East Hampton Poetry Marathon

East Hampton, June 27--Some of the most exciting new poetry crafted today in Suffolk County—or anywhere—comes to the Hamptons again this summer at the popular East Hampton Poetry Marathon scheduled for every Sunday afternoon throughout July. The poetry readings are followed by a reception with wine and snacks.

Dee Slavutin, who is spearheading the marathon. said “Poems, even long ones, are short bridges. Write one, read one, listen to one--and journey into the heart of humanity. We’re excited to stage our unique form of entertainment each summer for the community to enjoy. Please, join us on any given Sunday in July. The early evenings are sultry and the presentations are enchanting.”

The Poetry Marathon is sponsored under the auspices of the East Hampton Historical Society.

Three of the readings are from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the barn of historic Mulford Farm, located near the center of East Hampton, at 10 James Lane (at the town pond). The reading on July 22 is across the street at the East Hampton Public Library, 159 Main Street, and is from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Reading Schedule

July 08, 5:00-6:30: Mulford Farm, Philip Asaph and George Wallace.

July 15, 5:00-6:30: Mulford Farm, Walter Donway and Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan.

July 22, 3:00-430: East Hampton Public Library, Jennifer Franklin and Gladys Henderson.

July 29, 5:00-6:30: Mulford Farm, poets of the East Hampton Poetry Workshop.

Workshop poets, who meet weekly at the East Hampton Public Library to perfect their craft, will be introduced at the July 29 session.

The Vising Poets

Philip Asaph is author of Four Short Stories and Ten Love Poems. His poetry and fiction have appeared in Poetry, Glimmer Train, The Humanist, Tampa Review, and other journals. His writing has been supported by a Stadler undergraduate fellowship to Bucknell University, a Vogelstein grant for poetry, and a graduate fellowship to New York University. Mr. Asaph grew up in Long Island but now lives in Ithaca, New York. Commenting on the life of the poet, Mr. Asaph has said: "…the best poems aren't written, but lived."

George Wallace is writer in residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace in Huntington Station, writing professor at Pace University in Manhattan, and author of 33 chapbooks of poetry published in the United States abroad. He is editor of Poetryby.com and co-editor of "Great Weather for Media." In 2003, Mr. Wallace was named the first poet laureate for Suffolk County and in 2015-16 served as the first poet laureate of the national Beat Poetry Festival in Middletown Ct. Last year, he was named Grand Prize Winner at the Ditet e Naimit International Poetry Festival in Tetova, Macedonia.

Walter Donway this year published his third poetry collection, Speak Their Names, Once More: 77 Poems. An earlier collection, How Glad I Am for Man, Tonight came out in 2015, and his first collection, Touched By Its Rays, in 2008. His poems have appeared in Long Island Voices, the quarterly journal, Think, The New Individualist, and on many Web sites. He is author of several novels, a collection of essays and stories, and books on political economy and politics. He was founding editor of Cerebrum: The Dana Forum on Brain Science. Poems in his most recent book, Speak Their Names, Once More, includes poems that address with anger and bitter sorrow the Paris, Orlando, Las Vegas, and other terrorist mass killings.

Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Stony Brook University Southampton and is enrolled there in a Ph.D.-degree program for Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities & Culture. She teaches at Long Island University's C W Post campus and maintains an active schedule of workshops and performances. Ms Nuzzo-Morgan was the first woman appointed Suffolk County Poet Laureate (2009-2011). Last year, the Walt Whitman Birthplace named her 2017 Long Island Poet of the Year. She is the founder and president of The North Sea Poetry Scene, Inc., publisher of The North Sea Poetry Scene Press, and the editor of Long Island Sounds Anthology. In "How to Write A Poem," her opening lines are "Begin with the lump in your throat,/anguish in your heart…"

Jennifer Franklin is the author of Looming (Elixir Press, 2015). She teaches at The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center, is coeditor of Slapering Hol Press, and lives in New York City. She concentrated in English and Creative Writing at Brown University (AB cum laude, 1994). She attended Columbia University School of the Arts as a Harvey Baker Fellow (MFA, 1996). Her poems debuted in the Paris Review’s “Ten New Poets” issue in 1996. Her first full-length collection, Looming, won the 14th Annual Editor’s Prize from Elixir Press and was published in April 2015.

Gladys Henderson’s poems have been featured on PBS Channel 21 in the production, Shoreline Sonata, and her work has appeared in several journals and many anthologies such as A Taste of Poetry, Block Island Poetry Project, Great Neck Plaza Public Poetry Project, Long Island Sounds, Long Island Quarterly, Paumanok, and the Suffolk County Poetry Review. She was a finalist for the Paumanok Poetry Prize in 2006 and recognized in the Writer’s Digest Poetry Competitions in 2008, 2009, 2012. She was named the Walt Whitman Birthplace Poet of the Year in 2010 and recently Poet Laureate of Suffolk County 2017-2019. Her chapbook, Eclipse of Heaven, was published in 2009.

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