The Sunken Garden Poetry Festival is a unique outdoor arts event located on the grounds of this National Historic Landmark in the heart of Farmington. Beginning on June 22, the festival presents the first of five performances, scheduled for three Wednesday and two Sunday evenings throughout the summer. Adding to the humanities-rich content of the festival, Hill-Stead offers poetry writing workshops prior to all performances. The community cherishes this series of readings and music concerts in the informal outdoor setting of the Hill-Stead estate. Visitors can come early to tour the museum’s world-class Impressionist art collection, walk the trails or attend the pre-performance Prelude conversations with the headlining poets.
Brian Turner earned an MFA from the University of Oregon and lived abroad in South Korea for a year before serving in the U.S. Army for seven years. He was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1999-2000 with the 10th Mountain Division. Then in November 2003 he was an infantry team leader in Iraq for a year with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. His first book, Here, Bullet, chronicles his time in Iraq.Turner has been featured on National Public Radio, the Newshour with Jim Lehrer and the BBC. He has received a NEA Literature Fellowship in Poetry, the Amy Lowell Traveling Fellowship and a fellowship from the Lannan Foundation. Turner has taught English at Fresno City College.
Poet Doug Anderson served as a combat medic in the Vietnam War. He has written about his experiences in the Vietnam War in both poetry and non-fiction. He is the author of the poetry collections The Moon Reflected Fire (1994), the winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and Blues for Unemployed Secret Police (2000). In 2000 he published his memoir, Keep Your Head Down: Vietnam, the Sixties, and a Journey of Self-Discovery.