The Poetry Box

Poetry Box LIVE

The Poetry Box LIVE (Jan 9 2027)

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The Poetry Box LIVE – January Edition!

Saturday, Jan. 9, 2027 @ 4:00 PM (Pacific)

3pm (Alaskan) / 5pm (Mountain) / 6pm (Central) / 7pm (Eastern)

 

Featuring:

How to Join Zoom Show:

PLEASE NOTE: EVERYONE MUST REGISTER IN ADVANCE.

 
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER 
 
(Once registered, you will receive your personal link via email from Zoom. Then on the day of the show, simply use the link that was emailed to you to join about 5 minutes before the show starts so we can start on time)

 

 

About the Featured Poets:

Susan Vespoli believes in the power of writing to heal and illuminate. She lives in Phoenix with a chiweenie named after Frida Kahlo. She is the author of four poetry collections and teaches online writing classes for 27Powers.org and writers.com. Her work has been published at ONE ART: a journal of poetry, Nasty Women Poets: An Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse, Rattle, Anti-Heroin Chic, Gyroscope Review, and other cool spots.

You can learn more about Susan’s newest book HERE.

Phyllis Mannan moved with her husband and daughter to the Portland, Oregon area in 2025 after living on the North Oregon Coast full time for 18 years. She has published a memoir, Torn Fish: A Mother, Her Autistic Son, and Their Shared Humanity, and a poetry chapbook, Bitterbrush (Finishing Line Press). She has received a Literary Arts Fellowship in poetry, and her poems have appeared in Cirque, Cloudbank, North Coast Squid, Rain Magazine, The Raven’s Perch, and elsewhere. A poem is forthcoming in the anthology Campfire Stories: The Oregon Coast (Mountaineers Books) in 2027.

Before retiring, Phyllis taught high school English and served as a substitute teacher. She advocated for children and adults with developmental disabilities for many years. In Manzanita, she volunteered in the Hoffman Center for the Arts Writing Program. She finds pleasure in reading, writing, and gardening and values her faith, nature, and the arts.

You can learn more about Phyllis’s newest book HERE

Sue Fagalde Lick lives alone in the forest on the Oregon coast, which is a good thing because her writing projects, books, and musical instruments take up the whole house. She writes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Her recent publications include the poetry book Dining Al Fresco with My Dog, the novel Back to Ona Beach, and a memoir, No Way Out of This: Loving a Partner with Alzheimer’s. Her latest obsession is her Substack “Can I Do It Alone?” which takes an honest look at the realities of living alone by choice or by chance.

When not writing, Sue sings and plays piano, guitar, mandolin and ukulele, takes long walks in the woods, and eats like a queen.

You can learn more about Susan’s newest book HERE

Penelope Scambly Schott lives, writes, and leads poetry workshops in the small town of Dufur (population: 640), second largest town in Wasco County, Oregon. Most recent books include On Dufur Hill and Waving Fly Swatters at Angels. Penelope is a past recipient of the Oregon Book Award for A Is for Anne: Mistress Hutchinson Disturbs the Commonwealth, a book-length poetic narrative. The Field Mouse’s Child is something different: most poems in this little collection run between 2 and 8 lines—much like field mice who never grow past 3 or 4 inches long, whiskers to tip of the tail.

You can learn more about Penelope’s newest book HERE

 

 

The Poetry Box LIVE (Nov 14, 2026)

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The Poetry Box LIVE – NOVEMBER Edition!

Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026 @ 4:00 PM (Pacific)

3pm (Alaskan) / 5pm (Mountain) / 6pm (Central) / 7pm (Eastern)

 

Featuring:

How to Join Zoom Show:

PLEASE NOTE: EVERYONE MUST REGISTER IN ADVANCE.

 
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER 
 
(Once registered, you will receive your personal link via email from Zoom. Then on the day of the show, simply use the link that was emailed to you to join about 5 minutes before the show starts so we can start on time)

 

 

About the Featured Poets:

Ann Farley, an only child of two only children, learned at an early age to entertain herself by making up stories and playing with words. Her poems have appeared in Peregrine, Timberline Review, Third Wednesday, Gobshite Quarterly, Willawaw, Verseweavers, and others. Her first chapbook, Tell Her Yes, was published in 2022.

