By Lojo Simon
April is National Poetry Month, and there are several ways Lagunans can celebrate this year.
Enter the21st annual John Gardiner Poetry Contest, sponsored by Laguna Beach Library.
Named in honor of the beloved local poet who died in 2017, this event celebrates writers of all ages who are encouraged to write and share poems based on a theme. This year’s theme is “freestyle,” which applies to the poem’s content, structure and style. The library is accepting entries from April 1-30. Participants may submit up to three original poems along with the entry form, which is available at the library or by email request at [email protected]. Winners in all grade/age categories will be chosen and notified in mid-May. Winning poets receive gift certificate prizes, and their poems will be published in a booklet. The library also will host a public reading of the winning poems on Saturday, June 1
Study ekphrastic poetry at a workshop with poet Jodie Hollander and Laguna Beach Literary Laureate Lojo Simon on April 30.
Students will study examples of celebrated poems that respond to or were inspired by art, discuss using visual art to generate narrative, and try their hand at crafting poems and other writings inspired by the paintings of Sandra Jones Campbell. The workshop will be held from 6-9 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30, at Campbell’s art studio, 2173 Laguna Canyon Road. The workshop fee is $25. Register on Eventbrite:www.eventbrite.com/e/ekphrastic-writing-workshop-tickets-56241029433?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
Listen to poets Jodie Hollander, Kate Buckley and Elena Karina Byrne read their work on May 1 at 6 p.m. at Laguna Beach Books.
Former Laguna Beach Poet Laureate KateBuckley has published essays, poems and stories in 2nd & Church, Bellingham Review, Belmont Story Review, The Cafe Review, New Southerner,North American Review, Rattle, Shenandoah, Slipstream and Spillway,and in numerous anthologies. She is the author of “A Wild Region: Poems & Paintings”(Moon Tide Press) and “Follow Me Down” (Tebot Bach).
Former Regional Director of the Poetry Society of America and Executive Director for the AVK Arts Foundation, Elena Karina Byrne is a visual artist, freelance editor, professor, book reviewer, the Literary Programs Director for The Ruskin Art Club, and annual Poetry
Consultant and Moderator for The Los Angeles TimesFestival of Books. She also works on poetry programs with the Craft & Folk Art Museum and sits on the advisory board for What Books Press.
Jodie Hollander’s poems have appeared in The Poetry Review, PN Review, The Dark Horse, The New Criterion, The Rialto, Verse Daily, The Best Australian Poems of 2011, and The Best Australian Poems of 2015. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship in South Africa, a National Endowment for the Humanities Grant in Italy, a Hawthornden Fellowship in Scotland and attended the MacDowell Colony in 2015.
Laguna Beach Books is located at 1200 South Coast Highway.
