The 15th Annual Kent County Poetry Festival will take place April 5-7, 2024 in Kent County, MD. Created and produced by the Kent Cultural Alliance, The Bookplate, The Rose O’Neill Literary House at Washington College and Bob Ortiz Studios, this year’s festival has a little something for poets of all ages.
Naomi Shihab Nye is a Guggenheim Fellow and a Library of Congress Fellow, and she was named the Poetry Foundation’s Young People’s Poet for 2019- 2021. She has been awarded the Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Book Critics Circle, the Lavan Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, the Carity Randall Prize, the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry award, the Robert Creeley Prize, and many Pushcart Prizes. Her well-known work for young readers has also been recognized with the NSK Neustadt Award for Children’s Literature and the 2018 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award from the American Library Association.
Working with Ms. Shihab Nye, we are able to expand the reach of this year’s event, creating a young people’s poetry gathering with RiverArts’ KIDSPOT. Shihab Nye will also present a workshop at Kent County High School and at Washington College’s Lit House. The main event will welcome back the wonderful Maureen Corrigan, Book Critic for NPR’s FreshAir and The Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism at Georgetown University. And, of course, the Festival will maintain its original heartbeat with the Poetry Open Mic on Sunday at Ortiz Studios in Chestertown. Public events are free. The Main Event requires a reservation, as does the Open Mic for anyone who wants to read. The events are as follows:
Friday, April 5 – student workshops at Kent County High School and the Rose O’Neill Literary House at Washington College
Saturday, April 6 at 10:00 am at the Raimond Cultural Center
- Young People’s Poetry with KIDSPOT
Saturday April 6, at 7:00 pm at Garfield Center for the Arts – MAIN EVENT
- Naomi Shihab Nye reading followed by interview/conversation with Maureen Corrigan
Sunday, April 7, from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm at Ortiz Studio in Chestertown – OPEN MIC
- Come and read your work (2 poem max). Register to read at www.kentculture.org/poetryfest/
For additional information, contact the Kent Cultural Alliance at 410-778-3700
