Members of the eight poet 2012-2013 poetry workshop at Steepletop will celebrate the publication of the sixth volume of new poetry developed on site during the fall, winter and spring of this past year with two public readings of their own works. The first event will take place on Sunday, June 23 at the Roeliff-Janson Library on Route 22 one mile south  of the intersection of Rtes. 22 and 23 in Hillsdale, NY. This FREE event begins at 6:00pm. It will mark the first appearance of Zephyrs, Volume 6, a collection of the work of all eight participants.

On Sunday, June 30, the poets will reconvene to introduce their work to poetry fans in Berkshire County with their third annual appearance at Matt Tannenbaum’s THE BOOKSTORE in Lenox, MA. This event is also scheduled to begin at 6pm and is FREE and will be held in the store’s comfy wine bar, GET LIT.

The participants at both events will be drawn from the workshop’s  attendees which included Nancy Ghitman, Amy K. White, J. Peter Bergman, Cecele Kraus, Elise Ghitman, Jean B. Tate, Todd Johnson and Elizabeth Haight. Not all the poets will appear at each reading.

The new book will be available for purchase at both events and may also be bought in the gift shop at Steepletop.

Edna St. Vincent Millay will be heard in Hudson, NY twice this season and in two very different ways. On Saturday, April 27 at 1:00pm the Hudson Library will present the Millay Society’s Director, Peter Bergman in a open forum Q&A Poetry reading of some of the Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet’s best works, a reading spanning her early poetry from before World War I through some of her last pieces written just before her death in 1950. Questions are expected and the answers will be honest ones. Learn about her life in Columbia County and about the prospects for Steepletop, her home in Austerlitz which is now a Historic House and Garden Museum.

In June a new musical work based on 15 of her poems will be heard at the First Presbyterian Church , 369 Warren Street with musical star Lauren Flanigan and Stage and Television star Tyne Daly leading the program. Entitled BEAUTY INTOLERABLE it has music by Sheila Silver and tickets will be available on line shortly. Call for more information.

The Edna Project and the Millay Society at Steepletop will jointly present an Edna St. Vincent Millay event at the Roe-Jan Library at 9091 Route 22 in Hillsdale, NY on Saturday, April 20 at 5:00pm.

The Edna Project, composers Liz Queler and Seth Farber along with their son Joey Farber, have been presenting their musical settings of Millay’s poetry throughout the region since 2010, but they have been working on new pieces which may be part of this Poetry Month presentation. Their music is northeast country and light jazz and their presentation is as easy and approachable as possible. Their tuneful renditions of Millay’s poetry would have pleased the poet and will certainly please you.

Joining them for this celebratory presentation is Peter Bergman, Executive Director of the Millay Society who will interpolate Millay works not set by the Edna Project to give the evening a fine combination of the spoken word and the sung.

For more information contact the Roe-Jan Library directly.