Rice Pudding Poetry Series to Feature Richard Foerster in a Program of Maine Poets
Richard Foerster will be featured in the upcoming Rice Pudding Poetry Series on Thursday evening, January 26, in a reading that will celebrate the work of Maine poets. Foerster will share the mike with several “community readers,” including Terry Karnan, Marlane Bottino, Martha Petersen, and Jody Hetherington, who will read published poems they’ve selected for the event. Guitarist Jonathan Booth will also perform. The Rice Pudding Poetry Series is modelled after the statewide Poetry Express conducted by former Maine Poet Laureate Wes McNair, who visited Rice Library for a standing-room-only whistle stop in March, 2015.
“This is not an open mic-type event, rather it’s designed to increase awareness of and pleasure in the poetry world, for poets and non-poets” said former Portsmouth Poet Laureate Kimberly Green, who helps organize the Rice Pudding events. “We’re also interested in the experience that can be created by weaving poetry with instrumental music. This event’s performer, guitarist Jonathan Booth, is an exquisitely sensitive musician!”
Featured reader Richard Foerster is the recipient of numerous honors, including the “Discovery”/ The Nation Award, Poetry magazine’s Bess Hokin Prize, a Maine Arts Commission Fellowship, the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship, two National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowships, and two Maine Literary Awards for Poetry. Since the 1970s, his work has appeared widely in magazines and anthologies, including The Best American Poetry, Kenyon Review, TriQuarterly, The Gettysburg Review, Boulevard, The Southern Review, and Poetry. He is the author of seven collections of poems, most recently River Road (2015), published by Texas Review Press. He has worked as a lexicographer, educational writer, typesetter, teacher, and editor of the literary magazines Chelsea and Chautauqua Literary Journal. For the last 30 years, he has lived on the coast of southern Maine.
The evening begins with refreshments and conversation at 6pm, with the performance beginning at 6:30pm. This event is free and open to the public, and seating in the upstairs library is limited. A book signing will follow the show. The Rice Public Library is located at 8 Wentworth Street in Kittery. Call (207) 439-1553 for more information.
