Date & Time: Sat, November 6, 2021 | 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM EDT
Location: Technical College of the Lowcountry auditorium | 104 Reynolds St, Bldg 12, Beaufort SC
Virtual: Live-streamed on the festival Facebook page.
Cost: Free
As part of the 6th annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, we will host the Carrie McCray Nickens Poetry Fellowship Reading featuring fellowship winner Elizabeth Robin and finalists Miho Kinnas, Derek Berry, Danielle Verwers, Ann-Chadwell Humphries, and Yvette R. Murray, moderated by Ellen Malphrus, USCB writer in residence.
Books by the presenting poets will be available for sale and signing.
About the poets:
Elizabeth Robin, retired high school teacher, has two collections through Finishing Line Press: Where Green Meets Blue (2018) and Silk Purses and Lemonade (2017); To My Dreamcatcher will be out in 2022. She is the 2021 winner of the Cary McCray Nickens Fellowship. Of her work in that competition judge Tiana Clark said: “I see a lunar lyricism reflected by this poet. The language is mystical, mythic, sublime, and romantic. The haunting imagery is fresh and allows for strangeness, devastation, and delight in a way that captures me as a reader.” As a poet of witness and discovery, Robin tells the stories of those pushed into margins. She will or did appear most recently in Ukweli, Poetry Society of South Carolina Yearbook 2021, COMET buses, Catfish Stew 2021, Drunk Monkeys, Ripples, The Broadkill Review, i am not a silent poet, and Blue Mountain Review. Robin emcees an open mic and literary programs on Hilton Head Island. https://www.elizabethrobin.com/
Derek Berry is a non-binary writer, podcast host, and educator. They are the author of the novel Heathens and Liars of Lickskillet County and the poetry chapbooks Glitter Husk and Buggery. They serve as poetry editor of Emrys Journal and write book reviews for Free State Review. They are the recipient of the KAKALAK Poetry Award, Broad River Prize for Prose, BOOM Chapbook Prize, and Susan Meyers Summer Scholarship. They serve on the board of the Free Verse Poetry Festival and Poetry Society of South Carolina. They are the host of the creative writing podcast Contribute Your Verse, Their work has recently appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, ANMLY, beestung, Raleigh Review, Taco Bell Quarterly, and elsewhere. They work as a museum educator in Aiken, South Carolina. https://derekberrywriter.com
As a girl in rural Texas, Ann-Chadwell Humphries competed in poetry recitation. After retirement, she took community writing classes, then graduate classes in poetry. Muddy Ford Press selected Ann as the second in their Laureate series to publish her first book, An Eclipse and a Butcher. Ann was a finalist for Carrie McCray Nickens poetry fellowship, is a newly inducted member of SC Humanities Speaker’s Bureau, and is archiving her poetry papers at the University of South Carolina. Based in Columbia, Ann reads and writes using assistive technology. www.Ann-ChadwellHumphries.com
Miho Kinnas is a Japanese poet/translator living in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. She is the author of two books of poetry: Today, Fish Only and Move Over Bird (Math Paper Press, 2014 and 2019). Her poems, translations and book reviews appeared in many journals including Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Literary Shanghai, Quixotica: Poems East of La Mancha, The Museum of American Poetics and a Seattle-based Belltelist journal that nominated her poem “End” for the Pushcart Prize. She gave poetry workshops at Shanghai Literary Festival, Singapore Writers’ Festival, Pat Conroy Literary Center, Arnold Arboretum/Harvard Art Museum, and at local schools, among others.
Yvette R. Murray received her B.A. in English from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has been published in Fall Lines, The Petigru Review, Catfish Stew, Barzakh, Genesis Science Fiction magazine, forthcoming in Emrys Journal and Call and Response Journal. She is a 2020 Watering Hole Fellow and a 2019 Pushcart Prize nominee. Presently, she is writing her first collection of poetry, more science fiction short stories and a children’s book series. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, and a board member of the Poetry Society of South Carolina and the South Carolina Writer’s Association. Murray lives in Charleston, South Carolina.
Poet Danielle Ann Verwers writes and teaches in Columbia, South Carolina. She also plays the didgeridoo (poorly) and collects library cards. She has studied at the University of Iowa, University of South Carolina, and Columbia College. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Eastern Iowa Review, Petigru Review, Emrys and elsewhere.
https://danielleverwers.com
Photos as well as short bios of all festival presenters are on the Presenter Page.
Click here…
