Tonight there will be an in person poetry program starting at 7 PM where 2 poets will read from their works in our Keys Community Room.

These talented writers are Dick Lourie and Mark Pawlak who both live in the Boston area.   They will read their own poems, will tell us about their poetry press, and will bring copies of the HLP magazine for you.

Dick Lourie's poetry collections include Calls on the Dream Telephone (1968), Stumbling (1974), Anima (1978), Ghost Radio (1998), and If the Delta Was the Sea (2009), a collection of poems drawn from his experiences in Mississippi as a blue saxophone player.  His most recent book (2021) is Jam Session and Other Poems.  A founding coeditor (1966) of Hanging Loose Press, he lives in Chelsea, MA.

Mark Pawlak joined Brooklyn-based Hanging Loose Press as an editor in 1980, and is currently the press's managing editor.  He is the author of 10 poetry collections, mostly Away Away (Arrowsmith Press, 2024) and the memoir My Deniversity: Knowing Denise Levertov  (Madhat Press, 2021).  His poems and prose have appeared widely in literary magazines and anthologies, and have been translated into German, Japanese, Spanish, and Polish.  He lives in Cambridge, MA.

Hanging Loose Press is the oldest independent poetry magazine in the country, and they have published more than 240 books.  2026 will the 60th anniversary year of the business.  In addition to reading their own writings in this presentation, Mark and Dick will share some of their own history and will tell us more about their work at the publishing company.  The first issue of Hanging Loose Magazine was published in 1966 and the Press has been very grateful for the support of many contributors over the years, chief among them the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council for the Arts, and the Fund for Poetry.  HLP books have won such honors as the Theodore Roethke Memorial Prize, the Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book award, and the Paterson Poetry Prize.  Hanging Loose has published more than 240 books and 116 issues — well over 10,000 pages of poetry, prose, and art — of Hanging Loose Magazine.  

For more information, you may go to their website which is: https://www.hangingloosepress.com

For questions about this event, Email jhlady@milton.ocln.org or call the Reference Dept. at (617) 898-4964.  

Advance registration is required  to attend so please sign up here,   One reminder will be sent right before the date, and walk-ins are also more than welcome to join us!

Questions?  Email jhlady@milton.ocln.org or call the Reference Dept. at (617) 898-4964.

This program is kindly sponsored by the Friends of the Milton Public Library and is free and open to all.