People and Their Poems

In this episode, Middlebury, Connecticut, artist/author/educator Steve Parlato discusses his creative process and motivation for crafting his 16-portrait collage series, They Are Not Disposable, with host Sandy Carlson. Each portrait depicts a Black American whose life was stolen due to racial violence. In memorializing these individuals in art and poetry, Steve seeks to promote necessary conversation around the topic of racism, with the goal of opening minds and fostering connection.Steve is the author of two young adult novels, The Namesake (which won the 2011 Tassy Walden Award for New Voices in Y.A Fiction) and The Precious Dreadful. Both explore grief, loss, and hope. Follow him on FB at Steven Parlato Author and IG at @stevenparlato.People and Their Poems is sponsored presented Orenaug Mountain Publishing.

This is a poetry reading and round table edition of People and Their Poems, with host Sandy Carlson and featured reader Thomasina Levy.Joining Sandy and Thomasina are Ed Dzitko, Susan Marie Powers, Samuel Gluck, Mary Ann Abdo, and Linette Rabsatt. People and Their Poems (https://peopleandtheirpoems.net) is presented by Orenaug Mountain Publishing (https://orenaugmountainpublishing.com).

Samuel Gluck tells host Sandy Carlson, that he is just an antenna, catching words, verses, and stanzas from the universe and putting them to paper. He says claims no ownership, in the grand scheme of things. He's simply a conduit.Check out Samuel's website to learn more about him and his book, Muse, released this past week by Orenaug Mountain Publishing.

Jo-Ann Iannotti, OP, a Litchfield, Connecticut, resident, Dominican Sister of Hope, and lifelong poet and photographer, has gathered her works into a collection titled I Know Myself as Thief. Asked why she decided to publish this book, Iannotti says, “People have been encouraging me for years to put my poetry and photography together in a book. Finally doing it, I’ve learned new things about the power of the word and the power of an image.”Hear more about the book, and some poems read by the author, as host Sandy Carlson guides us along.

In this episode, hear from Sandy Carlson and Ed Dzitko, managing partners at Orenaug Mountain Publishing, featured poet Linette Rabsatt, and Prithvijeet Sinha and Thomasina Levy.

For 22 years, Margaret Hunt was a high school English teacher.  Currently, she is a student teacher evaluator for the Alternate Route to Certification. She also teaches a GED prep course to adult learners. Margaret holds a BA from Smith College, and an MAT from Columbia Teachers College. A lifelong amateur and professional canoe racer and wilderness canoe paddler, Margaret is a contributing writer for the My Musings blog on the Friends of Topsmead State Park website.  Margaret started a poetry club when she taught at Torrington High School. She also created and taught courses in creative writing and poetry at Pomperaug High School.   EPISODE EXTRAS Dana Gioia Introduction to Poetry - Billy Collins How to Eat a Poem - Eve Merriam

Sandy Carlson, poet laureate of Woodbury, Conn., talks nature poetry with Tom Nicotera and Sherri Bedingfield. Sheryll (Sherri) Bedingfield is a family therapist, psychotherapist, and a counselor with the Youth & Family Resource Center. She is the proud mother of two sons and twin grandsons. She has two poetry collections, Transitions & Transformations (Antrim House, 2010) and The Clattering, Voices from Old Forfarshire, Scotland (Grayson). Read more about Sherri here. Tom Nicotera has taught poetry classes and workshops in Washington, D.C., and in Maryland. In Connecticut, Tom ran a poetry series at Susan's Cafe in Granby, and for 25 years was involved as cofounder/coordinator of the Bloomfield Library's Wintonbury Poetry Series. He was editor of Charter Oak Poets II, an anthology of Hartford area poets, and was on the organizing committee for the 2001 Connecticut Poetry Festival at Middlesex Community College. For several years, he was a mentor for the student poetry collaboration between the American School for the Deaf and the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts. He has a book of poems titled What Better Place To Be Than Here? , and he has published poems in various journals, magazines, and anthologies. “Nathan Hall State Forest” previously appeared in Woodlands, the magazine of the Connecticut Forest and Parks Association.

Sandy Carlson, poet laureate of Woodbury, Conn., visits with Vyacheslav (Slava) Konoval, a Ukrainian poet and lawyer whose creative works have been translated into six languages. A writer of poetry for the past two years, Slava's poems have appeared in more than 60 literary magazines and anthologies. He is a member of the Scottish Writer's Federation and has a wide interest in the arts. EPISODE EXTRAS Slava on All Poetry Slava on Linked-In Slava's reading in "Poetry of Struggle and Solidarity" (Takoma Park City TV) Slava's reading in War Art Project for Ukraine Slava Konoval reads his poem ДО ВОДИ (Trukhaniv’s Island) with The Allingham Arts Festival Ukrainian Poet Slava Konoval - Translatit Intae Scots - with the Scots Language Centre Learn more about Sandy as a local poet laureate and learn more about the People and Their Poems podcast.

