It's a who's who of American poetry at Featherstone Center for the Arts this summer, with former United States Poet Laureate Billy Collins making his way back to the Island for a program Sunday, August 2, an encore of his sold-out 2007 performance.
"Reading on the Vineyard two summers ago was part of an eye-opening experience," Mr. Collins says. "It was my first visit to the Island, and I was struck by its natural, unspoiled beauty."
Billy Collins, a former U.S. Poet Laureate, returns to the Island to read at Poetry Festival at Featherstone Center for the Arts this summer.
In addition to Mr. Collins, nationally recognized poets Naomi Shalib Nye, Fanny Howe, and Honor Moore will be joined by Island poets Fan Ogilvie, Justen Ahren, Donald Nitchie and John Maloney in a series of five evening readings, beginning tonight, Thursday, June 18.
Festival of Poetry 2009 is a collaboration between Featherstone, West Tisbury Poet Laureate Fan Ogilvie, and the Martha's Vineyard Writers Residency, a program founded in 2007 that offers established and emerging writers time and space to create poetry, fiction, and nonfiction in the quiet Island environment.
"We've invited poets with good, strong voices," Ms. Ogilvie says. "We're hoping the Festival of Poetry will illustrate the huge variety of voices in contemporary poetry today."
Island poets Justen Ahren (co-founder of the Martha's Vineyard Writers Residency with Ms. Ogilvie) and John Maloney will open the festival tonight, with a joint reading and discussion. Mr. Ahren writes of various subjects in different styles. His work complements Mr. Maloney's poems that depict the soil, stones, and earth he works with in his profession as a stonemason. Of Mr. Maloney. Ms. Ogilvie says, "His strong, muscular language conveys the joys and pains of his everyday labor."
On Thursday, July 16, Fanny Howe and Ms. Ogilvie will take the stage under the large tent set up for the occasion. Ms. Howe, a West Tisbury resident, recently earned the Poetry Foundation's Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, one of the most prestigious and largest awards given to American poets. The $100,000 prize is awarded annually for lifetime accomplishment. Known for her intense, interior voice in poetry, Ms. Howe has authored more than 20 books, including poetry, short stories, full-length adult and young adult fiction, as well as literary essays.
Ms. Ogilvie brings with her a lifetime of poetry writing, teaching and organizing of events both here and in Washington, D.C., New Haven, Conn., and New York City. A widely published poet herself, she was also the founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library's Poetry Board and served as its chairman from 1986 to 1995 in the nation's capital.
And then, on Sunday, August 2, Mr. Collins makes his return with his distinctive, humorous, accessible voice. As the country's 2001 Poet Laureate, he bridged the gap between serious poetry readers and the newly initiated. His poems have appeared in his own collections, including "Ballistics" (2008) and "She Was Just Seventeen" (2006), as well as in anthologies, textbooks, and a variety of periodicals, from Harper's to The New Yorker.
As for why his Featherstone appearance and others have been so well attended, Mr. Collins, with his signature blend of candor and wit, explains: "I don't mind admitting that reading is a form of entertainment. I try to share poems that are easy to get on the first bounce, free of psychic burdens and self-loathing."
Acclaimed poet, nonfiction writer and part-time Island resident, Honor Moore joins Vineyard poet Donald Nitchie for an evening of readings on Thursday, August 20.
Ms. Moore, the recipient of many national awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2004, was heralded for her 2008 memoir, "The Bishop's Daughter," as well as for three previous volumes of poetry and a play that was performed on Broadway. She teaches writing workshops around the globe and in graduate programs at The New School in New York City.
When he's not producing his music magazine about the five-string banjo, Mr. Nitchie is penning earthy, unpretentious poems about life on the Island. "Poetry is a special language," he says, "that allows you to say things that you can't say in other forms." A teacher of poetry workshops during the winter at Featherstone, Mr. Nitchie is well known among Vineyard enthusiasts of the genre. His work has been published in several anthologies and literary journals.
On Saturday, August 29, at 7 pm, Naomi Shalib Nye, the award-winning author of numerous poetry books including "You and Yours" and "19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poetry of the Middle East," gives voice to poems in which she examines her personal bi-cultural experience as well as the themes of heritage and peace. Ms. Nye has been a guest on "A Prairie Home Companion," and she has appeared on NOW with Bill Moyers.
The Festival of Poetry begins tonight at 6:30 pm. Readings on June 18, July 16 and August 20 begin at 6:30 pm; a donation of $5 is suggested. Both Mr. Collins (August 2) and Ms. Nye (August 29) will begin their readings at 7 pm; a donation of $20 is suggested. The authors will sign their books, brought for sale by Edgartown Books. The events will be held rain or shine at Featherstone Center for the Arts, off Barnes Road in Oak Bluffs. Call 508-693-1850.
Karla Araujo is a regular contributor to The Times.
