April is National Poetry Month. The Hobart Festival of Women Writers 2026 will present an awesome group of poets on June 5, 6, & 7th. We are celebrating April with a taste of their work. Explore their websites for additional work.

Clouds carry hieroglyphs in their mouths
like beads from a broken necklace.
You could be my vanishing point,
with your jumble of distant blue talus. – Kim Roberts

USC is back. But we never went anywhere.
This is where the Gamecock spirit means  
we were trained to fight;  
we can reach new heights. 
We know well the art of creative parking  
and staying up all night to write a paper. 
We know the hype of our women’s basketball 
team and have the stats to back it up.  
This is where legends come to coach, 
where professors win awards 
where students can solve the problems  
of our today. Our way forward  
is to not forget where we came from – Jennifer Bartell Boykin

A door just opened on a street.

A love affair that lasted a lifetime 

stepped onto the pavement.

I was held in such a familiar way

while learning the unfamiliar body.

We had all the time in the world, as if.

A love affair that lasted a lifetime

didn’t look back at the closing door

of the bus I had missed.  – Miho Kinnas

The trouble with 7th grade science was,
Mr. Stevens preferred his own voice
to our messy hands and clumsy mistakes,
or maybe there just weren’t funds 
for class experiments 
in my farmers’ school, circled 
by tomato fields and avocado groves, 
and so from his elevated lab desk,
he droned each weight and measure, 
salt water solution, 
over Bunsen burner and boiling water. 
Mr. Stevens believed in alphabetical order,
so in the back by the door, I sat,
experiments telescoped in miniature 
behind sweaty heads, lulled by muggy breezes. – Lisa Wujnovich

To have been shocked by the hawk moth’s

bullet body; sleek, unreeling tongue

tracing pink phlox and purple monardia 

as the month’s heated breath hovers 

above and below scented blossoms. – Bertha Rogers

The hummingbird.  The zinnias. 
The hummingbird.  The zinnias. 
The hum.  The hum-um-ummmm. 
The zin. The zin, zin – zoom with 
coordinates locked. 
Bliss is a kiss, is a zin-zin. 
Color me, says hummingbird, 
honey me for the trip.  – Margot Farrington

DEAR GOD

Of neighbors

Who fall in love with one another

There’s something sexy

In a high school way

About neighbors.

This story l,000 times. – Esther Cohen

We’ve invited a stunning group of writers in all genres. The following writers will also join us on June 5, 6, &7th.

Registration for The Hobart Festival of Women Writers will open on Eventbrite on May 1, 2026.

The Hobart Festival of Women Writers is an all-volunteer organization. For fourteen years, we’ve raised funding from arts sources and from YOU. You, our supporters, have been generous and faithful. We understand that, in the current environment of uncertainty, we’ve all had to pull our belts tighter. Please help us if you can with whatever you can afford. All donations are appreciated. Link to our GoFundMe

This project is made possible with funds from the Delaware County Arts Grants, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered in Delaware County by the Roxbury Arts Group.