For 22 years, Margaret Hunt was a high school English teacher. Currently, she is a student teacher evaluator for the Alternate Route to Certification. She also teaches a GED prep course to adult learners. Margaret holds a BA from Smith College, and an MAT from Columbia Teachers College. A lifelong amateur and professi... more
Sandy Carlson, poet laureate of Woodbury, Conn., talks nature poetry with Tom Nicotera and Sherri Bedingfield.Sheryll (Sherri) Bedingfield is a family therapist, psychotherapist, and a counselor with the Youth & Family Resource Center. She is the proud mother of two sons and twin grandsons. She has two poetry collecti... more
Sandy Carlson, poet laureate of Woodbury, Conn., visits with Vyacheslav (Slava) Konoval, a Ukrainian poet and lawyer whose creative works have been translated into six languages. A writer of poetry for the past two years, Slava's poems have appeared in more than 60 literary magazines and anthologies. He is a member of ... more
Rick Magee, poet laureate of Bethel, Conn., and an English professor at Sacred Heart University, grew up in California and moved to the East Coast to work on his PhD. His wife Rebecca is also an English professor, and their son Cormac wants to be a writer when he grows up. Rick has published in a variety of online jour... more
Chris Gaffney is a stay-at-home dad to a 3-year-old girl and 1-year-old boy residing in Wolcott, Connecticut, where he also serves on the board of education. Chris has won the National Society of Newspaper Columnists’ award for best humor column in its category (2019) and served as a keynote speaker at the National At-... more
Listen as Sandy Carlson, poet laureate of Woodbury, Conn. (https://sandycarlson.net,) talks with Nicole Caruso Garcia, whose full-length debut poetry collection is Oxblood (Able Muse Press, 2022). Oxblood was named a finalist for the Able Muse Book Award and the Richard Wilbur Award.Educated at Fairfield University, N... more
Jack Powers taught high school special education, English and writing for 38 years. He won the 2015 and 2012 Connecticut River Review Poetry Contests and was a finalist for the 2014 and 2013 Rattle Poetry Prizes. Jack earned MFAs in fiction and poetry from Sarah Lawrence College, and a BFA in Painting from Syracuse Uni... more
John L. Stanizzi is author of the collections Ecstasy Among Ghosts, Sleepwalking, Dance Against the Wall, After the Bell, Hallelujah Time!, High Tide – Ebb Tide, Four Bits, Chants, Sundowning, and POND. John’s poems have been widely published and have appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Cortland Review, American Life in ... more
Julie Cook lives in Woodbury, Connecticut, where she is a poet, musician, and music teacher. She has been writing poetry and making music ever since she was a child, playing on the piano her musician father bought for her and her sister. Julie is a member of the Orenaug Chapter of the Connecticut Poetry Society. She is... more
Born and raised in Rochester, New York, Deborah Nash Ott holds a Masters of Education in Secondary Education, English. She taught for 35 years in the US and abroad. She has led writers' workshops in Bern, Switzerland, and edited the annual creative writing journal Voices for East Granby High School. Deb has published i... more
Patricia Lee Lewis has led more than 70 creative writing and yoga retreats in 10 countries and hundreds of creative writing workshops and retreats in the US--mostly at Patchwork Farm Retreat on a little mountain in Westhampton, Massachusetts. Patricia holds a BA from Smith College and an MFA from Vermont College of F... more
Antoinette Brim-Bell of West Haven is Connecticut’s eighth poet laureate. She is the author of three full-length poetry collections: These Women You Gave Me, Icarus in Love, and Psalm of the Sunflower. She is a Cave Canem Foundation Fellow and an alumna of Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA). Antoinette will b... more
Laurel S. Peterson is a community college English professor whose poetry has been published in many literary journals. She has two poetry chapbooks--That’s the Way the Music Sounds (Finishing Line) and Talking to the Mirror (Last Automat)--as well as two full-length collections–Do You Expect Your Art to Answer? and Dau... more
Melissa Studdard is the author of five books, including the poetry collections Dear Selection Committee and I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast, the poetry chapbook Like a Bird with a Thousand Wings, and the young adult novel Six Weeks to Yehidah. Her work has been featured by NPR, PBS, The New York Times, The Guardian, Ms.... more
Dennis Barone, professor emeritus at the University of Saint Joseph, was born in New Jersey. He attended Bard College and the University of Pennsylvania. In 1992 he became the Thomas Jefferson Chair in American Studies, The Netherlands. In 1997, Dennis received the America Award in Fiction for Echoes. He received the f... more
Pegi Deitz Shea, two-time winner of the CT Book Award, has published more than 500 works of poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and children's books. She founded and directs Poetry Rocks, and was the inaugural Poet Laureate of Vernon. She is president of the CT Coalition of Poets Laureate.EPISODE EXTRASPegi Deitz Shea web... more
Jessica Cuello is poetry editor at Tahoma Review and has been a French and English teacher in the public schools for 27 years. Her books include Liar (Barrow Street 2021), Yours Creature (JackLeg 2023), Hunt (Word Works 2017), and Pricking (Tiger Bark 2016). Cuello was the recipient of The 2018 New Ohio Review Poetry P... more
Tom Nicotera has taught poetry classes and workshops in Washington, D.C., including at Immaculata College and Georgetown University. Tom ran a poetry series in Takoma Park, Maryland, that included Beat writers such as Charles Plymell and Herbert Huncke. He also coproduced a Jazz-Poetry Day on the Washington Monument G... more
Suzanne Frischkorn is a poet, essayist, and editor. She is the author of Fixed Star (JackLeg Press2022) as well as the books Girl on a Bridge and Lit Windowpane (both from Main Street Rag Press). Her chapbooks are American Flamingo, Spring Tide, Red Paper Flower, Exhale, and The Tactile Sense. She is the recipient of T... more
B. Fulton Jennes ("Barb") Jennes spent the first 25 years of her career as an advertising copywriter and freelance corporate writer and editor. After volunteering to run creative writing programs at her daughter's elementary school, she decided to pursue a teaching degree, leading to a 16-year second career as a public... more
Sarah Marze is a composer, vocalist, and conductor from Canton, CT. She is an Honors Student studying Music Composition and Vocal Performance at the University of Connecticut with professors Dr. Kenneth Fuchs and Dr. Constance Rock. In 2019, she was selected as a UConn Holster Scholar, completing her original song cycl... more
Several of Connecticut's leading poets and poets laureate share their works in this holiday peace reading, presented by the Oliver Wolcott Library in Litchfield, Conn. Jim Kelleher, of the Oliver Wolcott Poets, is the organizer and host for this seasonal celebration of peace and hope.Rennie McQuilkin, Connecticut po... more
Host Sandy Carlson talks with Katherine Schneider, a poet and adult ESL professional living in Norwalk, CT. She holds an MFA from Fairfield University's low residency MFA program where she worked closely with Baron Wormser and the late Dr. Kim Bridgford. She has also received an MA in TESOL and has taught ESL to adult... more
Sandy and Jim discuss an event Jim organized, featuring some of the best poets in Connecticut. Listen in and learn more about the Holiday Peace Poetry Reading - Dec. 15, 7 to 8:30 p.m., presented by the Oliver Wolcott Library - with Jim, Sandy, and many more, including previous People and their Poems guests Jack Sheed... more
Host Sandy Carlson (peopleandtheirpoems.net and www.sandycarlson.net) visits with Jim Kelleher, who teaches literature and composition at Northwestern Connecticut Community College. He has published three books of poetry and taught in public schools and libraries across northwestern Connecticut.EPISODE EXTRASMick: ... more