Essential Queer Voices of U.S. Poetry was edited by Christopher Nelson and introduced by Jack Halberstam. The Essential Voices series from Green Linden Press intends to correct misrepresentation and misunderstanding in the broader culture. It has at its heart the ancient idea that poetry can reveal our shared humanity. Joining editor & publisher Christopher Nelson on The Poets Corner will be the following major voices in American poetry today: Rick Barot, Ellen Bass, Richard Blanco, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Charif Shanahan.

Ochre & Rust: new selected poems of Sergy Gandlevsky translated by Philip Metres

Richard Blanco reads from Homeland of My Body

The Nine Poets group has been meeting since June of 2020 when they each signed up for a chapbook intensive offered by Maine Media led by presidential inaugural poet Richard Blanco. The group continues to write and support each other with monthly gatherings on Zoom, and an annual poetry picnic.

In January, with the launch of the new literary journal from DownEast books, The Maine Standard, the Nine Poets will be featured with selections of poems that speak to each of their “obsessions” and an introduction by Richard Blanco. In this event with The Poets Corner, we’ll celebrate the launch of the Maine Standard with readings from all nine poets.

Learn more here.

Rilke’s poems and writing remind us of what it means to “bear witness” to life in those “dark hours” we face when we experience things “falling asunder.” He also invites us to “dance the orange,” celebrating the exuberant beauty that shines, even in the darkness.

Award-winning Rilke translator and poet, Mark S. Burrows, will explore the writings of poet Rainer Maria Rilke and why Rilke’s words challenge and inspire us, offering “words that still ripen in the silences.”

Mark will be joined by poets Pádraig Ó Tuama and Marie Howe to share selected Rilke poems and enter a conversation about the significance of these words, calling us to embrace “a second life, timeless and wide.”

Click here to learn more and RSVP.

For this event, poets were invited to submit work in response to a painting or photography in the Art & Ekphrastic Poetry exhibit at The Page Gallery. The ten poems selected read on The Poets Corner; another ten poems selected by the artists will be read live in the gallery on Saturday, November 19th.

Spencer Reece, an episcopal priest and a poet who has lived in Spain, Honduras, Connecticut and now Rhode Island, and Matt Daly, creative writing teacher and poet from Wyoming, zoom in together from Wyoming for this reading.

Meg Weston reads from her first full-length collection of poems, Magma Intrusions, along with Betsy Sholl, former Maine Poet Laureate, who reads from her tenth collection, As If a Song Could Save You. The readings are followed by a conversation about the obsessions and harmonies in their poems; poetic influences and writing practices; and other topics that intrigue us as poets.

Ever wondered what editors are thinking when they read our work? How they make decisions? Curious about common submission mistakes we might be making? How to find the right journal or magazine to submit to? Online or in print? What to consider when submitting a manuscript for publication? This craft talk will cover these topics and more, presenting our panelists with many frequently asked questions about publishing poetry in today’s ever-changing world.

Learn more and register here.

Join us as Kathleen Ellis reads from her new book Body of Evidence, winner of the 2022 Grayson Books Poetry Contest, and Claire Millikin reads from Elegiaca Americana and Transitional Objects - her two books just published in the past six months.

Learn more here.

Motherhood is a great leveler--a cause for fear, for joy, for ambivalence. Join poets Katherine Hagopian Berry, Sonia Greenfield, Abby Murray and Meghan Sterling as they look closely at the role of mother, reading their poems that celebrate, and reveal, the complex experience of motherhood. Learn more and RSVP here.

Live Event at Marshall Wharf in Belfast, Maine

We write sh*tty first drafts to get something on the page. How about bringing those sh*tty first drafts to the stage? Join us for an evening of first drafts, rough drafts, and everything in between drafts. Bring your works in progress to share in a warm, welcoming atmosphere! Poetry or short pieces only (4-6 minutes per reader).

This year our Eco-Poetry reading will be open for submissions. We’ll select 10-12 poems to be read on Zoom on The Poets Corner Sunday April 23, 2023. Learn more here.

