Walking into April Poetry Day at Barton on April 9

WILSON, N.C. — The ninth annual Walking Into April Poetry Day at Barton College is scheduled for Saturday, April 9, at The Sam and Marjorie Ragan Writing Center and is sponsored by the North Carolina Poetry Society (NCPS), the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series, and Barton College. Registration opens at 9:15 a.m., and the program begins at 9:45 a.m.

Featured poets include Sara Claytor, Peter Makuck, and John Hoppenthaler, Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for Eastern North Carolina. The student poets selected for this year’s Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series include Wayne Community College student Candace Jones and adult student poets Nancy Seate of Goldsboro, and Greenville residents Marty Silverthorne and Cindy Thompson.

Claytor has published three books of poetry: “Reviving the Damsel Fish,” “Howling on Red Dirt Roads,” and “Memory Bones.” “Keeping Company with Ghosts” is forthcoming. Winner of the 2000 Thunder Rain Award in poetry, she was fiction editor for Harlan Publishing and co-edited the internet literary magazine “The Moonwort Review.”

Makuck is the author of eight books of poetry, including “Long Lens: New and Selected Poems,” “Off-Season in the Promised Land,” “Back Roads,” and “Against Distance.” Recipient of the Charity Randall Citation as well as founder and former editor of Tar Heel Poetry, he is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at East Carolina University.

Hoppenthaler, Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for Eastern North Carolina, has published two books of poetry, “Lives of Water” and “Anticipate the Coming Reservoir.” Advisory Editor for “Connotation Press: An Online Artifact,” he teaches creative writing and literature at East Carolina University.

The morning sessions will include presentations by Claytor and Makuck followed by roundtable discussions with the poets.  Following lunch, there will be a book signing and presentations by Hoppenthaler and the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series student poets. There will also be an open microphone for others to share poems. Participants also may bring books or CDs to sell.

The event is free, but reservations are required in advance for those planning to have lunch at the event. The deadline for lunch reservations is April 6.  For lunch reservations, please send a check for $9.50 (per person), written to “Barton College,” to the attention of Dr. Rebecca Godwin, Department of English and Modern Languages, Barton College, P.O. Box 5000, Wilson, NC 27893-7000.

For additional information or to register, please contact Dr. Rebecca Godwin, director of The Sam and Marjorie Ragan Writing Center, at 252-399-6364 or email: rlgodwin@ba,rton.edu.

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Questions? Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.