April is National Poetry Month in the U.S. Please join in with the GCLS Virtual Series on Saturday, April 24th at 4:00 PM for select poetry readings from some GCLS members and friends.

Register Here

Moderator: Elizabeth Hodge

The appellation of “poet-philosopher” seems to capture the essence of Elizabeth (EM) Hodge. As a scholar, Elizabeth received the National Endowment for the Humanities award, 3 times. with the first one for her doctoral thesis in philosophy, entitled, Epistemic Double Jeopardy: The Use Of Reason As A Means For Subjugation. Following the path as a scholar/teacher/advocate, she designed curricula based on revolutionary pedagogy and social justice, and wrote a decade’s worth of articles on religion, ethics, and the intersection of race, class, and the LGBTQ+ community. During her time as a professor, she found time to write journals full of poetry, short fiction, and music.

After an accident cut short her professional career, Elizabeth began to focus more on her poetry. Encouraged by friends, she submitted a poetry collection for publication by Sapphire Books, the resulting collection, Undone, a love story in verse, was released in 2016. Upon release, Undone garnered immediate praise, topped the best-selling poetry charts in both LGBTQ and mainstream poetry, nominated for Lambda Literary Award, and ultimately receiving the Golden Crown Literary Society’s Goldie in poetry and a Rainbow Publishing First Place.

Putting Elizabeth’s poetry in a specific category, would prove problematic, as her work ranges from minimalism to epic poetry, from the quest for self/identity and authenticity, to musings on the weirdness of whatever. Thus, her poetry tends to engage those who typical rebuff all things “poetry.” Since the publication of Undone, Elizabeth has kept busy: poems in a number of regional poetry anthologies, open-mic for spoken word, radio, and many literary conferences. Currently, she is finishing her second poetry collection, entitled, Synthetic Sin, as well as a memoir.

Our Featured Poets:

EMILY AUGUST

Emily August is an Associate Professor of Literature at Stockton University, where she teaches courses in 19th-century British literature and culture, medical humanities, literatures of crime and detection, and creative writing. Her scholarly research examines literary, clinical, and visual representations of the body, and the role of the sciences in perpetuating violence against the body. Her poems explore domestic violence and intergenerational trauma, investigating how violence is learned and passed down, and how the body records the traumas to which it is subjected. Her poems have been nominated and shortlisted for several prizes, and have appeared in Callaloo, Cimarron Review, Missouri Review, Ninth Letter, Southern Humanities Review, and other journals.

LISA BAIRD

Lisa Baird is a writer, a community acupuncturist and a queer white settler living on Attawandaron (Atta-WAHN-da-rawn)/Mississaugas (Miss-iss-AW-guhs) of the New Credit territory (Guelph ON). Her poetry has appeared in various journals including Arc, Rattle, and Plenitude, was shortlisted for the 2020 Room Poetry Contest and longlisted for the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize. Her first book of poetry, Winter’s Cold Girls was published by Caitlin Press in fall of 2019. She's at work on her next book.

Find her online at www.lisabaird.ca.

SANDRA DE HELEN

Sandra de Helen currently lives and writes in San Diego County, but her heart remains in Portland, Oregon. Her latest poetry book, Poetry for the People, is her third collection published by Launch Point Press. She also authors the Shirley Combs/Dr. Mary Watson mystery series, set in Portland; Till Darkness Comes, a thriller set in Kansas City, Missouri. See more of her work at www.SandradeHelen.com. de Helen is a member of the Golden Crown Literary Society, Dramatists Guild, Honor Roll! and International Centre for Women Playwrights. Follow her on Twitter, like her on Facebook, follow her on Instagram, and see videos of her reading on YouTube.

Buy Sandra's Books:

Bella

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Kobo

L’MONIQUE KING

Author, Poet and Raconteur L’Monique King is a purple loving native New Yorker who now resides in Charlotte, North Carolina. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English, minored in Black Studies and obtained a graduate certificate in Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies from UNCC (the University of North Carolina Charlotte). Prior to pursuing higher education, L’Monique facilitated writing workshops in New York State prisons and had a regular byline in a community newspaper based in Queens New York. L’Monique’s peer review journal article on the redefining of Dr. W.E.B. Dubois’s talented tenth theory was one of the most downloaded articles in the journal within two disciplines amongst over 5,000 authors. Since graduating college she’s taught English, African American History and Civics to public school students. She's currently a staff writer for QNotes Newspaper where she writes feature news articles and the column "Our People." She’s also employed full time by a CDC funded nonprofit health and education organization where she is the coordinator of two HIV programs. Her book From Collards to Callaloo: Poems & Letters to Assata is a scintillating and cathartic collection of poems and letters written to the 14 year old granddaughter she’s never met.  It is a journey of healing she's bravely shared with the world with the hope that it will one day land in the hands of the granddaughter. In the meantime, she continues to be the voice of the voiceless, advocating for the oppressed and marginalized with love, education and equality as her guide.

