New Hampshire celebrates National Poetry Month
From writing prompts to readings and workshops, New Hampshire poets and poetry lovers will have all kinds of opportunities throughout April to celebrate National Poetry Month from home.
Now in its 25th year, National Poetry Month is an annual observance created by the Academy of American Poets to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the U.S. Schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers and poets all over the country are encouraged to host special events and activities to promote the literary art form.
In New Hampshire, the month’s festivities are spearheaded by state Poet Laureate Alexandria Peary, in partnership with New Hampshire Magazine, Concord-based publisher Hobblebush Books and others.
Peary has created 30 poetry writing prompts — one for each day in April — that will be posted on New Hampshire Magazine’s website and social media.
The prompts are meant to be “a reflection of the past year,” Peary said, particularly in regard to the pandemic, and will represent a wide variety of poetry styles. They may, for example, challenge participants to write a sonnet that mourns a loss or celebrates a recovery; a narrative poem about a pandemic moment; a persona poem from the perspective of a front-line worker; or an ode to a pandemic-related object.
“They’re just something to get people started,” Peary said. “You could look at the prompts and just see what comes to mind and do a free-write every day, or you could pick just one or two [prompts] and try to write a whole poem — whatever works for you.”
At the end of the month, there will be two free virtual workshops, led by two graduate students interning with Peary, where participants can receive feedback on their poems.
Now through May 15, original poems can be submitted for review and possible publication in an anthology of poetry about the pandemic experience in New Hampshire, to be edited by Peary and published by Hobblebush Books this summer. The anthology is a follow-up to COVID Spring: Granite State Pandemic Poems, published in September 2020, which features original poems submitted by 54 New Hampshire writers, providing “a thirty-day snapshot of what life was like in the Granite State in April of 2020” through topics such as Covid-related “job loss, loneliness and love, masks, social distancing, surreal visitors, uncertainty, graduations deferred, grief, neighborly and less-than-neighborly acts, observing the beginning of the pandemic and making projections about the future, recalibrating or confirming what it means to be human, to be a resident of this region,” Peary said in the anthology’s introduction.
Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, in partnership with Hobblebush Books, will host free virtual poetry readings and conversations every Monday in April. The series will feature Granite State poets Maudelle Driskell, Meg Kearney, Martha Carlson-Bradley, Liz Ahl, Rodger Martin, Henry Walters, Margot Douaihy and Peary.
“[Participating in] one of these events might give you ideas for your own writing,” Peary said, “and I think it could also give you a sense that, with so many opportunities for engagement with the creative writing [community] in the state, it could become a really rich part of your life and social life.”
Peary said this month is a great time for people who are interested in poetry to give writing their own poetry a try, even if it’s short or in fragments.
“It doesn’t need to be something with a complete structure,” she said. “Try to maximize the distance between you and the critics in your head and just jot some stuff down, and be accepting of whatever that is.”
National Poetry Month in New Hampshire
Virtual poetry events and activities will be held throughout April. Visit newhampshirepoetlaureate.blogspot.com and hobblebush.com/national-poetry-month.
Writing workshops
Registration required.
• Sunday, April 25, 3 p.m., moderated by Lily Greenberg
• Tuesday, April 27, 7 p.m. moderated by Brooke Delp
Readings and conversations with Granite State poets
Weekly, Monday at 7 p.m., through April. Registration required.
• April 5: Maudelle Driskell and Meg Kearney
• April 12: Martha Carlson-Bradley and Liz Ahl
• April 19: Rodger Martin and Henry Walters
• April 26: NH Poet Laureate Alexandria Peary and Margot Douaihy
Featured photo: Alexandria Peary. Courtesy photo.
