Poetry Month Event
Visiting Poets
Kathryn “Kit” Dunlap
Kathryn Dunlap was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, on February 24, 1939. She received a B.A. degree in English Literature from Beaver College (now Arcadia University,) an M.Ed. in School Psychology from University of Massachusetts Boston, and an M.F.A. from Pacific University.
She taught English in the Seekonk Public Schools in Massachusetts where she designed and led writing retreats of various lengths for elementary, middle and high school students. Upon retirement, she became Director of Buzzards Bay Writing Project (a National Writing Project site) at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth for twelve years. While in this position, she led leadership training retreats and delivered courses and seminars in professional development for teachers.
Beginning in 2000, Kathryn designed and led two yearly writing retreats until 2010: SeaQuestered on Cape Cod and Nantucket at the University of Massachusetts Boston Field Station. She is now shares ownership of Writers Ink of Massachusetts which holds yearly writing retreats on Cape Cod. She is a member of several writing groups including Tidepool Poets of Plymouth where she is editor of their annual anthology.
Kathryn will be present for all 6 sessions during poetry month. She will be leading two workshops each session, providing critiques, and joining the one-to-one feedback sessions.
April 3rd
Sydney Lea
Sydney Lea was Poet Laureate of Vermont (2011-2015). His twelfth collection of poems, No Doubt the Nameless, is available from Four Way Books. His fourth collection of lyrical essays, What’s the Story? Short Takes on a Life Grown Long, appeared in 2015. Lea founded and for thirteen years edited New England Review. Before his retirement, he had taught at Dartmouth, Yale, Middlebury, Franklin College (Switzerland), Eotvos Lorand University (Budpest), and elsewhere. His thirteenth book of poems, Here, will appear in 2018.
April 7th
Lizzy Fox
Lizzy Fox is a poet and educator with an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has taught writing and performance in partnership with the Vermont Arts Council, Flynn Arts, The New England Young Writers Conference, and countless schools. Lizzy is a recipient of the Laura J. Spooner Prize and the Corrine Eastman Davis Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of Vermont, and her poems have appeared in a variety of local journals.
April 11th
Pamela Harrison
Born and raised in Oklahoma, Pamela Harrison is a graduate of Smith College and the Vermont College M.F.A. Program in Writing (now VCFA). Winner of the 2002
PEN Northern New England Discovery Poet Award, she was invited to read her poems at the Library of Congress in 2003. Her first full-length collection, Stereopticon, was
published by David Robert Books, (Cincinnati, 2004). Okie Chronicles followed in 2005. Her third collection, Out of Silence (2009) was cited as one of three notable new books of poetry in the Denver Post’s “Book Beat” column. What to Make of It came out in 2012, and a fifth collection, Glory Bush and Green Banana, will be available in May of 2017.
An adjunct professor in Creative Writing at Dartmouth College, Ms. Harrison has won
fellowships to the MacDowell Colony, the Vermont Studio Center, and was Poetry
Alternate for the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her work has been
nominated for a Pushcart Prize three times. Ms. Harrison collaborated with her
husband, geriatrician Dr. Dennis McCullough, in the writing of My Mother, Your
Mother: Embracing Slow Medicine, the Compassionate Approach to Caring for Your
Aging Loved Ones (Harper Collins 2008). In 2015, Ms. Harrison was selected as
one of ten Vermont poets to deliver a craft lecture to the public for the SUNDOG Poetry
Craft Lecture Series on VTPBS. Ms. Harrison makes her home in Norwich, VT.
April 15th
Geoff Hewitt
Photo by Kurt Budliger
Geof Hewitt grew up in New Jersey and, after earning his M.F.A. and then teaching for a year at the University of Hawaii, moved to Vermont in 1970, where he soon married Janet Lind. Their two, now-grown children and two teenaged grandsons, live close by, “which shows how lucky Janet and I are,” he says. Geof has published four collections of his own poetry, edited two others, and written three books on teaching writing, all available at better bookstores and libraries, and from the trunk of his car. He leads writing workshops and hosts poetry slams throughout New England. Please contact him at geofhewitt@gmail.com
April 26th
Tamra Higgins
Tamra J. Higgins holds an M.F.A. from the Stonecoast Writing Program, University of Southern Maine and an M.Ed. from Johnson State College. After teaching in Vermont public schools for 19 years, she founded Sundog Poetry Center, Inc., a nonprofit 501c3 organization that promotes poets and poetry throughout Vermont. Her work has been published in Prairie Schooner, Passagers, Modern Haiku, Avocet, The Aurorean, The Mountain Troubadour, Vermont Magazine, and other publications. Higgins served as President of the Poetry Society of Vermont for three years. She is the author of Nothing Saved Us: Poems of the Korean War (2014) and the chapbook, Tenderbellied (2016), and is also co-editor of Tasteful Traditions: A Collection of Cambridge History, Memories, and Family Recipes. You can find her poetry, blog, photography, and hand-felted work at tamrajhiggins.com. She lives in Jeffersonville, Vermont.
April 30th
Chard deNiord
Chard deNiord is the Poet Laureate of Vermont and author of five books of poetry, including Interstate, (The University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), The Double Truth (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011), and Night Mowing (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005). He teaches English and Creative Writing at Providence College, where he is a Professor of English. His book of essays and interviews with seven senior American poets (Galway Kinnell, Donald Hall. Maxine Kumin, Jack Gilbert, Ruth Stone, Lucille Clifton, Robert Bly) titled Sad Friends, Drowned Lovers, Stapled Songs, Conversations and Reflections on 20th Century American Poets was published by Marick Press in 2012.
His poems have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, The Antioch Review, the American Poetry Review, The American Scholar, New Ohio Review, The New Republic, and The New York Times. He is the co-founder and former program director of the New England College MFA Program in Poetry and a trustee of the Ruth Stone Trust. He lives in Westminster West, Vermont with his wife Liz.
