New Poetry Series Launching with DC Poet Project Winner Susan Meehan

When Day Eight launched the DC Poet Project, a reading series with connected open-to-all poetry competition, we hoped to support DC poets.

Now, through recent funding from the DC Commission on the Arts, we’re able to launch a poetry series for seniors in DC with Susan Meehan, 2017 winner of the DC Poet Project.

This series is focused around Susan Meehan, winner of the 2017 DC Poet Project, and author of Talking to the Night. As described in a recent profile on NPR, “A longtime city employee and neighborhood leader in D.C., Meehan writes raw and descriptive poetry extracted from her autobiography.”

Susan will be joined in this series by poets Grace Cavalieri (March 23), Jonathan Katz (April 11), E. Ethelbert Miller (April 20), Terry Winch (April 27), Anne Becker, (May 5), and Abdul Ali (May 18).

Grace Cavalieri is the author of sixteen books of poetry, the recipient of the Pen-Fiction Award, the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award, and host of the Library of Congress broadcast The Poem and the Poet.

E. Ethelbert Miller is the author of six books of poetry, including most recently If God Invented Baseball (2018), and, The Collected Poems of Ethelbert Miller (2016.)

Terrence Winch’s first collection of poetry, Irish Musicians/American Friends, won a National Book Award. His work has appeared in the Paris Review, New American Writing, the New Republic, American Poetry Review, and anthologies including The Oxford Book of American Poetry and four Best American Poetry collections.

Abdul Ali is the author of Trouble Sleeping, winner of the 2014 New Issues Poetry Prize. His poetry, essays, and interviews appear in numerous publications, including Gargoyle, National Public Radio, The Washington Post magazine, New Contrast (South Africa), and Poet Lore. He’s currently a professor at Howard University.

Jonathan Katz’s first book of poetry, Love Undefined, was published in 2017 by C&R Press, who will also publish his next collection, Objects in Motion, in 2018. From 2001 to 2016 he was CEO of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, and he continues to consult on cultural policy. He serves as a board member of American Poetry Review.

Anne Becker is past Poet Laureate of Takoma Park, Maryland. She is that author of numerous books of poetry, including Human Animal (forthcoming, 2018 from Pond Road Press.)

For more information about the series, and how to participate, contact Robert <at> DayEight.org.