Sunken Garden Poetry Festival

A Message from the Artistic Director

The Sunken Garden, set in a natural depression and surrounded by 100-year-old, eight-foot stone walls, is a fitting place for poetry — both poetry and garden engage our artistic gifts to build order and sense out of wildness and confusion and make a habitable place for us in the world. Unlike other venues that return to an inanimate state when the show is over, the garden is a living vibrant vessel, a place where one can sense the lingering beauty, power, and depth of the words spoken here over the years by the poets who have read at the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival.

This year Hill-Stead will celebrate twenty years of this remarkable performance series! With returning poetry luminaries such as Richard Wilbur, Natasha Trethewey, and Donald Hall in the lineup, the 2012 festival promises great things. Join us June 1–3 for the kick-off with a full weekend of readings, concerts, workshops, and activities. On Saturday, June 2, Connecticut Young Poets Day, we will feature high school- and college-aged winners of several state-wide competitions. The 20th anniversary anthology, published by Wesleyan University Press, will be available for purchase, and our new poetry website, www.sunkengardenpoetry.org, will be up and running.

This year, Epicurean Caterers will bring their wonderful fare to our plein air café, Jan Owens of Millrace Books will be there to greet you, and the poets will be available for book signing. Bring your blankets, chairs, wine, and friends, and sink into the magic of the evening.

—Mimi Madden, Artistic Director
Sunken Garden Poetry Festival

Please see FESTIVAL FACTS below for information about food, parking (free this year), admission and seating.

2012 Poetry Festival dates are as follows:

• June 1–3, 20th Anniversary Kickoff Weekend
• June 13
• June 27
• July 11
• July 25
• August 1, 20th Anniversary Season Closing Night

OPENING WEEKEND, June 1–3, Friday –Sunday
NOTE: Opening weekend includes free self-guided museum tours Saturday & Sunday, workshops, drama performances, a community dance, guided nature walks and more. Please download a full schedule (PDF) to see all that's available.

Friday, June 1
Poetry Prelude 4:30 pm; Music by Timothy Frantzich begins 6:15; poet Suji Kwock Kim reads at 7:30 pm
"Suji Kim is one of the best poets in the United States at this time." —Harold Bloom

3–4 pm: House Tours and Poetry on the Trails guided nature walks

Poetry Prelude: Poetry of Witness
• Reading: Freedom Journeys in Four Voices by Bessy Reyna, with Kate Rushin and Susan Holmes (in collaboration with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas)
• Film: Poetry of Resilience by Katja Esson; Alison Granucci, co-producer; and Jan Warner, executive producer (poetryofresilience.com)
• Panel Discussion: Alison Granucci, Suji Kwock Kim, Bessy Reyna

Suji Kwock Kim's first book, Notes from the Divided Country, won the Addison Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, THE NATION/ Discovery Award, the Whiting Writers’ Award, and was a finalist for the Griffin Prize. Poems from her second book, Disorient, have appeared or are forthcoming in The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Slate, The Nation, the New Republic, on National Public Radio and the PBS News Hour. Her poems have been performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus, reprinted in 24 anthologies, and translated into Russian, Spanish, Italian, German, Korean, Japanese, Arabic, and Bengali. She is editor of two anthologies of Asian and Asian American poetry. She lives in New York and London with her husband and son.

Timothy Frantzich [fran-zik] is a singer-songwriter who sings for peace with a passion for socially conscious missions. Brother Timothy also loves cavorting with poets. He has been a featured singer and teacher at Robert Bly's Great Mother Conference and Bly's Minnesota Men's Conference for the last six years. He has sung many times at The Block Island Poetry Project. He has sung his way through England a few times, and he has sung on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion. He is happy to be performing at the Sunken Garden. Find out more at www.brothertimothy.net. Photo: Haiti Justice Alliance.

