We are only slightly nomadic. Here is the updated info:
with a nod to some of our friends.
November 4, 2021 7:30 pm
Theme: “We’re fogged outlines”: The Syntax of Intimacy and Memory ~ Do the words on the page provide subtle clues to secret moments in our lives which gently tug at the heartstrings? Can they?
Guest Poet :Emma Ginader (She/Her) is a poet, critic, and editor. Her poetry has appeared in Paper Teller Diorama (great weather for MEDIA),
Mantis: A Journal of Poetry, Criticism, & Translation, Lavender Review: Lesbian Poetry & Art, The Moth Magazine, Vox Viola, South Broadway Ghost Society, and december magazine. Her work is forthcoming in Love Me, Love My Belly. She represented Mount Holyoke College at the 2015 Glascock Poetry Prize as an undergraduate student.
Raised in Bloomsburg, Ginader recently graduated from Columbia University with an MFA in Writing. She currently works as a critic for The Baram House online magazine. She previously worked as the Columbia Journal Online’s Poetry Editor and The Daily Item newspaper’s Social Media Editor and Business Reporter. Follow her on Twitter @EmmaGinader.
MC: Linda Dietrichson
December 2, 2021 7:30 pm
Theme: Coming-of-Age ~ The term is defined as the attainment of prominence, respectability, recognition, or maturity.
Guest Poet: Anne Dyer Stuart
Anne has published widely in literary journals, including AGNI, The American Journal of Poetry, Raleigh Review, Third Coast, Cherry Tree, Sugar House Review, The Texas Review, Louisiana Literature, New World Writing, and The Louisville Review. Her work won a Henfield Prize, New South Journal‘s Prose Contest, was anthologized in Best of the Web, and nominated for Best New Poets. Her poetry chapbook, What Girls Learn, a finalist for Comstock Review‘s 2020 Chapbook Contest, will be published by Finishing Line Press in December 2021. She is Creative Works Editor of IMPOST: A Journal of Creative and Critical Work and an associate professor of English at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.
MC: Jerry Wemple
January 6, 2022 7:30 pm
Guest Poet: Everyone
Winter Fest & White Elephant Sale
Theme: Rote Poems ~ Reciting poems from memory – yours or other poets.
White Elephant Sale ~ donate both new and gently used items: buying mistakes, gifts from a clueless aunt that never fit, etc. All sales benefit River Poets programming.
MC: Susan Brook
Disclaimers and Possible Grains of Truth Department:
Connecting with the RIVER POETS – Due to Covid-19, our power of ESP has dissipated, the responsibility rests solely in your hands to make contact with us. You could show up and track us down at any of our scheduled events; however, if you are not the “stalking” type, you can contact any of the following members:
Mike DeMarco at mdmep@ptd.net or telephone him at (570) 387-0920
Susan Brook at scbrook@ptd.net or telephone her at (570) 784-8363
Linda Dietrichson at lindadietrichson@gmail.com
If you are computer friendly and would like to receive reminders of poetry events, please send your email
address to Andira Dodge at wordrummager@gmail.com . Did we mention that you can visit our website? It is a mouse
click away at www.riverpoets.com.
We also publish our very own Booklet – Here is the catch, you must be heard to be seen. Poems published in our annual River Poets booklet must have been read aloud at one of our readings between May 2021 and April 2022. Show up, enunciate, invoke elocution and SUBMIT! There is a limit of two typed pages of poems per poet. You may bring a paper copy of your poetry to the April 2022 reading or e-mail it as an attachment to Richard Brook at richardb@ptd.net and copy to wordrummager@gmail.com.
The plan is for our booklet to be assembled and ready for distribution by June’s reading and you may buy at least one (a ridiculously low price for these original works, too). If you miss this year’s booklet deadline (as you are new to the River Poets, or just woke from a coma), there will be future opportunities to submit. There are copies of earlier River Poets booklets if you are curious about River Poets progress, art, and production efforts over time. We know where they are and we are darn proud to be amateurs.
Please understand, we have reached tentatively into this century and continue to explore the junction of space, time, energy, and matter with varying degrees of success.
OTHER THINGS of importance somewhere- Our readings often feature a poet/reader and sometimes a theme; sometimes both a reader and a theme are present, usually followed by an “open reading opportunity”. Although not strictly rule-bound, we do encourage a 3-poem or 5-minute time constraint on open readers (not open-ended) before we bring out a hook. Mostly we try to avoid having the audience wander away before the teapot makes a circuit or fall off their chairs while sleeping. All people and all works are welcome – bring original items, favorite works, songs, a story, a lie or two. River Poets is an encouraging and supportive group of pilgrims, pioneers, and seekers of wisdom. Hopefully you will find us notoriously polite and not too preachy. Honestly!
Open reading opportunity® is trademarked, copyrighted, and reserved by the River Poets of Bloomsburg (as far as we know and believe). People may use those words singly or in combination, but we would like some recognition or a citation that River Poets® (also copyrighted) was an early user and promoter of that particular order of letters. Thank you. (FYI – we do not claim these two words as original).
You may obtain similar, information (possibly updated or outdated) at this web place www.riverpoets.com. No Facebook™, no Twitter, [check Wikipedia eventually] but there are random links to other people, places, and things. And yes, we are approachable in person.
Things to know –If you go you will return, so there is time to learn it all.
Please enjoy being here; choose to be happy (no, we can’t do that work for you).
