Join us for a reading of our fourth annual ekphrastic poetry challenge, a collaboration between Page Gallery and The Poets Corner. The art will be available for viewing both online and in-gallery.

Billy Collins, two term U.S. Poet Laureate, author of thirteen books of poetry, and one of the most popular poets in American today, will join us on The Poets Corner on October 13. If you’re new to poetry, this is one of the best introductions you can have. If you’re already a fan, you won’t want to miss this opportunity to listen to Collins read and share his insights into the craft of writing poetry.

Poet and essayist Ross Gay, author of Inciting Joy, The Book of Delights, Bring the Shovel Down, and The Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, comes to Camden! Presented by the Camden Festival of Poetry and the Belfast Poetry Festival. Sponsored by The Poets Corner and Toad Hall Editions.

In the summer of 2023 two friends decided to write a poem every time they swam - the result is this wonderful book we want to share with you! It’s a series of love letters to the water, to swimming, and to friendship. Come be inspired by the poetry of friendship with Meg and Margaret.

This special event is a fundraiser for the Millay House Rockland Writer-in-Residence program. Natalie Goldberg, best-selling author of Writing Down the Bones, will be reading from her new book— Writing on Empty : A Guide to Finding Your Voice.

Join Us Sunday at 2:00 at the Breezemere Bandstand on Norton Pond in Lincolnville for a poetry reading with Margaret A. Haberman and Meg Weston reading from their collaborative collection of swimming poems — To the Point and Back.

Join us on July 14th for a reading with nine poets whose chapbooks were selected as finalists from among over 400 submissions to the 2024 Chapbook Competition. Each of these talented poets will be introduced by one of our readers in a fast-paced lively presentation that will inspire and fascinate you with fireworks of lyricism with a variety of themes and chapbook styles.

Join this reading with the 2024 Chapbook Competition winner Molly Bolton, hosted by our contest judge, poet Marie Howe.

This reading will be hosted by distinguished poet, Marie Howe, the judge for this year's competition.

We’re delighted to offer a reading from a beautiful new anthology, hosted by the editor: Tess Taylor, reading along with poets: David Baker, Sophie Cabot Black, Mark Doty, Kirun Kapur, Danusha Laméris, and Gary Lawless (reading Nanao Sakaki).

Learn more and RSVP here.

Essential Queer Voices of U.S. Poetry was edited by Christopher Nelson and introduced by Jack Halberstam. The Essential Voices series from Green Linden Press intends to correct misrepresentation and misunderstanding in the broader culture. It has at its heart the ancient idea that poetry can reveal our shared humanity. Joining editor & publisher Christopher Nelson on The Poets Corner will be the following major voices in American poetry today: Rick Barot, Ellen Bass, Richard Blanco, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Charif Shanahan.

Ochre & Rust: new selected poems of Sergy Gandlevsky translated by Philip Metres

Richard Blanco reads from Homeland of My Body

The Nine Poets group has been meeting since June of 2020 when they each signed up for a chapbook intensive offered by Maine Media led by presidential inaugural poet Richard Blanco. The group continues to write and support each other with monthly gatherings on Zoom, and an annual poetry picnic.

In January, with the launch of the new literary journal from DownEast books, The Maine Standard, the Nine Poets will be featured with selections of poems that speak to each of their “obsessions” and an introduction by Richard Blanco. In this event with The Poets Corner, we’ll celebrate the launch of the Maine Standard with readings from all nine poets.

Learn more here.

Rilke’s poems and writing remind us of what it means to “bear witness” to life in those “dark hours” we face when we experience things “falling asunder.” He also invites us to “dance the orange,” celebrating the exuberant beauty that shines, even in the darkness.

Award-winning Rilke translator and poet, Mark S. Burrows, will explore the writings of poet Rainer Maria Rilke and why Rilke’s words challenge and inspire us, offering “words that still ripen in the silences.”

Mark will be joined by poets Pádraig Ó Tuama and Marie Howe to share selected Rilke poems and enter a conversation about the significance of these words, calling us to embrace “a second life, timeless and wide.”

Click here to learn more and RSVP.

