Library Forum: First Annual Michael Perkins Memorial Poetry Prize Award Ceremony and Poetry Reading
Schedule
Sat, 15 Apr, 2023 at 05:00 pm
Location
Woodstock Public Library District | Woodstock, NY
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COUNTY-WIDE STUDENT POETRY WINNERS ANNOUNCED The Friends of the Woodstock Library and the family of Michael Perkins are pleased to announce the winners of the First Annual Michael Perkins Poetry Prize. The contest, open to all high school students in Ulster County, celebrates poetry and seeks to inspire young writers in honor of longtime area resident Michael Perkins, who died in February 2022.
Students from all grades in high schools throughout Ulster County submitted up to five pages of poems that were judged blindly. The judges selected Colvin Vandebogart of Bearsville, a sophomore at Onteora High School, as the winner of the $500 first prize. Amy Boller of Esopus, a sophomore at Mount Academy, took the $250 second prize. The judges also awarded two $100 third prizes to Allison Argueta a sophomore at Saugerties High School and Tina Pignetti a senior at Wallkill Senior High School.
As a teenager in Dayton, Ohio, Michael Perkins’ prize-winning poem in a contest sponsored by a local radio station marked the beginning of a long career as a poet, novelist, essayist, aphorist, critic and self-described culture vulture.
The contest was judged by three of Perkins’ close friends and colleagues, Will Nixon, Henry Weinfield and Joshua Coben. With Michael Perkins, judge Will Nixon co-authored Walking Woodstock: Journey into the Wild Heart of America’s Most Famous Home Town and The Pocket Guide to Woodstock. He is also the author of two books of poetry, My Late Mother as a Ruffed Grouse and Love in the City of Grudges. He lives in Kingston. Henry Weinfield taught at the University of Notre Dame for 18 years and is the author of two books of poetry, Alphabet and As the Crow Flys as well as verse translations including Collected Poems of Stephane Mallarme and The Labyrinth of Love: Selected Sonnets and Other Poems by Pierre de Ronsard. He lives in New York City. Joshua Coben is the author of two books of poetry, Maker of Shadows, winner of the X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize, and Night Chaser, a finalist for the Vassar Miller Prize, the New American Poetry Prize and the Donald Justice Poetry Prize. He lives in Boston.
When Perkins’ family asked Michael Hunt, the president of the Friends of the Woodstock Library, if they would partner with them to create the prize, Hunt said, “It was a no-brainer. We jumped at the opportunity to encourage Ulster County’s future poets in addition to honoring Michael by keeping his work alive. Libraries are hubs for cheering on their young patrons to write and create and discover their imaginations.”
The Friends of the Woodstock Library invites the community to attend the awards ceremony and reception, including a poetry reading by all participants and judges, at the Woodstock Library, 5 Library Lane, on Saturday, April 15 from 5 to 6pm. For further information, call 845-679-2213 or email [email protected].
Contact: Sondra Howell
Woodstock Library Forum Director
[email protected]
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Where is it happening?
Woodstock Public Library District, 5 Library Ln,Woodstock,NY,United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
