NORWAY – This year, Poets on the Porch will feature Brunswick poet Gary Lawless as part of the Norway Summer Festival. The group reading will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 10, on the porch of the Norway Memorial Library.

The reading is free and open to the public.

Lawless is co-owner of Gulf of Maine Bookstore in Brunswick, the editor and publisher of Blackberry Books, and an internationally-acclaimed poet. He has published 11 collections of poetry in the United States and three in Italy. He has been an artist-in-residence for Isle Royale National Park and the Island Institute of Sitka, Alaska.

He has traveled to give poetry readings in Italy, Slovenia, Latvia and Lithuania. In February of this year spent a week in Cuba with poets in the city of Trinidad. In Maine he has done extended writing residencies with groups from the homeless, disabled and refugee communities. He taught creative writing and environmental literature at Bates College for two years and currently edits a Web log dedicated to poetry from countries embargoed by the United States government.

Poets on the Porch will also include readings by local poets Lisa Moore of Harrison, John Governale of Norway, Siiri Cressey of Farmington, George Twine of West Paris, Tom Foley of Oxford, Lisa Campobasso of Norway, Brigid Gallagher of Woodstock, Elise Caswell of Gilead, Maya Best of Bethel, Joanna Reese of Greenwood, Ken Hinkley of Dixfield, Liz Peavey of Portland, Wayne Foster of South Paris, Greg Zemlansky of Norway and Gaille Merrill of Bridgton.

Many of the poets are active in the Mountain Poets Society, which meets at 7 p.m. the last Thursday of the month at Fare Share Commons on Main Street in Norway. The next meeting is June 24.