Words & Images hosted a poetry reading last Tuesday to present the Stephen Dunn Poetry Awards to this year’s winners.
Keith Foster said “The thing I always say about a small audience is that everyone who matters is there.” Foster is a member of Words & Images opened the poetry reading on the seventh floor of Glickman Library. Professor Betsy Sholl introduced the winners, beginning with Katie Kingston of Colorado. Linda Dove of Skull Valley, Arizona followed Kingston with her first-place poem “In Memory of Joseph Brodsky.”
“The Southern Maine Review” partnered with Words & Images to bring in poets, and Wanda Whitten introduced Ken Nye and Carolyn Padula. Nye is the winner of the Provost’s Poetry Award for the inaugural issue of the “Review.” His book “Searching for the Spring” is scheduled for release at the end of May. Padula is an alumni of USM and a previously published poet for the “Review’s” parent journal, “The Maine Scholar.”
The reading concluded with a few poems by Munjoy Hill native Lillian Baker Kennedy, and a brief reading by a poet who did not introduce himself. “I know I’m the only thing between you and your cookies,” he said, referencing the refreshments at the back of the room, “so I’ll be brief.”
For more information on Words & Images or “The Southern Maine Review,” visit www.usm.maine.edu.
Melissa St.Germain is also an associate editor for “The Southern Maine Review.”