Poets in the Park is celebrating 30 years of bringing poetry in July to the Robert Burns statue in Washington Park, Albany, NY. The series was started in 1989 by the late Tom Nattell and is now run by Albany poet & photographer Dan Wilcox. This year the readings will be on Saturdays July 13, 20 & 27; the readings start at 7:00 PM & are free & open to the public; donations are accepted. Rain site is the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany. The series is sponsored by the Hudson Valley Writers Guild & the Poetry Motel Foundation.
The 2019 readers are:
- July 13: Cheryl A. Rice & Guy Reed
- July 20: Mary Kathryn Jablonski & Ken Holland [Revised program]
- July 27: Christian Ortega & Dianne Sefcik
The Robert Burns statue is located near where Henry Johnson Blvd. passes through Washington Park and crosses Hudson Ave. Please bring your own chairs or blankets to sit on.
For more information about this event contact Dan Wilcox, at dwlcx@earthlink.net; 518-482-0262. More information about the Hudson Valley Writers Guild at www.hvwg.org
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Bios
Long Islander by birth,
Cheryl A. Rice has called New York’s Hudson Valley home for almost forty years. A frequent feature at venues from Manhattan to Albany, she is founder/host of the now-defunct Sylvia Plath Bake-Off, from 1993 to 2002. Publications include
Until The Words Came (2019: Post Traumatic Press),
Moses Parts the Tulips (2013: APD Press), and
My Minnesota Boyhood (2012: Post Traumatic Press). Rice took First Prize in the 2016 Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Prize. Her blog is at:
http://flyingmonkeyprods.blogspot.com/* * *
Guy Reed is co-author, with Cheryl A. Rice, of the chapbook,
Until The Words Came (Post Traumatic Press). Author of the poetry chapbook,
The Effort To Hold Light (Finishing Line Press), Guy has read his work on the podcast, The Strange Recital (
thestrangerecital.com), and contributed poems to journals and films. He co-wrote and directed the short film,
How The World Looks Now in 2018. A Minnesota native, Guy has lived in California, Oregon and for the last 20 years in the Catskill Mountains. His website is
guyedwinreed.com
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Ken Holland has had poetry published in several dozen literary journals, including Rattle, The Cortland Review, Confrontation, and Wisconsin Review, as well as being a Pushcart nominee. He believes in the act of reading as an essential part of the process of writing, and lives in Fishkill, New York.
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Visual artist/poet
Mary Kathryn Jablonski has been a contributor at
Numero Cinq magazine and author of the poetry chapbook
To the Husband I Have Not Yet Met (A.P.D., 2008) and the 2019 book of poems,
Sugar Maker Moon, from Dos Madres Press (Loveland, Ohio). Her poems and collaborative video/poems have appeared in numerous literary journals, exhibitions, screenings and film festivals, including the
Atticus Review,
Beloit Poetry Journal,
Poetry Film Live (UK),
Poetry Ireland Review,
Quarterly West,
Salmagundi and
Tupelo Quarterly, among others. Her artwork has been exhibited throughout the Northeast U.S. and is held in public & private collections. Learn more about her at
MKJpoet.com.
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Christian Ortega is the founder of Recto y Verso Editions, a book publisher, online store & art gallery located in the historic Ilium Building in downtown Troy, NY; his book Red Poems is from Hispanic Paradox Press.
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Dianne Sefcik enjoys rural life in the Hilltowns of Albany County, NY, writing, gardening, woodworking, and painting. She often writes about connection with the land, as well as about social issues and personal experience.
