High Mountain Meadow Poetry Series

Join us at the High Mountain Meadow Poetry Series at the Wayne Public Library. The group features two poets and includes an Open Mic. Hosted by Paul Nash & Denise LaNeve, representing the North Jersey Literary Community and the Poets of the Palisades. This event is free and all are welcome!

Featured poets: 

Peter E. Murphy was born in Wales and raised in New York City, where he managed a nightclub, operated heavy equipment, and drove a taxi. He is the author of fourteen books and chapbooks of poetry and prose, including his most recent works: The Buzzing of the Blue Guitar, You Too Were Once on Fire, and A Tipsy Fairy Tale: A Coming of Age Memoir of Alcohol and Redemption. His writing has appeared in The Michigan Quarterly Review, The North American Review, Poetry Wales, Rattle, The Sun and other publications. An educational consultant to Bill Moyers' Fooling With Words and other PBS programs on poetry, he is a six-time fellow of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the founder of Murphy Writing of Stockton University in Atlantic City.

Dr. Gretna Wilkinson began her career as a missionary teacher in the interior of her native Guyana. She is the author of five poetry chapbooks and the full-length collection Opening the Drawer, published by Cool Women Press. A Dodge Foundation Poet, she has performed her work on radio and local television. Her poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies including Saranac Review, The Literary Review, and Poets of New Jersey: From Colonial to Contemporary. She has also been featured in The New York Times, The Star-Ledger and Courier News, and has received a Best of the Web recognition and several Pushcart Prize nominations.

Wilkinson is a former Artist-in-Residence with a joint program of NJPAC and the United Way of West Essex. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Southern Regional Educational Board. After 17 years as a college professor, she joined the Visual and Performing Arts Academy at Red Bank Regional High School, where she directed the Creative Writing Program.

Her honors include several Scholastic Gold Medals for teaching, commendations from the New Jersey Senate and General Assembly, Monmouth County Educator of the Year, Teacher of the Year, and Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction. An honorary Eagle Scout, Wilkinson has also volunteered extensively, editing poetry by incarcerated writers. She is the founder of the online literary magazine The RavensPerch, which Feedspot named one of theTop 25 Literary Blogs on the Web. Visit theravensperch.com.