Judith Saunders and William Seaton at Woodstock Poetry Society and Festival, June 13

From our friend Phillip Levine, host of the Woodstock Poetry Society and the weekly poetry night at the Colony Cafe:

Poet Judith Saunders presenting her poetry and poet William Seaton presenting a talk (Winged Words: Notes on the Oral Performance of Poetry") will be the featured readers when the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival meets at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, on Saturday, June 13 at 2pm.

The reading is usually hosted by Woodstock area poet Phillip Levine, however he will be more than capably replaced as host for this reading by Donald Lev. All meetings are free, open to the public, and include an open mike.

Judith Saunders, long-time resident of the Hudson Valley, is a professor of English at Marist College. Her poems, humor, and creative nonfiction have appeared in many literary journals and little magazines, regional and national, most recently in Home Planet News, Poet Lore, Chronogram, The Hudson River Valley Review, and The Journal of Irreproducible Results. Her chapbook collection, Check-Out Counter Suite, was a winner in the 1992 Panhandler Poetry Chapbook Competition, sponsored by the University of West Florida.

William Seaton is the author of Spoor of Desire: Selected Poems and Tourist Snapshots and the producer of the /Poetry on the Loose Reading/Performance Series/. Recipient of the Ada Louise Ballard Fellowship in the Humanities and the Helen Fairall Scholarship Award in Comparative Literature, he has published studies in learned publications such as the Iowa Journal of Literary Studies and Bruccoli Clark's Dictionary of Literary Biography series. During the last year, his reviews have appeared in Poetry Flash, Home Planet News, Chiron Review, and Chronogram. This summer he will teach a workshop series in a newly organized College of Poetry.

Winged Words: Notes on the Oral Performance of Poetry" is an investigation of orality in poetry. The essay explores the history of the oral performance of poetry from Sappho to rap as well as distinguishing the typical generic characteristics of oral and written texts. How is poetry different for a silent reader and a listener to a live performance? Is either experience better? Are today's coffee house readers the real poetic traditionalists? Part of this lecture was presented in an earlier form at the Woodstock Library in March of 2007.

This talk is made possible by The New York Council for the Humanities for support and funding of the /Speakers in the Schools /program.

Here's our upcoming 2009 schedule of featured readers:
Jul 11 - LisaAnn LoBasso, Marnie Andrews; Raphael Kosek
Aug 8 - Susan Lewis; India Radfar
Sep 12 – Gioia Timpanelli
Oct 10 – Patti Martin; Susan Hoover, Victoria Sullivan
Nov 14 – Angelo Verga; **George Wallace
Dec 12 – Open Mike & Annual Business & Planning Meeting

Also, why not become a 2009 Member of the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival?  Membership is a nominal $15 a year. (To join, send your check to the Woodstock Poetry Society, P.O. Box 531, Woodstock, NY 12498. Include your email address as well as your mailing address and phone number.) Your membership helps pay for hall rental, post-office-box rental, the WPS website, and costs associated with publicizing the monthly events. One benefit of membership is the opportunity to have a brief biography and several of your poems appear on this website.