PALM BEACH POETRY FESTIVAL Returns to Delray Beach, January 15-20, 2018

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. - Aug. 17, 2017 - PRLog -- PALM BEACH POETRY FESTIVAL

Returns to South Florida, January 15-20, 2018

Special Guest Poet will be Coleman Barks, the World's Leading Translator of Celebrated 13th Century Poet Rumi

Festival Workshops will be Led by Nine Award-Winning Poets: Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Chard deNiord, Beth Ann Fennelly, Ross Gay, Rodney Jones, Phillis Levin, Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Tim Seibles

Writers of Poetry May Now Apply for Nine Extraordinary Workshops held during the 6-Day Festival at Old School Square that will Include Craft Talks & Readings, Panel Discussions, Open Mic and Sizzling Spoken Word Events,

Plus a Special Tribute to Poet Thomas Lux

(Delray Beach, FL – August 14, 2017) Susan R. Williamson, Director of the Palm Beach Poetry Festival (PBPF), today announced that the 14th annual festival is returning to Old School Square for six days, January 15-20, 2018. Special Guest Poet will be Coleman Barks, a major poet and the world's leading expert on 13th century poet Rumi, the founder of Sufism – as well as the likely namesake of one of the recently born twins of d and Jay Z.

Nine distinguished poets will lead poetry-writing workshops at the Festival:

Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Chard deNiord, Beth Ann Fennelly, Ross Gay, Rodney Jones, Phillis Levin, Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Tim Seibles, with individual conferences offered by nationally acclaimed poets: Lorna Knowles Blake, Sally Bliumis-Dunn and Nickole Brown. In addition, Slam Champions Elizabeth Acevedo and G Yamazawa will co-host a Sizzling Spoken Word event, and

"The Palm Beach Poetry Festival is 0nce again offering a nationally recognized, world-class learning opportunity with more than a dozen of America's most engaging and award-winning poets in Delray Beach," said Ms. Williamson. "In addition to our workshops, the Festival brings the voices of America's most beloved living poets to the Crest Theatre stage. We work hard to present a diverse group of poetic voices, each expressing in their poems what we sometimes find inexpressible."

Special Guest Poet

Coleman Barks

"Spotlighting Coleman Barks at the next Palm Beach Poetry Festival will be like featuring two incredible poets in one," says Miles A. Coon, Festival Founder & President. "Not only is Barks a great American poet in his own right, he is also one of the world's leading experts of 13th century poet, Rumi. In fact, it has been translations by Coleman Barks that have helped Rumi become one of America's best-selling poets."

Twelve Steps Toward Revision with Laure-Anne Bosselaar

This very interactive workshop focuses on how to strengthen and hone revision skills by systematically and individually addressing all the elements of a poem including structure, tone, line-breaks, form, syntax, sounds, and more. Mostly, this workshop should be inspiring, motivating and fun – so participants should bring a sense of humor, imagination and three poems that need work.

Laure-Anne Bosselaar is the author of The Hour Between Dog and Wolf; Small Gods of Grief, which won the Isabella Gardner Prize for Poetry; and A New Hunger, selected as an ALA Notable Book for 2008. With her late husband Kurt Brown, she translated a book by Flemish poet, Herman de Coninck: The Plural of Happiness. The editor of four anthologies, and the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, she has taught at Emerson College, Sarah Lawrence College, and is part of the core faculty at the Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program of Pine Manor College.
Gabrielle Calvocoressi is the author of The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart and Apocalyptic Swing, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She is an Editor at Large at Los Angeles Review of Books and co-curates the multi-media maker's space Voluble. The recipient of awards and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, Civitella di Ranieri, The Paris Review, and the Rona Jaffe Foundation, among others, Calvocoressi's poems have appeared in POETRY, The New York Times, Boston Review and other magazines and journals. She sits on the poetry boards of The Rumpus and From the Fishouse. She is working on a memoir about suicide entitled, The Year I Didn't Kill Myself. Her third book, Rocket Fantastic, will be released next month.

About the Palm Beach Poetry Festival 2018:

The 14th annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival will be held next January 15-20 at Old School Square in Delray Beach. The Festival features top poets at numerous ticketed public events, including readings, talks, interviews, panel discussions and more. Nine workshops will be offered for which applications are required.

The 2018 Palm Beach Poetry Festival is sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; Morgan Stanley & The Legacy Group of Atlanta; the Cultural Council of Palm County, the Palm Beach County Tourism Development Council and the Board of Commissioners of Palm Beach County; The Palm Beach Post; Visit Florida; WLRN; and Murder on the Beach, Delray Beach's independent bookseller.

For more information about the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, please visitwww.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org.

Available for Interview:

Susan Williamson

srw@palmbeachpoetryfestival.org

Media Contact:

Gary Schweikhart

PR-BS, Inc.

561.756.4298

gary@pr-bs.net