ConVal senior and New Hampshire’s Youth Poet Laureate, Rachel Sturges, recently read from her poems at the Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough. The event was sponsored by the Peterborough Poetry Project.
Alice Fogel, the New Hampshire Poet Laureate, introduced Rachel and the other speakers saying the idea for a NH Youth Poet Laureate position came to her at the suggestion of a New Hampshire teacher. In her role as poetry advocate, she decided to initiate the position through the NH State Council on the Arts as a way of bringing poetry to more people. Rachel explained that in her role she is focused on using social media to attract young people to poetry events around the state.
Ms. Fogel described the three young poets reading as “Not trying to draw attention to themselves but to poetry” by expressing “eloquent complications” of life and drawing on the support of teachers and other writers. In introducing Rachel, Ms. Fogel described her poetry as “looking outward from herself at the world and understanding the complexities [through her] unique and creative” poems.
The NHYPL is an honorary one-year unpaid position held by NH high school students with a dedication to excellence in writing, and who have the enthusiasm to heighten the visibility and value of poetry by and for young people in New Hampshire.
The Peterborough Poetry Project is currently hosting a contest with the theme of New Hampshire (past, present, future, or fantasy). Deadline: September 30th. Details for the contest are at: peterboroughpoetryproject.org/contests.
In attendance at the reading were ConVal teachers Ben Putnam, Jason Lambert, Eric Bowman, and ConVal Librarian Rachael Bowman.
