Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast Enoch Pratt Free Library / Maryland State Library Resource Center

Celebrate the finalists in the 2022 Poetry Contest with the Enoch Pratt Free Library and Little Patuxent Review! The three finalists, Maryland's Poet Laureate, and LPR’s head editor read. Caitlin Wilson, the winner of the 2022 Poetry Contest, is a Maryland poet. She holds an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her writing has appeared in ENTROPY, filling Station, Iron Horse Literary Review, McNeese Review, RHINO, Rogue Agent, and Wildness. She was a 2021 Sewanee Writer’s Conference contributor and recipient of VCU’s 2021 and 2020 Graduate Poetry Awards, a 2019 AWP Intro Journals Project award, the 2018 Henrietta Spiegel Creative Writing Award, and a Jiménez-Porter Literary Prize for Poetry. She previously served as managing editor of Blackbird. Alicia Potee, a 2022 Poetry Contest finalist, is a Maryland native and 2002 graduate of St. John’s College in Annapolis. Her poems have appeared in The Comstock Review, Hawaii-Pacific Review, and The Baltimore Review, among other places. She lives in Towson with her two kids and a rescued mutt named Romeo. Robert Schreur, a 2022 Poetry Contest finalist, is a psychotherapist and clinical supervisor in community psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. A volume of his selected poems, That Said, was published in 2018. He has lived in Baltimore for 37 years. Grace Cavalieri is Maryland’s tenth Poet Laureate. Her new books are Grace Art: Poems & Paintings and The Secret Letters of Madame de Stael (both 2021). She founded and produces The Poet and the Poem for public radio, now from the Library of Congress, celebrating 45 years on-air. This series of several hundred poets will be shot to the moon in the Lunar Codex in 2022 as the first podcast series on the moon. Grace’s forthcoming book is The Long Game: Selected and New Poems (2022). She has a poem in LPR's summer 2022 issue. Chelsea Lemon Fetzer, a contest judge, holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and earned her MFA in Fiction at Syracuse University in 2008. She is a 2019 Rubys recipient for the Literary Arts and a recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council’s 2022 Independent Artist Award. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in journals such as Callaloo, Tin House, Mississippi Review, and Minnesota Review. Her essay “Speck” appears in The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives about Being Mixed Race in the 21st Century. Fetzer teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Baltimore, serves as vice chair on the board of CityLit Project, and is lead editor of the Little Patuxent Review. Pictured: (top row) Alicia Potee, Caitlin Wilson, Robert Schreur, (bottom row) Grace Cavalieri, Chelsea Lemon Fetzer.

Join us for a reading by Lori Jakiela, who won the 2021 Wicked Woman Poetry Prize for her manuscript, How Do You Like It Now, Gentlemen?, and the contest judge, Nancy Naomi Carlson. Lori Jakiela is the author of the memoir Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth, Maybe (2016), which received the 2016 Saroyan Prize from Stanford University. She is also the author of the memoirs Miss New York Has Everything, The Bridge to Take When Things Get Serious, and Portrait of the Artist as a Bingo Worker, as well as the poetry collections Spot the Terrorist! and How Do You Like It Now, Gentlemen? Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and more. Recently, actress Kristen Bell chose Jakiela's New York Times' Modern Love essay, "The Plain Unmarked Box Arrived," to perform on the Times' Modern Love podcast. Jakiela writes a monthly column, Stories of Our Neighbors, for Pittsburgh Magazine and directs the undergraduate Creative and Professional Writing Program at The University of Pittsburgh's Greensburg campus. She lives in her hometown of Trafford, PA, with her husband, the author Dave Newman, and their children. For more, visit her author website at http://lorijakiela.net. Nancy Naomi Carlson, twice an NEA literature translation grant recipient, has published eleven titles (seven translated). An Infusion of Violets (Seagull, 2019) was called “new & noteworthy” by The New York Times. An associate editor for Tupelo Press, her work has appeared in such journals as The American Poetry Review, The Georgia Review, The Paris Review, and Poetry. Learn more at www.nancynaomicarlson.com. Doritt Carroll, BrickHouse Books Poetry Editor, and Clarinda Harriss, BrickHouse Books Director and Editor-in-Chief, hosts this event. Read "Former 90s Supermodel Cindy Crawford Says People Shouldn’t Worry About Aging" by Lori Jakiela. Read "Sequoia" by Nancy Naomi Carlson. Learn more about the Wicked Woman Poetry Prize.

Poets Sylvia Dianne “Ladi Di” Beverly, Patrick Washington, Diane Wilbon Parks, and Hiram Larew with Cliff Bernier on harmonica present and discuss poems, music, and artwork about America’s history of slavery. This powerful, all-too-timely 60-minute program reimagines the voices and legacy of those enslaved at the historic Woodlawn Plantation Estate in Fairfax, VA. Sylvia Dianne Beverly is an internationally acclaimed poet, presenting poetry in London, England, at the Lewisham Theatre. A collection of her work is housed at George Washington University's Gelman Library. She is a member of A Splendid Wake, Gelman Library, George Washington University. Also, she has been featured at the Smithsonian National Museum of History, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum, and other Smithsonians. Ladi Di as she is affectionally called is a founding member of the poetry ensemble "Collective Voices." She is a proud member of Writers on the Green Line, Poetry X Hunger, Poetry Poster Project, and Voices of Woodlawn. Ladi Di celebrated the 40th anniversary of host Grace Cavalieri, reading on her show, The Poet and the Poem, at the Library of Congress. Also, she is a founding member of the Anointed PENS (Poets Empowered to Nurture Souls) Poetry Ministry, out of Ebenezer AME Church, an alum of Poet-In-Progress with Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia, the late Dolores Kendrick. She is author of two books (Forever In Your Eyes and Cooking Up South), both on Amazon. Recently her poetry appears in several international anthologies, the Moonstone Press Anthology, and as part of Mike Maggio's 30 for 30 series for National Poetry Month 2021. Ladi Di is also called "Love Poet." The late Dr. Maya Angelou is her hero. She is the proud matriarch of her family. Celebrating Black History 2018, she and her family received posthumously for her Dad a Congressional Gold Medal from the United States Marines. She is a Poet of Excellence in Prince Georges County 2020. Poetry is her passion. Contact her at syladydi@comcast.net or on Facebook. Patrick Washington has spent over two decades performing, conducting interactive workshops, and spreading love for the spoken, the written, and the rhythmic word across this country. His engaging have taken him across the country and back, from Washington's storied U Street circuit, to television and off-Broadway theater performances. Patrick was commissioned to create a poem dedicating the monument to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King which he performed at the unveiling on the National Mall on October 16th, 2011. A teaching artist at heart, he has launched his own arts education company, Dialect of Prince George's, and with it created the Youth Poet Laureate program, giving young people the opportunity to collaborate with city officials and serve as poetic ambassadors for their community. Diane Wilbon Parks is a visual poet and artist; she has written two poetry collections and a children’s book. Diane is the founder of The Write Blend, a culturally diverse poetry circle, and was recognized as a 2020 Prince George’s County Poet of Excellence. She celebrated the permanent installation of one of her poems and artwork as a permanent sign at the Patuxent Research Refuge - North Tract. Diane’s poetry has been widely featured and highlighted throughout the DMV through the Poetry Poster Project which was exhibited throughout Maryland and at the House of Delegates in Annapolis. Diane has been a long-standing literary advocate and leader in the poetry community. Her poetry has been featured in newsletters, online magazines, and anthologies, and recently included in the international anthology Singing in the Dark and international magazine Wexford Women; locally in the Annapolis Westfield Magazine. Her interviews are included in the 43rd and 44th anniversaries of Grace Cavalieri’s The Poet and the Poem at the Library of Congress. Diane is a USAF Veteran and Senior IT

Celebrate the finalists in the 2021 Poetry Contest with the Enoch Pratt Free Library and Little Patuxent Review! The three finalists, another contributor to the summer issue, and LPR’s head editor read. Steven Hollies, the winner of the 2021 Poetry Contest, is a Rockville native living mostly inside his head, a 2019 graduate of Howard Community College, and a drop-out from many other times and places. He enjoys playing volleyball, guitar, hooky, jokes, games, with words, around, along, it cool, hard to get, with fire, and the fool. Read "Body/language," the poem that won the 2021 Poetry Contest. Virginia Crawford, a 2021 Poetry Contest finalist, is a long-time teaching artist with the Maryland State Arts Council. She has co-edited two anthologies: Poetry Baltimore, poems about a city and Voices Fly, An Anthology of Exercises and Poems from the Maryland State Arts Council Artist-in-Residence Program from CityLit Press. She earned degrees in Creative Writing from Emerson College, Boston, and The University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Her book Touch appeared in 2013 from Finishing Line Press. Apprentice House Press published questions for water in April 2021. She writes and lives in Baltimore. Learn more at virginiacrawford.com. Rosemary Hutzler, a 2021 Poetry Contest finalist, teaches, writes, and mothers in northwest Baltimore. Growing up on an island near Seattle, she was imprinted by natural beauty, quirky houses, and iconoclastic personalities. She also lived in Maine, Connecticut, France, and Brooklyn before settling into Baltimore and its Jewish community. Her teachers have included John Hollander, Michael Collier, Mark Strand, and Gerald Stern. Her work has appeared in the Texas Observer, the Baltimore Sun, the Baltimore City Paper, the Forward, Nimrod, and elsewhere. Read her translation of R.M. Rilke's "Grown Woman" and her review of a republication of Ellen La Motte's Backwash of War. .chisaraokwu. (she/her), a contributor to LPR's summer 2021 issue, is an Igbo American actor, poet, and healthcare futurist. Her poetry and essays have appeared in many journals, including Berkeley Poetry Review, Cutthroat, Obsidian, and Tinderbox Poetry. Named a Cave Canem Fellow in 2020, she looks forward to post-pandemic travel. Read her poem "The Suicide Bomber Climbs A Mountain & Leaves A Note." Chelsea Lemon Fetzer, a contest judge, holds an MFA in Fiction from Syracuse University. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in journals such as Callaloo, Tin House, Mississippi Review, and Minnesota Review. Her essay “Speck” appears in The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives about being Mixed Race in the 21st Century. She is a 2019 Rubys recipient for the Literary Arts. Fetzer currently teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Baltimore. She serves on the board of CityLit Project and as head editor of Little Patuxent Review, a literary and arts journal that publishes creative work from the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond. Read her poem "flare." Pictured: (top row) Virginia Crawford, Steven Hollies, Rosemary Hutzler, (bottom row) .chisaraokwu., Chelsea Lemon Fetzer.

