Uncover the Good Bones with Poet Maggie Smith!
PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Moira Trachtenberg
Phone: 914-772-4877
Email: katonahpoetry@gmail.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 7, 2019
EVENT DATE: Sunday, October 6, 2019, 4:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Katonah Village Library Garden Room, Katonah, NY
Award-winning Poet Maggie Smith to Read for Katonah Poetry Series on October 6
On Sunday, October 6, the Katonah Poetry Series (KPS) is honored to feature award-winning poet Maggie Smith. Smith’s poetry addresses critical questions of our time, such as, How do you preserve hope and safety in a precarious world, especially for the children? How do we nurse ourselves through each news-shaken day?These themes were so vividly illuminated in Maggie Smith’s poemGood Bonesthat it went viral in 2016 and was translated into nearly a dozen languages. Public Radio International dubbed Good Bones“the official poem of 2016.” According to Julie Marie Wade on The Rumpus,“… if the book called Good Bones has a moral, it’s about learning to grow where planted. It’s also about learning how to look danger in the eye, how to acknowledge the thing that wants to stop us—uproot us, undo us—and then refusing to let it.”
Smith is the author of three books of poetry: Good Bones (Tupelo Press, 2017); The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison (2015); and Lamp of the Body (Red Hen Press, 2005). Smith is also the author of three prizewinning chapbooks: Disasterology (Dream Horse Press, 2016); The List of Dangers (Kent State/Wick Poetry Series, 2010); and Nesting Dolls (Pudding House, 2005). Her poems have been widely published and anthologized, appearing in Best American Poetry,The New York Times, Tin House, The Paris Review, andPloughshares, among others. Her essays have been published in The New York Times, the Washington Post, on the Poetry Foundation website, and elsewhere. The Katonah Poetry Series is pleased to present Maggie Smith’s deeply humane voice, by turn both playful and profound.
Doors open at 3:30 pm for the reading, which begins at 4:00 p.m., followed by an audience Q&A, reception and book signing. Copies of Smith’s books will be available for sale. For further information and to read our exclusive KPS poet interviews, conducted by poet Ann van Buren, please visit www.katonahpoetry.com.
The Katonah Poetry Series has been showcasing the world’s best poets for more than 50 years. The fall season will continue on Sunday, November 17, with Deborah Landau.
About Katonah Poetry Series
The Katonah Poetry Series (www.katonahpoetry.com) hosts four readings each year by nationally acclaimed poets in the friendly and intimate setting of the Katonah Village Library. Each reading is followed by a lively audience Q & A, as well as a wine and cheese reception and book signing. Past KPS poets include nine Poets Laureate of the United States, sixteen winners of the Pulitzer Prize and eleven winners of the National Book Award. KPS typically hosts two poets each fall and two each spring, with additional special events and workshops. KPS poets are exceptional for the excellence of their work, but also their stage presence—bringing personal stories, wit, and deeper meaning to the poems. KPS gatherings provide a welcoming space for poetry readers, writers and enthusiasts to enjoy the spoken word and generate a sense of literary community. Regular readings have a suggested donation of $10/adult and students are free. For more information about readings and events at the Katonah Poetry Series, please visit our web site, http://katonahpoetry.com/. KPS can also be found on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. “If you sat on the steps of the Katonah Village Library for the past [50] years without moving, pretty much every notable American poet would walk by.” —Billy Collins, poet and KPS advisor “What a fantastic service you provide for the community, an unusual service in these fast-paced times, the opportunity to sit in a room to listen and contemplate words and metaphor that often expresses what it means to be alive. Keep up the good work.” —Charles Laird Calia (author and KPS attendee) KPS History: The Katonah Poetry Series—a program of the Katonah Village Library—was founded in 1967 by Robert Phillips, a local resident, accomplished poet and advertising man. When Mr. Phillips left to teach at the University of Houston, two-time Poet Laureate Billy Collins, then a resident of nearby Somers, took it on. Billy Collins directed the Series from 1991-2008, his leadership enhancing its reputation in the literary world and drawing audiences from the greater Tri-State area. Since 2008, Collins has continued to act as Poet Advisor to the Series. From 2008 through July 2010, Billy Collins’ long-time co-director, psychotherapist and poet Leisha Douglas, Ph.D. served as series director with Marlene Gallagher, artist and poet, as assistant director. The series is now run by the KPS Executive Committee, a small group of dedicated volunteers.