CAMDEN — The third annual Camden Festival of Poetry will take place May 13 - 17, 2025.

The Festival opens with a Tuesday evening reading from 6 - 8 p.m., at the Camden Public Library, followed by the premier of “The Sonic Café,” at the First Congregational Church of Camden, on Thursday, from 7 - 9 p.m., featuring singer-songwriters and led by Rory McBride. On Friday, the distinguished poet Jane Hirshfield will lead a Craft Talk entitled “Information, Invitation, and Insight: Transitions in Poems, at the Camden Library, from 2 - 4 p.m. (registration required), followed by an Open Mic for Poets, also held at the church, evening from 7 - 9 p.m. (reregistration to read is required). Seating at the library event is limited to the first 65 people who register, opportunity to participate via Zoom from The Poets Corner (register for either one at www.thepoetscorner.org/craft-talks).

Saturday, the main events will feature the annual “Poetry on Windows” walk with middle school students reading their poems, as inscribed on storefront windows in Camden; this event begins at 10 am, meeting at the Camden Town Office. The main event, which is free and open to the public, takes place from 1 - 5:15 pm at the First Congregational Church. The afternoon opens with a panel of Maine poets including Judy Kaber, Myronn Hardy, Sal Taylor Kydd, Maya Williams, and Beau Williams along with singer/songwriters Louisa Stancioff and Ethan Tischler.

The afternoon then features seven different “sampler” workshops on topics such as “Blackout & Found Poetry” led by Maya Williams, “Converting the Poem into Song” led by singer- songwriter Ethan Tischler, “Exploring Memory & Imagery in Poetry” led by Sal Taylor Kydd, “Exploring the Pantoum” led by Myronn Hardy, “Going Deep & Wide with a Jane Hirshfield Poem” led by Ellen Goldsmith, “Revving up Your Poems” led by Kathleen Ellis, and “Super Poem! A Brief History of the Prose Poem and Some Practice” led by Carol Bachofner.

There will be a book fair during the afternoon with poets presenting their publications, refreshments, and the third annual “Gabriel Zimpritch Poet of Promise Award” given to a young writer.

The featured keynote is the distinguished poet, Jane Hirshfield. Her keynote address is entitled “Living by Poems.” Hirshfield is an award-winning poet, essayist, and translator whose ten collections of poetry includemost recently The Asking: New and Selected Poems (2023) and Ledger (2020). She is also the author of two celebrated collections of essays on poetry and poetics: Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry (1997) and Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World (2015). Hirshfield has also edited and co-translated four books collecting the work of world poets from the past, including The Ink Dark Moon: Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu and Women in Praise of the Sacred: Forty-Three Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women (1994).

American Sign Language interpreters will be present for the Open Mic on Friday as well as the readings and keynote on Saturday.

For more information and to register, visit www.CamdenFestivalofPoetry.  

The festival was founded with support from The Poets Corner (www.thepoetscorner.org), along with a large number of Midcoast arts and cultural institutions, as well as business, and individual sponsors in order to provide this Festival as a free public service for the community. A list of sponsors is posted at www.camdenfestivalofpoetry.org.

Camden Festival of Poetry is a nonprofit organization founded by Meg Weston and Mark S. Burrows.