Writers Read/Hilltowns – Featured Reader Gail Thomas

Here’s how it works: The featured writer reads recent work and describes the journey to publication, followed by Q & A. Then the floor opens to other writers, who can read for five minutes each; we also draw two names for 10-minute readings. If you want to read, put your name in the hat before 2:15.

Featured Reader – Gail Thomas 

Poet and teacher Gail Thomas has published four books: Odd Mercy (2016), Waving Back(2015), No Simple Wilderness: An Elegy for Swift River Valley(2001) andFinding the Bear(1997).

Odd Mercy was chosen by Ellen Bass for the Charlotte Mew Prize of Headmistress Press, and its “Little Mommy Sonnets” won Honorable Mention for the Tom Howard/ Margaret Prize for Traditional Verse. Also, Waving Backwas named a Must Read for 2016 by the Massachusetts Center for the Book and Honorable Mention in the New England Book Festival.

Thomas’s work has appeared in many journals and anthologies including Beloit Poetry Journal, Calyx, The North American Review, Hanging Loose, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. Individual poems have won the Naugatuck Review’sNarrative Poetry Prize, the Edward Hearst Prize, and the Pat Schneider Prize. She was awarded residencies at The McDowell Colony in New Hampshire and Ucross in Wyoming.

Her book, No Simple Wilderness, about the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir in the 1930s, has been taught in college courses. As one of the original teaching artists for the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Elder Arts Initiative, Thomas led workshops and collaborated with dancers, musicians and storytellers in schools, nursing homes, hospitals and libraries across the state.

Thomas teaches, speaks at conferences and poetry festivals, and reads her work widely in community and academic settings. www.gailthomaspoet.com