Mark DeCarteret

Mark DeCarteret, Portsmouth’s seventh poet laureate was born in Lowell Massachusetts in 1960 and he has lived within an hour or two drive ever since.  In 1993 Mark graduated from the University of New Hampshire with an M.A. in English-Writing He is the recipient of the Thomas Williams Memorial Poetry Prize and his poetry has appeared in over two hundred different reviews such as AGNI, Boston Review, Chicago Review, Conduit, Cream City Review, Failbetter, Hotel Amerika, Phoebe, Poetry East, Salamander, Sonora Review, and Third Coast, as well as the anthologies American Poetry: The Next Generation (Carnegie Mellon Press), Places of Passage: Contemporary Catholic Poetry (Story Line Press), Thus Spake the Corpse: An Exquisite Corpse Reader 1988-1998 (Black Sparrow Press) and Under the Legislature of Stars: 62 New Hampshire Poets  (Oyster River Press) which he also co-edited. His chapbook “Flap” was published by Finishing Line Press in spring 2011.

Read Marks full laureate ceremony speech.

Marks Laureate project is Wish You Were Where?/The Postcard Project which encouraged poets of all ages and abilities to send one of their poems (along with a stamp and return address) to an artist of their choice (as many as they’d like as long as each written piece is different) who then responded to the work by providing an illustration of some sort.  And then dropped back it the mailbox. Read the full Postcard Project Announcement here. 

For the postcard archive intro click here.  

At the postcard event at the Discover Portsmouth Center, the postcards were placed on cardholders on window sills and tables and hung from ribbons strung throughout the gallery so people could easily see both sides and touch and interact with the cards in an up-close and tactile way.

Below are the front and back of 196 postcards from Mark’s postcard Project. click a postcard to see a larger view!