New Poetry & Open Mic

Kathleen Aponick

Jeffrey Harrison

Ed Meek

Members will receive the zoom link information in a newsletter; please email info@nepoetryclub.org if you are not a member.

May 9, 2021 New Poetry & Open Mic readers

Kathleen Aponick, a native of Cambridge, is a former teacher and textbook editor. Her poems have appeared in such publications as Poetry East, Notre Dame Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Hollins Critic, and Paterson Literary Review. Her poetry collections include two chapbooks: Near the River’s Edge and The Port, as well as two full-length collections: Bright Realm, published by Turning Point Press in 2013 and a finalist in the New Rivers Poetry Prize at Minnesota State University, and The Descendant’s Notebook, published in 2020 by Kelsay Press. She lives with her husband, Tony, in Andover, Massachusetts.

Purchasing information: The best way to buy the book is to do a Google search for The Descendant’s Notebookto find the link that shows the book’s title with Kelsay Books, the publisher. It takes you right to the book. It is $16. If you order through Amazon, you pay $18.50.

Jeffrey Harrison’s sixth book of poetry, Between Lakes, was published by Four Way Books in September 2020. His previous books include Into Daylight, (Tupelo Press, 2014) winner the Dorset Prize, Incomplete Knowledge (Four Way, 2006), runner-up for the Poets’ Prize, Feeding the Fire, which won the Sheila Motton Award from the New England Poetry Club in 2002, and The Singing Underneath, selected by James Merrill for the National Poetry Series in 1987. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the NEA, and his poems have appeared widely in magazines and anthologies, including Best American Poetry andthe Pushcart Prizevolumes, and been featured in American Life in Poetry, The Writer’s Almanac, Poetry Daily, and other online and media venues. More information can be found at jeffreyharrisonpoet.com.

Purchasing information: Here’s the link to the book’s web page at the publisher’s site, where it can be purchased: https://fourwaybooks.com/site/between-lakes-by-jeffrey-harrison/

Ed Meek writes poetry, fiction, articles and book reviews. He has had poems in The American Journal of Poetry, The Baltimore Review, The Sun, The Paris Review. He has had poems featured on NPR affiliates WBUR and WCAI. A collection of his short stories, Luck, came out in 2017. He has had stories in The North American Review, Hobart, Cream City Review, Adelaide. He has had articles in The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, Cognoscenti, The Boston Review, Counterpunch. He writes book reviews for The Arts Fuse. His poem “In the Provinces” won an Honorable Mention in the National category of this year’s Outermost Poetry Contest. “It’s Not Always Easy” was just selected for the Boston Mayor’s Poetry Program and will be exhibited for the next year in City Hall. He is a volunteer Editor for Full House magazine. He tutors adults for the GED and teaches creative writing. His new book of poems, High Tide, came out last summer. https://www.edmeek.net  @emeek

Purchasing information: https://aubadepublishing.com/books/high-tide/

Join the New England Poetry Club on April 11, 2021, 3 pm.for New Poetry & Open Mic with Kelly DuMar, Ruth Smullin, and Ann Taylor who will read from their new books of poetry. (Bios and book purchasing information below.)

This event is free and open to the public. Members will receive the zoom link information in a newsletter; please email info@nepoetryclub.org if you are not a member. Sign-up for the open mic in the chat box before the reading begins. 

Kelly DuMar is a poet, playwright and workshop facilitator who is the author of three poetry collections, girl in tree bark, All These Cures, and Tree of the Apple. Her plays are published by dramatic publishers, and her poems, prose and photos are published in many literary journals including Bellevue Literary Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Crab Fat, Storm Cellar, Corium & Tiferet. Kelly serves on the Board of the International Women’s Writing Guild (IWWG), and produces the Bi-Monthly Open Mic Writer Series attended by women worldwide. Kelly founded and leads the Farm Pond Writer’s Collective, now in its fifth year, and facilitates a variety of creative writing workshops in person and online. She blogs her daily nature photos & creative writing at kellydumar.com/blog

Purchasing information: girl in tree bark

Ruth Smullin grew up in inner city and suburban Boston where she currently lives.  Her work has been published in Atlanta Review, Common Ground Review, Constellations, Crucible (winner of the Sam Ragan Prize), Ibbetson Street, Naugatuck River Review, Plainsongs, Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, The Aurorean, and is forthcoming from Main St. Rag. Her chapbook, The Open Door, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2020.

Purchasing information: If you wish to purchase The Open Door, please email Ruth Smullin at rasmullin@verizon.net.The cost is $10, which includes shipping to any address in the USA.

Ann Taylor is a Professor of English at Salem State University in Salem, Mass. where she teaches both literature and writing courses. She has written two books on college composition, academic and free-lance essays, and a collection of personal essays, Watching Birds: Reflections on the Wing (Ragged Mountain/McGraw Hill). Her first poetry book, The River Within, won first prize in the 2011 Cathlamet Poetry competition at Ravenna Press. A chapbook, Bound Each to Each was published in 2013. Her most recent collection, published in 2018, Héloïse and Abélard: the Exquisite Truth, is based on the twelfth-century story of their lives.

Purchasing information: www.dosmadres.com