March 20, 2008

Chapter and Verse, the literary reading series at the historic Loring-Greenough House, will feature Martha Collins, Fred Marchant and Alice Kociemba—three distinguished poets who bring a variety of backgrounds and experience to their poetry—on Wednesday evening, April 2.

Martha Collins is the author of the book-length poem “Blue Front” (Graywolf, 2006), which won an Anisfield-Wolf Award and was chosen as one of “25 Books to Remember from 2006” by the New York Public Library. In “Blue Front,” Collins writes of a lynching witnessed by her father as a 5-year-old in Cairo, Ill.. Her most recent chapbook, “Sheer” (Barnwood, 2008) explores the convergence of personal loss and global violence, ending with an Earth-embracing vision in which “words are the golden light on the dark water.”

Collins has won numerous fellowships and awards, including three Pushcart Prizes. She is the founder of the creative writing program at UMass-Boston and was the Pauline Delaney Professor of Creative Writing at Oberlin College until 2007. At present she is the editor-at-large for “Field” magazine and one of the editors of the Oberlin Press.

Fred Marchant is the author of three books of poetry, including “Full Moon Boat” (Graywolf Press). He is also the co-translator (with Nguyen Ba Chung) of “From a Corner of My Yard,” poetry by the Vietnamese poet Tran Dang Khoa. He is a professor of English, the director of the creative writing program, and co-director of The Poetry Center at Suffolk University. He is also a longtime teaching affiliate of The William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences at UMass Boston.

In 1970, Marchant became one of the first officers ever to be honorably discharged as a conscientious objector from the United States Marine Corps. Recently he has edited “Another World Instead: The Early Poems of William Stafford, 1937-1947.” This collection of poems. to be published by Graywolf Press in April, focuses on Stafford’s time as a conscientious objector in Civilian Public Service camps during World War II. Marchant’s new collection of his own poetry, “The Looking House,” is forthcoming in January, 2009, also from Graywolf Press.

Alice Kociemba, a member of the Jamaica Pond Poets, was born and raised in Jamaica Plain, where she still spends her weekends. Kociemba has been a featured poet at numerous venues, including Birds and Bards at Forest Hills and Chapter and Verse. She directs a reading series called Calliope at the West Barnstable Public Library and is a member of the Cape Cod Writers Center. Kociemba describes her work as “parables” and is working on a collection called “Seizure and Other Disorders.” During the week she works as a psychotherapist in Falmouth.

Chapter and Verse takes place at the Loring-Greenough House at 12 South St., just across from the Monument in JP Center. The event starts at 7:30, and all are welcome. There is a suggested donation of $5, and free refreshments are served after the reading. The Loring-Greenough House is handicapped accessible and has some parking. On May 7 the featured readers will be Susan Donnelly, John Fulton and Audrey Henderson.

The writer is the director of Chapter and Verse.