It’s not every day that four poets from the same neighborhood and the same poetry workshop get their first full-length collections of work published within two years of each other. That’s what Jamaica Plain residents who are long-time members of Jamaica Pond Poets—Audrey Henderson, Jennifer Markell, Sandra Storey and Gary Whited—recently did.
The poets are taking an unusual approach to an upcoming book event at Trident Booksellers and Café in Back Bay, too. Rather than read from their books one at a time, they will take turns reading poems based on selected themes on Thursday, April 23 at 7 p.m. In keeping with the theme of “food,” audience members are invited to join the poets for dinner in the café beforehand at 5:30, if they want.
Trident is near Prudential and Hynes Auditorium stops on the T and Back Bay Station.
About the Poets:
Courtesy of Sandra Storey
Audrey Henderson
Audrey Henderson was a 2014 Hawthornden Fellow and a finalist for the 2014 Homebound Publications Poetry Prize. Her manuscript Airstream was published in November. Her poems have most recently appeared or are appearing in Magma, The Midwest Quarterly and Tar River Poetry. She was a finalist in the Indiana Review 1/2 K Award and won second place in the River Styx International Poetry Contest. She is a 2015 Pushcart Prize nominee and was a finalist the 2014 Slapering Hol Chapbook Contest. She is originally from Scotland where she was a contributor to BBC Radio Scotland.
Courtesy of Sandra Storey
Jennifer Markell
Jennifer Markell’s first book of poetry, Samsara, was published by the Turning Point imprint of WordTech Communications in April, 2014. Her poems have been published in journals nationally and internationally, including The Aurorean (Featured Poet), The Comstock Review (Special Merit Finalist, annual awards 2000), Consequence, The Hawaii Pacific Review, Rhino, and The Women’s Review of Books (forthcoming). Her work has been anthologized in Carapace 100 (South Africa) and Poetry from Sojourner, A Feminist Anthology. Markell’s poetry has been displayed at Boston City Hall, and she was interviewed and asked to read by WERS radio in Boston. As part of the Valentine’s Day celebration at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, she was selected to read her work. Markell is the author of an award-winning chapbook, Leaving the Green Elm Market (Sheltering Pines Press, 2005).
Courtesy of Sandra Storey
Sandra Storey
Sandra Storey’s first full-length collection, Every State Has Its Own Light, a finalist for the May Swenson Poetry Award, was published by the Word Poetry imprint of WordTech Communications in November. Her poems have appeared in various literary magazines, including the New York Quarterly, Friction (UK), THEMA and New Millennium Writings as well as an elevator lobby of Boston City Hall. Storey lived in Southeast Asia from 1968 to 1972. Founder and formerly editor and publisher of the Jamaica Plain and Mission Hill Gazettes, she is now a newspaper columnist. Her website is sandrastorey.com.
Courtesy of Sandra Storey
Gary Whited
Gary Whited is a poet, philosopher and psychotherapist. He grew up on the plains of eastern Montana, and a strong sense of place pervades his poems, whether that place is the prairie, the city or the inner spaces we inhabit. His book, Having Listened, was selected as the winner of the 2013 Homebound Publications Poetry Contest. It recently received a Benjamin Franklin Book Award, and one of the poems from the book was nominated for a Pushcart prize. Having Listened offers a collection of poems that speak from the confluence of a childhood on the prairie remembered and an encounter with the haunting voice of the Greek philosopher Parmenides echoing across 2,500 years. His poems have appeared in several journals, including Salamander, Plainsongs, The Aurorean, Atlanta Review, and Comstock Review.