PORTLAND — The Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance has received a grant from the Maine Community Foundation’s Maine Expansion Arts Fund to support “Poems from Here,” a recently launched initiative from Maine Poet Laureate Stuart Kestenbaum.

“Poems from Here” is a weekly radio broadcast on Maine Public Radio in which Kestenbaum selects and reads a poem by a Maine or regional poet and shares with listeners “how language has the power to move and surprise us.”

The alliance, which serves as the office of the Maine poet laureate, received $2,600 from the Maine Community Foundation’s Maine Expansion Arts Fund to pay a modest honorarium to each poet selected for “Poems from Here” in 2017. Poets whose work was selected in late 2016 for “Poems from Here” were also awarded an honorarium, thanks to the Kirby Family Foundation’s support of alliance projects and programming.

“This grant from the Maine Expansion Arts Fund means not only will listeners around the state continue to hear Stuart’s thoughtful readings,” MWPA Executive Director Joshua Bodwell, said. “It ensures the poets — the artists whose work gives us reason to pause and reflect amidst the chaos of everyday life — will receive a modest honorarium of thanks for their efforts.”

FMI: mainepublic.org/programs/poems-here, 207-228-8264, [email protected].