Maine's Capital Area

The Bookey Readings: Poets Lisa Panepinto, Mark Swiedom, Matt Hopkins, and Dennis Pollock will be presenting at Harlow Gallery on Friday, July 22 at 7pm. All welcome.

The public is invited to attend a poetry reading featuring Lisa Panepinto, Mark Swiedom, Matt Hopkins, and Dennis Pollock at Harlow gallery on Friday, July 22 beginning at 7pm.

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The Bookey Readings At The Harlow presents four poets who are completely new voices to the Harlow Gallery: Lisa Panepinto, Mark Swiedom, Matt Hopkins, and Dennis Pollock. The public is invited to attend and be inspired by an evening of vibrant spoken word from fresh, new voices. The event is on Friday, July 22 at 7pm at 160 Water Street in Hallowell. Refreshments are served and a $3 donation to benefit the Gallery is appreciated at the door.

Lisa Panepinto is the author of two poetry collections, On This Borrowed Bike (Three Rooms Press, 2013) and Island Dreams (Cabildo Press, 2009). Her writing has appeared in The Accompanist, Maintenant, Pittsburgh City Paper, Planet Drum, Red Flag Poetry, and more. She has served as a mentor and a senior companion with the United Way of Allegheny County and as an AmeriCorps VISTA with the Penobscot Indian Nation, and received the President’s Volunteer Service Award. She is poetry editor for Cabildo Quarterly, an online and print literary journal.

Mark Swiedom has lived in Maine for the last 28 years where he’s worked for the Jay Paper Mill. Laid off in November last year, what first appeared to be disaster for him and his family instead turned to opportunity. Mark now attends Central Maine Community College where he is studying for a degree in Medical Coding. Mark began writing poetry in 2010 after he and his daughter attended the Augusta Civic Center’s event for Maya Angelou. Mark says he was so impressed and inspired by what poetry could do, he began writing the very next day. Mark lives with his lovely wife Dawna, as well as their dogs and llamas in Hebron, Maine.

Matt Hopkins is a Research Associate for the AIRNET, a non-profit based out of Massachusetts developing in-depth industry studies and presentations about clean technology, sustainable development, inequality and the finance of innovation. His research work appears in some recent posts and articles can be found on Market Watch, The Huffington Post, The Institute for New Economic Thinking, and The Harvard Business Review. Currently a resident of Manchester, Matt is also a habitual writer of poetry, building a collection of poems that seek to deal with more intimate themes of life, love, and family. As a poet, he was recently nominated for an Emerging Artist Grant in Literature from the St. Botolph Foundation of Boston.

Dennis Pollock winters in an 1850 farmhouse in Hinsdale, Mass., and summers in Manchester Maine. He is married, has two grown daughters, and has made his living as a psychotherapist, more recently in home repair and as a tree nurseryman. He loves hiking, wilderness canoeing (particularly in Labrador), biking, cross country skiing, and tennis. He has one book of poetry out from Slate Roof Press entitled Frozen Rope, based on events in Hinsdale in 1810.

For more information about the Bookey Readings at the Harlow, click here for a list of the 2016 poetry readings, dates, time, & related poets are listed.

The Harlow Gallery is owned and operated by the Kennebec Valley Art Association (KVAA) a 501(c)3 membership based non-profit founded in Augusta in 1958. The mission of the KVAA and the Harlow Gallery is to promote and celebrate art, artists and community.