Local news- Press Release
Georgetown County South Carolina - Tea Poetry Series Returns to Waccamaw Library for 18th season 02 January 2024 ( news )
Georgetown County , state South Carolina ( By Press Release office)
Jan 02,2024
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“If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off , I know that is poetry , ” wrote celebrated American poet Emily Dickinson . Experience for yourself poetry’s head - topping , invigorating power as the Litchfield Tea and Poetry Series returns to the Waccamaw Library for its eighteenth year .
Beginning on Thursday , Jan . 11 at 10 a . m . , the venerable series features an impressive slate of writers , all of whom share connections to the South Carolina coast . In addition , this year’s series will feature four open mic sessions to inspire local writers to share their work . Immediately following each of the four scheduled readings will be an open mic session . All who attend are invited to read one of their own poems . Participants are asked to keep their reading to a single poem no longer than a page . All programs are sponsored by the Friends of the Waccamaw Library , and are free and open to the public . The Library is located at 41 St . Paul Place , Pawleys Island , SC 29585 . The schedule is as follows , with all programs beginning at 10 a . m . Readings also include audience Q&A and book - signings with the poets .
Jan . 11 - - the series begins with a stalwart Lowcountry poetic voice: William P . “Billy” Baldwin . An award - winning novelist , poet , biographer , and historian , Baldwin is a coastal South Carolina literary institution . He has spent nearly all of his life in McClellanville , where he worked as a shrimper , an oysterman , and a shipbuilder . His poems reflect this in - depth knowledge of local landscapes and histories , as he explores the workings of an “all - encompassing life - force” through the marshlands and creeks , and out onto the open water . His first novel
The Hard to Catch Mercy ( Algonquin , 1993 ) won the Lillian Smith Award , and he coauthored with Genevieve “Sister” Peterkin the memoir
Heaven Is a Beautiful Place ( University of South Carolina Press , 2015 ) . His recent work ,
Carolina Rambling: A Visual and Poetical Tour ( Class Publishing , 2018 ) , continues a collaboration with photographer Selden B . “Bud” Hill that commingles Hill’s images and Baldwin’s poems to capture “a touching elegiac look at the Lowcountry’s holy places—from abandoned homes , disintegrating barns , tiny churches and forlorn cemeteries to the shrinking livelihoods of farms , cotton and shrimp . ” Two prior collaborative books ,
The Unpainted South ( Evening Post Books , 2011 ) and
These Our Offerings ( Evening Post Books , 2012 ) won awards from the Independent Book Sellers Association .
Feb . 15 - - Jessica K . Hylton , Artist in Residence at Coastal Carolina University , is the author of the chapbook
The Great Scissor Hunt ( Headmistress Press , 2017 ) . Her work appears in
East Coast Literary Review
,
Lavender Review
, and
Panoply
, among other venues . According to Jess Hager , Hylton’s poetry is “full of turbulent inner dialogue—a war within the poet’s mind—stuck straddling the fence between lust and love , forgiveness and hate , grand images and mundane trivialities of daily life , and an intense , almost childlike longing for home , coupled with an overpowering desire for adventure and the unknown . ” She received her Ph . D . from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and previously directed the M . F . A . program at the University of Arkansas at Monticello . Hylton is founding editor of Fermata Publishing and organizes the Funky Fish Camp Reading Series at Between the Antlers Restaurant on the harborfront in Georgetown .
March 14 - - The Series welcomes Murrells Inlet resident Hastings Hensel , whose poetry collections include
Ballyhoo ( Johns Hopkins University Press , 2019 ) ;
Winter Inlet ( Unicorn Press , 2015 ) , which won the Unicorn Press First Book Contest; and the chapbook
Control Burn ( Iron Horse Literary Review , 2011 ) , which won the Iron Horse Literary Review Single - Author Competition . Mary Jo Salter counts Hensel as “one of the most accomplished young poets now writing in this country , ” while Andrew Hudgins adds this praise: “I did not know that the Carolina coast needed its defining poet until I read Hastings Hensel’s
Winter Inletand realized it already has one . ” Hensel earned his M . F . A . from Johns Hopkins University and is a Senior Lecturer in English at Coastal Carolina University . His writing has appeared in numerous journals and magazines , including
Gray ' s Sporting Journal , The Greensboro Review , New South , storySouth , The Hopkins Review , Cave Wall , 32 Poems
,
South Carolina Wildlife
, and many others . He is the owner of River Reader Kayaking and is currently pursuing his Winyah Master Naturalist certification as part of the South Carolina Master Naturalist program .
April 11 - - the series will come to an exciting conclusion with another notable coastal poet , Myrtle Beach writer Richard Allen Taylor , as part of the Library’s celebration of April as National Poetry Month . Taylor is the author of three poetry collections , including
Armed and Luminous ( Main Street Rag , 2016 ) and the recently published
Letters to Karen Carpenter
( Main Street Rag , 2023 ) . His poems , articles , and reviews have appeared in numerous publications , such as
Rattle , Comstock Review , The Pedestal
, and
Litmosphere
. Taylor’s work has been described as “traversing the music of his universe while navigating the complexities of love , loss , aging and dying” with “poems created not as comic relief from sorrow , but as natural reflections on life , myth and art . ” A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee , Taylor formerly served as review editor for
The Main Street Rag
and as coeditor of
Kakalak
, a journal featuring writers , artists and photographers of North and South Carolina . He holds an M . F . A . in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte , and he and his
Kakalakcoeditors received the Irene Blair Honeycutt Legacy Award for service to the writing community . What a fine way to celebrate National Poetry Month!
All told , the 2024 Series will present a can’t - miss opportunity to engage with dynamic representatives who prove that the state of poetry is strong right here along the Hammock Coast!
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