Six state poets laureate to visit Webb
Posted October 4, 2012
The Webb School will host current and former poets laureate from six states for a day of workshops with students, readings for the campus community and the public and a book signing. The events, part of the Follin Speaker Series, are planned for Oct. 25. The public reading will be from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Follin Chapel on the Webb campus.
Instrumental in attracting the group to Bell Buckle was Maggi Vaughn, Tennessee poet laureate. She will be joined by Lisa Starr, of Rhode Island; Joyce Brinkman, of Indiana; Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, of Virginia; Marie Harris, of New Hampshire; and Marjory Wentworth, of South Carolina.
“What a wonderful opportunity for our students,” said Webb Head of School Ray Broadhead. “It is exciting to have these six poets laureate on our campus, interacting with our students in small groups, and sharing their work with us all.”
Vaughn, a resident of Bell Buckle, was named poet laureate 18 years ago and is the author of 18 books. Her poetry has appeared in magazines, literary journals, and newspapers, and has been featured on nationwide television and radio shows, including National Public Radio. She’s been published in journals and anthologies, including The Thomas Wolfe Review, The Distillery, ALCA-Lines of Radford University, The Elk Review, The Tennessee English Journal, The Tulip Poplar Press, The Other Side of Sorrow, Southern Voices in Every Direction, Whatever Remembers Us, and The World Keeps Turning to Light, Filtered Through Time, as well as in other national publications and articles. Vaughn has received a Mark Twain Fellowship, the Governor’s Award as Outstanding Tennessean, and The Literary Award from the Germantown Arts Alliance. Former winners of The Literary Award include Eudora Welty, Shelby Foote, and John Grisham. Her songs have been recorded by major country stars.
Starr is a two-time recipient of the R.I. Fellowship for Poetry and is the founder and director of the Block Island Poetry Project, which will celebrate its 10th year in April, 2013. She is also a founding member of Ocean State Poets, a team of volunteers that travels around the state, celebrating poetry at facilities for the elderly, schools, hospitals, group homes, libraries, adults with lifetime physical and mental disabilities, and the state's medium-security prisons. Starr’s third collection of poems, Mad With Yellow, was published in September, 2008. She is the author of two other books: This Place Here (2001) and Days of Dogs and Driftwood (1993). Her poems have been published in dozens of journals. A poet by choice and an innkeeper by necessity, Starr lives in and operates the Hygeia House, a 10-room inn.
Wentworth’s poems have been nominated for The Pushcart Prize five times. Her books of poetry include Noticing Eden, Despite Gravity, and The Endless Repetition of an Ordinary Miracle. She is the co-writer with Juan Mendez of Taking a Stand, The Evolution of Human Rights, and she is the author of the prizewinning children’s story Shackles. Wentworth teaches creative writing at the following institutions: The Art Institute of Charleston, Roper St. Francis Cancer Center “Expressions of Healing” program and LILA’s Poets-in-the schools program at Burke High School in Charleston, S.C. Her work is included in the South Carolina Poetry Archives at Furman University.
Harris, Poet Laureate 1999-2004, is a writer, teacher, editor and businesswoman. In 2003, she co-produced the first gathering of state poets laureate. She has served as writer-in-residence at elementary and secondary schools throughout New England and is the author of four books of poetry, the most recent of which is an updated version of YOUR SUN, MANNY: A Prose Poem Memoir. Her books for children include G is for GRANITE: A New Hampshire Alphabet, PRIMARY NUMBERS: A New Hampshire Number Book, and a picture book forthcoming from Putnam: THE GIRL WHO HEARD COLORS. She is currently writing a story for young readers on the life and times of American composer Amy Beach.
Kreiter-Foronda served as Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2006-2008. She has published five books of poetry, co-edited two poetry anthologies and has two other manuscripts near completion. Her poems have been nominated for six Pushcart Prizes and appear in numerous magazines, including Nimrod, Prairie Schooner, Mid-American Review, Best of Literary Journals, Poet Lore and An Endless Skyway, an anthology of poems by U.S. State Poets Laureate. Her awards include five grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts; a Spree first-place award; multiple awards in Pen Women competitions; a Special Merit Poem in Comstock Review’s Muriel Craft Bailey Memorial contest; a Passages North contest award; an Edgar Allan Poe first-place award; and a Resolution of Appreciation from the State Board of Education for her contributions as poet laureate of Virginia. She also works as a visual artist, whose paintings have been widely exhibited throughout Virginia.
Brinkman, Indiana Poet Laureate 2002-2008, believes in poetry as public art. She creates public poetry projects involving her poetry and the poetry of others. Collaborations with visual artists using her poetry for permanent installations include her words in a 25-foot stained glass window by British glass artist Martin Donlin at the Indianapolis International Airport, in lighted glass by Arlon Bayliss at the Indianapolis-Marion County Central Library and on a wall with local El Salvadoran artists in the town square of Quezaltepeque, El Salvador. Her printed works include two chapbooks, Tiempo Español, and Nine Poems In Form Nine, and two collaborative books, Rivers, Rails and Runways, and Airmail from the Airpoets. Brinkman has received fellowships from the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts and the Indianapolis Arts Council.
The speaker series is an endowed program at The Webb School, an independent college preparatory boarding/day school for grades 6-12. For more information about The Webb School visit: www.thewebbschool.com.
