UPCOMING EVENTS
NEWS
Carolyn Locke was the Short Poetry Award Winner in the 2022 Maine Literary Awards for her poem “Thoughts on Migration.”
THE RIDDLE OF YES BOOK LAUNCH
Author Carolyn Locke and flutist/dancer Maho Hisakawa presented a collaborative reading and dance performance at 7 p.m. on Friday, September 6 at the Basil Burwell Community Theater, 17 Court Street, Belfast, ME, to celebrate the publication of Locke’s most recent poetry collection, The Riddle of Yes.
Maho Hisakawa is a classical flutist and a lifelong student of dance. She has been student of Jimena Lasansky. Her current focus is on music as she pursues a B.M. in flute performance. She founded Windfern Ensemble in 2016 and performs at concerts, weddings, and receptions throughout the state. She loves learning from watching people out in the world and observing the spaces in between. Having developed a passion for dance later in her life, her learning is slow and gradual. “I love this work that combines music and movement and demands focus, strength, discipline, inspiration, and spirit. It’s a way for me to learn to move honestly and from my heart, yet at the same time embody technique and what is beautiful to the eye. It is also a way for me to accept and love the way I move and the way my body is.” She lives in Camden with her husband and two daughters, age 14 and 9. (See www.windfernensemble.com for more information)
Listen on July 19, 2019 to a reading of “Swimming With My Father” from The Riddle of Yes” on on Maine Poet Laureate Stuart Kestenbaum’s Poems From Here on Maine Public Radio or listen to the archived reading at any time afterward at: https://www.mainepublic.org/post/swimming-my-father
Listen on November 30, 2018 to a reading of “Regeneration” from Always This Falling on Maine Poet Laureate Stuart Kestenbaum’s Poems From Here on Maine Public Radio or listen to the archived reading at any time afterward at: http://www.mainepublic.org/programs/poems-here-maine-poet-laureate-stuart-kestenbaum#stream/0
I am thrilled to announce that my poem “What Else” from The Place We Become is in Poetry Of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems https://poetryofpresencebook.com
INTERESTED IN TRAVEL, POETRY, OR THINGS JAPANESE?
Carolyn is available to do a reading and slide show on Not One Thing: Following Matsuo Basho’s Narrow Road to the Interior. Brenda Harrington, Program Director at the Belfast Free Library, said this about her presentation:
I highly recommend Carolyn’s program if you are looking for an opportunity to host a creative and thoughtful Maine author. She read selected passages from the book accompanied by a slide show that brought the audience to some of the most interesting cultural and historical sites in Japan. Our audience loved it! It was truly mesmerizing.
And Sandy Abbott, Assistant Director of the Ellsworth Public Library, wrote:
[Carolyn Locke] made everyone feel special. The program was well organized and presented. One could have heard a pin drop as [she] read.”
More Praise from Lee McCartin, Librarian at the Newport Cultural Center:
Guided by Basho, Carolyn followed his poems and shared her own journey through Japan. It was a beautiful and interesting presentation that we all enjoyed.
Carolyn was truly entertaining, gracious, and easy to work with.
