Events (Page 38)

Thursday, December 13 at 5:30 p.m. Local poet and musician JT Curran will read from his volume of poems, “Beyond the Road,” accompanied by his son Jason Curran on the keyboard.

From Matrika Press: JT Curran moved to central Maine in the early 1970s, drawn in part by the homesteading movement which resonated with many who sought a rural lifestyle and greater connection to the land. He built a log cabin on his twenty-two acres of wooded paradise and helped raise three children with his partner of forty-seven years. He has worked as a woodsman and a carpenter, has cultivated his own fruits and vegetables, and has volunteered with many civic and arts organizations. He holds an M.A in Counseling and has provided counseling service to many individuals and groups. He has taught courses in psychology at the University of Maine and Eastern Maine Community College, and has had a twenty-five year career in education as a guidance counselor.

In addition to literary pursuits, J.T. is an active musician who has performed since his days in high school, where he sang doo-wop with fellow crooners in the Philadelphia based quartet, the Violators. He maintains an active performance schedule, singing and playing his guitar in venues throughout central Maine. 

JT’s poetry blends colorful observations with thought-provoking reflections.  With wit, compassion, irony, and humor, this book invites the reader to consider the signposts, off-ramps, co-travelers and vistas which populate our journeys. JT’s words reminds us that however we may navigate our experiences, our destination remains beyond the road.

Selected from collected works which span over fifty years, “Beyond the Road” is JT Curran’s first published volume of poetry.

Wesley McNair, Maine’s former poet laureate, will return to the Thompson Free Library on Thursday, November 29 at 5:30 pm to read from his latest volume of poems, “The Unfastening.” His presentation will also offer insights into the creative process used in the writing of the book.

“In a dark time, unfastened by loss and despair, how does one find one’s way back to the world again?” asks McNair. “This book seeks to answer this question through poems of sorrow, and hope, and joy. My presentation will explain the complex, unexpected process through which the book reached its final form, weaving selected poems into the discussion.”

McNair, who lives in Mercer, is one of New England’s most celebrated contemporary poets. The author of nine volumes of poems, he has been selected for a United States Artists Fellowship as one of America’s “finest living artists.”

During his long writing career, McNair has won grants from the Fulbright and Guggenheim foundations, two Rockefeller Fellowships, two grants in creative writing from the National Endowment for the Arts, and an Emmy Award. He has twice been invited to read his poetry by the Library of Congress, and has served five times on the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. In 2015, McNair was named as the recipient of the PEN New England Award for Literary Excellence in Poetry.