Join Sophia Bannister (at HVWC) and Jennifer Franklin (on Zoom) as they celebrate the publications of four students and one Board Member of the Hudson Valley Writers Center.
We are happy to hold this event in person in accordance with the current state and CDC health guidelines. We will be asking attendees to attend in a mask and show proof of vaccination. (Proof of vaccination includes Excelsior Pass or a photo / hard copy of the completed vaccination card.) Please visit our Covid-19 policies page for complete details. We are pleased to report that HVWC has a new retrofitted HVAC system.
Unable to attend in person? Join our live stream via Zoom. Please register here. You will be sent the Zoom link immediately via email (please check spam filters) or email [email protected] with any questions.
Ann Bookman is a poet, anthropologist and social justice advocate. She has been studying poetry for twenty years with Boston area poets and in residential workshops at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. Her poems have been published in Chronogram, Larcom Review and Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose, among others. In 2012, her chapbook, Point of Attachment, was published by Finishing Line Press. Her first full-length collection, Blood Lines, was just published by Kelsay Books in spring 2022. Bookman has held a number of research and teaching positions in the academy, including Brandeis University, MIT and the College of the Holy Cross. A nationally known scholar and policy expert in women’s issues, work/family balance and community engagement, she has published widely in scholarly journals and is the co-author with Sandra Morgen of Women and the Politics of Empowerment (Temple University Press) and the author of Starting in Our Own Backyards: How working families can build community and survive the new economy (Routledge). Bookman has also worked in government. She was a Presidential Appointee during the Clinton administration, serving as Policy and Research Director of the Women’s Bureau at the US Department of Labor and as Executive Director of the bipartisan Commission on Family and Medical Leave. Her career has been bookended by positions focused on women’s creativity, potential and power. Early in her career she served as Associate Director of the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College working with an interdisciplinary group of women scholars, writers and artists. From 2013 through 2018, she was Director of the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at UMass Boston weaving an intersectional feminist perspective into her teaching, research and activism. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at UMass Boston.
Robin Dellabough is a poet, editor, and writer with a master’s degree from UC Berkeley School of Journalism. Double Helix is her debut collection (Finishing Line Press, 2022). It includes a Pushcart Prize-nominated poem, “The Dog Eats A Letter From My Mother When I Was 18.” Her poems have appeared in Stoneboat, Fifth Estate, Lines + Stars, Halfway Down the Stairs, The Gentian Journal, Tiny Spoon, Maryland Poetry Review, Blue Unicorn, Negative Capability, Gargoyle, Westchester Review, Friends Journal, and other publications and anthologies. A founding partner at Lark Productions: A Book Company, she has written, edited and contributed to more than sixty books, including The Poets’ Corner by John Lithgow. Her current position is Projects Director, Publishers Marketplace/Publishers Lunch.
The Poet Laureate of Ridgefield, Connecticut, B. Fulton Jennes also serves as poet-in-residence for the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. A corporate copy writer and editor for the first 25 years of her career, she devoted the second portion to teaching English—particularly poetry and creative writing—to public-school students. Jennes’ poems have or will appear in The Comstock Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Night Heron Barks, Tar River Poetry, Stone Canoe, The Vassar Review, Ekphrastic Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, Connecticut River Journal, ArtAscent, Naugatuck River Journal, Frost Meadow Review, and many other publications. Her daughter Mallory, who plays a significant role in Blinded Birds, now serves as an addiction counselor.
Beth SK Morris is the author of In The Aftermath, winner of the Pinnacle Award for poetry in September 2021 & a finalist for the Eric Hoffer award, April 2022. It has recently been archived in the Library of Congress, Poetry of 9/11. Her previous two poetry collections are Nowhere to be Found (2014) and In Florida (2010). Her work has appeared in Artemis, Avocet, Broadkill Review, Crosswinds, High Shelf, Pank, Passager, and Poetica among others. Her poems have also been included in anthologies by Hurricane Press, The International Library of Poetry, Whispering Angels, the North Sea Poetry Scene Press commemorating the 20th anniversary of 9/11, and White Oak Press. Beth holds Master Degrees in Speech Science, English Language and Literature, and a Ph.D in Speech and Hearing Science from the Graduate School and Center of the City University of New York. She retired from a career as a college professor and corporate consultant through her company, Unispeech, to concentrate on her writing. After a ten-year hiatus in Florida, Beth returned to New York City and revisited her volunteer work at the WTC Ground Zero Relief Project for the first time since 9/11. In the Aftermath is her “coming to terms” with this life-changing experience.
Cynthia Parker-Ohene is an abolitionist, cultural worker, and therapist. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Saint Mary’s College of California, where she was the Chester Aaron Scholar for Excellence in Creative Writing. Her poetry has appeared in such journals as Black Warrior Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Kweli, and Green Mountains Review, as well as in the anthologies Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature and The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South. She has received fellowships and support from Tin House, Callaloo, the Postgraduate Vermont College of Fine Arts, Juniper, and the Hurston-Wright Foundation and elsewhere.