Poetry Festival in Celebration of the Dodge Poetry Festival

I am thrilled to be participating in this poetry festival on Saturday, October 21. Organized by the fabulous poet and human being BJ Ward, the event includes 13 NJ poets, all of whom have read at past Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festivals. The purpose of the event is to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Dodge Festival. I'll be participating in a panel discussion on "Favorite Memories of the Dodge Poetry Festival" and two Sampler readings. For the first Sampler each of the poets will read 2-3 favorite poems of their own. For the second Sampler, each poet will read one poem by another poet featured at a past festival.

It should be a fabulous day—and all the more so if you're there too!

West Caldwell Poetry Festival: A Photo Tour

The West Caldwell Poetry Festival was held on Sunday, May 18. This was the 11th year I've run this event, but this year I made significant changes to the format. It seemed like time for a change. In the past the focus was on literary journals and the event was called Poetry Festival: A Celebration of Literary Journals. Each of 12 journal editors invited two representative poets to read, so we had a total of 24 poets reading.

This year I changed the focus from journals to poets with new books. I invited six such poets. I invited journals but only eight this time as I knew I would need table space for the four book publishers I also invited. Then I structured the day into four time slots: two for readings, one for a publishers' panel, and one for a creative process panel with the six poets. I built in twenty minutes between each time slot so that visitors would have time to purchase books and journals.

The day was absolutely exhilarating. I could not have been happier with the entire event. We had a much better turnout than last year with a number of people coming for the first time. We sold more than twice as many books as we sold last year. And everyone seemed to have a good time. I only wish we'd had a bit more time to soak up even more poetry and poetry conversation.

To give you a sense of the day, here are some photos.

I welcome the audience

Priscilla Orr reads from Losing the Horizon

 Gary J. Whitehead reads from A Glossary of Chickens

Michael T. Young reads from The Beautiful Moment of Being Lost

Publishers' Panel: Anna Evans (Barefoot Muse Press), Roxanne Hoffman (Poets Wear Prada Press),
Joan Cusack Handler (CavanKerry Press), Ellen Foos (Ragged Sky Press)

Visitors peruse the journals

Visitor poets Deb Gerrish and Chuck Tripi

Teresa Carson reads from My Crooked House

Maria Mazziotti Gillan reads from The Silence in an Empty House

BJ Ward reads from Jackleg Opera: Collected Poems 1990-2013

Visitors browse the journals and talk with editors

Creative Process Panel with Priscilla Orr, Michael T. Young, Gary J. Whitehead, 

Teresa Carson, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, and BJ Ward

Editors Christine Waldeyer, Tom Plante, and Matt Ayres

Joan Cusack Handler and Maria Mazziotti Gillan

Poets Teresa Carson, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, and BJ Ward signing books

Michael T. Young signing his new book

Poets Maria Mazziotti Gillan and BJ Ward in conversation

BJ Ward signing his new book

Cookies for everyone!

West Caldwell Poetry Festival Invitation

Details, Schedule, Bios, Directions

West Caldwell Poetry Festival

For the past ten years I have run an event called "Poetry Festival: A Celebration of Literary Journals." The event takes place at my local library and has always included twelve journals and editors. Each editor has invited two poets to read for the journal, so we have had a total of 24 poets reading. After last year's festival, I seriously considered not doing it again. A number of print journals had gone out of business, so it was getting harder and harder to find journals. Also, the turnout seemed to have diminished a bit the past few years. Then one day while debating with myself whether or not I'd do it again, it occurred to me that instead of dropping it perhaps I should revise it. I began to think of ways to revitalize the festival. Before long I came up with a plan that I'm excited about.

I decided to switch the focus from journals to new poetry books. I first compiled a list of poets with new books, poets within reasonable driving distance. The list was fairly long, so I had to make choices. I hate making hard choices, but I did it. Three guy poets and three women poets. All with different presses.

I then planned the structure of the day. Two reading sessions, each with three of the poets, so each one gets to read a decent amount of time. Then I began to think of other activities with which to fill the program. I came up with a bunch of possibilities. I narrowed the list and ended up with one publishers' panel and one creative process discussion. So now I had the event divided into four segments.

I also wanted to include journals as in the past but decided to pare down to eight from twelve so that there would also be table space for the publishers.

I arranged a meeting with my librarian to present this new format and get his endorsement. He was fine with it and agreed that change is a good thing.

Next came the implementation. I issued invitations to the six poets. Within that same day I'd received an enthusiastic yes from each of them. Off to a good start! Then I invited the eight editors. Within a day or two, all eight spots were filled. Then I issued invitations to four publishers and soon had all four lined up.

The Six Featured Poets: Teresa Carson, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Priscilla Orr, BJ Ward, Gary J. Whitehead, and Michael T. Young

The Publishers' Panel: Joan Cusack Handler with CavanKerry Press, Roxanne Hoffman with Poets Wear Prada, Anna Evans with Barefoot Muse Press, and Ellen Foos with Ragged Sky Press

The Creative Process Discussion: the six featured poets

The Journals: Adanna, Edison Literary Review, Exit 13, Journal of New Jersey Poets, Lips, Paterson Literary Review, Raintown Review, and The Stillwater Review

Books and journals will be available for sale and signing.

See the website for Schedule and details. Please mark your calendar and plan to join us!