WILSON, N.C. — Mark your calendar now for the annual “Walking into April Poetry Day” to be held at Barton College on Saturday, April 13. This year brings another exciting and vital group of poets to celebrate the written word in the spirit of Sam Ragan. “Walking into April” is sponsored by the North Carolina Poetry Society, Barton College, and the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series, funded by the late Marie Gilbert. Featured poets for the “Walking into April” morning sessions are Cherryl Floyd-Miller and Richard Krawiec, whose topic for readings and discussion will be “Writing to Belong: Community, History, and the Arts.” The day will also feature Michael White, Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for Down East, and the Gilbert-Chappell student poets. An open microphone session will be held after lunch for all participants to share their work.
The daylong event will begin at 9:15 a.m. in The Sam and Marjorie Ragan Writing Center. The program (with the exception of lunch) is open to the public at no charge. Lunch reservations, at $9.50 per person, must be made by April 10. Checks for lunch should be made payable to Barton College and mailed to Dr. Rebecca Godwin, Department of English and Modern Languages, Barton College, Box 5000, Wilson, NC 27893.
White, in his second year as the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for Down East, is mentoring Candice Lancaster, Kyle Darby, Shari Berk, and Matthew Gaylord as this year’s Gilbert-Chappell student poets, helping them to search their voices as he works with them on their own poems. These student poets will read at Barton College on April 13 and with White at other public readings in eastern North Carolina.
White teaches in the MFA program at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. He was educated at the University of Missouri and the University of Utah, where he received his Ph.D. His most recent books are “Palma Cathedral,” which won the Colorado Prize, and “Re-entry,” which won the Vassar Miller Prize. His work has been published in “The Paris Review,” “The New Republic,” “The Kenyon Review,” “The Gettysburg Review,” “The Missouri Review,” and “The Best American Poetry,” to name a few. White has received numerous other awards for his work, including a NEA Fellowship and several fellowships from the North Carolina Arts Council.
Floyd-Miller is a poet, playwright and fiber artist. A native of the Carolinas, she is noted for exploring cultural and feminine themes through folklore and sound devices. She has written two volumes of poems, “Utterance: A Museology of Kin and Chops,” which won a 2005 AIGA Gold SEED Award. Floyd-Miller’s work has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including “Poetry,” “Crab Orchard Review,” “Poemeleon,” “Terminus” and “MiPoesias.” A Recipient of grants or fellowships from Poets & Writers, Inc., Caldera, Idyllwild Summer in Poetry, Cave Canem, the Indiana Arts Commission and the Vermont Studio Center, she is a freelance writer and teaches independent writing courses in her community.
Krawiec’s second book of poems, “She Hands Me the Razor” (title poem nominated for a Pushcart Prize) was published by “Press 53.” His first book of poems, “Breakdown,” was a finalist for the 2009 Indy Book Awards in Poetry. In addition to poetry, he has published a story collection, “And Fools of God,” four plays, and two novels, “Time Sharing” and “Faith in What?” He has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the N.C. Arts Council (twice), and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Krawiec teaches Beginning and Intermediate online Fiction Writing for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for which he won the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2009. He is founder of Jacar Press, a Community Active Literary Publisher. Krawiec has also worked extensively with people in homeless shelters, women’s shelters, prisons, literacy classes, and community sites, teaching writing.
For additional information, please contact Dr. Godwin at 252-399-6364 or email: rlgodwin@barton.edu.
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