Poetry

KEYNOTE POET: Andrei Codrescu was born in Sibiu, Transylvania, Romania, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1966, arriving first in Detroit during the riots, then settling among poets in New York City. His first poetry collection in English, License to Carry a Gun, appeared in 1970. He founded Exquisite Corpse: a Journal of Books & Ideas (1983–2016) and taught literature and poetry at Johns Hopkins, the University of Baltimore, and Louisiana State University. A longtime commentator on NPR, he returned to Romania in 1989 to cover the fall of the Ceaușescu regime, an experience that rekindled his Romanian and produced a body of work in both languages. His recent books include A Possible Epic of Care (Black Widow Press, 2023), Too Late for Nightmares (Black Widow Press, 2022), and No Time Like Now (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019). His correspondence, notebooks, and archives are held at LSU, the University of Illinois, the University of Iowa, and several Romanian institutions.

Charles Cantalupo Writing on the bellum omnium contra omnes or the Woodstock Nation, Charles Cantalupo’s literary trajectory ranges far: from poems and essays published in religious journals in the 1980s to experimental British and American literary journals in the 90s. Yet the year 2000 marked a new development for Cantalupo, writing poetry and literary criticism about Africa, translating poets from Eritrea, and co-authoring the historic Asmara Declaration on African Languages and Literatures. This led to his memoir, Joining Africa: from Anthills to Asmara (2012) and returned Cantalupo as a poet to his own American experience. The subtitle, “Further Steps,” of one of his subsequent books of poetry could apply to all of his writing. Eastport resident, Charles Cantalupo is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English, Comparative Literature, and African Studies at The Pennsylvania State University.

Michael Palma poetry volumes include the chapbooks The Egg Shape and Antibodies and the full-length collections A Fortune in Gold, Begin in Gladness, and the forthcoming Local Colors. He has also published Faithful in My Fashion: Essays on the Translation of Poetry. His more than twenty translations from Italian poets include award-winning volumes of Guido Gozzano and Diego Valeri published by Princeton University Press and a terza rima translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy published by Liveright in 2024. You may read some of his poetry on Expansive Poetry Online.

Mihku Paul is a poet, writer, and visual artist of Malecite heritage, born and raised on the Penobscot River in Maine, who holds a B.A. in communication and human development and an MFA from Stonecoast. Her first poetry collection, 20th Century PowWow Playland, was published in 2012 by Bowman Books, and her poems have appeared in Poesis, Cabildo Quarterly, Dawnland Voices, and Port City Poems. Text from her poems “Mother Tongue” and “History 101” has been incorporated into an original performance piece by Sacabuche!, a Canadian early music ensemble that performs internationally, and her historical poem “Song for Machigonne” is currently taught at various universities in Maine. In 2009, the Abbe Museum hosted her one-woman multi-media exhibit “Look Twice: the Waponaki in Image & Verse,” and she has taught poetry and fiction writing to groups including the Waponaki Writers Project, Rise Up!, and the Maine Women Writers Collection. She is currently writing a play about the impacts of the Indian residential school system, completing a manuscript on the waters for a Victoria, BC press, and living in Portland.

Craig Sipe spent his career in the defense industry in Connecticut and Rhode Island. He and his wife relocated to Maine in 2016. He has written poetry most of his life and has been published in the Maine Arts Review, the Goose River Press Anthology, Taproot Literary Review (Pennsylvania), the Anthology for the Austin International Poetry Festival (Texas), The Cafe Review, and other places. He resides in Harpswell, Maine on Orr’s Island.

Mark Pawlak is an author of eleven poetry collections, most recently Special Operation (Beltway Editions, 2026) and Away Away (Arrowsmith Press, 2024), also the memoir My Deniversity: Knowing Denise Levertov (MadHat Press, 2021). His poems have been translated into Chinese, German, Japanese, Polish, and Spanish. His work has appeared widely in journals and in anthologies such as The Best American Poetry.

Jefferson Navicky is the author of four books, most recently the novel-in-prose-poems, Head of Island Beautification for the Rural Outlands, which was a Finalist for the Big Other Book Award in Fiction, as well as Antique Densities: Modern Parables & Other Experiments in Short Prose, which won the Maine Literary Award for Poetry. His work has appeared in Smokelong Quarterly, Electric Literature, Fairy Tale Review, Southern Humanities Review, and Beloit Poetry Journal. He is the recipient of grants from the Maine Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, as well as two additional Maine Literary Awards for poetry and drama. Jefferson serves the Maine poetry community in a variety of ways, including as the Interviews Coordinator for The Café Review, where he has also contributed book reviews for over fifteen years. He lives in Midcoast Maine.

