Salem State Writers Series Claire Keyes, poet

Claire Keyes is Professor emerita at Salem State University where she taught English for thirty years. She currently teaches for the Salem State Explorers, a life-long learning program, as well as leads the Poetry Salon in Marblehead. She has won the Robert Penn Warren Award from New England Writers as well as a First Prize in poetry from Smartish Pace. The recipient of a grant in poetry from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, she also received a poetry fellowship from the Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico.

Her collection of poetry, What Diamonds Can Do (Word Tech Communications, 2015) has been described by poet Barbara Crooker as “full of shining grace and memorable images that will glitter in your mind like gemstones long after you’ve closed the pages of this book.” Her prior poetry collections include The Question of Rapture and the chapbook Rising and Falling. She is the author of The Aesthetics of Power: The Poetry of Adrienne Rich. Her poems and reviews have appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Women’s Review of Books, Spoon River Poetry Review and others. On-line, you can find her work at Verse Wisconsin, Newport Review, Umbrella Journal and Red-Headed Stepchild.

This series is presented by Salem State’s creative writing program and the Center for Creative and Performing Arts. Additional information at: salemstate.edu/arts or 978.542.7890