Three prize-winners to read at Chapter and Verse


DOROTHY DERIFIELD

Chapter and Verse, Jamaica Plain’s literary reading series, will welcome three prize-winning poets—Frannie Lindsay, Ellen Steinbaum and Jennifer Markell—on Wed., April 4.

Frannie Lindsay is a nationally-known poet whose work has been featured in Poetry Daily and read by Garrison Keillor on NPR’s “Writer’s Almanac.” Her most recent book, “Lamb,” was selected for the Perugia Press Award in 2006, and her first volume, “Where She Always Was,” won the 2004 May Swenson Award, sponsored by Utah State University Press. Her awards, honors and publications comprise a list that goes on and on. In addition to these accomplishments, Lindsay finds time to be a classical pianist and devoted caretaker of two retired greyhounds.

Ellen Steinbaum is a poet and journalist whose byline appears often in the Boston Globe as the author of a literary column in the City Weekly section. Recently, she has written articles about City Councilor John Tobin’s proposal to appoint a Boston poet laureate. Two of her poems were chosen to be part of the Mayor’s Prose and Poetry Program and can be seen at Boston City Hall through May 23. Steinbaum’s first volume of Poetry, “Afterwords,” was published in 2001. At the April reading she will share selections from her second collection, called “Container Gardening,” which will be coming out in fall, 2008.

A Jamaica Plain resident for more than 20 years, Jennifer Markell has a new prize-winning chapbook called “Leaving the Green Elm Market,” which explores the possibilities of connection that occur among people in the urban landscape. After receiving a master’s in creative writing from Boston University and teaching in a community college, Jennifer decided to become a social worker, “helping people tell their stories a different way.” As a therapist, writer and urban gardener, she says she spends her days tending people, poems and plants. Markell’s poetry can also be seen at Boston City Hall through May 23.

Chapter and Verse, sponsored by Jamaica Pond Poets, takes place on April 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the historic Loring-Greenough House at 12 South Street, just across from the Monument in JP center. The event is free and open to all. Refreshments are served. For information email [email protected] or [email protected] or call 325-8388.

The writer is the director of Chapter and Verse.

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