T H E   B E S T   N E W   W O M E N   P O E T S
for 20 years

 
Poetry Reading:
 
PERUGIA PRESS PRIZE Winner Jenifer Browne Lawrence
and Northampton Poet Markie Babbott
 
Friday, November 6th at 7:30 PM
The Poetry Center at Smith College
Wright Hall, Northampton, MA
 
Poems about watery landscape, father-daughter relationship,
and how the two inform each other.

 
 
 
        
 
Set in the temperate rainforest of Southeast Alaska and the Pacific Coast, Jenifer Browne Lawrence’s collection, Grayling, moves through the interior wilderness of a woman shaped by the rough country of her upbringing. Lawrence writes back into her circle a father who was both threat and savior, a sister who died too young, and herself as mother. Fish, plant life, the specific NW coastal landscape, memory, and experience weave together as Grayling straddles the faultline between past and present.
 
 
Jenifer Browne Lawrence’s awards include the Orlando Prize, the James Hearst Poetry Prize, the Potomac Review Poetry Prize, and a Washington State Artist Trust GAP Grant. Her first book is One Hundred Steps from Shore. She lives on Puget Sound, where she works in civil engineering and edits Crab Creek Review.

Read a sample poem here.
 
Markie Babbott’s book, Into the Great Swamp, is a poetry and photography collaboration with her 93-year-old father, Edward Babbott. Together they explored the Great Swamp nature refuge in New Jersey. He shot hundreds of pictures over several years and selected thirty for this collection. Simultaneously, Markie wrote poems that became less about the natural world, and more about the existential questions raised by the impending loss of her father.

Markie Babbott’s poems have been published widely in journals and anthologies. Her chapbook, Sus Scrofa, won the 2008 Poets Corner Press competition. She is a psychologist who lives with her partner and two children in Northampton, and in her free time, she volunteers with the Connecticut River Watershed chapter of River of Words, a place-based program that integrates poetry, visual art, and the environment.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Other upcoming readings:  Jenifer Browne Lawrence and Gail Thomas will read in the Collected Poets Series at Mocha Maya's Cafe (47 Bridge St.) in Shelburne Falls, MA on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 7:00 PM. Details here.
 
And Jenifer Browne Lawrence will read in the Calliope Series, West Falmouth, MA on Sunday, Nov. 8 at 3:00 PM. Details here.

 
T H E  P E R U G I A   P R E S S   P R I Z E

NOW accepting submissions for 2016
 
Seeking First or Second Books by Women

Prize: $1000 and publication

Entry must be sent in electronically
or postmarked no later than November 15, 2015.

The winning manuscript will be honored
as our 20th anniversary book.

Excellence happens like this: one book at a time. 

 
 
 
 
P E R U G I A   P R E S S
 
PO Box 60364, Florence, MA  01062