WILSON, N.C. — Join us Saturday, April 12, 2008, at Barton College’s Sam and Marjorie Ragan Writing Center for the sixth Walking into April Poetry Day, sponsored by the North Carolina Poetry Society (NCPS), the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series, and Barton College. Featured poets are Pat Riviere-Seel and David Manning, with Lenard Moore as Eastern North Carolina’s Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet. Reading with Moore will be three student poets selected for this year’s series. Registration starts at 9:15 a.m., and the program begins at 9:45.Pat Riviere-Seel, the immediate past president of the North Carolina Poetry Society, teaches in the Great Smokies Writing Program at UNC-Asheville and is an associate editor of “The Asheville Poetry Review.” Her first collection of poetry, “No Turning Back Now” (2004), was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her poems have appeared in various journals and anthologies including “The Asheville Poetry Review,” “Crucible,” and “Kakalak 2007: An Anthology of Carolina Poets.” Riviere-Seel received her Master of Fine Arts from Queens University of Charlotte.
Like Riviere-Seel, Pushcart nominee David Manning is well known to NCPS members. Winner of the North Carolina Poetry Society’s Poet Laureate Award in 1996, 1998, and 2006, Manning is current host of the Friday Noon Poets of Chapel Hill and co-editor of “Always on Friday,” an anthology of that group’s poems. He has published five chapbooks, most recently “Detained by the Authorities” (2007). His full-length collection, “The Flower Sermon” (2007), is available from Main Street Rag in the Editor’s Select Poetry Series. Manning received his Doctor of Philosophy in chemistry at CalTech and began the serious writing of poetry after a career as an organic chemist. He lives now in Cary with his wife Doris.
Executive Chairman of the North Carolina Haiku Society and Founding Executive Director of the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective, Lenard Moore is an Assistant Professor of English at Mount Olive College, where his courses include Creative Writing, Advanced Poetry Writing, and African American Literature. He directs the Mount Olive College Literary Festival and serves as faculty advisor to the literary journal “Trojan Voices.” His books of poetry include “Forever Home” (1992) and “Desert Storm: A Brief History” (1993), and his work has appeared in journals such as “Viet Nam Generation” and “Pembroke Magazine.” He is winner of the 2006 Sam Ragan Fine Arts Award.
The Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series students that Moore has been mentoring are Andy Rajski from Wayne Early Middle High School, Candice Johnson from Wayne Community College (both from Goldsboro), and Sandra Ervin Adams from Jacksonville, a poet joining the series as an adult not currently enrolled in a degree program.
The afternoon will include an open mic, so bring poems to share. Participants are also welcome to bring books or CDs to sell.
The event is free. Checks for lunch should be made to Barton College in the amount of $9.00. Mail your registration and check to Rebecca Godwin, Department of English and Modern Languages, Barton College, Box 5000, Wilson, NC 27893. For more information contact her at 252-399-6364 or at rlgodwin@barton.edu.