Enjoy The 2025 Camden Festival Of Poetry

Poetry  Comment
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Jane Hirshfield
Keynote


The 2025 Camden Festival Of Poetry Is Coming!

It’s free and open to the public.

Register here.

 

Enjoy all the pre-festival events!

 

April 3 – Thursday, 1:00-2:30 pm EST
Bates College
Ekphrastic Workshop – John Paul Caponigro & Myronn Hardy

April 23 – Wednesday, 2:30-4 pm EST – Online
Maine Media Workshops
Ekphrastic Workshop – Richard Blanco & John Paul Caponigro
Register here.

May 1 – Thursday, Online
The International Photography Hall Of Fame
Ekphrastic Workshop – John Paul Caponigro
Register here.

May 7 – Wednesday, 11-12:30 pm EST
The Farnsworth Museum Of Art
Ekphrastic Workshop – John Paul Caponigro – Reindigenizing Sacred Landscapes.
Register here.

May 9 – Friday, 11-12:30 pm EST
Colby College / Senior Exhibit
Ekphrastic Workshop – Richard Blanco & John Paul Caponigro
Register here.

May 13 – Tuesday, 6-8 pm EST
Public Reading – Camden Public

May 15 – Thursday, 7-9 pm EST
The Sonic Cafe: Singer-Songwriter Open Mic Hosted by Rory McBride

May 15 – Thursday, 6-6:45 pm EST
Portland Museum Of Art
Ekphrastic Workshop – John Paul Caponigro / Joe Sandman: Skin Deep
Register here.

May 16th – Friday, 2-4 pm EST – Online
Craft Talk – Jane Hirshfield – Information, Invitation, and Insight: Transitions
Register here.

May 16th – Friday, 7-9 pm EST
Open Mic 

 

May 17 – Saturday
The Camden Festival Of Poetry
Register here.

10-11 am                Morning Poems On Windows Walk

1-1:10 pm                Welcome

1:10-2:10 pm          Maine Poets & Musicians

2:15-3:45 pm         Workshops

3:15-3:45 pm         Book Fair

4-4:15 pm               Awards.

4:15-5:15 pm         Keynote – Living By Poetry – Jane Hirshfield

.

 

It’s free and open to the public!

Register here.

 

Ekphrastic Resources

Notes On Ekphrasis

The Ekphrastic Writer

Content Form Feeling

All The Words Of The Rainbow

10 Great Books On Haiku & Haibun

Poems

Homer – The Iliad (Achilles Shield)

W H Auden – The Shield Of Achilles

John Keats – Ode To A Grecian Urn

Rainer Maria Rilke – Archaic Torso Of Apollo + The Story Behind The Poem

William Blake – The Tyger

Anne Sexton – The Starry Night

Yusuf Komunyakaa – Facing It

Tiana Clark – 50 Lines After Figure (2002) By Glenn Ligon

Dean Rader – Before The Borderless: Dialogs With The Art Of Cy Twombly

Victoria Chang – With My Back To The World 

Essays

James Hillman – Dream Animals

Stephen Jay Gould – Illuminations

Teju Cole – Blindspot 

Literary Journals

The Ekphrastic Review

Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge

Responses To My Art

Rattle 

The Ekphrastic Review

My Ekphrastic Poetry

 

10 Of Our Favorite Books On Writing

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During our online conversation, An Open Book, Cig Harvey and I mentioned some of our favorite books on writing – and promised to make more recommendations. Here’s a quick list containing some of our favorite books on writing.

Cig’s Picks

These are soulful books on the writing life.

Art and Fear
David Bayles & Ted Orland
.
Art Objects
Jeanette Winterson
.
Bird by Bird
Annie Lamott
.
On Writing
Stephen King
.

John Paul’s Picks

These are simple, straightforward, practical craft books covering a variety of genres.

Writing Tools
Roy Peter Clark
Pounds of wisdom from the man who started the writing program at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies (a journalism think tank). Add Essential to the title.

Brevity
David Galef
Solid quick overviews of a surprising variety of short forms. It takes its title seriously.

Method Writing
Jacks Grapes
Mix method acting with writing, get method writing. A unique system that will help anyone become a more compelling and authentic writer.

The Art Of Memoir
Mary Karr
A classic in this genre on how to make a memoir personal, gripping, and unsentimental.

Poem Crazy
Susan Wooldridge Goldsmith
Pure playful joy, it’s a writing book that may be more about creativity.

Handbook Of Poetic Forms
Ron Padgett
Form is a noun and a verb. This book expands a poet’s options.

Writing And Enjoying Haiku
Jane Reichold
One of the clearest classics about the most widely practiced form of poetry.
Like photography, it’s really easy to do and really hard to do well.

For more see 9 Great Books On Haiku Poetry.
View my conversation with Natalie Goldberg here.

Listen to me read my published creative nonfiction and poetry here.