Word Girls Convene in Chestertown for an Evening of "Full Frontal Poetry"

CHESTERTOWN—It’s something called Full Frontal Poetry, and it’s being billed as a one-night show for “adults only (exceptional children excepted).” What it will deliver is a reading by The Word Girls, three nationally recognized—and eminently respectable—poets and friends with strong connections to Chestertown. The Compleat Bookseller, 301 High Street, is hosting this literary event from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Friday, April 29th, the last Friday of National Poetry Month.

Appearing as “The Word Girls,” each reading from a newly published book of verse, are:


Jehanne Dubrow, author of three poetry collections, most recently Stateside (Northwestern University Press, 2010). Her work has appeared in The New Republic, Poetry, Ploughshares, and The New England Review. She is an assistant professor of English and Creative Writing at Washington College.
Website: www.jehannedubrow.com


Meredith Davies Hadaway, author of two collections of poetry, The River is a Reason (Word Press, 2011) and Fishing Secrets of the Dead. She is a frequent contributor of book reviews to Poetry International and serves as poetry editor for The Summerset Review. Hadaway is currently Vice President for College Relations & Marketing at Washington College. Website: http://mdh.washcoll.edu


Erin Murphy, author of four books of poetry, most recently Word Problems (Word Press, 2011), and co-editor of Making Poems: Forty Poems with Commentary by the Poets. Her poems and essays have been featured in numerous journals and anthologies and on Garrison Keillor's "The Writer's Almanac." A 1990 graduate of Washington College who taught English at her alma mater for several years, she is now an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Penn State Altoona. Website: www.erin-murphy.com

For more information, contact the Compleat Bookseller at 410-778-1480.

WC English Lecturer Erin Murphy Nominated For Prestigious Pushcart Literary Prize

Chestertown, MD, December 4, 2003 — Erin Murphy, a Lecturer in English at Washington College, has been nominated for a 2003 Pushcart Prize for her poem “Studies,” published in the August 2003 issue of the poetry journal Red River Review. A 1990 graduate of the College, Murphy recently took Second Place in the 2003 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award competition, received Second Place honors in the 2003 Literal Latte Poetry Awards, and was a finalist for this year's Pablo Neruda Award.

“Studies” is a poem in two voices that deals with the clinical and personal aspects of Alzheimer's disease. The editors of Red River Review gave it the journal's “highest possible ranking” and voted to nominate it for this year's Pushcart Prize.

The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses series has been published every year since 1976 and is one of the most honored literary projects in America. Small press journal and book editors can make up to six nominations from their year's publications by the December 1 deadline. Hundreds of presses and thousands of writers of short stories, poetry and essays have been represented in the pages of the annual Pushcart collections. Writers who were first noticed in their pages include Raymond Carver, Tim O'Brien, Jayne Anne Phillips, Susan Minot, John Irving, and Philip Lopate.

Murphy, who served as Creative Writing Editor for the 2003 issue of the Washington College Review, acknowledges her excitement about the nomination.

“I don't write poems for the money or the glory, although it's certainly thrilling when an honor such as the Pushcart nomination comes along,” she said. “I have a thing for language and poetry the way mechanics have a thing for cars. I like to get under the hood of a poem and tinker with words, see what I can make them do. Whatever the outcome, the Pushcart nomination will rev me up to write even more.”

Shore Poetry Contest Winners To Be Honored April 24 At Washington College's O'Neill Literary House

Chestertown, MD, April 17, 2003 — The winners of the 2003 Eastern Shore Poetry Contest will be honored in a public reading and awards presentation at Washington College's O'Neill Literary House on Washington Avenue in Chestertown, Thursday, April 24 at 6:30 p.m. Sponsored by the Eastern Shore County Arts Councils of Talbot, Caroline, Queen Anne's, Kent and Cecil counties, the annual Eastern Shore Poetry Contest invites submissions in all age groups from children to senior citizens. Erin Murphy, a lecturer in English and visiting associate director of the O'Neill Literary House, served as this year's judge.
The winners of the 2003 Eastern Shore Poetry Contest in the category of Children and Youth, Grades 1-8, are: First Place, “ Life Story” by Will MacIntosh of Chestertown (Kent School, Grade 5); Second Place, “Teachers at Night” by Benjamin Dryer of Elkton (Kenmore Elementary, Grade 5); and Third Place, a tie between “When I Moved Away” by Kristin Henry of Stevensville (Bayside Elementary, Grade 5) and “The Wolf” by Elizabeth A. Sughrue of Grasonville (The Key School, Grade 6).
The 2003 winners in the category of Students, Grade 9-12, are: First Place, “Three A.M.” by James Barlow of Millington (Queen Anne's County High School, Grade 12); Second Place, “Halfway Point to the Middle of Nowhere” by Christina M. Sughrue of Grasonville (The Key School, Grade 11); Third Place, “Daybreak” by Anna Rubin of Neavitt (St. Michael's High School, Grade 12).
The 2003 winners in the category of Adults, Age 18-59, are: First Place, “Autumn” by Ann E. Dorbin of Trappe; Second Place, “I Cannot Lift This House” by James Dissette of Chestertown; and Third Place, “Synesthesia” by Maggie Creshkoff of Port Deposit.
In the category of Seniors, Age 60 plus, the following take the 2003 awards: First Place, “Pop Ziegler,” and Second Place, “On Leaving a Marriage,” both by Dr. Ann Hennessy of Rock Hall; and a Third Place tie between “Kent Island Blues” by Alex Johnson of Chester, and “The Old Darnell Farm” by Mary C. Godfrey of Sudlersville.
“I was impressed by the quality of work submitted, and by the variety in the entries,” Murphy said. “The themes of the winning poems range from nostalgia about the development of the Eastern Shore to theories on why teachers are scary at night. Some made me think, some made me laugh, and all of them made me glad to have so many talented writers in our part of Maryland.”