Bucks County Names 2018 Poet Laureate

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Carly Volpe of Doylestown has been named the 2018 Bucks County Poet Laureate. Volpe, a Bucks County Community College alumna who has been writing since she was young, rose to the top of dozens of entries in the 42nd annual contest, said Dr. Christopher Bursk, co-director of the poet laureate program.

The contest is sponsored by the Bucks County Commissioners.

Volpe will be honored with a poetry reading and reception at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 18 at Bucks County Community College's Newtown campus. (The event is free and open to the public.) She will also receive a proclamation from the County of Bucks and a $500 honorarium.

“Poetry can be the most effective way to express an acute emotion. And that is why I began down this path so long ago; I had big emotions in a small body,” explained Volpe. “As a child I wanted to write and began doing so fairly young. I wanted all the words to explain the feelings that filled me up to near bursting. So many of my poems still echo that voice – a young girl looking for a way to speak her truth.”

Volpe has published her first book of poetry and illustrations, Until the Roof Lifted Off. She is a Bucks County native and mother of two who works to provide direct care for adults who have intellectual disabilities.

The following runners-up were named: Maureen Joyce Connolly of Richboro, Elizabeth Austin of Newtown, and Melinda Rizzo of Quakertown. They’ve been invited to read at the reception, along with 2017 Bucks County Poet Laureate Katherine Hahn Falk of Newtown and preliminary judge Grant Clauser.

The college also announced that David Jarett, of Doylestown, won first place in the second annual Bucks County Short-Fiction contest.

Jarett, the winner of the short fiction contest conducted by Bucks County Community College, will receive a $200 honorarium. His story, Mr. Agarwal is Not a Lonely Man placed first out of 33 entries. He’ll read portions of his winning story at a reception from 2:30 - 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2, in the Orangery building on the Newtown Campus.

Also reading at the celebration will be second-place winner Melissa Sullivan of Chalfont, who takes home $100 for her story “Last Run.” Julia Linde of Warminster, who captured third place and $50, will read from her submission, “Skin."

The Bucks County Short-Fiction Contest reading and reception is free and open to the public.

Bucks County Community College is located at 275 Swamp Rd., Newtown.

Photo of Carly Volpe, via BCCC