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Saturday, June 2 — CT Young Poets Day
Fresh Voices; Brook Yung; Richard Wilbur; music by MetaFour, and by the choirs of Joyful Noise with Theresa Thomason

9–11:30 am: Writing Workshop with Lisa C. Taylor
Writing Against the Current, for teachers grades 8–12

9–11:30 am: Writing/Performance Workshop with B. Yung
Assorted Expression, for middle school, high school & college students

9:30–11:30 am: Poetry in Perspective:

• A Connecticut Tradition in Poetry
—Commentary and readings from Garnet Poems: An Anthology of Connecticut Poetry Since 1776, edited by Dennis Barone of Saint Joseph College (Wesleyan University Press)
• Hill-Stead and Archie
—A descendant of the Pope family, Steve Madsen will speak about Archibald MacLeish, a famous poet from Theodate's era who visited Hill-Stead. Mr. Madsen will also read selections of his own work
• Growing Poetry in Connecticut
—Rennie McQuilkin will speak about ways in which the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival and its outgrowth, Antrim House Books, have promoted the cause of poetry in Connecticut. He will also read poems of his own that have, he hopes, pleased audiences in the state and helped to spread the word

10:30–11:30: Poetry on the Trails guided nature walk

12–12:45 pm: Poetry Prelude
Talk on Richard Wilbur by Susan Kinsolving

12–12:45 pm: MetaFour
MetaFour, featuring Jeff Howard on guitar, is based in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts and features a rotating cast of musicians from New England. Bassist Andy Wrba also plays with the popular roots-rock band, Barefoot Truth. Noah Weiss, saxophone, studied music at Oberlin College and also plays with Billy Keane and the Misdemeanor Outlaws. Drummer Andrew Magennis lives in Burlington, VT, and plays with multiple groups in the region. Jeff Howard hails from Canton, CT, and is well-known as the virtuoso guitarist formerly with the band, The McLovins. Jeff, whose playing has been reviewed in Rolling Stone, is considered to be one of the best young up-and-coming guitarists. Together, this group is something special. Covering multiple genres and always looking for something new, their youthful energy and seasoned musicianship combine to shape one of the best young bands around.

1–2:30 pm: Fresh Voices
Young winners/selected readers from eight state writing competitions and programs, including:
• Hill-Stead’s Fresh Voices Competition
• Hill-Stead’s Hartford Student Poetry Outreach
• Connecticut Poetry Circuit
• Connecticut State University Poetry Competition
• New Haven Free Public Library Poetry Contest
• Poetry Out Loud
• Connecticut Young Writers Competition
• ASAP's Celebration of Young Writers

2:45–3:30 pm: Brook Yung
"B. Yung has the gifts of ear, eye, brain and heart – I will gladly be part of the audience watching for what he does with them." —Robert Pinsky

Though internationally known in the world of hip hop, B. Yung has recently become a familiar face in the American Spoken word community, launching his career in his new found craft with his 2006 appearance in "LA's Def Poetry All-Star Show." In 2008, he starred in the Russell Simmons HBO documentary, "Brave New Voices," ranking second in the nation with NYC's Youth Slam Team at the Brave New Voices National Competition. He also took first place in Robert Redford Speak Green Competition, held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., earning the chance to perform at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. He collaborated with poet/playwright Marc Bamuthi Joseph in 2010 to revamp and perform the classic one man show entitled, "Words Become Flesh." B. Yung is 21 years old and performs at colleges and various venues around the world, including China, Russia, England, and Japan.

4–5 pm: Music by Joyful Noise with Theresa Thomason
The choirs of Joyful Noise (Chorus Angelicus and Gaudeamus) come together with gospel legend Theresa Thomason to perform Earth Mass, created by the Paul Winter Consort for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. A toe-tapping, sizzling production, Earth Mass is an exciting blend of jazz, celtic, folk, medieval chants, and American spirituals.

Chorus Angelicus is comprised of four choral ensembles, involving more than seventy children who hail from towns throughout southwestern New England. Gaudeamus is an adult chamber choir of professional and semi-professional freelance singers, performing in conjunction with Chorus Angelicus. Joyful Noise Artistic Director is Argentinian pianist and singer, Gabriel Löfvall, and the choirs are in residence at Trinity Episcopal Church in Torrington, Connecticut. www.chorusangelicus.org

7–8 pm: Richard Wilbur
"...a poet for all of us, whose elegant words brim with wit and paradox." —Daniel J. Boorstein
Born in New York City in 1921, Richard Wilbur studied at Amherst College before serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. He later attended Harvard University. Since his first book, The Beautiful Changes and Other Poems, was published in 1947, he has published many more books of poems, including Things of This World (1956), for which he received the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Wilbur has also published numerous translations of French plays and poetry, is the author of several books for children and a few collections of prose pieces, and has edited such books as Poems of Shakespeare (1966) and The Complete Poems of Poe (1959).

