The freedom of expression is a beautiful thing, especially when surrounded by so much inspiration here in Hanover and the surrounding area. One artful mode of expression is poetry, which is celebrated all month long in April, as National Poetry Month kicked off on Monday.

We've put together a list of eight local events to help you celebrate this versatile and diverse form of art.

 

Plunge and Play: Writing Poetry in New Ways

The course began March 27, but there’s still time to enter. Occurring each Wednesday from 10 a.m. to noon at Kendal at Hanover Boulding Room, Plunge and Play is an eight-session series and costs $80 to join. Students will explore new ways of expression through poetry. Instructor Page Coulter will bring in poetry each week to analyze and discuss, with in-class exercises and a challenge poem to write for the next week, thereafter. The class is open to experienced poets as well as people who have never tried writing a poem before but would like to try. There are no required texts, but please bring paper and pens.

Coulter has taught poetry in schools and in workshops for adults for many years. She has published six books of her collected poems. She lives in Sandwich, NH. This program is presented by OSHER@Dartmouth.

Osher @Dartmouth is located at 7 Lebanon St., Suite 107, in Hanover, and is open Monday – Thursday, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., and Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. To find out more, call 603-646-0154, or visit osher.dartmouth.edu.

 

Pop-Up Poetry in the Gallery

Head to AVA Gallery and Art Center in Lebanon on April 4 for a poetry reading and open mic, featuring members of the Upper Valley Poet’s Circle. This event, taking place from 6:30 to 8 p.m., is free and open to the public.

The Upper Valley Poet’s Circle is a tightly knit group of diverse poets who have been meeting twice a month since summer 2014 to share their work and receive feedback in a supportive atmosphere.

All poets are welcome to sign-up for the open mic! For further information or advance sign-up to make sure you are on the list (if there is room you can also sign-up at the event), contact: [email protected] or call (603) 448-3117

 

Poetry & Prose Reading: Yiyun Li

The Dartmouth College  Department of English & Creative Writing welcomes author Yiyun Li to read for the Cleopatra Mathis Poetry & Prose on April 11, from 4:30 to 6 p.m.

Li's work, including her recently released novel, will be available for purchase courtesy of the Norwich Bookstore. This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided.

Dartmouth College Undergrads: There’s Still Time to Enter the Creative Writing Awards Contest

Each spring, the Dartmouth College English Department awards prizes in both creative writing and critical fields. The 2019 Creative Writing Awards Ceremony will be in Sanborn Library at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 9. The deadline for submission is April 11.

Please use a cover sheet to indicate your name, your entry titles, and the prizes for which you would like your work considered. Drop off your submissions in 201 Sanborn (the Shakespeare Room) any time before the deadline. Fiction and creative nonfiction submissions are limited to one short story, or one nonfiction piece, or one chapter of a book-length manuscript not to exceed 20 double-spaced typewritten pages along with a one-page synopsis of the book.

This writing contest is open to all Dartmouth undergraduate students. Professor Inara Verzemnieks is this year's prize judge. For more information about Professor Verzemnieks, please visit: http://inaraverzemnieks.com/.

There are three specific prizes that are inclusive of poetry, including the Jacobson-Laing Award in Poetry, the Ralston Prize, and the William C. Spengemann Award in Writing.

 

3rd Annual Poetryfest co-sponsored with HCA

The Hartland Public Library and Hartland Community Arts welcome all to the 3rd annual Poetryfest. Celebrate National Poetry Month and Poem-in-your-Pocket Day as you listen to Vermont poets read while you eat some delicious snacks and meet other poetry lovers from the community. The event takes place on April 18, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the library. Everyone takes home a Pocket Poem.

The event will feature Chard de Noird, Vermont Poet Laureate, with Dede Cummings, Anglea Tooker Graham, Rob Foote, and April Ossman. There will be time during the program for attendees to read a short poem of their choice on this year’s theme “Connecting Us, Connecting Hearts.” (Poetry like music connects all of us and pulls at our heartstrings).

 

Sydney Lea & Chard deNiord | Roads Taken: Contemporary Vermont Poetry

Join The Norwich Bookstore for an evening of poetry from the revised second edition of Roads Taken: Contemporary Vermont Poetry with the editors Sydney Lea and Chard deNiord. They will be joined by an amazing roster of local poets including Partridge Boswell, Pamela Harrison. Cynthia Huntington. Gary Lenhart. Cleopatra Mathis, April Ossman, and Jim Schley!

The event takes place on April 24, starting at 7 p.m., at 291 Main St. in Norwich. The paperback is available for $24.95. Call or email the store to confirm availability.

This collection of Vermont poetry spotlights a range of accomplished voices: young and old, known and unknown, with a wide variety of forms and subjects.  

Sydney Lea was the Vermont Poet Laureate from 2011-2015.  He’s published numerous books in multiple genres, among them Pursuit of a Wound, a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and recently Growing Old in Poetry. He lives in Newbury, Vermont.

Chard deNiord is the Vermont Poet Laureate.  He’s written five books of poetry, and most recently I Would Lie to You If I Could: Interviews with Ten American Poets.  He teaches English and Creative Writing at Providence College, and lives in Westminster Vermont.

 

Poetry Month Event with Shoshana Cote

Local poet Shoshana Cote's will discuss her new book Weavings of Departure: Rediscovering the Poetry of Nobel Laureate Nelly Sachs, at the event, which takes place on April 25, starting at 7 p.m., at the Richards Free Library Central Library, 58 N. Main St., in Newport.  The book is a discussion/reflection guide together with translations of some poems by Nelly Sachs.

 

Poetry and Haiku Printing Workshop

If you have a poem or several poems that are aching to be printed, the Book Arts Workshop can help you print them. Using the traditional letterpress process of movable type, you will receive instruction in type setting, paper selection, press work, and if more than one page, book binding.

The class will meet for two sessions, each spanning two-and-a-half hours, with extra time available during the many open studio times.

This workshop will meet in Book Arts Room 25 in the Baker-Berry Library on the Dartmouth College Campus, beginning May 14, from 6:30 to 9 p.m.