In celebration of National Poetry Month, join three Vermont-based poets as they read from their work at the Waterbury Public Library on Wednesday, April 29 from 6:30-8 PM in the library’s SAL Room in “Poems by Heart” with a nod to Rainer Maria Rilke: "It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart." Poets include Waitsfield's Erika Nichols-Frazer, Waterbury's Colleen Ovelman and Burlington's Alison Prine, who will explore the themes of spring, including birth, loss, and renewal.
Erika Nichols-Frazer is the author of the poetry collection Staring Too Closely and the memoir Feed Me: A Story of Food, Love and Mental Illness, as well as the forthcoming poetry chapbook Can you see her, the moon? coming out from Finishing Line Press in June 2026 and the short story collection No One Will Ever Hear You, coming out from Rootstock Publishing in September 2026. She has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and has published more than 30 short stories, poems, and essays in literary journals such as River Teeth's Beautiful Things, Emerge Literary Journal, Gone Lawn, and others. She works at Vermont State University and lives in Waitsfield with her husband, infant daughter, and various animals.
Colleen Ovelman's creative work has appeared in Best of the Burlington Writer’s Workshop, Grand Exit podcast, Vermont Stage’s Winter Tales, Philadelphia Stories, and elsewhere. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Vermont Studio Center and Hollowdeck Press's Poet Cottage. She is working on a collection of poems, a history of mending, which explores living with grief in the aftermath of her teenage son's death. Her son, Eli, was killed along with four of his friends from the Mad River Valley in 2016. Colleen lives with her family in Waterbury, Vermont
Alison Prine’s latest collection of poems, LOSS AND ITS ANTONYM (Headmistress Press, 2024), won the Sappho’s Prize in Poetry and was a finalist for the Vermont Book Award. Her debut poetry collection, STEEL (Cider Press Review, 2016), was also named a finalist for the Vermont Book Award. Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Five Points, Harvard Review, Prairie Schooner, and others. She lives and works in Burlington, Vermont. Visit her at alisonprine.com.
No registration is required, simply drop-in. There will be a Q&A at the end with light refreshments.