Rick Magee, poet laureate of Bethel, Conn., and an English professor at Sacred Heart University, grew up in California and moved to the East Coast to work on his PhD. His wife Rebecca is also an English professor, and their son Cormac wants to be a writer when he grows up. Rick has published in a variety of online journals and has just recently signed with a publisher for his poetry chapbook. EPISODE EXTRAS VIDEO: An Evening with New Connecticut Poet Laureates - Ridgefield Library Opinion: Proud members of the Cool Weirdos Club Opinion: My son taught me how to write life’s next act Opinion: People think they hate poetry, but aren’t we all poets?

Chris Gaffney is a stay-at-home dad to a 3-year-old girl and 1-year-old boy residing in Wolcott, Connecticut, where he also serves on the board of education. Chris has won the National Society of Newspaper Columnists’ award for best humor column in its category (2019) and served as a keynote speaker at the National At-Home Dad Network’s annual convention (2022), where he presented a talk titled “What Do You Do All Day? Sharing Your Story with Authenticity and Humor.” Currently, he is working on a book called Baby Bump: Poems for and About Expectant Parents. This is the cornerstone of Chris’s initiative to get fathers involved with their childrens’ development at the earliest possible moment in their child’s development. EPISODE EXTRAS Chris Read His Work National At-Home Dad's Network

Listen as Sandy Carlson, poet laureate of Woodbury, Conn. (https://sandycarlson.net,) talks with Nicole Caruso Garcia, whose full-length debut poetry collection is Oxblood (Able Muse Press, 2022). Oxblood was named a finalist for the Able Muse Book Award and the Richard Wilbur Award. Educated at Fairfield University, Nicole holds a BA in English and Religious Studies. After seven years in the corporate sector, she earned her MS in Education from the University of Bridgeport and taught English at Trumbull High School for fifteen years. Nicole's poetry appears in Best New Poets, Light, Mezzo Cammin, ONE ART, Plume, Rattle, RHINO, and elsewhere. Garcia serves as associate poetry editor at Able Muse and as an executive board member at Poetry by the Sea, an annual poetry conference in Madison, Conn. EPISODE EXTRAS Nicole Caruso Garcia Poetry by the Sea Light, a Journal of Light Verse Wonder Woman as a Rap Star Able Muse Poets Triple Book-Launch Event One Art: A Journal of Poetry

Jack Powers taught high school special education, English and writing for 38 years. He won the 2015 and 2012 Connecticut River Review Poetry Contests and was a finalist for the 2014 and 2013 Rattle Poetry Prizes. Jack earned MFAs in fiction and poetry from Sarah Lawrence College, and a BFA in Painting from Syracuse University.  He has two poetry collections: Everybody's Vaguely Familiar (2019) and Still Love (2023).  Jack has published scores of poems in various journals, including Rattle, The Cortland Review, and The Southern Review.  EPISODE EXTRAS Jack Powers Website Bard Institute for Writing and Thinking Connecticut Writing Project Hudson Valley Writers Center Everybody's Vaguely Familiar by Jack Powers on Amazon

John L. Stanizzi is author of the collections Ecstasy Among Ghosts, Sleepwalking, Dance Against the Wall, After the Bell, Hallelujah Time!, High Tide – Ebb Tide, Four Bits, Chants, Sundowning, and POND. John’s poems have been widely published and have appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Cortland Review, American Life in Poetry, Praxis, The New York Quarterly, Paterson Literary Review, The Caribbean Writer, Blue Mountain Review, Rust + Moth, Tar River, Poetlore, Rattle, Hawk & Handsaw, and many others. His work has been translated into Italian and appears widely in Italy, including in El Ghibli, The Journal of Italian Translations, Bonafini, Poetarium, and others. His nonfiction has been published in Stone Coast Review, Ovunque Siamo, Adelaide, Scarlet Leaf, Literature and Belief, Evening Street, Praxis, and others. EPISODE EXTRAS John L. Stanizzi on The Poetry Foundation Article on Combustus Brainwaves Video Anthology, featuring three John Stanizzi poems John Stanizzi books on Amazon

Julie Cook lives in Woodbury, Connecticut, where she is a poet, musician, and music teacher. She has been writing poetry and making music ever since she was a child, playing on the piano her musician father bought for her and her sister. Julie is a member of the Orenaug Chapter of the Connecticut Poetry Society. She is also a member of Feminina Melodia and Music for People. Episode Extras Julie's website Music for People

