Skip to main content
  • This event has passed.

Poetry in Times of Crisis

Event Category:
Poetry in Times of Crisis
William Carlos Williams wrote, “It is difficult/to get the news from poems/though
men die miserably every day/for lack/of what is found there.” What exactly do
poets bring to the newsroom? In this panel, four poets will explore through their
poetry, current and past events that have preoccupied us including: war in the
middle east, antisemitism and other forms of racism, the Covid epidemic,
homophobia, global warming, and gun control. The panelists are all widely
published poets: Richard Michelson and Lesléa Newman (both from
Northhampton, Jayne Benjulian (West Stockbridge), and Owen Lewis
(Stockbridge).
Jayne Benjulian’s poems and essays appear widely in journals and
anthologies. David Wojahn described her poetry collection  Five Sextillion
Atoms  as "a highly distinctive and gripping book notable for the ways in which it
combines the stories of family history with larger matters of public history." She
was a Teaching Fellow at Emory University, and a Fulbright scholar in Lyon,
France and mentored poets and prose writers at the University of San Francisco
and San Francisco State. She served as Director of New Play Development at
Magic Theatre in San Francisco and Chief Speechwriter at Apple. In the
Berkshires, she continues to mentor writers and guide their books from concept
to publication. April 5th is her 12-year anniversary in West Stockbridge.
Owen Lewis is the author of four collections of poetry and three chapbooks,
most recently Knock-knock. Field Light, was a Distinguished Favorite, 2020
NYCBigBook Award and a 2021 “Must Read”, Mass Book Awards. best man
was the recipient of the Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize of the New England Poetry
Club. Recent prizes include the 2023 Guernsey International Poetry Prize and
the 2023 Rumi Prize for Poetry/Arts & Letters. He is also recipient of the
International Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine. At Columbia University
he is Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Medical Humanities and Ethics
and teaches Narrative Medicine. http://www.owenlewispoet.com
Richard Michelson’s books have been listed among the Ten Best of the Year
by The NY Times, Publishers Weekly, and The New Yorker; He’s received a
National Jewish Book Award (plus twice finalist), two Gold Medals from the
Association of Jewish Libraries, and two Massachusetts Cultural Council
Fellowships. His collections include Sleeping as Fast as I Can (Slant), More
Money than God (U Pittsburgh), Battles and Lullabies (U Illinois), and Tap
Dancing for the Relatives (U Central Florida). Michelson’s work was chosen to
represent the Commonwealth at the 2018 Library of Congress National Book
Festival, and in 2019 he became the sixth recipient of the Samuel Minot Jones
Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement. Originally from Brooklyn, New York,
Michelson now lives in Western Massachusetts. He served two terms as Poet
Laureate of Northampton, where he owns R. Michelson Galleries and hosts
Northampton Poetry Radio.
Lesléa Newman has created 87 books for readers of all ages including the
memoirs-in-verse, I CARRY MY MOTHER and I WISH FATHER; the novel-in-
verse, OCTOBER MOURNING: A SONG FOR MATTHEW SHEPARD; the
poetry collection, LOVELY; and the children’s books, SPARKLE BOY, HEATHER
HAS TWO MOMMIES, WELCOMING ELIJAH: A PASSOVER TALE WITH A
TAIL; and JOYFUL SONG: A NAMING STORY. Her literary awards include a
poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the
Massachusetts Artists Foundation, two National Jewish Book Awards, two
American Library Association Stonewall Honors, the Association for Jewish
Libraries Sydney Taylor Body of Work Award, and the Massachusetts Book
Award. She is a past poet laureate of Northampton, MA.