BRATTLEBORO — On Monday April 29, at 7 p.m., in the Brooks Memorial Library meeting room, there will be a celebration to mark the publication of Ken Hebson's first book of poetry, “South from Istanbul.”
Hebson will be joined by poet Wyn Cooper for a reading and book signing. Copies of Hebson's letterpress chapbook, published this month by Green River Press, will be available for purchase and signing, as will copies of Cooper's four books of poems.
Hebson, who has lived in Spain, Venezuela, Mexico, Japan, and Portugal, moved to the Brattleboro area in 1991 to attend the School for International Training, and subsequently managed the Elderhostel programs for World Learning. Several years the volunteer coordinator for the Brattleboro Literary Festival, he has written poems that have appeared or are forthcoming in Green Mountains Review and The Best of Write Action No. 2.
Cooper's fourth book of poems, “Chaos is the New Calm,” was published by BOA Editions in 2010. His poems have appeared in 25 anthologies of contemporary poetry, as well as in Poetry, Slate, Orion, Ploughshares, and in more than a hundred other journals. He has taught at Bennington and Marlboro colleges, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, The Frost Place, and at the University of Utah.
Moreover, he is a former editor of Quarterly West, works as a freelance editor of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, and helps run the Nantucket Book Festival.
Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets throughout the United States band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.