She loves travel, anywhere and everywhere, from local trails to the tip of South Africa, and enjoys photography, watercolor painting, a good book and a cup of tea. She lives in Beaverton, Oregon with her kind and patient husband, Kevin, and their exuberant German Shepherd, Ella.

You can learn more about Ann’s book HERE.

Shawn Pittard is the author of four slender volumes of poetry: Shelter in Place from The Poetry Box; Witness, which was a Finalist in The Poetry Box 2024 chapbook contest; Standing in the River, which was the winner of Tebot Bach’s 2010 Clockwise Chapbook Competition; and These Rivers from Rattlesnake Press. His poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and featured at American Life in Poetry. He’s been a coach for Poetry Out Loud and a California Poet in the Schools, taught recitation and writing in middle schools and high schools, including juvenile hall (yep, they’re good kids), as well as with veterans and the men in Folsom Prison. By day, he labored in the field of environmental protection, planning, and public policy, focusing on energy.

You can learn more about Shawn’s book HERE

From New Jersey English teacher to international management trainer; from author of business books to poetry collections; from work addict to devotee of the Spanish proverb, “It is beautiful to do nothing and rest afterwards,” Carolyn Martin is blissfully retired—and resting—in Clackamas, Oregon.

Although a stroke in August 2025 weakened her body. Martin’s mind remains strong. She still embraces poetry as her way of interacting with the world––in images, rhythms, sounds, and intensities of language. That is why she continues to pursue the joyful challenge of translating experience into as few words as possible. In doing so, she embraces Anne Sexton’s dictate: “One of my secret instructions to myself as a poet is: Whatever you do, don’t be boring.”

Martin’s poems have appeared in more than 200 publications around the world, and she has six full-length collections and three chapbooks under her creative belt. In addition, she was the winner of the 2025 Hudson-Fowler Prize for Poetry from the University of Central Arkansas.

You can learn more about Carolyn’s book HERE

Stephen James Penner lives with his wife of 50 years, Glena, in Salem, Oregon. A native Californian, he lived in Africa for six years but spent most of his life under the hot sun of the San Joaquin Valley in the Golden State. For a season he ran marathons and maintains exercise rhythms to this day. He follows soccer, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and appreciates intelligent, animated, meditative conversation. His years working with Mennonite Central Committee and as a Mennonite pastor have informed his life and poetry. His previous books include a memoir, Tea in the Desert, and two previous books of poetry, A Simple Meal and February Run.

You can learn more about Stephen’s book HERE

 

 

The Poetry Box LIVE (Oct 10, 2026)

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The Poetry Box LIVE – OCTOBER Edition!

Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026 @ 4:00 PM (Pacific)

3pm (Alaskan) / 5pm (Mountain) / 6pm (Central) / 7pm (Eastern)

 

Featuring:

Enjoy a Video from the Show:

 

 

About the Featured Poets:

Susan Coultrap-McQuin is a retired educator and nature lover. From a very young age, she has had her hands in the soil of gardens and her eyes on natural wonders. It was probably inevitable that, when she retired and started writing poetry over ten years ago, she would first be inspired by the wild prairie, flowers, trees, and pond of her own backyard and neighborhood in Minnesota. She loves to wander woods and fields, both at home and abroad; if you invite her to an arboretum or botanical garden, she will always say “yes.”

Susan grew up in a Chicago suburb and earned degrees at Iowa State and the U of Iowa.  She was a professor and administrator at universities in Minnesota and New York and has served on a variety of regional and national boards. Her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, and she has a chapbook of her travel poems, entitled What We Bring Home (The Poetry Box, 2021). Among her honors is a Pushcart nomination. Susan is married with two grown children and four grandchildren, who join her in tending gardens and naming wildflowers and pollinators in her yard.

You can learn more about Susan’s book HERE

Phillip Shabazz serves as a Poet-in-the-Schools of North Carolina and is the author of four poetry collections and two novels, including the coming-of-age novel Pearls In The Sea (2026). His most recent collection, Moonflower, is published by Fernwood Press (2025). His work has been nominated for Best of the Net and has been included in the anthologies Paul Green: North Carolina Writers on the Legacy of the State’s Most Celebrated Playwright, Crossing the Rift: North Carolina Poets on 9/11 & Its Aftermath, and Home Is Where: African American Poetry from the Carolinas. Some publication credits in journals include Fine Lines, Florida Review, Galway Review, BREATHE, Queen’s Quarterly, K’in, and Thimble.