Born and raised in Rochester, New York, Deborah Nash Ott holds a Masters of Education in Secondary Education, English. She taught for 35 years in the US and abroad. She has led writers' workshops in Bern, Switzerland, and edited the annual creative writing journal Voices for East Granby High School. Deb has published in various small presses. The poetry volume Twin Soul is Deb's collaborative work with Welsh poet Heather Gatley. Her novella Canopy is part of the Connecticut Indie Book Project, published in the Connecticut Bard Review in 2022. She also published a children's book with artist Helen Galick in 2016. Currently she is working on Solid Miss, her first solo collection of poetry. EPISODE EXTRAS Deborah Nash Ott’s books on Amazon Deborah Nash Ott on Facebook

Patricia Lee Lewis has led more than 70 creative writing and yoga retreats in 10 countries and hundreds of creative writing workshops and retreats in the US--mostly at Patchwork Farm Retreat on a little mountain in Westhampton, Massachusetts.  Patricia holds a BA from  Smith College and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts in Poetry. She has published an award-winning chapbook of poems, A Kind of Yellow, as well as High Lonesome,  a full book of poems. Other publications include a variety of feature articles and photographs on "inner and outer" experiences as a traveler and individual poems in a variety of journals and anthologies over the years. Patricia says, “I've lived a long and active life in grass roots politics, advocating for civil rights, women's rights, peace, social justice.”. EPISODE EXTRAS Patricia Lee Lewis Books on Amazon Mary Ruefle Mary Oliver Billy Collins Pat Schneider Caroline Forché Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop Writers Retreats

Antoinette Brim-Bell of West Haven is Connecticut’s eighth poet laureate. She is the author of three full-length poetry collections: These Women You Gave Me, Icarus in Love, and Psalm of the Sunflower. She is a Cave Canem Foundation Fellow and an alumna of Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA). Antoinette will be a featured guest at Woodbury Public Library’s Celebrating Poetry day on April 29.  EPISODE EXTRAS Antoinette Brim-Bell's website Celebrating Poetry Day - Woodbury Public Library - April 2 Antoinette Brim-Bell - The Poetry Foundation Capital Community College

Laurel S. Peterson is a community college English professor whose poetry has been published in many literary journals. She has two poetry chapbooks--That’s the Way the Music Sounds (Finishing Line) and Talking to the Mirror (Last Automat)--as well as two full-length collections–Do You Expect Your Art to Answer? and Daughter of Sky (Futurecycle). She has also written two mystery novels, Shadow Notes and The Fallen (Woodhall). Laurel is on the editorial board of Inkwell magazine, and the Norwalk Public Library Board. Laurel served as Norwalk's poet laureate from April 2016 to April 2019. EPISODE EXTRAS Laurel Peterson website Laurel Peterson on Amazon

Melissa Studdard is the author of five books, including the poetry collections Dear Selection Committee and I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast, the poetry chapbook Like a Bird with a Thousand Wings, and the young adult novel Six Weeks to Yehidah. Her work has been featured by NPR, PBS, The New York Times, The Guardian, Ms. Magazine, and Houston Matters, and has also appeared in a wide variety of periodicals, such as POETRY, Kenyon Review, Psychology Today, New Ohio Review, Harvard Review, New England Review, and Poets & Writers. She is a professor in the Lone star System. EPISODE EXTRAS Melissa Studdard Website Melissa Studdard on Amazon Lone Star College System

Dennis Barone, professor emeritus at the University of Saint Joseph, was born in New Jersey. He attended Bard College and the University of Pennsylvania. In 1992 he became the Thomas Jefferson Chair in American Studies, The Netherlands. In 1997, Dennis received the America Award in Fiction for Echoes. He received the first faculty scholarship award at the University of Saint Joseph in 2016. He has published 27 books as author or editor, including Garnet Poems: An Anthology of Connecticut Poetry Since 1776 (Wesleyan UP 2012), Beyond the Red Notebook: Essays on Paul Auster (U of Penn P 1995), Beyond Memory: Italian Protestants in Italy and America (SUNY P 2016), New Hungers for Old: One Hundred Years of Italian American Poetry (Star Cloud 2012), Second Thoughts (prose, Bordighera P 2017), Frame Narrative (poetry 2018), Walkers in the City ( a COVID poetry chapbook anthology Rain Taxi 2021), A Field Guide to the Rehearsal (poetry 2022). EPISODE EXTRAS Find Dennis's books on Amazon Learn more about Dennis Barone on his website