Three Contemporary Confessional Poets, With Mark Scarbrough

February 20 : Poet Ellen Bass, Indigo (2020)
March 20 : Poet Dorianne Laux, Life On Earth (2024)
April 17 : Poet Mark Doty, Deep Lane ( 2015)

Join us as we explore three contemporary U.S. poets who build upon and reshape the confessional form that Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell pioneered. We will focus on the latest collections from Ellen Bass, Dorianne Laux, and Mark Doty and examine how these poets transform personal experiences through their craft.
We encourage you to read these collections thoughtfully, savoring a few poems at a time, and bring your copy to the discussion. Together, we’ll dive into the nuances of these outstanding poets and their evolving approach to the confessional style.
* Copies will be available for check out at the circulation desk or can be purchased through Hickory Stick Bookshop.

On Mark Scarbrough:

A former academic, Mark Scarbrough dropped out of seminary to do his doctoral work in nineteenth-century American literature at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has given papers on medieval literature at the International Medieval Conference in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and American literature at MLA and regional MLA conferences. He has also written screenplays for various production companies and developed most of the original food content in the early 1990s for a small internet start-up called America Online. Mark Scarbrough is the co-author of thirty-five titles (and a thriving) cookbook career. In 2020, Mark published his memoir, “Bookmarked: How The Great Works Of Western Civilization F*cked Up My Life,” which Will Schwalbe called “equal parts charm, wit, and withering self-reflection.” Having left the classroom, Mark again finds himself enmeshed in literature, leading grant-sponsored book groups and six- to eight-week literary seminars across Litchfield County, Connecticut, and Berkshire County, Massachusetts.

Registration is required. Visit us at: www.gunnlibrary.org/calendar/category/adultlib/2025-02/

Gunn Memorial Library
5 Wykeham Road
Washington, CT 06793

https://www.gunnlibrary.org/calendar/three-contemporary-confessional-poets-with-mark-scarbrough-4/