Effective September 30th, 2017 Maine Poetry Central will cease operations. See our letter of dissolution below.

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As of September 30th, 2017, the non-profit, Maine Poetry Central, will be disbanded.

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On behalf of the board members, I would like to express how delighted we were to serve the Maine poetry community for a decade. As many of you know, Maine has more poets per capita than any state in the country and it was a wonderful experience to befriend so many talented bards in every corner of our lovely state.

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As many of you know, too, in our decade of service to poetry we did some of the following: we created and curated The Portland Poet Laureate Program; we secured two grants from The Maine Humanities Council; we put together a number of poetry anthologies in collaboration with Bruce Spang(Portland Poet Laureate 2010-2012) and Marcia Brown(Portland Poet Laureate 2012-2014); we supported Bruce Spang in his tireless efforts to bring Timothy Liu both to Portland and to Portsmouth to read and to workshop with area students and poets; we supported Marcia Brown in her tireless efforts to bring Tony Hoagland to Portland and to Augusta to read and to workshop with area students and poets; we created a poetry video of a poem by Kate Barnes for airing on Maine Public Television; and, most recently,  we created and curated the series, In Verse: Maine Places and People, where a poem appears in each Sunday edition of The Sun Journal.

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Moving forward, it is our hope that another non-profit will take over curating the Portland Poet Laureate Program so that our talented and current poet laureate, Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, can hand over the ceremonial pen when his duties end in late May of 2018.  If anyone is interested in carrying this bardic baton, please contact any of us at MPC AND WE WILL DO ALL WE CAN TO MAKE THE TRANSITION SMOOTH! Additionally, I will continue to curate and edit the series, In Verse: Maine Places and People, which will soon be entering its second year and which is receiving great responses from the central Maine community.

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Once again, on behalf of the board, let me say again how honored we feel to have served and befriended so many wonderful and talented poets in Maine.  All of us look forward to seeing you soon at readings and gatherings. All of us, too, look forward to continuing to serve Maine poets in whatever ways we can.

 

Namaste,

Dennis Camire

Anna Wrobel

Duff Plunkett

Jim Donnelly

Mark Sweidom

Rayomd Bouffard (Pilgrim)

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Maine Poetry Central is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to advancing awareness and enjoyment of poetry in the State of Maine. The organization, to date, has received two grants from The Maine Humanities Council and has created The Portland Poet Laureate Program and The Minute With the Muse Video-Poem Series. Our anthology, "Port City Poems," was also a finalist for MWPA's Best Anthology of the Year. Currently we are working with The Sun Journal to feature one poem per week in its Sunday Edition.  The Series

is entitled, "Maine Places and People."  Additionally, two of our board members, Anna Wrobel and Jim Donnelly, have been co-hosting the monthly poetry reading series, "Lowry's Lodge," which convenes the third Saturday evening(7:00 p.m.) at The Continuum for Creativity on 863 Main Street in Westbrook:http://www.schoolius.com/school/991990557496693/Continuum%20for%20Creativity%2C%20LLC

 

If you are interested in submitting poems for the "In Verse: Maine Places and People" series, see the guidelines below.

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TO MAKE A DONATION, make check out to Maine Poetry Central and mail to:

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Maine Poetry Central

c/o: Dennis Camire

PO Box 145

Norway, ME 04268

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Questions: call 207-216-3138

 

Please feel free to browse our website to learn more about our past and present Portland Poet Laureates, as well as our other ongoing projects.

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CALL FOR POETRY SUBMISSIONS

 

Maine Poetry Central is collaborating with The Sun Journal to feature one poem per week in its Sunday edition. The series is entitled “Maine Places and People,” and, quite simply, we’re looking for poems that are flavored by the great state of Maine.

If you’re interested in your work being considered, please heed the following:

1)     Submit up to three poems to dcamire@cmcc.edu

2)     Submit all poems in ONE WORD DOC FILE

3)     Submissions must be in a WORD DOC FILE

4)     Poems must be thirty lines or less

5)     Include your name, email and town/city in that ONE WORD DOC FILE

6)     Submission deadline: On-going acceptance of submissions

7)     Regarding the acceptance of poems, please understand that because this is an unpaid, all-volunteer undertaking, I will ONLY be contacting you back if one of your poems is accepted.  Because, too, I forward 12 to 15 poems to the editors every 7 or so weeks, and they, in turn, have the liberty of accepting all or just most of the poems, notification of acceptance may come many months after your poems are submitted.  Please then be patient and forgiving. 

Please know, too, that I am personally familiar with having quality poems rejected and that your possible rejection will likely be the result of either their being too long or not quite compatible with the general theme.

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Thanks for being a part of this series which celebrates both our wonderful State and the vibrancy of Maine poetry!

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See the "In Verse: Maine Places and People" link for a list of poems published thus far.

 

Cheers,

Dennis Camire

Maine Poetry Central

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For questions, please e-mail Dennis at combedbycrows@gmail.com

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