Mary Bonina is both a poet and a prose writer. My Way Home is her debut novel. She is the author of My Father’s Eyes: A Memoir, and three published poetry collections: Living Proof, Clear Eye Tea, and Lunch in Chinatown. Her poem “Drift” won the UrbanArts “Boston Contemporary Authors” prize, and is engraved on a granite monolith, a permanent public art installation in the City. Since 2001, she has been a fellow and has received several residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, including a retreat in Auvillar, France. Her collaborative art experiments with composers and sculptors have expanded poetry’s vocabulary and reach. A longtime member of the Writers Room of Boston, where she served on the Board of Directors for more than a decade, Bonina is a graduate of the M.F.A. Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

Carl Little is the author of Blanket of the Night: Poems (Deerbrook Editions, 2024). His poetry has appeared in The Café Review, Maine Arts Journal and Maine Sunday Telegram, among other publications, as well as in several anthologies, most recently, Echoes in the Fog and Timberline and Shoreline: A Range of Poems from Maine, celebrating the Maine Poets Society’s 90th anniversary. In 2021, the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award for his art writing. Little lives on Mount Desert Island in Maine.

Bill Carpenter grew up in Waterville and returned to Maine in 1972 to help start the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, where he taught for 50 years. He has published three books of poetry and three novels. His prizes include the AWP poetry award, the Samuel French Morse prize, an NEA fellowship, and the IP Gold Medal for Military Fiction. His poems have appeared in Poetry (Chicago), the American Poetry Review, New England Review, Iowa Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, and The Café Review. They have been widely translated and set to music, performed by the San Jose Opera, the Boston Opera Company, and in Carnegie Hall. He lives in an old former inn in Stockton Springs with fellow writer Donna Gold.

Valerie Lawson author of Dog Watch and several chapbooks. Her work appeared in Café Review, Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment, Wild Roof Journal, About Place Journal, and others. Lawson edited 3 Nations Anthology: Native, Canadian & New England Writers, winner of a Maine Literary Award. She received a Maine Arts Commission grant to complete her current manuscript, Hope on the Rising Tide, finalist for the Dryden-Vreeland Book Prize.

Jeffrey Cyphers Wright received his MFA after studying with Allen Ginsberg. A New Romantic poet, he is also a publisher, art and literary critic, eco-activist, impresario, filmmaker, and artist. He is the author of 20 books of verse, including Party Everywhere, Erato’s Inbox, and Doppelängster; Self Portraits in a Funhouse Mirror. His work appears in Best American Poetry, 2023. He received a Kathy Acker Award for both publishing and writing. A recent collection called Fuel for Love, won the James Tate Award. Wright publishes Live Mag! You can see his films and puppet shows on his Youtube channel.

Steven Rea is the author of the archival photography books The Hollywood Book Club, Hollywood Cafe and Hollywood Rides a Bike. He produces the website ridesabike.com. For many years he was the film critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer. His poems have appeared in The Cafe Review, New York Quarterly, The Paris Review, The Seneca Review, The Westchester Review and other publications. A chapbook, Neither Can I, came out in late 2024. He lives in Belfast, Maine.

LittleFawnn Ketchum is a 2-Spirit member of the Penobscot Nation. They are a healer, poet, researcher, and teacher. LittleFawnn is passionate about creativity, the rights of LGBTQ+ community members, healthy indoor air, and ending homelessness in Maine. LittleFawnn lives in Winthrop Maine with Barnabas and Buffy, a couple of fat cats.

Sue Sinclair (she/her) is the author of seven poetry books, all of which have been nominated for or have won regional, national, or international awards. Her latest collection, New-Fangled Rose, was released this spring with Goose Lane Editions. Sue also has a PhD in philosophy and wrote about beauty for her dissertation. She lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, on Wolastoqiyik territory, and is co-director of Creative Writing at the University of New Brunswick.

Steve Luttrell is a poet, publisher, and literary advocate born and based in Greater Portland, Maine. He is the founder and Publishing Editor of The Café Review, an award-winning international art and poetry quarterly established in 1989, and a past Poet Laureate of Portland. He is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently Paper Boats (Igneus Press, 2024), and serves as Co-Founder and Co-Organizer of the Eastport Arts & Poetry Festival. A lifelong champion of Poetry as Public Art, Luttrell has hosted The Poet’s Cafe on Maine Community TV, led summer readings in the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow House garden, and currently hosts a monthly Poetry Open Mic Night at Novel Books in Portland.

Keynote & Feature Poets