You can learn more about Phillip’s book HERE

A former journalist and educator, Lori Rosenlof Drake is a freelance writer whose debut poetry chapbook, Moonshine Shared with a Mishmash of Musings, will be published in August 2026. Drake’s work has appeared in The Christian Century, San Diego Woman, Mothers Always Write and the Nebraska Alumnus among others. The recipient of several Honorable Mentions in the Writers’ Digest National Competition, her writing has received support through a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council. As the Executive Director of the Farmville Chamber of Commerce in North Carolina, Drake implemented the National Poetry Month celebration in her hometown and led the initiative for three years. Drake lives with her husband in North Carolina. They have six grown children and two grandchildren. lorirosenlofdrake.net

You can learn more about Lori’s book HERE

Stuart Watson fell in love with poetry as a college student, but heeded the guidance of an esteemed instructor, the late James Naiden, to pursue a paycheck in journalism. Its rewards exceeded the mercenary. His writing for the Medford Mail Tribune was honored as the state’s best in its 1983 journalism awards. Now retired, he has been writing short fiction and poetry for the last ten years. More than ninety stories have appeared in mostly digital journals. He was the second-place honoree in the 2025 Cambridge Short Story Prize. This is his first collection of poetry, many of which have appeared in print and online journals. He lives in Hood River, Oregon, with his wife, the novelist Kathy Watson, and the world’s best dog, Satchel. He toots his horn online at chiselchips.com.

You can learn more about Stu’s book HERE

 

 

The Poetry Box LIVE (Sept 12, 2026)

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The Poetry Box LIVE – SEPTEMBER Edition!

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026 @ 4:00 PM (Pacific)

3pm (Alaskan) / 5pm (Mountain) / 6pm (Central) / 7pm (Eastern)

 

Featuring:

Enjoy a Video from the Show:

 

About the Featured Poets:

Lana Hechtman Ayers worked in insurance, mutual funds, customer service, research, and fact-checking but her true calling is publishing the work of other poets as managing editor of Concrete Wolf Poetry Series, MoonPath Press, and World Enough Writers. She also facilitates generative writing workshops in the Amherst Method, conducts an online poetry book club, and produces the weekly Poem After Poem Newsletter.

Lana earned BAs in Mathematics and Psychology, holds a Masters in Counseling Therapy, and possesses MFAs in Poetry and in Writing Popular Fiction. A multiple Best of the Net, Pushcart Prize, and National Book Award nominee, she won honors in the Discovery / The Nation Award and in the Rita Dove Poetry Prize. She was awarded writing residencies from Hedgebrook, Devils Tower National Park, and The Whiteley Foundation.

She is the author of thirteen previous collections of poems and chapbooks, including: Sky Over (Fernwood Press, 2026), The Autobiography of Rain (Fernwood Press, 2024), Overtures (Kelsay Books, 2023), When All Else Fails (The Poetry Box, 2023), Red Riding Hood’s Real Life (Night Rain Press, 2017), The Moon’s Answer (Egress Studio Press, 2016), Dance From Inside My Bones (Snake Nation Press, 2007), winner of the Haas Award, and Chicken Farmer I Still Love You (D-N Publishing, 2007), winner of D-N’s annual award. She published a romantic time travel adventure, Time Flash: Another Me (Night Rain Books, 2018), and hopes someday to complete the sequel, currently stalled at 25,000 words.

You can learn more about Lana’s book HERE

Joanne Monte was born and raised in New Jersey. Many of her poems have appeared in literary journals such as Poet Lore, The Washington Square Review, The Red Cedar Review, ellipsis…literature and art, Thirteen Bridges Review, Marrow Magazine, Lucky Lizard Journal and Poetry Super Highway, among others.

Joanne’s first poetry book, The Blue Light of Dawn, received The Bordighera Poetry Prize, sponsored by The Sonia Raiziss-Giop Charitable Foundation, and was published by Bordighera Press in 2013. She is also the author of The Day to Eternity (Word Association Publishers, 2012), a novel set during the Korean War, which was inspired by her father and uncles who had fought in the conflict.