PREVIOUS EVENTS:
Poems and Images poetry reading and slide show at the Maine Authors Publishing Book Festival, August 24, 2019,
Finding Our Way Home: A Poetry Reading with Kathleen Quinlan at 93 Main Coffee Shop in Unity, July 31, 2019
NOT ONE THING: slide show and reading, Freeport Public Library, September 26, 2016
Poems and Images slide show and reading at Vienna Union Hall, May 18, 2016
NOT ONE THING slide show and reading at Tuesday Luncheon Forum Old Town Public Library, October 27, 2015
NOT ONE THING slide show and reading at the Newport Cultural Center, September 12, 2015
Sunday August 2, 2015: Guest Poet at the Hugh Ogden Memorial Evening of Poetry at Ecopelagicon, Rangeley, Maine. See: http://margaretyocom.com/poetry/ogden-poetry-evening/
NOT ONE THING slide show and reading, Rodgers Memorial Library, Hudson, NH, July 29, 2015
NOT ONE THING slide show and reading, Ellsworth Public Library, July 9, 2015
NOT ONE THING slide show and reading, Boothbay Memorial Library, June 17, 2015
NOT ONE THING slide show and reading, Orono Public Library, June 4, 2015
NOT ONE THING slide show and reading, Stockton Springs Community Library, May 13, 2015
POEM AND IMAGES slide show and reading at the Rockport Public Library, April 23, 2015
NOT ONE THING reading and slide show at the Winslow Public Library, April 8, 2015
Multimedia Presentation “Speaking the Mystery” with artists Diane Green Hebert and Victoria Pittman at the Belfast Poetry Festival on October 18, 2014. You-tube video can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9F3uVGCbN0IIc9ZQcyg67g
NOT ONE THING reading and slide show at the Liberty Library, June 13. 2014
NOT ONE THING reading and slideshow at the Jesup Memorial Library May 31, 2014
NOT ONE THING reading and slide show at the Rockland Public Library, March 6, 2014
NOT ONE THING reading and slide show at the Blue Hill Public Library, November 7, 2013
NOT ONE THING reading and slide show at the Auburn Public Library, October 10, 2013
NOT ONE THING reading and slide show for Maine Media Women on September 7, 2013
NOT ONE THING reading and slide show at the Camden Public Library, July 16, 2013,
Book Launch Party for NOT ONE THING, Belfast Free Library May 30, 2013
Poems published in Uni-verse in Bangor Daily News
Interview at Rockland Lobster Festival 2010
Fulbright Hays curriculum project in Japan (Journey to the Interior)
Goddard College Clockhouse Writers Conference East
Events
Carolyn Locke is available to do readings from Always This Falling, The Place We Become, and other poems as well as the reading and slide show from Not One Thing (described above) and the following special presentations:
Poems and Images with Carolyn Locke
Reading from selections from each of her books, Carolyn Locke will share poems and accompanying slides that explore relationships with family, nature, and other cultures.
Rural and Urban China in Poem and Image
China has been in the spotlight for many reasons— the Olympics, protests in Tibet, tainted products, human rights issues, and its growing economy— and yet outside of that spotlight, people in China, a country rich in traditions and history, go about their daily lives just as we do, struggling to make sense of their place in the modern world. This program will explore the contrasts between rural and urban China in a slide show of photographs taken in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Huangcun, Huangshan, and Beijing during the summer of 2007 combined with a reading of original poems written in the months following that.
Carolyn also offers general POETRY WORKSHOPS on shape, imagery, and sound, including writing exercises and analysis of participants’ poems.
In addition, the following specialized workshops are available:
Writing About Travel: Challenges, Joys, and Responsibilities
This workshop will feature a discussion of key questions pertinent to all writers whenever they travel to a new place as well as an analysis of sample poems and writing exercises to try. Participants are encouraged to bring their own travel poems to share.
Wabi Sabi: A Japanese Aesthetic for Art and Life This workshop will feature a power point presentation, discussion, and practice in looking at the world through the lens of this fascinating aesthetic, which emphasizes that “less is more” and that in the ordinary we can find the most extraordinary and deepest meaning. Being open to and experiencing wabi sabi can inform all artistic expression and offer a way to be centered in our lives.
Japanese Renga Workshop: Communal Poetry Poetry is an important part of Japanese culture, and one of their traditions is the writing of renga. These poems are written in groups with each person beginning a poem with a haiku (5-7-5) stanza, then passing their work to the next poet who adds a 7-7 stanza, then the next adding another 5-7-5 and so on, continuing in the same alternating pattern through up to 36 stanzas. There are “rules” along the way for certain numbered stanzas, which adds to the challenge, but all in all, it’s great fun, taking writers back to the day when they began a story and passed it around a classroom, receiving it back transformed.