Poets from Four Corners Series Continues at Ridgefield Library on Wednesday

Join the Ridgefield Library for our monthly series of poetry readings featuring emerging and award-winning poets from throughout Connecticut. These free readings take place on Zoom at 7:00 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month.

February's reading is on Weds, Feb 1st and features poets representing each of the state’s four corners, plus one from the central Hartford area: Gemma Mathewson, Laura Mazza-Dixon, Claudia McGhee, Garrett Phelan, and Jack Powers.  Please register to receive the Zoom link.  

Ridgefield Poet Laureate Barb Jennes will facilitate the event.

Gemma Mathewson, a 30-year resident of North Guilford (Southeast CT), co-hosted The Poetry Institute at the Institute Library in New Haven for several years, and currently co-hosts a community TV broadcast called “The Art of Poetry” (formerly “Poetry of Immigrants”) on CT Valley Shore TV. Her poetry collection The Museum of Rain was published in 2019 by Off the Common Books.

Laura Mazza-Dixon (Granby, Northwest CT) – A classical guitarist, Laura is the author of Forged by Joy (Antrim House, 2017). Her poem about Rohingya refugees, The Year in Pictures: A 2017 Triptych, was chosen as a finalist in the 48th New Millennium Awards. Laura has organized many poetry series and workshops, including Poetry at the Cossitt, Poetry in Our Lives, and Words Matter: Courageous Conversations on Race.

Claudia McGhee (Coventry, Northeast CT) is a poet, fiction writer, journalist, eBook producer, and software technical writer. Claudia's chapbook Paperlight (Finishing Line Press) was published in 2016. Her poems have appeared in the Tiny Seed Journal, Connecticut Literary Anthology, and the New Haven-based zine Circumference, among others. Claudia has been a featured reader at many venues.

Garrett Phelan (Bloomfield, Central CT) is the author of Outlaw Odes (Antrim House) and the micro-chapbooks Unfixed Marks and Standing where I am (Origami Poem Project). A Pushcart Prize nominee, his poems have appeared in Slipstream, Potomac Review, Connecticut River Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, and elsewhere. Garrett has taught poetry in many venues, including a maximum-security prison in Connecticut.

Jack Powers (Fairfield, Southwest CT) is a semi-retired educator and the author of Everybody's Vaguely Familiar and, coming soon, Still Love. His poems have appeared in The Southern Review, The Cortland Review and elsewhere. He won the 2015 and 2012 Connecticut River Review Poetry Contests and was a finalist for the 2013 and 2014 Rattle Poetry Prizes. Visit his website: http://www.jackpowers13.com/poetry/.