Join the poets and artists of The Forgotten River: an Anacostia Swim Club member anthology for a book launch celebration online Saturday night August 21, 7:00-8:15pm.
The book launch will be hosted by the book’s curators: Kim B Miller, Hope Greenleaf, and Thea Joselow, with special guests to be announced.
The Forgotten River celebrates a future in which the Anacostia River—once one of the most polluted rivers in the United States—will be swimmable once again. The book is published by Day Eight in partnership with The Anacostia Swim Club and with support provided by the Chesapeake Bay Trust through the D.C. Department of Energy and the Environment. Anacostia Swim Club co-founder Robert Bettmann says, “Through publishing this nature anthology, and subsequent connected programming for children and youth, we hope to galvanize efforts to clean up the Anacostia river and reconnect to the natural world.” Interested readers are encouraged to visit the Anacostia Swim Club site and sign up for (free) membership at http://www.anacostiaswimclub.com/.
Kim B Miller is the Poet Laureate of Prince William County, Virginia. In demand as a performer and teacher, her poetry is inspirational, her words are bold, and she is unapologetically blunt. The 2019 Southern Fried Haiku champion - one of the largest spoken word and performance poetry tournaments in the world - her poems are found published in numerous books and magazines.
Thea Joselow is a digital content strategist specializing in companies that work in highly regulated environments. A writer and editor at heart, Thea is a tamer of gale-force word storms who lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her spouse, two powerful children, three cats of varied intelligence, and a betta fish named Monica.
Hope Greenleaf is the CEO and founder of Tunes4Tots, a provider of music enrichment and instruction to individuals and communities. Accepted into the Female Founder Collective in 2020, she is a passionate advocate for arts education, and dedicated to the pursuit of lifelong learning in the arts.
Artists featured in the book and to be celebrated at the book launch include W.F. Lantry, Susan Notar, Susan Bucci Mockler, Pacyinz Lyfoung, Ori Z. Soltes, Anne Becker, Marianne Szlyk, Grace Cavalieri, Luther Jett, Marlena Chertock, Gregory Luce, Kathryn Sadakierski, John Johnson, Naomi Ayala, Sally Zakariya, Ruth Trevarrow, Raymond Smith, and Kaleb Friend. To read more about The Forgotten River and included contributors, check out the blog post here.
Following The Forgotten River, Day Eight will publish books by authors Jenn Koiter (Aug. 2021) and Shaquetta Nelson (Oct. 2021). Recent books from Day Eight include Mecca Verdell’s Things to Unlearn, Laura McCarty’s Just One Swallow, and an interfaith poetry anthology on the topic of consolation and loss, Falling Leaves, edited by Susan Meehan and Robert Bettmann.
We hope to see you Saturday night, August 21, to celebrate publication of this exceptional book: The Forgotten River.
Press: please contact [email protected] for review copies of the book and contact with the curators and contributors.