Loose Leaf Notes

-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on May 31, 2018.

The third annual Little River Poetry Festival (LRPF) is just around the corner and has a new date.  Located at Daniel Sowers’ On the Water Canoeing and Kayaking, the date has been changed from the second weekend in June to the third, June 15 – 17, so as not to conflict with the Floyd Artisan Trail.

As in years past, the LRPF will host featured readings, writing workshops, panel discussions and open mics. There is also Walt Whitman yoga, music, kayaking, nature hiking and birdwatching to inspire the written word.

Since the festival’s inception, poet founders Judith Stevens and Jack Callan, have been wanting to include more local poets in the line-up. This year, four female poets from Floyd County will read together at 12:00 on Saturday, June 16. They are Katherine Sowers, Mara Eve Robbins, Katherine Chantal and Colleen Redman.

“Katherine Sowers has been lured from the farm to share her poetry.  She has been writing since high school,” Stevens said.  In preparation for her reading, Sowers has been going through her box of writings, which includes a prize-winning poem.  Sowers is the mother of On the Water’s Daniel Sowers and the Sowers family land borders the meadow where the festival takes place.

Mara Eve Robbins, a community organizer, has been a lifelong writer. “She pulls over to move turtles out of the road, works daily to protect water, loves trees, and might hand you a Sharpie marker and ask you to wrote poetry on her pants,” her bio reads.  Robbins’s work has appeared in Floyd County Moonshine, the New York Quarterly, Nantahala, Real Simple and Still Journal.  At the age of 33, Robbins returned to college and graduated from Hollins University with a degree in writing.  Robbins, who is currently working on a poetry collection manuscript, will also be featured Saturday at 8:15 and will be participating in a panel and presenting a writing workshop.

Returning Floyd readers from last year’s festival are Katherine Chantal and Colleen Redman.  Chantal, an herbalist and ceremonial priestess will be reading from her book A Tea Poet’s Journey, as well as presenting new work.   A writer for most of her life, Chantal has been published in Mothering Magazine, shared a poem in Isabelle Marchand’s book entitled, Woman, created a health column in her local newspaper, and has poetry in Floyd County Moonshine, a local literary magazine.  “It was a very welcoming atmosphere,” Chantal said about her 2017 reading.

Colleen Redman writes and photographs for The Floyd Press newspaper. Her poetry has been published nationally, regionally, and online and has most recently in appeared in Artemis Journal and Floyd County Moonshine. She is the author of The Jim and Dan Stories, a memoir about her brothers’ deaths that was required reading for a grief and loss class at Radford University for several years. Her photography, poetry and writing are regularly featured on her blog, Looseleafnotes.com. Redman, who will be sharing new work and poems from her recently published Packing a Suitcase for the Afterlife, will also give featured readings Saturday at 3:30 and at 7:15.

Readers from out of state and from the Poetry Society of Virginia, of which Callan was a past Vice President and event organizer, include Serena Fusek, Jill Winkowski, J. Scott Wilson, Dave King, Star LaBranche, Derk Kannemeyer, and Callan and Stevens, who hail from Norfolk but have Floyd ties.

“We’re excited about the returning poets and the new poets who’ve signed on to read.  We continue to include many poets from the Poetry Society of Virginia and hope our festival contributes to PSV’s outreach in the Western Region and its members,” said Callan, whose recent poetry collection is titled Little River on the Milky Way, referring to Floyd’s Little River.

When asked what she was looking forward to this year, Stevens replied, “I’m happy about the yoga sessions planned to help people relax, the inclusion of Floyd musicians Jim Best, and Josh (Daniel’s brother) and his cousin Philip Sowers, and the return of Virginia Tech ornithology graduate, Sarah Winkowski, to lead dawn and dusk bird walks that give us a chance to write poetry about the birds she identifies from their songs.”

Open to the public from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, the festival costs $15 a day, or $45 for the weekend.  Beginner and established poets, as well as those who just want to listen, are encouraged to attend and to bring notebooks and lawn chairs.  There are opportunities to write and to share poetry at open mics, held throughout the weekend.  More information can be found at the festival’s website littleriverpoetryfest.com and on Facebook.  Festival organizers can be reached at (757) 622-8721,  knuckleheadpoet@yahoo.com

Note: Read last year’s full coverage and view photos HERE.  – The photos posted above are some from the last two festivals.