LESLÉA NEWMAN

Lesléa (pronounced “Lez-LEE-uh”) Newman is the author of 75 books for readers of all ages, including A Letter to Harvey Milk; October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard; I Carry My Mother; The Boy Who Cried Fabulous; Ketzel, the Cat Who Composed; and Heather Has Two Mommies.

She has received many literary awards, including creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, two American Library Association Stonewall Honors, the Massachusetts Book Award, the Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Award, the Highlights for Children Fiction Writing Award, a Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fiction Writing grant, the James Baldwin Award for Cultural Achievement, the Cat Writer’s Association Muse Medallion, and the Dog Writers Association of America’s Maxwell Medallion. Nine of her books have been Lambda Literary Award Finalists.

Ms. Newman wrote Heather Has Two Mommies, the first children’s book to portray lesbian families in a positive way, and has followed up this pioneering work with several more children’s books on lesbian and gay families: Felicia’s Favorite Story, Too Far Away to Touch, Saturday Is Pattyday, Mommy, Mama, and Me, and  Daddy, Papa, and Me.

She is also the author of many books for adults that deal with lesbian identity, Jewish identity and the intersection and collision between the two. Other topics Ms. Newman explores include AIDS, eating disorders, butch/femme relationships, and sexual abuse. Her award-winning short story, A Letter To Harvey Milk, has been made into a film and adapted for the stage.

In addition to being an author, Ms. Newman is a popular guest lecturer, and has spoken on college campuses across the country including Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Oregon, Bryn Mawr College, Smith College and the University of Judaism. From 2005-2009, Lesléa was on the faculty of the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. From 2008-2010, she served as the Poet Laureate of Northampton, MA. She has taught fiction writing at Clark University and currently she is a faculty mentor at  Spalding University’s School of Creative and Professional Writing.

Recently published books include the poetry collection I Carry My Mother (Golden Crown Literary Society Award and Massachusetts Center for the Book “Must Read” title); picture books Ketzel, The Cat Who Composed (Massachusetts Book Award, Sydney Taylor Award, and Cat Writers Association Best “Litter-ary” Award); Sparkle Boy (Massachusetts Center for the Book Honor Title); and Gittel’s Journey: An Ellis Island Story (National Jewish Book Award). Forthcoming books include the adult poetry collection I Wish My Father (Headmistress Press, 2021) and the picture books Song of Los Coquís/La Canción De Los Coquís (Lee & Low, 2020); What Daddies Do (Abrams, 2021) and I Can Be….Me! (Lee & Low, forthcoming).ís (Lee & Low, 2020); What Daddies Do (Abrams, 2021) and I Can Be….Me! (Lee & Low, forthcoming).

OCEAN

Ocean typically writes about ordinary women who find themselves in extraordinary situations. Although better known for her thrillers, she’s published novels in a variety of genres including romance and urban fantasy. Her most recent publication, Love You Like A Woman, is a compilation of poems that express a variety of emotions that often entwine the heart when love is involved.

“I feel it’s my job as an author to stimulate a reader’s mind and heart.”

Ocean's books are available in digital and paperback and can be purchased at Amazon.com: Ocean's Author Page

You can connect with Ocean on Twitter @OceanWrites, FB @OceanWrites, her website: oceanldy.com  or email oceanwrites@gmail.com.

ARHM CHOI WILD

Arhm Choi Wild is a queer, Korean-American poet who grew up in the slam community of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and went on to perform across the country, including at Brave New Voices, the New York City Poetry Festival, and Asheville Wordfest. Their debut book of poems, Cut To Bloom, was the winner of the 2019 Write Bloody Book Contest.

Arhm is a Kundiman fellow with an MFA in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College, and was a finalist for the Jake Adam York Prize in 2019. They have been anthologized in Daring to Repair by Wising Up Press and The Queer Movement Anthology of Literatures, and their work appears in Barrow Street, The Massachusetts Review, Pleiades, Split this Rock, and other publications. They work as the Director of the Progressive Teaching Institute and as a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator at a school in New York City. For more information, visit arhmchoiwild.com.