Wordsmiths (Poetry & Prose)

Iain Haley Pollock and Joseph Chelius - September 30, 7:30 p.m., Orangery

Iain Haley Pollock’s first collection of poems, Spit Back a Boy, won the 2010 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Pollock earned a bachelor's degree in English from Haverford College and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Syracuse University. He is a Cave Canem Fellow.
Joseph Chelius was the 2000 Bucks County Poet Laureate, and recently published his second chapbook, Row House Yards.  His first book of poetry, Taking Pictures, was published in 2006.  He earned an M.A. in creative writing from Temple University. 

Edmund White  -  November 4th,  Orangery

Edmund White is the author of many books, including The Beautiful Room is Empty: A Novel, A Boy's Own Story: A Novel, The Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris, The Farewell Symphony, City Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960s and '70s, and Genet: A Biography.  He was the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Genet, in addition to receiving two fellowships from the Ingram  Merrill Foundation and a Guggenheim fellowship.  In 2001, he received the Ferro-Grumley Award from the Publishing Triangle for The Married Man. 

 Martha Rhodes  -  December 2nd,  Orangery

Martha Rhodes has written four collections of poetry: At the Gate, Perfect Disappearance, Mother Quiet and The Beds. Her poems have been published widely in such journals as Agni, Columbia, Fence, New England Review, Pleiades, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. She has also been frequently anthologized, her work appearing in The New American Poets: A Bread Loaf Anthology, Last Call: Poems on Alcoholism, Addiction, and Deliverance, and The KGB Bar Book of Poetry.

 Cheryl Baldi  -  December 2nd,  Orangery

Cheryl Baldi teaches writing at Bucks County Community College and works as a freelance editor. She has served as co-facilitator for community based workshops exploring women’s lives through literature, taught in seminars training teachers in interdisciplinary arts, and served on the Board of Directors of Four Way Books. A graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, she was a 2011 finalist in the Robert Fraser Poetry Contest. Her poems have appeared in Salamander, Bitter Oleander (finalist for the 2006 Frances Locke Memorial Poetry Award) and numerous anthologies.

James Richardson and Ethel Rackin  - February 17th,  Orangery

James Richardson is the author of six books of poetry and two books of criticism, including, most recently, By the Numbers: Poems and Aphorisms, which was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Award. His work has appeared in periodicals such as the New Yorker and the Paris Review, and has been included in several recent editions of The Best American Poetry, among other anthologies.

Ethel Rackin's poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Colorado  Review, Court Green, Volt, Poetry East, and in numerous other journals.  She earned her MFA from Bard College and her PhD in English Literature from Princeton. She is Assistant Professor of Language and Literature at BCCC. 

April Lindner  - March 30th,  Orangery

April Lindner received the 2002 Walt McDonald First Book Prize from Texas Tech University Press for her poetry collection, Skin. Her poems have appeared in many journals, including The Hudson Review, The Paris Review, Crazyhorse, Prairie Schooner, and The Formalist, as well as in numerous textbooks and anthologies.  She also co-edited Contemporary American Poetry, an anthology in Longman's Penguin Academics series. 

Mark Doty & Paul Lisicky  -  April 27th  Gateway Auditorium

Mark Doty has a number of books of poetry to his credit, including Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems, School of the Arts, Source, and My Alexandria.  His work has been critically acclaimed, having received the National Book Award for Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems.  In addition, he has been honored by the National Book Critics Circle Award, and is the only American poet to have received the T.S. Eliot Prize in the U.K.  He has also received fellowships from the Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts. 

 Paul Lisicky is the author of Lawnboy, Famous Builder, and two forthcoming books: The Burning House and Unbuilt Projects.  He has won a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, in addition to awards from the James Michener/Copernicus Society, the Henfield Foundation, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.