In addition to receiving a Pushcart nomination, she is the recipient of  the New Jersey State Council on the Arts fellowship. Her other awards include Sixfold Poetry Prize, The Jack Grapes Poetry Award, Palette Poetry Award, Princemere Poetry Award, New Millennium Writings Award, Sheila-Na-Gig Poetry Award, Etched Onyx Magazine Award, and the Writer’s Digest Award.

You can learn more about Joanne’s book HERE

Danyen Powell has been facilitator for the Sacramento Poetry Center’s weekly Tuesday Night Poetry Workshop for over 30 years and still going strong. He’s been a judge for the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest and is the author of two chapbooks, Anvil and Blue Sky Flies Out, both from Rattlesnake Press. In 2014, Danyen published a bilingual collection of poems, Las Palabras Mueren de Sed / Words Die of Thirst.  His poem “Pantoum of the Oncology Ward” was the grand prize winner of the Ad Schuster’s Annual Citation at the 74th Annual Poets Dinner in Berkeley California. He volunteered as a docent at The Crocker Art Museum with his wife Betsy and runs a family construction business with his son Joel.

You can learn more about Danyen’s book HERE

Karen Poppy (she/her; non-binary), is a lyricist/librettist, poet, and author, as well as an attorney licensed in California and Texas. Karen Poppy’s poetry has been set to music by esteemed composers, adapted into a short film for an international project, and published in various books, literary journals, and magazines. A Spring of Resilient Light is her second full-length poetry collection.
Her debut full-length poetry collection, Diving at the Lip of the Water, is published by Beltway Editions (2023), and is lauded by the legendary Judy Grahn for its demonstration of “paradox and power.” She has three published poetry chapbooks: Crack Open/Emergency, our own beautiful brutality, and Every Possible Thing.

You can learn more about Karen’s book HERE

 

 

The Poetry Box LIVE (April 11, 2026)

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The Poetry Box LIVE – APRIL Edition!

Saturday, April 11, 2026 @ 4:00 PM (Pacific)

3pm (Alaskan) / 5pm (Mountain) / 6pm (Central) / 7pm (Eastern)

 

Featuring:

Enjoy a Video of the Show:

 

 

About the Featured Poets:

Casey Robb is a former physical therapist and a retired civil engineer from Texas, living in Northern California near her two adopted daughters. Her early passion for poetry was rekindled in middle age in the California Federation of Chaparral Poets (CFCP). Casey’s poetry has been published in many journals and has won numerous awards, including a best-of-convention trophy and a runner-up trophy at CFCP conventions. Her poems encompass a diverse range of subjects, both light and dark. She also enjoys writing fiction. Her short stories have been published in various journals, and she is currently working on a novel.

You can learn more about Casey’s book HERE

 

Joanne Kennedy Frazer is a retired peace and justice director and educator for faith-based organizations. Since writing her first poem at age 73, she has been published in over 100 literary venues. Having now achieved 84 years on this planet, she enjoys leisure to delight in its gifts, as well as time to grieve its desecration. She relishes her daily activity of watching a variety of birds on her balcony as they eat, drink, rest, and cock their heads, look at her. She’s fairly certain they sense her gratitude which makes it a mutual admiration society. Her go-to poetry themes are nature, justice, family and aging. Five poems have been turned into a song cycle, Resistance, by composer Steven Luksan, and performed in Seattle and Durham. Her second chapbook, Seasonings (Kelsay Books), was nominated for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. You can follow Frazer on Substack: @poetrybyjoanne.substack.com.  She lives in Raleigh, NC.

You can learn more about Joanne’s book HERE

 

Sharon Black credits becoming a poet to two girlhood memories from the late 60s. The first was accompanying her physician father on house calls through central Pennsylvania farm country, staring, often bored, out the passenger seat window between patient visits. The second has to do with the long row of empty, gallon-sized glass cider bottles, dusty and draped with spider webs, that lined the north wall of the unfinished basement in her childhood home. Ms. Black’s work appears in over 40 publications over many decades. Twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize, her poems have placed in contests, secured best-in-issue accolades, and been selected for anthology/anniversary-issue publications. The Snow Arrow: Selected Poems gathers many of these poems as well as some newer pieces. Since her retirement from librarianship at the University of Pennsylvania, she has added abstract painting (see cover art) and playwriting to her creative pursuits. Her first play, Welcome to the RAA, received a staged reading at Burning Coal Theater in 2021 and she is at work on a second called The Drip in which hypodermic media indoctrination, climate change, cultism, and conceptual art collide to test family relations. She resides in Wallingford, PA with her husband George though they spend a lot of “spirit time” on Rainbow Lake in the Adirondacks.

