Poetry panel discussion Monday
By From staff reports
Published in News on April 13, 2016 1:46 PM
As Wayne County Reads continues into April, four of North Carolina's best poets and statewide leaders of literature will answer the question, "Why Poetry?"
The second event in this year's "Passionate for Poetry" series takes place at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 18, in the the Walnut 101 Lecture Hall at Wayne Community College. The WCC Foundation is co-sponsor of the event, which is free of charge to the public.
Panelists include North Carolina Poet Laureate Shelby Stephenson, editor of Jacar Press Richard Krawiec, University of Mount Olive Writer in Residence Lenard D. Moore, and executive director of the Paul Green Foundation, Marsha Warren. They plan to talk about how they have reached out to people across the state and found that poetry can affect peoples' lives.
"Sometimes we take poetry for granted or we don't give poems a chance," said panel moderator, Margaret Boothe Baddour. "But poetry has been a key element of human ritual, leisure and family life, even government back to the beginnings of civilization. In its 13th year, Wayne County Reads has selected a poetry book for the first time: "Poetry 180," edited by former United States Poet Laureate Billy Collins.
"April is National Poetry Month," Mrs. Baddour added, "and we plan to prove that poetry is fun, not drab, exciting, not dull, stimulating, not dead."
Recently appointed the North Carolina Poet Laureate by Gov. Pat McCrory, Shelby Stephenson lives on the small farm where he was born near Benson. He is professor emeritus at UNC-Pembroke and served as editor of the international literary journal Pembroke Magazine from 1979 to his retirement in 2010. Winning virtually every poetry award in North Carolina, he has published 10 chapbooks, plus a poetic documentary "Plankhouse" with photographs by Goldsboro native Roger Manley and a play called "Maytle's World." Stephenson's "Family Matters: Homage to July, the Slave Girl" won the 2008 Bellday Poetry Prize and the 2009 Arnold Oscar Young Award. The state presented Stephenson with the 2001 North Carolina Award in Literature and in 2014 he was inducted into the N.C. Literary Hall of Fame. He has served as president of many of the state's literary organizations, including the N.C. Literary and Historical Association, the N.C. Poetry Society, and the N.C. Writers Network.
Richard Krawiec is the founder of Jacar Press, a community active publishing company in Raleigh. He has published three books of poetry, most recently "Women Who Loved Me Despite." While his poems appear in dozens of literary magazines, he has written two novels, "Time Sharing" and "Faith in What?", a story collection "And Fools of God," and four plays. His awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the N.C. Arts Council and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
Moore's poetry books include: "The Open Eye," "Forever Home," "Dessert Storm: A Brief History," and "A Temple Looming," His numerous honors include the 2014 Raleigh News & Observer's Tar Heel of the Week and the 2014 N.C. Award for Literature. The former president of the Haiku Society of America, he has taught at N.C. State University and A&T University. He directs the Literary Festival at UMO.
Marsha Warren is executive director of the Paul Green Foundation in Chapel Hill. From 1987 to 1996, she served as executive director of the N.C. Writers Network, and with the late N.C. Poet Laureate Sam Ragan, she developed the N.C. Literary Hall of Fame in Southern Pines. An advocate for the literary arts community, she has served as a board member for many state and national organizations, including the National Coalition of Writers Organizations, St. Andrews Press, the N.C. Cultural Resources Task Force and her most recent mission, the N.C. Freedom Monument Park in Raleigh.
Margaret Boothe Baddour's poems have appeared in numerous literary magazines and anthologies. She has published three books of poetry, most recently "Sheherazade." She won NCPS's Poet Laureate Award for "The Baptising at Stony Creek." A fixture on the statewide arts scene, Baddour has served as president of the N.C. Poetry Society, the N.C. Arts Advocates, the N.C. Writers Conference, on the board of the N.C. Arts Council and as a founder of the N.C. Writers Network. She taught creative writing, drama and humanities at Wayne Community College, where she holds a Bell Distinguished Chair in Teaching and serves on the Foundation's Arts & Humanities Committee.
For more information on Wayne County Reads, call the Wayne County Public Library at 919-735-1824 or search the WCPS website.