Among his honors are the Wallace Stevens Award, the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, the Frost Medal, the Gold Medal for Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, two Bollingen Prizes, the T. S. Eliot Award, a Ford Foundation Award, two Guggenheim Fellowships, the Edna St. Vincent Millay Memorial Award, the Harriet Monroe Poetry Award, the National Arts Club medal of honor for literature, two PEN translation awards, the Prix de Rome Fellowship, and the Shelley Memorial Award. He was elected a chevalier of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques and is a former Poet Laureate of the United States.

A Chancellor Emeritus of The Academy of American Poets, Wilbur currently lives in Cummington, Massachusetts.

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Sunday, June 3
Ten for Ten; Minton Sparks; Toi Derricotte; music by The Ten Penny Bit

9–11:30 am: Writing Workshop with Minton Sparks
Create Your Story

9–11:30 am: Writing Workshop with David Leff
Poetry, Nature, and Seeing What's Hidden in Plain Sight

10–11 am: The Haunted Shelves of Hill-Stead
Enjoy a humorous drama by the Riverwood Poetry Series: A routine tour of the museum is derailed by the chance placement of a Ouija board, allowing the spirits of Theodate's favorite poets to appear and angle for a chance to read in the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival.

10:30–11:30: Poetry on the Trails guided nature walk

11:30–1:15 pm: Ten for Ten
20th Anniversary reading by ten poets from the first decade of the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival, including:
• Doug Anderson
• Bob Cording
• Margaret Gibson
• Gray Jacobik
• Rennie McQuilkin
• Marilyn Nelson
• Pit Pinegar
• Vivian Shipley
• Steve Straight
• Sue Ellen Thompson

1:30–2:15 pm: Poetry Prelude
Talk on Toi Derricotte by Sue Ellen Thompson



3:15–4 pm: Minton Sparks
"Minton Sparks is a great storyteller. Humanity with humidity, all told humorously with humility." —John Prine

Fusing music, poetry and her intoxicating gift for storytelling, Minton Sparks is a wildly original spoken word artist. Her live show is a raucous, provocative, brilliant one-woman performance featuring Minton alongside world-class musician, guitarist John Jackson. Sparks travels extensively to share her unique brand of performance poetry and creative writing workshops with audiences nationwide. She has performed at Lincoln Center's American Songbook, the Jonesborough International Storytelling Festival, the Belfast Songwriting Festival in Ireland, the Bowery Ballroom in New York City, and the Bowery Poetry Club. Her unique brand of poetry and music has been showcased nationally on NPR's "All Things Considered" and internationally on the BBC's "Bob Harris Show" and the syndicated "Woodsongs' Old Time Radio Hour."

6–7 pm: Toi Derricotte
"Honest, fine-honed, deceptively simple... accessible and revelatory to readers, whatever their origins, whatever their preconceptions of the possibilities of poetry." —Marilyn Hacker

Toi Derricotte was born in Hamtramck, Michigan, in 1941. Her books of poetry include The Undertaker's Daughter; Tender (1997), winner of the 1998 Paterson Poetry Prize; Captivity (1989); Natural Birth (1983); and The Empress of the Death House (1978). Her literary memoir The Black Notebooks, published by W.W. Norton in 1997, won the 1998 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Non-Fiction and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her essay "Beginning Dialogues" is included in The Best American Essays 2006, edited by Lauren Slater. Recognized as a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania in 2009 and recently elected to the Academy of American Poets' Board of Chancellors, her honors include the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America; two Pushcart Prizes; the Distinguished Pioneering of the Arts Award from the United Black Artists; the Alumni/Alumnae Award from New York University; the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers, Inc.; the Elizabeth Kray Award for service to the field of poetry from Poets House; and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Maryland State Arts Council. With Cornelius Eady, she co-founded Cave Canem Foundation. She is a Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh. Photo by Seichi Tsutsumi.

