Poetry month MAY be over, but summer is reading & awards season!
Introduction
In April's blog and newsletter, we announced featured readers and open mics on May 14th at Newtown Bookshop in Pennsylvania and May 18th at Parkside Lounge in New York City. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to these venues, to our featured poets, to all who gathered for wordplay and whimsy this month!
Plus, a warm congratulations to Washington-based poet Mary Ellen Talley, who started May with a headlining reading, followed by two Seattle appearances! Three readings per month comes out to about a reading per week, from Talley's latest, Taking Leave. And summer is just getting started! WA readers, stay tuned for August.
Events
Ann E. Wallace: Days of Grace and Silence June 1 in Massachusetts!
John Milkereit: Lost Sonnets for My Unvaccinated Lover June 3 in South Carolina!
ICYMI: NYC poets held an open mic yesterday at Suite Bar for no cover, good company, and great poetry. Co-host John Foy recommends checking the Morningside Poetry Series page on Facebook for upcoming events!
Plus, don't miss John Foy's forthcoming collection from Kelsay Books.
You heard it here first: In August, Mary Ellen Talley will read poetry selections from Taking Leave as a headliner at Everett, WA's Poetry reading, and with Cultivating Voices' new book showcase online!
Poetic Excellence
Featuring Judith Valente, recognized for an Honorable Mention in the Mary Blinn Poetry Contest, sponsored by Chicago literary magazine After Hours!
I spent much of my career as a journalist, first with The Washington Post, then The Wall Street Journal and was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in print journalism. I switched to broadcast journalism and won numerous awards as an on-air correspondent for both national PBS-TV and two National Public Radio affiliates in Illinois, where I live, including two Edward R. Murrow Awards.
—Judith Valente, author of forthcoming 2025 book
The poems in [Judith Valente's forthcoming collection] reflect her interest in identifying the transcendent in the ordinary and those moments of quiet illumination that intimate what it means to be human.
Awards
Congratulations Natalli Amato! North Wind by Natalli Amato was shortlisted as a finalist for the 2024 Eric Hoffer Award in Poetry.
Less than 5% of the nominees become grand prize award finalists. This small list or "short list" of finalists is an honored distinction of its own and is announced publicly during the spring of each award year prior to the grand prize announcement.
Congratulations Ken Craft, author of Reincarnation & Other Stimulants: Life, Death, & In-Between Poems, on your Pushcart Prize win!
Congratulations, Alfred Encarnacion, author of Precincts of the Passion Dragon and 2025 Paterson Poetry Prize Finalist!
Reviews
Days of Grace and Silence: a Chronicle of COVID's Long Haul by Anne E. Wallace
Jersey City Times
NJ.com
Mom Egg Review
Midwest Hymns by Dale Cottingham
Glassworks
Mystic Orchards by Jonathan Koven
Emma Lee Blog
Echoes in My Eyes by Kelly Sargent
Storyteller Poetry Review
The Luster of Everything I'm Already Forgetting by Nicole Rollender
Mom Egg Review
Between Birdsong and Boulder by Bob Ambrose
Flagpole
Inland Sea by Lynn Domina
Speaking of Marvels