Fiddlehead contributor Charles Wright Named US Poet Laureate

Photo credit: Holly Wright, poets.org

Charles Wright, Pulitzer Prize winning US poet and past contributor to The Fiddlehead (nos. 236 and 252), has been named the next US Poet Laureate.

According to the announcement on the Library of Congress website, James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, says, "Charles Wright is a master of the meditative, image-driven lyric. ... For almost 50 years his poems have reckoned with what he calls 'language, landscape, and the idea of God.' Wright’s body of work combines a Southern sensibility with an allusive expansiveness, for moments of singular musicality."

In the summer of 2008, The Fiddlehead published a Charles Wright retrospective along with a selection of new poems. In the summer of 2012, Wright contributed two more new poems to the magazine.

Fredericton-Area Literary Events

If you're in the Fredericton area over the few weeks, there are some great literary opportunities on offer. The Fredericton Arts Alliance is hosting writer Forrest Orser as part of its artist in residence program this week. And on June 25, CBC Radio will be recording Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids at the Cedar Tree in downtown Fredericton, which promises to be fun and hilarious. Details on both below. 

UNB alumnus and past Fiddlehead contributor Forrest Orser is one of the artists in residence at the Soldiers’ Barracks in Fredericton’s Historic Garrison District until June 20. He will be available to discuss his work and writing in general from 1:30 to 5 p.m. each day. The other artist in residence is Mariah Sockabasin, an aboriginal artist and fashion designer. She will be presenting her work from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. every day. This is the 13th year that the Fredericton Arts Alliance has organizing its series of one-week artist residencies in the Soldiers’ Barracks. The residencies are also part of Fredericton Tourism’s cultural tourism programming. Orser has published poems and short stories, including “Wild Horses on an Island” in the Summer 2011 issue of The Fiddlehead. After more than 30 years as a reporter and editor with The Daily Gleaner, he is now a freelance editor.

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Do you still have any of your childhood or teenage writing? CBC Radio presents Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids, an open-mic evening of juvenilia — book reports, diary entries, poems, letters from camp — read out loud by adults to a room full of strangers.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014 at The Cedar Tree Cafe (418 Queen St.). Doors at 7:30. Show at 8:00.

Tickets $10 in advance. Readers get free admission.

Visit the Facebook event.

Buy tickets.

Sign up to read.

Writers' Federation of New Brunswick presents WordSpring 2014 Conference & AGM

The Writers' Federation of New Brunswick invites you to its annual WordSpring event, taking place this year in Fredericton from June 6-8. For more information or to register, visit the WFNB website! And follow WFNB on Twitter!