Member Denise Provost publishes new book

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City of Stories (Červená Barva Press, 2021)

Denise Provost served for many years in local government and for almost fifteen years in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. She has published in such journals as Ibbetson Street, Muddy River Poetry Review, qarrtsiluni, Quadrille, Poetry Porch’s Sonnet Scroll, Sanctuary, Light Quarterly, and in numerous Bagel Bard anthologies. She received the New England Poetry Club’s Samuel Washington Allen Award in 2021, and the Best Love Sonnet Award from the Maria C. Faust Sonnet Competition in 2012. Her chapbook Curious Peach was published by Ibbetson Street Press in 2019.

“City of Stories is a full length poetry collection which explores the narratives we construct to shape our world. In three thematic sections, these poems observe the shared experiences of community, reactions to current events, and the imaginative life sparked by interactions with literature. Many of these poems employ formal conventions: Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnets; quatrains, heroic couplets, the ghazal and the ballade.”

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Poet in the House with Kevin Gallagher

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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.  

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NEPC Member Cindy Veach publishes new book

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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.

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