You can learn more about Sharon’s book HERE

Susan Willis Johnson writes in the mountain town of Roslyn, Washington. She hikes daily with family and friends on trails along the Cle Elum River Valley. Serving as the spokesperson for a Roslyn grassroots citizens’ group, she collaborated to promote sustainable forestry and to protect wildlife habitat. Susan taught in the local schools and was Co-Director of the Central Washington Writing Project. She was named the 2009 Washington State Teacher of the Year. Her chapbook, The Call Home (The Poetry Box), was a finalist in the 2022 Chapbook Contest.

You can learn more about Susan’s book HERE

 

 

The Poetry Box LIVE (Mar 14, 2026)

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The Poetry Box LIVE – MARCH Edition!

Saturday, March 14, 2026 @ 4:00 PM (Pacific)

3pm (Alaskan) / 5pm (Mountain) / 6pm (Central) / 7pm (Eastern)

 

Featuring:

Enjoy a Video of the Show:

 

About the Featured Poets:

Debbie Hall is a former psychologist whose poetry has appeared in Hawaii Pacific Review, Arlington Literary Journal, Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine, Sunshine/Noir III:  Writing from San Diego and Tijuana, and many other literary journals and anthologies. Her books include What Light I Have (2018, Main Street Rag Books), Falling into the River (2020, The Poetry Box) and In the Jaguar’s House (2022, The Poetry Box), a book of wildlife photography and poems for children. Her essays have appeared on NPR (This I Believe series), in USD Magazine, and the San Diego Union Tribune. She holds an MFA in writing from Pacific University in Oregon and is a poetry editor with Writer’s Resist. Her photography has been published in Orion, The National Humane Review (a 2009 photo contest winner), The San Diego Union Tribune, Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine and in other literary journals.

You can learn more about Debbie’s book HERE

 

Julie Potiker is a mindfulness expert, author, and—much to her own delight—a debut poet at the age of 65. Her journey to poetry feels like a joyful surprise, arriving after a decade of helping others bring more peace and wellness into their lives through her Mindful Methods for Life programs. A former attorney, Julie is a Certified Mindful Self-Compassion teacher affiliated with UCSD Center for Mindfulness, and founder of the Balanced Mind Meditation Center in La Jolla, California. She trained with leaders in the field, including Kristin Neff, Christopher Germer, and Rick Hanson, and holds certifications in trauma-sensitive mindfulness, grief education, and multiple adaptations of the Mindful Self-Compassion program.

Her first two books—SNAP! From Chaos to Calm and Life Falls Apart, but You Don’t Have To— and are available in print and audiobook format. Julie’s work has been featured in The Oprah Magazine, Costco Connection, AARP, and major news outlets including NBC, CBS, and Fox. Now, she embraces the wonder of sharing her first poetry collection, proof that creativity can bloom at any stage of life. More at MindfulMethodsForLife.com.

You can learn more about Julie’s book HERE

 

Angelika Quirk was born and raised in Hamburg, Germany. Her poetry is influenced by German culture and the angst of post-World War II experiences. At the age of 18 she immigrated to the United States. She graduated from U.C. Berkely with a BA in German Literature. Her poetry has appeared in various literary magazines including N.Y. Quarterly, California Quarterly, TRANS-LIT2 and Marin Poetry Center’s Anthologies. She was a member of the Marin Poetry Center for six years in charge of the High School Poetry Program. Two of her poetry books, “After Sirens,” “Of Ruins and Rumors,” and her memoir “Kriegskinder” are in the library of the German American Heritage Museum in Wahington D. C. Her poem, “Vom Vergänglichen” recently won the SCALG Lyrik-Preis, 2023.

In a former life, she danced in “Totentanz” at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and was on the record album cover of the “Schlagerparade 1968” (Hit Parade 1968) in Germany. A lover of music, collector of words in English and German, she now writes poems about life and living. Her Leitmotif: to instill emotions and passions from the surreal to the sublime, from chaos to rhythm to rhyme.