7–8:30 pm: Community Dance with music by The Ten Penny Bit joined by dance teacher and caller Jim Gregory.
Take part in a joyous celebration of New England's favorite dances from the contradance and English Country Dance traditions. The Tenpenny Bit plays music of the British Isles, Colonial America, Canada and Southern Appalachia for contra dances, and also presents programs that combine music, storytelling and poetry. The band – featuring fiddler Julie Senter, concertina, whistle, and flute player Linne Landgraf, guitarist and viola da gamba player Laura Mazza-Dixon, and pianist Mattie Banzhaf – has played together for many years.

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June 13, Wednesday
Poetry Prelude 5 pm; Music by Eight to the Bar begins 6:15; poet Dana Gioia reads at 7:30 pm
"Through his poignant verse, insightful criticism, and inspired leadership of the NEA, Professor Gioia has helped millions of Amiericans experience the positive and transformative power of literature and the arts."

Poetry Prelude: How to Make Poetry Matter
Talk by Dana Gioia with Clare Rossini

Former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Dana Gioia, is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning poet. A native Californian of Italian and Mexican descent, Gioia has published three full-length collections of poetry, as well as eight chapbooks. His poetry collection Interrogations at Noon won the 2002 American Book Award. An influential critic as well, Gioia's 1991 volume Can Poetry Matter?, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award, is credited with helping to revive the role of poetry in American public culture.

Gioia has authored many literary anthologies, and his poems, translations, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous magazines including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times Book Review, Slate, and The Hudson Review. Gioia has written two opera libretti and is an active translator of poetry from Latin, Italian, and German.

As Chairman of the NEA, Gioia succeeded in garnering enthusiastic bi-partisan support in the United States Congress for the mission of the Arts Endowment, as well as in strengthening the national consensus in favor of public funding for the arts and arts education. During his tenure he created a series of NEA National Initiatives that have brought the arts to millions of Americans, including Shakespeare in American Communities, NEA Jazz Masters, American Masterpieces, The Big Read, and Poetry Out Loud. Gioia has been the recipient of ten honorary degrees. He and his wife, Mary, have two sons. Photo by Lynda Koolish.

Eight to the Bar's material, like their outlandish wardrobes and onstage choreo, is a colorful mix of forties jazz and swing, fifties jump blues, and their own swing-influenced tunes. With their female vocals, saxophone, guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, this unique sextet, named "Best Live Band 2010" by Hartford Magazine, pack a musical and visual wallop not seen in New England since the group's inception in 1975. Since that time they have released eleven CDs, seven videos, and have excited audiences from Europe to the Caribbean. The band has released its 11th CD, The Romper Room, and has just returned from a weeklong tour of the Republic of Georgia where they performed in August at the invitation of the U.S. Embassy there. Find out more at www.eighttothebar.com. Photo by Jim Coon.

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June 27, Wednesday
Poetry Prelude 5 pm; Music by Liz Queler & Seth Farber begins 6:15; poets Christian Wiman and Sunken Garden Poetry Prize 1st place winner Marilyn Annucci begin reading at 7:30 pm

"Wiman writes vivid, clear-eyed works that are at once colloquial and elegant." — Image

Poetry Prelude: Talk on Christian Wiman by Brad Davis

Christian Wiman is an American poet and editor. Raised in West Texas, Wiman is a graduate of Washington and Lee University and has taught at Northwestern University, Stanford University, Lynchburg College in Virginia, and the Prague School of Economics. Since 2003, he has been editor of the oldest and most prestigious American magazine of verse, Poetry.

His first book of poetry, The Long Home, won the Nicholas Roerich Prize. His most recent book, Every Riven Thing (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), was chosen by poet and critic Dan Chiasson as one of the best poetry books of 2010. His poems, criticism, and personal essays appear widely in such magazines as The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, The New York Times Book Review, and The New Yorker. Wiman lives in Chicago.

Born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, Marilyn Annucci is the author of Luck (Parallel Press 2000), and her work has appeared in various magazines and anthologies. In addition to Pushcart nominations, she won second place in the 2008 Ann Stanford Poetry Prize, first place in the Maize fiction contest sponsored by the Writers' Center of Indiana, and she was an award winner in the Tin House/Summer Literary Seminars contest, judged by Tom Sleigh. Marilyn has worked as a fast-food counter person, a switchboard operator, a copy girl for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, a VISTA volunteer, a copy editor for RUN magazine and PC Week, a freelance writer, and a publications and grants coordinator. She is an associate professor in the Department of Languages and Literatures at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and lives in Madison.

