video

When Lisa and I began planning this project over a year ago, we had the same vision in mind. Our hope was that we could provide a non-competitive space, a space where people at all stages of their writing life could feel welcome and bolstered by the creativity they see in others. We also wanted to give creatives the time and the platform to do what they might not get to do in the course of a normal reading at a bookshop.  

And another reason for doing what we do is selfish, but selfish in the way that it nurtures us. We get to participate in the events we host and revel in the curiosity, the motivations, and the practice of being a poet. We are so honored to host Jessica Cuello and Jan Beatty for this conversation. We are so grateful to them for their time and for sharing with us.

Both of them are fierce writers about womanhood, exploring themes of the body and autonomy, the changes we experience as we grow from child to adult. This conversation doesn’t shy away from menstruation, death, or neglect… and it also celebrates the work, the words, the moments that give us peace.

Please enjoy Jessica Cuello & Jan Beatty.

The Event

When I think about what makes my creative life fulfilling, I realize that my relationships with other writers and creatives are vital to not just my work, but my life. 

We brought two poets together for a conversation. Marcia Karp and George Kalogeris have known each other for 25 years. They have been privy to each other’s successes and to each other’s struggles. They have similar backgrounds but different writing styles.

I imagine their relationship akin to a lifeline: A thread that can be followed back to the beginning, a thread that’s been woven into everything between that beginning and now.

I also realize, when I’m thinking about my own creative life, that when I’m curious, I’m more engaged, more committed, more excited. These events give us a chance to learn, discover, and celebrate what it means to be in a creative community.

The Event

“Fall in love with someone else’s work,” Meg Kearney told us. “It’s the best way to stave off the jealousy and that insidious belief that we do not belong.”

And how can we not fall in love with other people’s work when poets like Eileen Cleary and Allison Adair make the falling so easy? How can we not fall in love with Eileen’s clear and haunting images, her mastery of form? How can we not fall in love with Allison’s ability to find beauty in the dark, in her lush language? 

I could go on and on, cite poems from these two poets that have kept me up and night and poems that have soothed me on difficult days. I could tell you how much I admire how they move in the world, how they champion other poets, how they continually put good work into the world and notice the same of others. 

But mostly, I want you to take the time to listen to this conversation, because it is like being at the table with two generous and brilliant people. If you haven’t already, you will fall in love with their work.

Allison Adair’s debut collection, The Clearing, was selected by Henri Cole as winner of Milkweed’s Max Ritvo Poetry Prize and named a New York Times “New and Noteworthy” book. It is coming out in paperback on June 9th. Allison’s work has been honored with the Pushcart Prize, the Florida Review Editors’ Award, the Orlando Prize, a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant, and first place in the Fineline Competition from Mid-American Review. Originally from central Pennsylvania, Allison teaches at Boston College and Grub Street. 

Eileen Cleary is the author of Child ward of the Commonwealth’(Main Street Rag Press, 2019), which received an honorable mention for the Sheila Margaret Motton Book Prize and 2 a.m. with Keats (Nixes Mate, 2021). In addition, she co-edited the anthology Voices Amidst the Virus, the featured text at the 2021 Michigan State University Filmetry Festival. Her poem “The Way We Fled”  was recently anthologized  in Tree Lines: 21st CenturyAmerican Poetry (Grayson Books, 2022.)

On Saturday April 23, we hosted three wonderful poets with new books: José Angel Araguz, Quintin Collins, and Daniel B. Summerhill.

These three poets: José Angel Araguz, Quintin Collins, and Daniel B. Summerhill, know each other in ways that go deeper than simply reading at the same event. Quintin and Daniel workshopped together in the Solstice MFA Program, now at Lasell University. After graduation, they trusted each other with their works in progress, emailing work back and forth, one on the East Coast, one on the West. And José serves on the faculty of the Solstice program, where Quintin is now the assistant director.

But that’s just the easy stuff. The not so easy stuff is how these three poets witness the world we move in, how they speak past the inherent, institutionalized barriers they continue to face as creatives, as scholars, as partners, as fathers, as Black and Latinx men.

This is a reading, yes. But it’s also community, and proof that when one poet falls in love with and champions the work of another, poetry turns from solo connection to conversation, to recognition, to witness. 

Check out the recording of the event below: