The Word Girls Are Coming to Town

They’re beautiful. They’re talented. They’re dangerous. And they’re back!

Yes, poets!

Meredith Davies Hadaway, Erin Murphy and Anne Colwell will be reading from their works on Thursday, Feb. 13, at 5 p.m. at the Book Plate.

It’s a return to this venue at 112 Cross Street for Hadaway and Murphy, who packed the room at their last appearance there in 2011, and a first-ever Chestertown reading for Colwell. All three are published by WordTech Press.

Hadaway is the author of Fishing Secrets of the Dead (a Word Press First Book Selection in 2005) and The River is a Reason (2011). She has read her work at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC, as well as at Clifden Community Arts Week in Ireland. Hadaway is currently the Rose O’Neill Writer-in-Residence at Washington College.

Murphy is the author of six books of poetry, most recently Distant Glitter (2013) and Ancilla (2014). Her works have been published in numerous journals and anthologies and featured on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac. A former student and faculty member at Washington College, she is Associate Professor of English at Penn State Altoona.

Colwell is the author of two collections of poetry from WordTech: Believing Their Shadows (2010) and Mother’s Maiden Name (2013). Her chapbook, Father’s Occupation, Mother’s Maiden Name won the National Association of Press Women’s Award for Best Book of Verse. She is Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at University of Delaware.

Theirs is poetry like your mother never told you about. Stripped of adjectives! Enticing metre! Exotic enjambment!

Here’s what the critics are saying:

“Their work has gone ages beyond my own.” – Ovid

“They MUST be heard!” – NSA

“Wow. They’re wonderful!” – three moms

“Benghazi! Benghazi!” – Fox News

“Who?” — People

The Word Girls are appearing for one night only at the Book Plate—where lovers go for the muses. Don’t miss them this Valentine’s Eve.