You can learn more about Angelika’s book HERE

Priscilla Bernard Wieden is a lifelong Poet and Arts, Education and Environmental advocate. She is celebrated for her active engagement in Portland’s vibrant artistic community and contributions to Caldera, an award-winning year-round program for underserved youth, dedicated to nurturing creative and environmental education. Priscilla serves as Co-chair of the Caldera Board, an organization founded by the Wieden family in 1996 with the belief in the power of creativity. She also currently serves on the Board of Literary Arts and on the board of Trustees for Wieden + Kennedy.

Priscilla has devoted her life to being of service in the healing arts, having founded and run Evergreen Clinic for 35 years, and in the theater arts, having served as Board Chair for Profile Theatre. In 2024, she was a TedX Salon Speaker “Courage emerges from Love” on Mortality after the passing of her husband, Wieden and Kennedy Founder and creator of the eponymous “Just Do It” Nike Tagline, Dan Wieden.

Priscilla is a proud mother, grandmother and gardener. She stays immersed in issues of social justice, the arts, women and children, housing, the environment, and hunger, including past Board service with Urban Gleaners and Ecotrust, keeping Priscilla actively engaged with the world.

You can learn more about Priscilla’s book HERE

 

 

The Poetry Box LIVE (Feb 7, 2026)

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The Poetry Box LIVE – Prizewinners Edition!

Saturday, Feb 7, 2026 @ 1:00 PM (Pacific)

12pm (Alaskan) / 2pm (Mountain) / 3pm (Central) / 4pm (Eastern)

 

Featuring Winners from our 2025 Chapbook Contest

Enjoy a Video from the Show:

About the Featured Poets:

Grand Prize Winner, The Poetry Box Chapbook Prize 2025

John Arthur is a writer and musician from New Jersey. His work has appeared in Rattle, DIAGRAM, Frogpond, Failbetter, trampset, ONE ART, and many other places. He has worked as a valet at a casino, a waiter, a Ferris Wheel operator, a cook, a pizza delivery driver, a fast food delivery driver, a kati roll delivery driver, a landscaper for a week or so, a journalist, an editor, a librarian, a library director, a municipal manager, and for one long, hot day as a guy going door to door asking if you’d like to donate to the Sierra Club. His band is The Deafening Colors.

You can learn more about John’s book HERE

 

Editor’s Choice Winner, The Poetry Box Chapbook Prize 2025

Katie Dozier’s love of poetry first bloomed as a child. She memorized Robert Frost sitting on a tree stump and bathed in Edgar Allan Poe as an adolescent. While studying words at Florida State University, KHD also played with chips and became a professional poker player. She’s passionate about encouraging others to discover and share contemporary poetry, through her X account (@Katie_Dozier), her Substack, and NFTs.  KHD is the author of All That Glitter, Watering Can: a Month of Poems, and the co-author of Hot Pink Moon: a Crown of Haibun and Did You See the Moon Honey. She is the creator of the top-rated podcast The Poetry Space_, the haiku editor for One Art, and an editor at Rattle. Katie lives in The Woodlands, Texas, with her husband Timothy Green, their four children, and way too many books.

You can learn more about Katie’s book HERE

 

Designer’s Choice Winner, The Poetry Box Chapbook Prize 2025

John Wojtowicz grew up working on his family’s azalea and rhododendron nursery and still lives in the backwoods of what Ginsberg dubbed “nowhere Zen New Jersey” with his wife and two children. Currently, he teaches social work at Rowan College South Jersey. He has been featured on Rowan University’s Writer’s Roundtable on 89.7 WGLS-FM and Painted Bride Quarterly’s Slush Pile Podcast. Several of his poems were selected for Princeton University’s 2021 Unique Minds: Creative Voices exhibition at the Lewis Center for the Arts. When not writing, teaching, or rolling around in the yard, he enjoys monitoring bluebird boxes, volunteering at the Cohanzick Zoo, and flipping horseshoe crabs.