With stellar musical track records that include work on renowned studio projects, world tours, Broadway musicals, performances in top-notch clubs and festivals, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, TV and film soundtracks, and production on two Grammy-nominated albums, it's clear which side of the good/great split Liz Queler & Seth Farber are on. This husband and wife duo are life-long professional musicians who literally grew up in the business and are now sharing the same great tradition with their 12-year-old son Joey Farber, who is also a budding musical star in his own right. Much like Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, and Bruce Hornsby, Liz & Seth's eclectic folk/rock, Americana and bluegrass style is rooted in storytelling and songwriting, bringing evocative text alive with exceptional music. In their Edna Project, they have set the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay to music with stunning results. Find out more at www.lizqueler.com.

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July 11, Wednesday
Poetry Prelude 5 pm; Music by Rani and daisy mayhem begins 6:15; poets Natasha Trethewey and Sunken Garden Poetry Prize 2nd place winner Sue Burton begin reading at 7:30 pm

"Trethewey... renders the unsuspecting yearnings and tremulous hopes that accompany our most private thoughts." — Rita Dove

Poetry Prelude: Talk on Natasha Trethewey by John Stanizzi

Nathasha Trethewey is author of Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast (University of Georgia Press, 2010); Native Guard (Houghton Mifflin), for which she won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize; Bellocq's Ophelia (Graywolf, 2002), which was named a Notable Book for 2003 by the American Library Association; and Domestic Work. (Graywolf, 2000). Her collection Thrall is due for publication in 2012.

She is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study Center, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Bunting Fellowship Program of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. Her poems have appeared in such journals and anthologies as American Poetry Review, Callaloo, Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, New England Review, Gettysburg Review, and several volumes of The Best American Poetry. At Emory University she is Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Creative Writing. Her first collection of poetry, Domestic Work (2000), was selected by Rita Dove as the winner of the inaugural Cave Canem Poetry Prize for the best first book by an African American poet and won both the 2001 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Book Prize and the 2001 Lillian Smith Award for Poetry. Photo by Joel Benjamin.

Sue Burton is a physician's assistant specializing in women's health care. Her poetry has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Green Mountains Review, Harvard Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, Hunger Mountain, New Ohio Review, and on Verse Daily. She has been awarded a Vermont Arts Council grant and nominated for a Pushcart. She earned an MFA from Vermont College and lives in Burlington, Vermont.

With their brand-new, fifth CD, Some Bright Morning, Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem celebrate the arc of human life, with songs about love, loss, death, joy and spirit. Whether it's with a funky dance tune from the Georgia Sea Islands, a rockin' cover of Bruce Springsteen, or one of their own strong, lyrical originals, this veteran string band plumbs the nooks and crannies of the human condition with soaring harmonies, old-timey fiddle, electric and acoustic guitars, 100% recycled percussion, and plenty of humor and heart.

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July 25, Wednesday
Poetry Prelude 5 pm; Music by Brass City Brass begins 6:15; poet Donald Hall reads at 7:30 pm

"Hall has long been placed in the Frostian tradition of the plainspoken rural poet. His poems... [are imbued] with a tone of sincere authority." — Billy Collins

Poetry Prelude: Talk on Donald Hall by Michael Cervas

The fourteenth United States Poet Laureate from 2006–2007, Donald Hallwas born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1928. He received his bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1951, and in 1953 his bachelor's in literature from Oxford University. For the past thirty years he has lived on Eagle Pond Farm in rural New Hampshire, in the house where his grandmother and mother were born. He has two children from his first marriage and five grandchildren. He was married for twenty-three years to the poet Jane Kenyon, who died in 1995.

Hall has published sixteen books of poetry, beginning with Exiles and Marriages in 1955. In 2008, his memoir Unpacking the Boxes: The Life of a Poet was published. Among his books for children, Ox-Cart Man won the Caldecott Medal. His twenty books of prose include Willow Temple: New and Selected Stories (2003), The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon (2005), and a collection of his essays about poetry, Breakfast Served Any Time All Day. He has written extensively about life in New Hampshire in his memoirs Seasons at Eagle Pond (1987), Here at Eagle Pond (2000), and Eagle Pond (2007).

