America’s 250: Exploring US Poets Laureate: A four part series.
Part One: The Common Touch
With Poet-Teachers Sandy Lee Carlson, Margaret Hunt & Jim Kelleher

Saturday, October 25 from 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
In-Person & on Zoom. Registration required for In-Person.

Connecticut poets from around the state will participate in the Oliver Wolcott Library’s four-part discussion series celebrating US Poets Laureate. The poems each group will discuss will be available as a PDF and on paper in advance of each event.

The exploration of important poets expands our understanding of ourselves, our community, and our country. What better way to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary than a survey of some of our most esteemed poets guided by current poets.

The lens of the October 25 discussion will be “the common touch” and will include poetry by Billy Collins, Robert Frost and Robert Hayden.

Sandy Lee Carlson will lead the discussion of Billy Collins. She is a public school teacher and poet laureate emerita of Woodbury. She hosts the Orenaug Poetry Group, a chapter of the Connecticut Poetry Society, on the second Saturday of each month in Woodbury. She and her husband run Orenaug Mountain Publishing, an independent press that promotes Connecticut poets and fosters an international poetry community through anthologies and monthly online poetry fora. Find out more about Sandy and her work at sandycarlson.net.

Margaret Hunt will lead the discussion of Robert Frost. She taught high school English for 24 years and made it her mission to introduce her students to poetry: the reading, the writing and the performing. She started poetry clubs, organized slam poetry events, and advised literary magazines for her students. Now retired, she has time to spend on her own poetry.

Jim Kelleher will lead the discussion of Robert Hayden. He earned an MFA at 60, with Kumin, Stern, Ostriker, and Waters as his mentors. He has worked as a carpenter and certified tech and language arts teacher in Boston and Sheffield, Massachusetts, as well as Torrington and Litchfield, Connecticut. Kelleher has published two books with Antrim House, and he has published poems in magazines and newspapers.

Oliver Wolcott Library
160 South Street
Litchfield, CT 06759
https://www.owlibrary.org/adult-events.aspx