Mary Moore Easter
Mary Moore Easter is the author of four poetry books, From the Flutes of Our Bones; The Body of the World (Minnesota Book Award Finalist); Walking from Origins, and Free Papers: poems inspired by the testimony of Eliza Winston, a Mississippi slave escaped to freedom in Minnesota in 1860. Newly published from Nodin Press is her memoir of dance and race: The Way She Wants to Get There: Telling on Myself. Published in Poetry, Prairie Schooner, The Christian Century, Water~Stone, and other journals, Easter gives public readings in Minnesota and nationally. Her poems also appear as texts for art songs, anthology contributions, and on library-sponsored poetry trails. Her adult career as an independent dancer/choreographer and Founder and Director of Carleton College’s dance program overlapped with writing as a Cave Canem Fellow. Selected honors: Artist Initiative Grant, Minnesota State Arts Board (2020), Pushcart Prize-nominations, Bush Artist Fellowship in Choreography, multiple McKnight Awards in Interdisciplinary Arts, The Loft Literary Center’s Creative Non-Fiction Award. B.A., Sarah Lawrence; M.A. in Music for Dancers, Goddard. In 2022, Carleton College named the new studios in the Weitz Center for Creativity to honor her legacy: the Mary Easter Dance Studios.
Rennie McQuilken
Rennie McQuilkin, who served as CT Poet Laureate from 2015-2018, grew up in Rochester, NY, attended Harvard Law School, and received degrees from Princeton (BA) and Columbia Universities (MA). After teaching English at Phillips Academy in Andover, MA, and Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, CT, he co-founded the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival at Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, CT, which he directed for 9 years. His poetry has appeared in The Atlantic, Poetry, The American Scholar, The Southern Review, The Yale Review, The Hudson Review, and other publications. The author of many poetry collections, he has received a number of awards, including a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, six fellowships from the CT Commission on the Arts, the CT Center for the Book’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and its 2010 poetry award under the aegis of the Library of Congress.
Annette Gagliardi
Annette Gagliardi is a poet whose work has appeared in literary journals in Canada, England and the US. Her first full-length poetry collection, titled: A Short Supply of Viability, and her first historical fiction, titled: Ponderosa Pines: Days of the Deadwood Forest Fire were published in 2022.
Charlie Curry
Charlie Curry is an original member of Nerve Poets, a writing group which existed for over 15 years. His work has appeared in The Martin Lake Journal, Saint Paul Almanac, the Herald, Minnesota Zoo Tracks, engagemn.com, The Moccasin and Konundrum Engine Literary Review. He received several prizes from League of Minnesota Poets contests and a first prize in a Dakota County Library poetry contest. Charlie is the financial officer of the Minnesota Multifaith Network, a minister and former business consultant and teacher.