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Poet Robbie Gamble: Much More than a ‘Can of Pinto Beans’
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Interview by New England Poetry Club Co-President Doug Holder.

Recently, I was at a New England Poetry Club reading to hear poet Robbie Gamble and others read from their work. Gamble has a new chapbook out titled A Can of Pinto Beans. Gamble generously gave me a copy and I decided to interview this accomplished bard.

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March 20

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Carissa Szabo is a current senior at Endicott College. She is soon to become an elementary school teacher in Turkey after graduation in May. She has always had a passion for new experiences. Growing up in rural Vermont, she was a neighbor to the trees and lakes. Her father and grandmother showed her their love of nature and from there Carissa began writing poetry about the natural world around her.

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Emmy winner Gordon Clapp to star in ‘Robert Frost: This Verse Business’
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Article by Off the Shelf Correspondent Joanne Barrett

Emmy-winning actor Gordon Clapp (NYPD Blue) will bring his acclaimed portrayal of poet Robert Frost to Boston this Spring in the one-man show Robert Frost: This Verse Business by local playwright A.M. Dolan. It’s an entertaining portrait of the great poet and platform legend whose public “talks” were hot tickets for nearly half a century and an illuminating glimpse of the old bard at home, aware of his fame and failures, with poems still to write and “promises to keep.”

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March 13

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Marc Zegans has penned seven collections of poems, most recently, Lyon Street (Bamboo Dart Press, 2022) and The Snow Dead (Cervena Barva Press, 2020), two spoken word albums, several immersive theatrical productions, including Sirens, Dreams and a Cat (co-written with D. Lowell Wilder, 2020), and many poetry films. Ghost Book (Kite String Press, 2024), a collaboration with fine art photographer Tsar Fedorsky, will be released in April. Marc lives by the coast in Northern California.

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Somerville Printmaker Liv Cappello: Leaving an imprint on her audience
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I recently caught up with printmaker Liv Cappello, who recently took up a space at the Vernon Street Studios.  She went to college in the hinterlands of Vermont, and is now in the Paris of New England – Somerville, MA – perfecting her craft.

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March 6

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Janelle Solviletti is a writer from Boston, Massachusetts. She is the author of two poetry collections, Euphony and The Cameo. Previously, she published works in Matter, The Horn Pond Review, The Feathertale Review and The Lyrical Somerville. She attended Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, and currently lives and works in Boston.

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‘John Proctor is the Villain’ – A play by Kimberly Belflower
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Review By Off the Shelf Correspondent Andy Hoffman

Setting a show in a school brings up so many production problems. How do you maintain the illusion of the adults playing kids and that the teacher/student power dynamic has actual consequences? The Huntington Theatre shows how with John Proctor is the Villain, tightly written by Kimberly Belflower and expertly directed by Margot Bordelon.

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February 28

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Lo Galluccio is a poet, memoirist and vocalist whose most recent publication is Not for Amnesia on Cervena Barva Press. This collection is composed of 15 poems she wrote in Brooklyn, NY in 1989-90 while working as night high school teacher, after a romantic break up. Lo is a Harvard graduate with a BA in Social Studies and an MFA in Creative Writing from Stoneocoast’s program (2019). She lived on the Lower East Side of NY for 11 years before moving back to Boston in 2001. Her first chapbook, Hot Rain, was released on Ibbetson St. Press, followed by a prose-poem memoir, Sarasota VII, on Cervena Barva Press. In 2012 her third chapbook, Terrible Baubles, came out on Alternating Current Press and was subsequently turned into a CD with music by pianist Eric Zinman and cellist Jane Wang.

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Somerville’s Melissa Nilles: Grooving in the Ruby Grove Band
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Recently I caught up with musician, therapist, and poet Melissa Nilles. Her latest project is the Ruby Grove Band. Like many artists in our community she juggles a lot of things to make the daily nut, but her music is her passion, and she makes sure it stays a big part of her life.

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February 21

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Katie Mihalek is a writer living in Somerville, MA. She has earned a M.S. in Medical Sciences from Boston University and is an MFA Candidate at Emerson College in Creative Writing. She has received support from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop and the Southampton Writers Conference, and is the current Editor-in-Chief for Redivider. Her work can be found in Sheila-Na-Gig, Spectrum, Mistake House Magazine, Beyond Words, and others. Her chapbook, Aurora Uteralis, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in 2024.

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‘Distractions En Route: A Dancer’s Notebook and Other Stories’ by Nina Rubinstein Alonso
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Review by Off the Shelf Correspondent Lee Varon

Nina Rubinstein Alonso’s story collection Distractions En Route: A Dancer’s Notebook and Other Stories is a marvelous collage of thirty vivid stories.

The opening two stories keenly portray a dancer’s life, as in the opening story, The Redhead Number 37, which begins with the line: “Sixty girls lined up can’t see how they look because the mirrors are draped in paper.” One by one, these dancers are eliminated. The way in which women’s bodies are objectified is heightened in the world of dance. We are told “Eliminations start with ‘body cuts’ noted on our file cards – torso long, hips wide, head large, feet stiff.”

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February 14

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Bridget Seley Galway, artist/poet. Born in Marathon Florida in 1954, Galway’s roots come from the 50’s and 60’s bohemian life style of Key West, New York’s Greenwich Village and Provincetown. Her poems have also been published in Provincetown Magazine’s Poetry Corner, Wilderness House Literary Review, Poetry Porch, Ibbetson Press, and Bagel with the Bards, to name a few. Her first collection of poems and images What Moments Yield was published by Ibbetson Press, and has been included in the following permanent collections: N.Y.C Poets House, State University of Buffalo collections, Umass Amherst W.EB Du Bois Library, and the Truro Library Cape Cod. Her art has been exhibited throughout New England, and reviewed in several publications, including Artist Magazine and Cape Arts. Her paintings have been selected for the covers of Bagel with Bards, Ibbetson Press, and individual poet publications. She is currently the Arts Editor /Curator for the Wilderness House Literary Review.

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