Mark S. Burrows presents his newly published volume of poems by the German-Jewish poet Hilde Domin (1909 – 2006), The Wandering Radiance: Selected Poems of Hilde Domin, a translation project that was more than a decade in the making. He will be joined by his publisher, Christopher Nelson of Green Linden Press; Marion Tauschwitz, a German writer who was a confidante of Domin’s and her biographer; and the British poet and literary critic Hilary Davies.

Learn more and RSVP here.

Guests were in for a treat as two Maine writers shared with us the pleasures that flow from their short stories. While each story stands alone, together each of these books forms a story-cycle revealing new truths and enhancing our understanding of people and place.

Learn more here.

This year’s annual Valentine’s Day reading will be LOVE LETTERS – submissions of epistolary poems. This follows an ancient tradition since some of the earliest forms of epistolary poems, or poems that read as letters, were love letters such as Ovid’s Heroides—love letters from the great women of antiquity. So we asked you to write to your love or loves, and submit your poems for Love Letters!

Learn more here.

Live Event at Marshall Wharf in Belfast, Maine

We write sh*tty first drafts to get something on the page. How about bringing those sh*tty first drafts to the stage? Join us for an evening of first drafts, rough drafts, and everything in between drafts. Bring your works in progress to share in a warm, welcoming atmosphere! Poetry or short pieces only (4-6 minutes per reader).

The stars shine on The Poets Corner this January 8 with an event featuring filmmaker Tara Roberts Zabriskie who documented Maine’s efforts to “save the stars” in her film “Defending the Dark.” 

A Pop-Up Poetry reading, featuring Meg Weston reading from her book, Letters from the White Queen.

Join Irish poet Pádraig Ó Tuama and award-winning author Barbara Mahany for a conversation with Mark S. Burrows about Rilke’s poems and writings that remind them of what it means to “bear witness”—to life in those “dark hours” we face when we experience things “falling asunder.”

Nature Poetry Night in-person at the Auburn Public Library on November 16, 2022 6-7:30 pm EST. Hear poets Meg Weston, Margaret Haberman, Lisa Hibl, and Ian-Khara Ellasante read poems inspired by lands conserved by the Androscoggin Land Trust. Live event, not recorded.

For this event, poets submitted work in response to a painting or photography in the exhibit at The Page Gallery, October 20-November 19th, 2023. Poems selected are read on The Poets Corner; another ten poems were selected by the artists and read live in the gallery on Saturday, November 19th.

Meg Weston and John Paul Caponigro share their poetry and images “Fire & Ice” at the Belfast Poetry Festival the evening of October 15. Live event, not recorded.

Hear the voices of young poets as they express their views of our world. The poets are University of Maine students active in campus creative writing activities and the campus literary magazine, The Open Field.

In conversation with The Poets Corner founder Meg Weston, Ellen Bass talks about the craft of poetry, her creative process, influences, and recurring themes that appear in her poems and intrigue her in the poems of others. She reads from her various collections, including the most recent, Indigo.

On August 12th, The Poets Corner collaborates with The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland Maine to bring you a special event: Ashley Bryan, the Poet. Live event, not recorded.

The Poets Corner and Maine Media present the winner of the 2022 Chapbook Contest, in person, at the Page Gallery, 23 Bayview Street, Camden from 7-8 p.m. on Tuesday, July 26th.

Out of 250 submissions to The Poets Corner and Maine Media 2022 Chapbook Contest, 10 rose to the surface as our finalist choices. Eight of these poets read from their chapbooks on Sunday, July 10 at 4:00 p.m. ET. Come listen to the innovative ideas, lyrical language, and thematic concerns of these poets. Each poet is introduced by one of our readers in a fast-paced, fascinating presentation that will inspire you.

Join Jeffrey Bean, winner of the 2022 Chapbook Contest, for a reading of his work, hosted by Naomi Shihab Nye.