You can learn more about John’s book HERE

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins has called George Bilgere’s work “a welcome breath of fresh, contemporary air in the house of American poetry.” Bilgere has read his poems at the Library of Congress, the 92nd Street Y in New York, the Chautauqua Institute, and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. NPR listeners know him from his many appearances on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac and A Prairie Home Companion. He has received grants and awards from the Pushcart Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Fulbright Foundation. He is a recipient of the May Swenson Poetry Award, the Society of Midland Authors Poetry Prize, the Ohioana Poetry Award, and the Cleveland Arts Prize. His work received the Editor’s Choice Award from the New Ohio Review in 2022, and in 2023 he won the Reader’s Choice Award from Rattle. His eighth collection of poetry, Central Air, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in March, 2022. His new book, Cheap Motels of My Youth, won the Rattle Press Chapbook Prize in 2023 and appeared in 2024.

You can learn more about George HERE

 

 

The Poetry Box LIVE (Jan 10, 2026)

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The Poetry Box LIVE – JANUARY Edition!

Saturday, Jan 10, 2026 @ 4:00 PM (Pacific)

3pm (Alaskan) / 5pm (Mountain) / 6pm (Central) / 7pm (Eastern)

 

Featuring:

Enjoy a Video from the Show:

 

 

About the Featured Poets:

K.D. Vallejo is from the Ciudad Juarez/El Paso border community, currently residing in Idaho Falls. He is interested in the aesthetic space where science, philosophy, and language meet. Kevin is a reviewer and member of the editorial team of Consilience, and his work has been featured in Beyond Queer Words, Menagerie 208, The Marbled Sigh, and the technical journals Reports of Progress in Physics, ACS Nano, among others. His previously published collection minus one twelfth can be found now. Kevin daylights as a condensed matter physicist, stacking atoms for a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory.

You can learn more about K.D’s book HERE

 

Mike Schneider began writing during the Vietnam War when, while serving in the US Air Force, he published an anti-war “underground” newspaper. He has practiced law, worked as a science writer, won awards for magazine writing, and written book reviews and essays on culture for several publications. For essays in the Thomas Merton Center’s New People, he received a 2003-04 Creative Artists Stipend in Arts Commentary from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Three times nominated for the Pushcart Prize, his poems appear in many literary journals, anthologies and three chapbooks. He received the 2012 Editors Award from The Florida Review and the 2016 Robert Phillips Prize from Texas Review Press. With a colleague in 2010, he founded East End Poets, a group of Pittsburgh-based writers. In September 2022, the Hungry Hill Writing Group in West Cork, Ireland awarded Schneider’s work second prize in its Poets Meet Politics 2022 International Open. His full-length collection Spring Mills (Ragged Sky) came out in 2023.

You can learn more about Mike’s book HERE

 

Kristin Roedell graduated from Whitman College (B.A. English 1984) and the University of Washington Law School (J.D. 1987). She practiced family law for 10 years in the Pacific Northwest. Her poetry has appeared in over seventy journals, magazines and anthologies, including: The Journal of the American Medical Association, Switched on Gutenberg, Crab Creek Review, and Ginosko. She was the winner of the national NAMI Open Minds Quarterly Poetry Contest. Her book Downriver was a finalist in the Quercus Review Press Poetry Contest, and her book Lessons in Buoyancy was a finalist in the Blue Light Poetry Contest (as Crone Poems). She is the author of two chapbooks: Girls with Gardenias (Flutter Press) and Night Circus (Legal Studies Forum), plus a full-length collection: Downriver (Aldrich Press).

You can learn more about Kristin’s book HERE

Outside of directing plays and teaching drama and English, riding and writing have been Fred Zirm’s two main occupations – not at the same time, although he does often think of ideas for poems while on his bicycle. On the cycling side, he has completed several century rides, competed in time trials and road races, solo toured through Greece for a month, and climbed some of most famous ascents from the Tour de France. On the writing side, his work has been published in about a dozen small literary magazines and anthologies, including Still Crazy, cahoodadoodaling (Pushcart Prize nominee), NEAT, Chautauqua, Voices de la Luna, Greek Fire, Poeming Pigeons, and Objects in the Rearview Mirror. His first poetry chapbook, Object Lessons, was published in January 2021 by Main Street Rag and his second, Rescue Dogs, in July 2023 by The Poetry Box. Fred has retired from teaching but not directing (or riding and writing) and lives in Maryland with his wife, Robin, and younger daughter, Sara, who put up with his rather time-consuming hobbies.

You can learn more about Fred’s book HERE