For this event, poets were invited to submit work in response to a painting or photography in the Art & Ekphrastic Poetry exhibit at The Page Gallery. The ten poems selected read on The Poets Corner; another ten poems selected by the artists will be read live in the gallery on Saturday, November 19th.

Spencer Reece, an episcopal priest and a poet who has lived in Spain, Honduras, Connecticut and now Rhode Island, and Matt Daly, creative writing teacher and poet from Wyoming, zoom in together from Wyoming for this reading.

Meg Weston reads from her first full-length collection of poems, Magma Intrusions, along with Betsy Sholl, former Maine Poet Laureate, who reads from her tenth collection, As If a Song Could Save You. The readings are followed by a conversation about the obsessions and harmonies in their poems; poetic influences and writing practices; and other topics that intrigue us as poets.

Ever wondered what editors are thinking when they read our work? How they make decisions? Curious about common submission mistakes we might be making? How to find the right journal or magazine to submit to? Online or in print? What to consider when submitting a manuscript for publication? This craft talk will cover these topics and more, presenting our panelists with many frequently asked questions about publishing poetry in today’s ever-changing world.

Learn more and register here.

Join us as Kathleen Ellis reads from her new book Body of Evidence, winner of the 2022 Grayson Books Poetry Contest, and Claire Millikin reads from Elegiaca Americana and Transitional Objects - her two books just published in the past six months.

Learn more here.

Motherhood is a great leveler--a cause for fear, for joy, for ambivalence. Join poets Katherine Hagopian Berry, Sonia Greenfield, Abby Murray and Meghan Sterling as they look closely at the role of mother, reading their poems that celebrate, and reveal, the complex experience of motherhood. Learn more and RSVP here.

Live Event at Marshall Wharf in Belfast, Maine

We write sh*tty first drafts to get something on the page. How about bringing those sh*tty first drafts to the stage? Join us for an evening of first drafts, rough drafts, and everything in between drafts. Bring your works in progress to share in a warm, welcoming atmosphere! Poetry or short pieces only (4-6 minutes per reader).

This year our Eco-Poetry reading will be open for submissions. We’ll select 10-12 poems to be read on Zoom on The Poets Corner Sunday April 23, 2023. Learn more here.

Mark S. Burrows presents his newly published volume of poems by the German-Jewish poet Hilde Domin (1909 – 2006), The Wandering Radiance: Selected Poems of Hilde Domin, a translation project that was more than a decade in the making. He will be joined by his publisher, Christopher Nelson of Green Linden Press; Marion Tauschwitz, a German writer who was a confidante of Domin’s and her biographer; and the British poet and literary critic Hilary Davies.

Learn more and RSVP here.

Guests were in for a treat as two Maine writers shared with us the pleasures that flow from their short stories. While each story stands alone, together each of these books forms a story-cycle revealing new truths and enhancing our understanding of people and place.

Learn more here.

This year’s annual Valentine’s Day reading will be LOVE LETTERS – submissions of epistolary poems. This follows an ancient tradition since some of the earliest forms of epistolary poems, or poems that read as letters, were love letters such as Ovid’s Heroides—love letters from the great women of antiquity. So we asked you to write to your love or loves, and submit your poems for Love Letters!

Learn more here.

Live Event at Marshall Wharf in Belfast, Maine

We write sh*tty first drafts to get something on the page. How about bringing those sh*tty first drafts to the stage? Join us for an evening of first drafts, rough drafts, and everything in between drafts. Bring your works in progress to share in a warm, welcoming atmosphere! Poetry or short pieces only (4-6 minutes per reader).

The stars shine on The Poets Corner this January 8 with an event featuring filmmaker Tara Roberts Zabriskie who documented Maine’s efforts to “save the stars” in her film “Defending the Dark.” 

A Pop-Up Poetry reading, featuring Meg Weston reading from her book, Letters from the White Queen.

Join Irish poet Pádraig Ó Tuama and award-winning author Barbara Mahany for a conversation with Mark S. Burrows about Rilke’s poems and writings that remind them of what it means to “bear witness”—to life in those “dark hours” we face when we experience things “falling asunder.”