Miner Memorial to host ‘Voices of Poetry’

“Covering a wide span of experience, five award-winning poets and one singer-songwriter will present their work.”

ROXBURY — The Minor Memorial Library will present “Voices of Poetry — In a Minor Key,” an afternoon of poetry and music, on April 21 from 2 until 4 p.m.

Covering a wide span of experience, five awardwinning poets and one singer-songwriter will present their work. This free event is a part of Voices of Poetry, a series of poetry events organized by poet Neil Silberblatt. Each poet brings a unique point of view and style of presentation, ensuring an afternoon that will be both entertaining and thoughtprovoking.

Cynthia Brakett-Vincent is a Pushcart Prize nominee who has published/ edited The Aurorean poetry journal since 1995. Her poetry and nonfiction have appeared in the United States and abroad. Her most recent co-edited book is “Women on Poetry: Writing, Revising, Publishing and Teaching” (named “One of 100 Best Books for Writers” by Poets & Writers), and her most recent book of poetry is “Questions About Home.” She offers poetry workshops focusing on inspiration and images in a variety of settings.

George Guida is the author of eight books, including “The Peasant and the Pen: Men, Enterprise, and the Recovery of Culture in Italian American Narrative.” He teaches English and creative writing at New York City College of Technology and Walden University, and co-edits 2 Bridges Review.

Adam Hughes is the author of four full-length poetry collections, most recently “Allow the Stars to Catch Me When I Rise” (Salmon Poetry, 2017) and “Deep Cries Out to Deep” (Aldrich Press, 2017. Hughes’ work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and critics have praised his poetry for being lyrical, for showing a joy in language, and being experimental in word usage. Hughes was born and raised in Lancaster, Ohio, where he lives with his wife and daughter. He has worked as a pastor, a program director for individuals with disabilities, a bereavement coordinator for a hospice, and in drug and alcohol prevention

John Paul O’Connor is both a folk musician and a poet. His work has been published in dozens of literary magazines, including Indiana Review, Cold Mountain, Rattle, Sycamore Review, St. Ann’s Review, Columbia: A Journal of Literature, and Baltimore Review. He has won the Associated Writer’s Program’s Prague Prize and his poetry has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. His collection of poems, Half the Truth (Snake Nation Press), won the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry in 2015.

John Surowiecki received his BA in English from UConn and his MA in 1976. He has worked as a journalist, copywriter, and teacher; and been a freelance writer since 1995. His honors and awards include the Nilsen Prize for a First Novel (2017); Encircle Publications Chapbook Contest (2015); a finalist for the Mississippi Review Prize (2010); the Pegasus Award for Verse Drama from Poetry Foundation (2007); and the Pablo Neruda Award from Nimrod International Journal (2006). Poet George Drew says of Surowiecki’s new collection: “This book of quirky and deeply human voices also stuns us in poem after poem with an exhilarating play of language, pathos, and wit,” while poet Stephen Campiglio, founder of the Mishi-Maya-Gat Spoken Word & Music Series, praises Surowiecki’s “crisp, evocative, musical lines” where “we see the wonder and pathos of ordinary life—and extraordinary lives.”

Rick Drost, a singer/ songwriter from Cambridge, MA, has been writing songs since the late 60s with depth and heart: songs that repay repeated listening and convey a long love of classical music, natural wonders, poetry. Drost has sung in small and large choruses and small acoustic folk groups, but since the early 2000s has been singing solo at open mikes, small clubs and coffeehouses, galleries and listening rooms in New England, the Midwest and the Southeast. His first solo album of songs, “Turning the World,” was released in June 2017.

Voices of Poetry was founded by poet and poetry activist Neil Silberblatt. Since 2012, VOP has presented a series of poetry events, featuring distinguished poets and writers, at venues throughout Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts, including the Hartford Public Library; Ridgefield Library; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum; and The New Britain Museum of American Art.

Admission to this event is free and open to all. The library is handicappedaccessible. Call the library at 860-350-2181 or visit the website at www.minormemoriallibrary.org for information and directions.