Happy Friday, all! I'm sharing information about an upcoming event at UMA.
To register for the event, please go to this link:

https://www.uma.edu/about/events/plunkett-festival/


21st Annual Plunkett Maine Poetry Festival

Featuring Keynote Poet Molly McCully Brown, Award Winning Poet and Essayist
 - April 28, 2023 at 7:30 P.M.

Bennett D. Katz Library, UMA Augusta Campus

The Plunkett Maine Poetry Festival continues its tradition of celebrating
emerging and established poets at its annual event, this year held on April
28th at the University of Maine at Augusta (UMA), at the Bennett D. Katz
Library, 46 University Dr., Augusta, Maine. This event is free and open to
the public, however, seating is limited. To register and see the program,
please visit our web page, https://www.uma.edu/plunkett.

Molly McCully Brown is the author of the essay collection Places I’ve Taken
my Body— which was published in the United States in June 2020 by Persea
Books, and released in the United Kingdom in March of 2021 by Faber &
Faber— and the poetry collection The Virginia State Colony For Epileptics
and Feebleminded (Persea Books, 2017), which won the 2016 Lexi Rudnitsky
First Book Prize and was named a New York Times Critics’ Top Book of 2017.
With Susannah Nevison, she is also the coauthor of the poetry collection In
The Field Between Us (Persea Books, 2020).

Ms. Brown was raised in rural Virginia, and is a graduate of Bard College
at Simon’s Rock, Stanford University, and the University of Mississippi,
where she received her MFA. She teaches at Old Dominion University, where
she is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Nonfiction, and a
member of the MFA Core Faculty.

Each year, The Plunkett Maine Poetry Festival includes a panel discussion
related to UMA’s colloquium theme, which for academic year 2022/2023 is
disability visibility.  The panel poets are Betsy Sholl, Alisha Goldblatt,
and Jason Whitney.  The poets will read from their own work, as well as
discuss how their poems and life experiences intersect with the theme.

Organizers of the Festival are thrilled to return to its tradition of
sharing a meal together between the afternoon panel discussion and the
evening program.  This time allows poets and others to reconnect and
rekindle connections and flare creative sparks.  The dinner is free to all
who register.

The Festival also recognizes those selected to receive awards in the
annual Student
Poetry Contest, which invites all University of Maine System undergraduate
students and Maine high school students to submit poems for recognition.
Recognized students will read their work in the evening, following a
community dinner for all attendees.

The day will begin with a master class with Ms. Brown.  Registration is
limited. Interested writers may contact [log in to unmask] to reserve a
space. For a full schedule and to register for any part of the program,
please visit https://www.uma.edu/plunkett. For those who do not wish to
attend in person, the event will also be live-streamed on Zoom (request a
link on our website).

About the Plunkett Poetry Festival

The Plunkett Maine Poetry Festival, held in April each year, was
established in 2002 to honor the memory and accomplishments of Terry
Plunkett, an English professor at the University of Maine at Augusta for
nearly thirty years. An outstanding teacher and mentor to many students,
Terry was also co-editor of Kennebec: A Portfolio of Maine Writing, an
annual magazine published by the university from 1977-1992 and distributed
free throughout the state. Many Maine writers first saw their work in print
in Kennebec, thanks to Terry’s encouragement and guidance.

A poet and fiction writer as well as a teacher and editor, Terry helped
organize and direct the Maine Poets Festival, a hugely popular celebration
of poets and poetry, which ran from 1976-1983 at UMA, the College of the
Atlantic, and the Maine College of Art.

His son, Duff Plunkett, also a poet, was a champion of the arts in general
and the Plunkett Festival in particular. He sat on the organizing committee
for 17 years, where he brought his signature wit, creativity, and ingenuity
to the festival program. In Portland, Duff was a mainstay at readings and a
supporter of both developing and celebrated poets. He worked as an
international economist, traveling extensively around the globe, especially
in Africa. Fluent in at least eight different languages, Duff’s cultural
breadth was extensive.

UMA transforms the lives of students of every age and background across the
State of Maine and beyond through access to high-quality distance and
on-site education, excellence in student support, civic engagement, and
professional and liberal arts programs.  For more information, please visit
https://www.uma.edu/

[image: UMA Augusta Campus]
Cynthia Young, MLIS
*Director of Library Services*
*University of Maine at Augusta*
w: (207) 262-7905 | c: (207) 217-8135
114A Belfast, Bangor | Katz 110, Augusta
1 University Dr., Bangor, Maine, 04401
uma.edu/library <https://mycampus.maine.edu/web/uc-library-portal/home> -
[log in to unmask]