Poetry Café
Marilyn Meyerhoff Lobby

Poetry Café

March 15, 2016
Hosted by MV Poet Laureate
ARNIE REISMAN

Joined by Poets
Richard Michelson
Nan Byrne
Barbara Pope Peckham
Steve Ewing

$10 at the door, cash only
Price includes coffee and a slice of PIE CHICKS pie.

Poetry Café

Richard Michelson
RICHARD MICHELSON’s many books for children, teens and adults have been listed among the Ten Best of the Year by The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The New Yorker; and among the best Dozen of the Decade by Amazon. He has been a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award (3X), the National Jewish Book Award (3X), the Harlem Book Fest Award, and he is the only author ever awarded both the Sydney Taylor Gold and Silver Medals in a single year from the Association of Jewish Librarians. Michelson hosts Northampton Poetry Radio, and just completed his 2nd term as Poet Laureate of Northampton, MA. He recently received a 2016 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship. Michelson’s latest poetry collection, More Money than God, was published in 2015 by the University of Pittsburgh Press, and his most recent children’s book, S is for Sea Glass was written on the porch of his summertime gingerbread cottage in Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard.
Nan Byrne
Nan Byrne is a poet and television writer, and the author of two books. Her poems and stories have appeared in a variety of literary magazines including, Seattle Review, New Orleans Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. She is the former Director of Development for several well-known television production companies where she created a multitude of content including reality, documentary, and true crime series for the cable networks including the popular Wicked Attraction for ID, the American Gangs series for Discovery, and six award winning documentaries on Hate in America for National Geographic Channel. Nan now lives in East Chop where she’s currently at work on a documentary about the groundbreaking feminist and first female war correspondent, Margaret Fuller.
Steve Ewing
Steve Ewing is a dockbuilder living with his wife Claudia in Edgartown. They have two grown sons, Niko and Arno. Steve is Edgartown's poet laureate.
Barbara Pope Peckham
Barbara lived in Massachusetts as a child, moved to Connecticut, where she lived until she married. After her husband Douglas returned from Korea, they moved to Troy, NY, where they lived until 1962 when he was transferred to Syracuse, NY. In 2001 they moved to Martha’s Vineyard permanently, to the old Victorian house in Oak Bluffs that they had owned since 1971. Her husband, Douglas, is a well-known artist on the island. She attended Vassar College for two years. After marriage she returned to college when the children were small and attended Russell Sage College in Albany nights and, later, Syracuse University, from which she was graduated in l966. During her life she has been Society and Woman’s Page Editor for the New Haven, CT, Journal-Courier for three years and worked for a public radio station and an advertising agency in Albany, NY, writing radio and television commercials. After graduating from Syracuse, she taught in grade school in Marcellus, NY, for 24 years until retiring in 1990. She received Teacher of the Year Award from the Marcellus, NY, Rotary Club in the 1950s. Barbara is in her church choir and is president of the Unity Club of the Edgartown Federated Church, where she was chair of the Missions Committee for eleven years. She is a past president of the League of Women Voters of Martha’s Vineyard, is secretary of COMSOG and is also secretary of the Oak Bluffs Homemakers Club. For some years she has been a member of the Oak Bluffs Public Library Thursday Writing Group. She is very active in the Pathways Project for the Arts and has published two poetry books, “A Jar of Summer” and “Sing Spring”. She has two sons, Douglas, Jr., and Jonathan, and one daughter, Jennifer Mattea, all living in the Midwest, eight grandchildren and three great grandchildren. She enjoys cooking, preserving, gardening, reading, swimming in the summer, traveling, and, of course, writing.
Arnie Reisman
Arnie Reisman lives on the island of Martha’s Vineyard with his wife, former television consumer reporter and executive coach, Paula Lyons. In October 2014 he was named Martha’s Vineyard Poet Laureate for a two-year term. He is a member of the Martha’s Vineyard Poetry Society and the Cleaveland House Poets. His first book of poems, Clara Bow Died For Our Sins, was published in July, 2015 (Summerset Press). He is also a columnist for the weekly Vineyard Gazette, a playwright, a filmmaker and a radio performer. His dark stage comedy, Not Constantinople, had its world premiere at the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse in June, 2015, directed by MJ Bruder Munafo. Since the radio program’s debut in 1996, along with his wife, he has been a regular panelist on the weekly NPR comedy quiz show, Says You! Among his film credits are Hollywood On Trial (the Blacklist era), which received an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary, The Other Side of the Moon (Apollo astronaut program), which he co-produced for PBS with Mickey Lemle, and The Powder & the Glory (the Helena Rubinstein-Elizabeth Arden business rivalry), which he co-produced for PBS with Ann Carol Grossman. A theatrical musical based on this film is now being developed.