The Black Socks Poetry Reading

St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church is pleased to announce a poetry reading by The Black Socks Poetry Group on Sunday, November 11, at 3:00 p.m.  The church is located at 210 St. Mary’s Road in Hillsborough, NC.

The Black Socks Poets is a writing group that has been meeting regularly for thirty-some years to workshop their in-progress-poetry. Participating members are Florence Nash, Stan Absher, Jan Harrington, and Paul Jones who will each read a poem which will be critiqued by the group. This will be a very interesting window into the way these poets wordsmith their work.

A bit about each poet:

Florence Nash was honored by Vanderbilt University in 2000 as being one of ten emerging poets in the New South. She has joked, “I hold the title of ‘the oldest living emerging poet in the South.’” She was also chosen by the North Carolina Writers network to be a distinguished reader with the Blumenthal Readers and Writers Award. She has published two of her own compilations of poetry, Fish Music and Crossing Water.

Stan Absher has been an offset printer, missionary, bank teller, janitor, surveyor’s helper, and records manager; he has taught freshman English in North Carolina and a course on ballad in Belize. His work has appeared in many literary magazines and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.  His first chapbook, The Burial of Anyce Shepherd, was published by Main Street Rag in 2006 and he is the author of Night Weather (Cynosura Press).

Jan Harrington’s poems, stories, and essays have appeared in journals, anthologies, and magazines both in the states and in Europe. The publications include Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease (The Kent State University Press); New Southerner Anthology; The Homestead Review; Kakalak 2016; Off the Coast; and Midwestern Gothic. She has a Masters degree in English with a Creative Writing focus from North Carolina State University where she studied with Lee Smith.

Paul Jones has a Masters of Fine Arts from Asheville’s Warren Wilson College and has been publishing for years. His recent works include a poem in a cookbook called “The Sound of Poets Cooking” and a piece in the anthology “The Best American Erotic Poems: From 1800 to the Present.”

The reading is presented as part of St. Matthew’s Faith & the Arts Series, now in its 9^th year.  The series was begun as a result of the church’s desire to be more intentional in the support of the arts and artists; to challenge and deepen faith through exposure to the arts; and to use sacred space as a setting for artistic expression.