Hobart Festival of Women Writers 2019 welcomes
JP Howard as a Participating Writer
JP Howard, poet, teacher and poetry activist returns to Hobart Festival of Women Writers for her sixth consecutive year. She is the author of SAY/MIRROR, her debut poetry collection published by The Operating System and a chaplet “bury your love poems here” (Belladonna Collaborative*). SAY/MIRROR was a 2016 Lambda Literary Award Finalist in the Lesbian Poetry Category. JP is a 2018 featured author in Lambda Literary’s LGBTQ Writers in Schools program. JP is a Pushcart Prize Nominee and was a finalist for Split This Rock’s 2017 Freedom Plow Award for Poetry & Activism. She is featured in the 2017 Lesbian Poet Trading Card series from Headmistress Press and was selected as a 2016 Judith Markowtiz Emerging Writers Award Winner from Lambda Literary Foundation.
praise poets and their pens
dedicated to my 30/30 crew
praise daily poems in my inbox
how they make me laugh in one stanza,
then break my heart the next
praise how poets hold onto our first loves,
and scent of mama, now gone
praise how we nurture our child self,
gently wrap her around stanzas,
baby girl is resilient
praise our spunk and our sadness,
let our writing heal
at home, at work, in cafés, even in the ICU
praise how we hold our memories up to light,
gentle and cupped in palm of hands
praise our rough and sexy poems,
sometimes that’s all we need
fiyah in the sheets
praise bebop and jazz
how my foot taps when i
speak your poems out loud
praise power of music and mama
who played Nancy Wilson all night long,
crying behind a closed door.
praise how i wrote a new poem this week,
while my sick child laid on my lap,
because everyone needs to heal, especially mamas
Copyright © 2017 by JP Howard. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on September 13, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.
As founder and curator of Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon (WWBPS), a forum offering all writers, but especially women, at all levels, a monthly venue to come together in a positive and supportive space, JP Howard is a dynamic community-builder for NYC poets. WWBPS presents readings, open mikes, support, as well as, maintains a traveling poetry library that puts poetry into the hands of more people.
The Salon has been featured in Poets & Writers Magazine and on CUNY-TV’s cable tv program Study with the Best!“ JP Howard is the recipient of Brooklyn Arts Council Grants on behalf of the Salon.
For Hobart Festival of Women Writers 2019, JP Howard has developed a workshop designed to share her insights in organizing and sustaining a writers’ salon.
How to Bloom ~ Creating, Sustaining and Presenting: Women Writers in Bloom Literary Salon. In this two-hour workshop session, JP Howard will discuss the genesis and development of her literary salon, now in its eighth year, including the effort and commitment that goes into sustaining the salon’s presence in the community, its growing national visibility and its importance to writers’ experience. This workshop will be a practical guide to establishing a literary community, including how-to’s on nurturing and expanding its development. Topics discussed will include envisioning a community-based literary project/salon, strategically meeting needs, encountering challenges, the vital role of social media, the importance of fundraising, why diverse and intergenerational literary spaces are necessary, as well as practical advice on how to sustain a community-based literary group over time. Participants are encouraged to discuss and outline their goals/desires for creating and nurturing their own literary communities.
Registration for Hobart Festival of Women Writers 2019 opens May 15th. Go to Hobart Festival of Women Writers.com
For more information, go to JP Howard.com
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Hobart Festival of Women Writers 2023 