The Carriage House Poetry Series invites the public to attend a free event on Tuesday, February 18th at 8 p.m., featuring distinguished poet Diane Lockward in the Kuran Arts Center on Watson Road, off North Martine Avenue, adjacent to Fanwood Borough Hall. The reading marks the start of the 2020 season of the Carriage House Poetry Series with the annual “Sweetheart Night,” in observance of Valentine’s Day.
Diane Lockward will begin the evening of poetry with a selection of her own work. She will be followed by several other New Jersey poets, including Jessica de Koninck, Deborah Gerrish, Tina Kelley, Susan Rothbard, David Vincenti, and Michael T. Young, who will read poems from the anthology “A Constellation of Kisses” (Terrapin Books, 2019).
A former English teacher at Millburn High School, Diane Lockward has published several collections of her poetry, including “The Uneaten Carrots of Atonement” (Wind Publications, 2016) and “What Feeds Us,” which received the 2006 Quentin R. Howard Poetry Prize. In 2009, she was appointed Poet Laureate of West Caldwell, NJ. Lockward founded Terrapin Books in 2015, and she has since produced two volumes of “The Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop,” plus “The Practicing Poet: Writing Beyond the Basics” (Terrapin Books, 2018). For the past 15 years, she has also organized “Girl Talk: A Reading in Celebration of Women’s History Month.”
With this event, the Carriage House Poetry Series begins its 22nd year at the Patricia Kuran Arts Center, an historic Gothic Revival structure that was once a 19th century carriage house, hence the name of the series. The Feb. 18 reading is free and open to the public. An open mic will follow the featured performance, so individuals are invited to read one poem of their choice.
For information call 908-889-7223 or 908-889-5298. For online directions, and to see the 2020 Carriage House Poetry Series calendar, visit carriagehousepoetryseries.blogspot.com.
