Julia Bouwsma Submitted photo
RANGELEY — On Sunday evening, August 7, lovers of poetry plan to gather at 4:30 p.m., in the Rangeley Public Library to honor poet Hugh Ogden, formerly of Poets’ Island, Rangeley (1937-2006). Julia Bouwsma of Kingfield, the Maine Poet Laureate, will be the featured poet at the 15th annual Hugh Ogden Memorial Evening of Poetry. Sponsored by the Rangeley Public Library and the Ogden Poetry Committee, the event is free to all. Light refreshments will be served.
Members of the Ogden family will begin the evening by reading poems written by their father. Then, community members are invited to read a poem of Hugh’s or one of their own that attends to what meant so much to Hugh: the beauty and mystery of the world, especially Rangeley, and peace among all living things. A sign-up sheet will be available just before the start of the evening, since time will be limited.
Julia Bouwsma lives off-the-grid in the mountains of western Maine, where she is a poet, homesteader, editor, teacher, small-town librarian, and Maine’s sixth Poet Laureate. Bouwsma is the author of two poetry collections, Midden (Fordham University Press, 2018) and Work by Bloodlight (Cider Press Review, 2017), both of which received the Maine Literary Award for Poetry Book (in 2019 and 2018 respectively). Other honors include the Poet’s Out Loud Prize (2016-17), the Cider Press Review Book Award (2015), and residency fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, Monson Arts (Monson, ME), and Annex Arts (Castine, ME). Julia’s poetry can also be found in such journals as Green Mountains Review, Poetry Daily, Poetry Northwest, and River Styx. She currently serves as the Library Director for Webster Library in Kingfield, and teaches in the Creative Writing department at the University of Maine at Farmington.
To read some of Julia’s poems, see her website at http://juliabouwsma.com. To purchase copies of her new book and to order others, please visit Books, Lines & Thinkers, 2513 Main Street, Rangeley (864-4355). Copies will also be available at the Rangeley Public Library.
Love of Maine’s natural world and concern for social justice issues link Julia Bouwsma and Hugh Ogden; please join us to celebrate their poetry. To care for the health of us all, please come vaccinated or masked. Please call the Rangeley Public Library in advance at 864-5529, if you can, to help us plan for the event.
For more information, contact Peggy at 864-3421 (myocomATgmu.edu) and visit http://margaretyocom.com/poetry
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