The Monadnock Writers’ Group will announce the winners of the biannual “Poetry in the Pines” contest at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 11, at Cathedral of the Pines, 10 Hale Hill Road, Rindge.
The event is free and open to the public.
‘This is a great way to discover or rediscover this nearby parkland and to see the poetry of friends take on a new life,” said Carl Mabbs-Zeno of the Monadnock Writers Group.
The theme of the contest is to convey an appreciation of nature through poetry.
The event will start in Cathedral of the Pines meeting hall, where winning poets will read their poems to the group, followed by another reading by this year’s contest judge, Brian Evans-Jones.
Monadnock Writers’ Group and Cathedral of the Pines have collaborated on a poetry contest for several years, usually on a biannual basis. The contest is open to the public and poems are judged by an accomplished poet. Past judges include Henry Walters and Susan Roney-O’Brien.
Poet and author Evans-Jones is a Sharon resident who originally hails from the United Kingdom. Evans-Jones was Poet Laureate of Hampshire, U.K., in 2012-2013, and won the Maureen Egen Award from Poets & Writers in 2017. Evans-Jones has been published widely in the U.S. and U.K. and is the founder of “The Poetry Place,” a website for aspiring and emerging poets. He will be the featured speaker at the Monadnock Writers Group monthly meeting at 9:45 a.m. Saturday, April 18, at the Peterborough Town Library.
Following the indoor reading, participants who are able will head outside to see the poems installed along the trails. Each winning poet will read their pieces once again in this special setting. Guests are advised to wear comfortable footwear suitable for the trails, which can be steep, and dress for the weather.
This year’s poems will be installed on the Peace Trail, which connects with the Grassy Pond trail, where winning poems from previous contest are displayed.
“The two trails connect, so people can easily see the poems from earlier years after seeing this year’s winners,” Mabbs-Zeno said. “I am replacing almost all the plaques of older poems, because they are getting hard to read as they weather.”
Since 1945, Cathedral of the Pines has honored the service of American men and women. Its open-air cathedral and historic monument, located in Rindge, are open to the public as a place of spiritual, cultural, and environmental appreciation.
Founded in 1984, the Monadnock Writers’ Group provides fellowship and support to writers in all genres and at all levels of achievement. Their free monthly speaker series brings a variety of accomplished writers to Peterborough to share their experiences and expertise with members. These speakers address a range of genres—fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting, journalism and more—from research and planning through publishing.
