Beach Bards Returns To Sea Isle City Library

SEA ISLE CITY, NJ — The Beach Bards Poetry and Prose Reading Series will return Aug. 17 at the Sea Isle City Branch Library, with readings beginning at 6 p.m. at 4800 Central Ave. The program is sponsored by the Cape May County Library System and is free and open to the public.

The long-running literary series was started in 2012 by Sea Isle City poet and writer Antoinette Libro, the program coordinator, with then-coordinator Wendy Kaplan. The event features writers reading from their work, followed by an open microphone session with participation from audience members, according to the announcement.

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"This presentation of creative works is an additional testimony to the vitality of the literary arts, which are alive and well across the South Jersey area," said Antoinette Libro. "Our featured writers will share original works with faithful followers who venture out to take advantage of the programs that Beach Bards presents."

Libro said the August program will include two readers with national and international credentials.

"Our August program is quite unusual in that we will be featuring two readers with national/international credentials," continued Libro. "Maria Giura, from New York City, whose latest book has just won the Paterson Book Prize, is an Academy of Poets Winner and taught at Binghamton University, where she received her Ph.D."

Libro also identified the second guest and her own role in the program.

"Echezonachukwu Nduka is a Philadelphia poet, pianist and performer, and now the Benjamin Franklin Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, pursuing his doctorate in ethnomusicology," said Libro. "I will be a third reader, just to warm things up briefly at the beginning, and as a local anchor to balance the program."

This month's featured presenters are Maria Giura, Echezonachukwu Nduka and Libro. According to the announcement, Giura's newest book, "If We Still Lived Where I Was Born," is the winner of the 2026 Paterson Book Prize.

Nduka is described in the announcement as a pianist, award-winning poet, scholar, Benjamin Franklin Fellow and Ph.D. candidate in ethnomusicology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Refreshments will be served, and copies of "First Wave: An Anthology of Beach Bards Poets and Writers," from the program's first 10 years, will be available and awarded to the first three patrons to arrive. Free parking will be available at the library. For more information, call the Cape May County Library at 609-463-6350, Ext. 700.