For his poetry, Donald Hall received the Marshall/Nation Award in 1987 for The Happy Man; both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award in 1988 for The One Day; the Lily Prize for Poetry in 1994; two Guggenheim Fellowships; and a National Medal of Arts. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Photo by Mark S. Simon.

Brass City Brass is a quintet of great musical virtuosity and wide ranging knowledge. Their collective playing experience covers the entire spectrum of musical periods and genres and they bring to every performance those unique insights that make their concerts informed, exciting and completely engrossing. Their repertoire covers musical history from the Renaissance to the twenty-first century, enabling them to create wonderful programs of varied styles and shifting moods. Members of Brass City Brass include Joel Winter on French horn and Wagner tuba; Harold Zinno on trumpet and flugelhorn; Ken Andresen on trombone and euphonium; Ernie Adams on bass trombone and euphonium; and Ryan Storms on trumpet and flugelhorn.

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July 30–August 1
Monday–Wednesday
9 am–3 pm
3-Day Teacher Workshop with Tony Hoagland

August 1, Wednesday
Season Closing Night
Poetry Prelude 5 pm; Music by Ed Fast and Conga Bop begins 6:15; poet Tony Hoagland reads at 7:30 pm

"Tony Hoagland... is a poet of risk: he risks wild laughter in poems that are totally heartfelt... the framework of his writing is immense, almost as large as the tarnished nation he wandered into under the star of poetry." — Jackson Prize citation

Three-Day Teacher Workshop: "Five Powers of Poetry: Reading, Writing, and Teaching Contemporary Poetry"
This workshop, for teachers and other interested, serious writers, takes place during the course of the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival. To find out more, visit www.fivepowerspoetry.com/thefivepowers.html. Admission is $300 for three days, plus admission to Tony Hoagland's poetry reading on the evening of August 1, the Festival's 20th Season Finale performance. Space is limited – reserve your spot today! Register by emailing wadsworths@hillstead.org.

8/1: Poetry Prelude: Teaching Poetry Talk by Tony Hoagland with Michael Cervas

Tony Hoagland is author of four volumes of poetry: Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty (2010); Sweet Ruin, winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry; Donkey Gospel, winner of the James Laughlin Award of The Academy of American Poets; and What Narcissism Means to Me, as well as a collection of essays about poetry, Real Sofistakashun, all published by Graywolf Press. His poems and critical essays have appeared widely in journals and anthologies such as American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, and Ploughshares. He is the winner of the 2008 Jackson Poetry Prize, awarded by Poets & Writers magazine. In 2005 he received the O.B. Hardison Jr. Prize, awarded by the Folger Shakespeare Library; this is the only national prize to recognize a poet's teaching as well as his art. Hoagland also received the 2005 Mark Twain Award, given by the Poetry Foundation in recognition of a poet's contribution to humor in American poetry.

Tony Hoagland's poems have been described as moving unerringly with wit and irony, like an arrow through its target – we, the readers – with exhilarating results. His poems sprint across the page and unexpectedly blow apart a single moment, exposing its contradictory nature – and often our folly. Hoagland explores the spiritual bereftness of American satisfaction, creating poetry that is scathing, funny, rich, and refreshingly intelligent. Hoagland currently teaches in the poetry program at the University of Houston.

Conga-Bop combines the harmony and sensibilities of hard-bop with the rhythms of the Caribbean to produce an original and vibrant sound that is Latin and jazz. Drummer/vibist/composer Ed Fast leads this octet through an exciting array of his own soulful originals as well as Latin jazz classics by legendary artists such as Cal Tjader, Tito Puente and Hilton Ruiz. This band grooves its way through a multitude of Latin rhythms including rumba, cha-cha-cha, son, and Afro-Cuban 6/8. Enjoy the unique voice of Conga-Bop, a band with a Caribbean heart and hard-bop soul.

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If you would like to be added to the poetry mail list (email or postal mail), please contact Cynthia Cagenello at cagenelloc@hillstead.org.