7 June 2008 at 2:00 pm
The Alumni House at Salem State College
(L to R): Laura, Diane, Ellen, Ada, Rosemary, Joyce, Eve, Claire)
(L. to R:) Nancy, Laura, Diane, Julia, Ellen, Ada, Rosemary, Joyce, Eve)
Audience, book table, room:
Diane's Wom-po Pages
Diane's Wom-po Pages
See the Women Poets LISTSERV website here: http://www.usm.maine.edu/wompo/
Wompo pages at this site:
Letters to the World reading in Rhode Island
On this page: A Reading for Letters to the World in Salem, Massachusetts
Readers in Salem:
Ada Schneider, Claire Keyes, Diane Kendig, Ellen Goldstein (Editor), Eve Rifkah, Joyce Heon, Julia Lisella, Laura Cherry. Nancy Esposito, and Rosemary Starace (Editor-in-Chief)
NOTES ON THE READING:
Claire and Diane welcomed the audience of 45-50 to the reading in the historic, Presidential Hall of the Salem State Alumni Building. Claire explained what Wompo is, insofar as anyone is able to, followed by Rosemary and Ellen discussing the making of the book.
Then each poet read a favorite poem, not her own, from the book. Among those read were works by Janet McCann, Eloise Klein Healy, Ann-Fisher Wirth, Barbara E. Lightner, Wendy Taylor Carlisle, Marcia Falk, Hadara Bar-Nadav, and Cin Salach. Then the poet read their own poems. We followed up with a Q-A session, for which there were some challenging questions. One questioner seemed surprised that "Wom" was not pronounced "Wim" till someone (was it Julia?) pointed out that we probably didn't want to be called "Wimpos."
We ended the reading by taking a page from Wisconsin Wompos, and held a drawing for a copy of the anthology. After, there were book sales, and then, Wom-pos and friends to Claire's house for a reception, which is to say, we partied.