FARMINGTON – Two Farmington organizations devoted to the art of poetry, the Beloit Poetry Journal and the University of Maine at Farmington’s Creative Writing Program, have been awarded an Artists in Maine Communities grant from the Maine Arts Commission.

The “Poets Come to Town” project will bring noted Maine poet Betsy Sholl to Farmington to give a public reading and to conduct workshops for aspiring writers in the community.

Sholl is the author of five books, including “The Red Line” and “Don’t Explain,” and is the 1997 winner of the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry.

She teaches literature and writing at the University of Southern Maine and in the MFA program of Vermont College and also has led writing workshops with elementary and high school students and prison inmates.

For the Farmington project she will work with 12 workshop participants in two Saturday morning sessions three weeks apart. The project will conclude with a reading by the participants themselves.

Sholl’s reading and workshops will take place in the spring of 2006.

The purpose of the Artists in Maine Communities program is to support collaborations among arts and other organizations that will employ Maine artists and enrich the cultural life of communities. The “Poets Come to Town” project was one of 18 funded this year by the arts commission from among 47 applicants.

The project proposal grew out of a desire on the part of UMF’s Creative Writing Program and the Beloit Poetry Journal to “spread the wealth” of poetry beyond the university.

The BFA in Creative Writing Program is one of a few in New England to award a bachelor of fine arts degree. The Beloit Poetry Journal is an internationally-renowned journal that has been publishing since 1950.

Both organizations have a strong history of involving artists, and especially Maine artists, in their communities, while encouraging those communities to explore and participate in art.

According to Gretchen Legler, professor of English in UMF’s Creative Writing Program, “UMF’s Visiting Writers Series brings noted authors from all over the country to campus for readings, but the grant from the Maine Arts Commission allows us to do something special – host a writer for more than just one evening, and broaden the focus to writing in the larger community.”

“Almost everyone has written poetry as some point in their lives, particularly in times of intense emotion,” said Lee Sharkey, co-editor of the Beloit Poetry Journal and assistant professor of English at UMF, “but few receive encouragement outside of an academic setting to sustain the impulse to write, develop their writing, or share their work with others.”

For more information about “Poets Come to Town,” contact Legler ([email protected], 778-7182) or Sharkey ([email protected], 778-7370). Information about the Artists in Maine Communities program is available at www.mainearts.com.