October 15-16, 2021
Welcome to the 2021 Sharon Springs Poetry Festival — we’re back live and in-person!
The fifth annual Sharon Springs Poetry Festival will feature three extraordinary poets:
Stephanie Burt: poet, literary critic, and professor Stephanie Burt has published eight books, including poetry, critical books on poetry and poetry collections. Her most recent books is After Callimachus: Poems (2020), and Don’t Read Poetry: A Book About How to read Poems (2019). Currently, she is a professor of English at Harvard University. Read more . . .
Dora Malech: poet, lyricist, librettist, visual artist, and editor, Dora Malech is the author of four collections of poetry, including, most recently, Flourish (2020) and Stet (2018). She is a co-founder and former director of the Iowa Youth Writing Project. Currently, she is an assistant professor at The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Read more . . .
Paul Muldoon: international award-winning poet, professor of poetry, as well as an editor, critic, and translator; author of fifteen major collections of poetry, Pulitizer Prize winner, and recipient of the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, Paul Muldoon is also the founder of the Sharon Springs Poetry Festival. Read more . . .
COVID safety: Masks required at all events!
Festival Events
poetry Reading
On Friday night, October 15, at 7:30 PM each of our guest poets Stephanie Burt, Dora Malech, and Paul Muldoon will present a public reading in the auditorium of the Sharon Springs Central School. Afterward, you’ll be able to meet the poets in the lobby, purchase a copy of one of their books — which they will gladly sign — and meet your fellow poetry lovers. This event is free and open to the public.
School Workshops
As always, the Sharon Springs Poetry Festival includes one very special event that is not open to the public: Paul Muldoon and the three guest poets will conduct poetry workshops for students in local area schools. Sharon Springs Central School will host and coordinate the event, and this year’s student participants will be from Sharon Springs, Cobleskill-Richmondville, Cooperstown, and Canajoharie.
Why are such well-known and accomplished poets willing to do this? Because, like us, they know it is important. Like us, they believe that the arts are essential and that they contribute in direct and tangible ways to the well-being of diverse and democratic societies. What better way to show our commitment to these lofty ideals than to support the work and enthusiasm of our students & teachers?
Public Poetry workshops
On Saturday, October 16, Stephanie Burt, Dora Malech, and Paul Muldoon will each conduct an in-person poetry workshop for adult members of the community. Workshops are free; anyone 18 or older may register.
- Participation in these 2-hour, free workshops is strictly limited to six people for each workshop;
- Advance registration is required;
- Workshops will be conducted in person in Sharon Springs (locations to be announced).
- To register, visit the link below to “purchase” your free ticket;
- Limit one workshop per person; one ticket per person;
- Each participant must submit, in advance, a poem of their own composition to share and discuss with the group.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR A WORKSHOP
PANEL DISCUSSION
Saturday, October 16, 2 PM at the Roseboro Hotel. Our visiting poets with Paul Muldoon. Free; no registration required. Topic to be announced.
Support
These events are free to the public, but they are not cost-free to produce.
You can help the nonprofit Klinkhart Hall Arts Center continue to bring the Sharon Springs Poetry Festival to our community by making a donation at
www.klinkharthall.org/donate/
The 2021 Sharon Springs Poetry Festival is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature and administered in Schoharie County by CREATE Council on the Arts, d.b.a. Greene County Council on the Arts.
Additional financial support is provided by
Major support for the event is provided by the American Hotel, with additional in-kind support from 204 Main Bar & Bistro, Black Cat Cafe, Brimstone Bakery, Roseboro Hotel, Book House Stuyvesant Plaza, and by the many Friends of Klinkhart Hall.