Readings
Margaret Gibson is available for readings and workshops in person or by Zoom. See “Contact.”
Hello Poets and Friends,
My new book, DRAW ME WITHOUT BOUNDARIES, is just out from LSU Press.This is a different sort of poetry book—two speakers (Lena and Zoe) and a narrative blend of poetry and prose. Please see the brief description below the dates of the readings.
I hope to see you at one (or more) of these readings and to be able to share this new work with you. Books will be on sale at the readings.
October 9: in Hartford CT, at Real Art Ways, sponsored by RIVERWOOD, at 7:00 p.m. Margaret Gibson reading Lena, Tori Richnavsky reading Zoe.
November 9: in West Hartford, Word House Poetry Series, at Noah Webster House, from
2-4p.m. Margaret Gibson reading Lena, Heather Oakley reading Zoe.
November 14: in Storrs, CT at Barnes and Noble Bookstore, sponsored by University of CT English Department, at 5:30 p.m. Margaret Gibson reading Lena, Heather Oakley reading Zoe.
November 22: in Stonington CT at the La Grua Center, at 6:30 p.m, sponsored by ARTS CAFÉ, MYSTIC. Margaret Gibson reading Lena, Tori Richnavsky reading Zoe.
December 19: in Preston CT, at the Preston Town Library, from 5-7, sponsored by The Friends of the Library. Margaret Gibson reading Lena, Heather Oakley reading Zoe.
“Draw me without boundaries,” Lena says to her granddaughter Zoe, an artist. This book, a suspenseful read and a fluid meditation, is their love story, told in their voices: inner monologues whose prose and poetry are set against the shifting background of global climate crisis and the COVID pandemic. DRAW ME WITHOUT BOUNDARIES is a compelling investigation of the deep connections possible between people despite their physical isolation. Zoe has left New York City to paint in solitude at her grandmother’s abandoned house in the woods near the seacoast of Connecticut. Having fled her failed marriage, unexpectedly pregnant, she faces the choice to continue or end her pregnancy, seeking clarity by walking the labyrinth of the woods. Lena, once a poet and a keeper of journals, has been moved to a memory care facility where she faces choiceless isolation, continuing memory loss, and death, living only for her granddaughter’s visits and the vivid, if occasional, revelations of her fractured memories. Margaret Gibson, long respected for her skillful poetry and for a depth of attention that is both fearless and tender, has given us a brilliant book that reflects back to us the profound issues of our time.
(description provided by LSU Press.)
Press
2019-2020
Climate crisis poetry — Gibson’s Green Cafés to feature Conn. poets expounding on nature
Margaret Gibson wants people to read poetry out loud and outside. Gibson, who has been the Connecticut poet laureate since 2019, understands the therapeutic power of reading poetry aloud — especially now, in these times of climate crisis, a prolonged pandemic and social unrest. Writing, talking and reaching out to others via poetry can help, she believes.September 15, 2020.
Listening to the Thrush: Notes toward the Greening of Poetry in a Time of Global Climate Change
Margaret Gibson is the current poet laureate of Connecticut and the author of twelve books of poems, all from Louisiana State University Press, most recently Not Hearing the Wood Thrush (2018) and The Glass Globe (forthcoming in 2021), as well as a memoir, The Prodigal Daughter (University of Missouri Press, 2008). The Vigil (1993) was a finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry; Broken Cup (2016) was a finalist for the Poets’ Prize, and its title poem won a Pushcart Prize that year. Gibson is professor emerita at the University of Connecticut.
June 19, 2020. Poetic possibilities: Grant recipient Margaret Gibson seeks to expand programs state-wide
May 28, 2020. 23 Poets Laureate Receive Fellowships for Projects Around the U.S.
May 28, 2020. The Academy of American Poets Awards $1.1 Million to Poets Laureate.
Arts Cafe - Mystic
The Academy of American Poets 2020 Poets Laureate Fellows
The 2020 Poets Laureate Fellows and the communities they serve are Honey Bell-Bey (Cuyahoga County, OH), Tina Cane (Rhode Island), Tina Chang (Brooklyn, NY), Nnamdi Chukwuocha and Al Mills aka the Twin Poets (Delaware), Rosemarie Dombrowski (Phoenix, AZ), Beth Ann Fennelly (Mississippi), Angelo Geter (Rock Hill, SC), Margaret Gibson (Connecticut), Rodney Gomez (McAllen, TX), Elizabeth Jacobson (Santa Fe, NM), Stuart Kestenbaum (Maine), Susan Landgraf (Auburn, WA), Maria Lisella (Queens, NY), Porsha Olayiwola (Boston, MA), Alexandria Peary (New Hampshire), Emmy Pérez (Texas), Mary Ruefle (Vermont), Janice Lobo Sapigao (Santa Clara County, CA), John Warner Smith (Louisiana), Laura Tohe (Navajo Nation), Amie Whittemore (Murfreesboro, TN), and Assétou Xango (Aurora, CO).
Interviews
June 25, 2019. Margaret Gibson- Teachers Make a Difference – John Allen, Louis Rubin Jr and George Garrett
June 25, 2019. Margaret Gibson “Looking Back, Looking Now”
Poets Out in the Open
Activities as Poet Laureate
2016-2018
May 17, 2018. Poetry Daily
Featured Poem: Riverkeeper from Not Hearing the Wood Thrush
May 17, 2018. CT Poet to Share her beloved’s Journey through Alzheimer’s at Sunken Garden Fest.
May 17, 2018. Memory’s Landscape
Not Hearing the Wood Thrush
May 17, 2018. Click here to watch the interview with Margaret.
May/April 2018. The Writer’s Chronicle Interview with Edward A. Doughtery
2018. Image No. 96
A conversation with Margaret Gibson
September 2, 2016. The Day
Bittersweet book signing celebrate memoir by Alzheimer’s victim
2018. Poetry Daily
Featured Poet
The Pushcart Price
2016 Pushcart Prize Editions
“Broken Cup”
February 18, 2016. Hartford Courant
CT Poet’s Corner
Margaret Gibson’s ‘Broken Cup’
Image – Art – Faith – Mystery
A conversation with Margaret Gibson. By Edward A. Dougherty.
2013-2015
March 20, 2015. Guilford Poets Guild
“Margaret Gibson in April”
March 20, 2015. Alzheimers.net
“How writing can help the Alzheimer’s Caregiver.”
October 10, 2014. The Day
“Poets Margaret Gibson to read in Mystic”
September 15, 2014. Washington Independent Review of Books
“September 2014 Exemplars”
September 6, 2014. Salon.com
“Alzheimer’s, a Love Story
August 29, 2014. WorldNews.com
“Margaret Gibson’s Newest Collection Examines the Grief and Frustration of Alzheimer’s.”
September 8, 2014. NPR.org
“Notable Books Coming Out”
April 27, 2014. The Wanderer
Margaret Gibson Reading at MFPL
2008-2012
August 17, 2011. Grace as featured on The Day Poetry is Second Nature to Preston
December 8, 2008. University of Richmond Writer’s Series Video, Youtube.com
Image Journal May 2008
“Artist of the Month”
2002. The Verse Daily “Pilgrimage” from Icon and Evidence