Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Award, and her poems have appeared in Pleiades, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Writer’s Almanac, Poetry Daily, and Verse Daily.
Beth Kress began writing poetry after careers in teaching and counseling. Her inspirations include the natural world, storytelling, and connections of all kinds. Her work has been published in Snowy Egret, Spotlight, Avalon Literary Review, Dreamers, and recently won The Willow Review Prize. Taking Notes was published in 2020.
Congratulations to NEPC poet Michael Favala Goldman on the publication of his third book of poetry, Small Sovereign!
The succinct poems of Small Sovereign explore the paradox of personal power and powerlessness with irony and tenderness: “I am a clumsy giant/trying desperately not/to destroy my own city.” Poet Michael Favala Goldman interrogates our attempts to bridge the gap between the material world and emotion-based relationships.
– from Homestead Lighthouse Press.
Congratulations to NEPC poet Eleanor Kedney, whose collection, Between the Earth and Sky (C&R Press, 2020), has been named a 2021 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards finalist in Poetry!
Eleanor Kedney’s collection Between the Earth and Sky (C&R Press, 2020) has been named a 2021 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards finalist in Poetry. Other honors include the 2019 riverSedge Poetry Prize (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) for her poem “Bubbles Blown through a Wand” and a 2020 Mslexia finalist Prize for her poem “Imagine,” and a finalist mention for the 2020 Best Book Award (American Book Fest). Her poems have appeared in journals, magazines, and anthologies, including Fjords Review, Miramar Poetry Journal, New Ohio Review, and Under a Warm Green Linden. Kedney is the founder of the Tucson branch of the New York-based Writers Studio, and served as the director for ten years. She is a Tucson Poetry Festival board member. To purchase Between the Earth and Sky from the publisher, click
Author Photo by Chris Conforti
Congratulations to NEPC poet Thomas DeFreitas on his new collection of poems!
Thomas DeFreitas is celebrating the recent publication of his chapbook Winter in Halifax (Kelsay Books). This collection of 26 poems includes “The Old Dry Dock” (an ode to a Boston barroom), “Our Lady of Cambridge” (finding the Madonna in unlikely places), “Chasing the Waves” (the poet’s elegiac remembrance of his father), and “Detox” (a sobering look at the consequences of alcoholism). Cathie Desjardins has praised the volume, and has observed “[a] skillful use of language and form [that] unerringly serves what’s being closely observed or recalled.”