Leslie Gray Streeter is in conversation with Melanie Hood-Wilson about her book, Black Widow. Looking at widowhood through the prism of race, mixed marriage, and aging, Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like "Journey" in the Title redefines the stages of grief, from coffin shopping to day-drinking, to being a grown-ass woman crying for your mommy, to breaking up and making up with God, to facing the fact that life goes on even after the death of the person you were supposed to live it with. While she stumbles toward an uncertain future as a single mother raising a baby with her own widowed mother (plot twist!), Leslie looks back on her love story with Scott, recounting their journey through racism, religious differences, and persistent confusion about what kugel is. Will she find the strength to finish the most important thing that she and Scottd? Tender, true, and endearingly hilarious, Black Widow is a story about the power of love, and how the only guide book for recovery is the one you write yourself. Leslie Gray Streeter is an author, veteran journalist and speaker. whose memoir Black Widow, was published in March 2020 by Little, Brown and Company. Until recently, she was the longtime entertainment and lifestyle columnist and writer for the Palm Beach Post. A native of Baltimore, MD and a University of Maryland graduate, she and her work have been featured in The Miami Herald, the Washington Post, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Atlantic, the Today show, SiriusXM, O, The Oprah Magazine and more. She lives with her son Brooks and her mother Tina in her hometown of Baltimore, which she moved back to last summer. She’s a slow runner, an amateur vegan cook and a true crime and “Law and Order” enthusiast, as well as a proud former regular at the Northwood branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library! After receiving her BA in ‘93 and MSEd in ’94 from Sarah Lawrence College, Melanie Hood-Wilson returned to Baltimore to teach. In 2001, she was hired to lead the Single Step Program at CCBC, growing the program from eight students to over 300 and winning five local and statewide awards. In 2019, she launched Melanie Hood-Wilson and Associates which provides trainings and accountability planning in diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as academic and disabilities support. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.

Presented in partnership with the Reginald F. Lewis Museum. Annette Gordon-Reed is in conversation with Lawrence Jackson about her new book, On Juneteenth. In ON JUNETEENTH, Gordon-Reed combines her own scholarship with a personal and intimate reflection of an overlooked holiday that has suddenly taken on new significance in a post-George Floyd world. As Gordon-Reed writes, “It is staggering that there is no date commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.” Yet, Texas—the last state to free its slaves—has long acknowledged the moment on June 19, 1865, when US Major General Gordon Granger proclaimed from his headquarters in Galveston that slavery was no longer the law of the land. ON JUNETEENTH takes us beyond the stories of Gordon-Reed’s childhood, providing a Texan’s view of the long, non-traditional road to a national recognition of the holiday. Gordon-Reed presents the saga of a frontier defined as much by the slave plantation owner as the mythic cowboy, rancher, or oilman. Reworking the “Alamo” narrative, she shows that enslaved Blacks—in addition to Native Americans, Anglos, and Tejanos—formed the state’s makeup from the 1500s, well before Africans arrived in Jamestown. That slave-and race-based economy not only defined this fractious era of Texas independence, but precipitated the Mexican-American War and the resulting Civil War. A commemoration of Juneteenth and the fraught legacies of slavery that still persist, On Juneteenth is a stark reminder that the fight for equality is ongoing. Annette Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. Author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, she lives in New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lawrence Jackson is the author of the award-winning books Chester B. Himes: A Biography and The Indignant Generation: A Narrative History of African American Writers and Critics. In 2002 he published Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius, 1913-1952 and he has written a memoir on race and family history called My Father’s Name: A Black Virginia Family after the Civil War. Professor Jackson earned a PhD in English and American literature at Stanford University, and he is a 2019 Guggenheim fellowship awardee. A Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of English and History at Johns Hopkins University, he founded the Billie Holiday Project for Liberation Arts to create opportunities for enhanced intellectual and artistic relations between Hopkins and Baltimore City, his hometown. He is completing a book about his return called Job’s Labyrinth, or, Shelter. The Brown Lecture Series is supported by the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Foundation.