The Poetry Box

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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:

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 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:

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:

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