Two regional writers will read from their recent works of poetry at New River Community College on Sunday, Oct. 1. Colleen Redman, of Floyd, and B. Chelsea Adams, of Riner, will read from their recently published books, “Packing a Suitcase for the Afterlife” and “At Last Light” respectively.
The event, which is sponsored by the NRCC Library, will be held at 3 p.m. in the T. J. Anderson Student Lounge in Martin Hall at NRCC in Dublin. Presented in a casual coffeehouse-inspired setting, the reading is free of charge and open to the public.
Redman writes and provides photography for The Floyd Press newspaper and other regional publications. Her poetry has been published nationally, regionally, and online and has most recently appeared in “Artemis Journal,” “Floyd County Moonshine,” “The Front Porch Review,” and “The Poet’s Haven.”
Her photography, poetry, and prose are regularly featured on her blog, looseleafnotes.com. Her bio reads, “From the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, I write to synthesize what I’m learning at the time, whether it be poetry, a political commentary, or a letter to my family in Hull, Massachusetts, where I’m originally from. Whenever I don’t know exactly what it is I’m doing and it borders on wasting my time, I call it research.”
“Dear Abby, How can I get rid of freckles?” was Redman’s first published piece at the age of 11.
Of Redman’s recently published book of poetry, “Packing a Suitcase for the Afterlife,” Felicia Mitchell, Emory and Henry College creative writing teacher, says, “The poems, rich with imagery and introspection, resonate with an original voice grounded in a range of experiences. Intelligent and compassionate, they promise to draw in readers with their layering of dream and day, of past and present, of insight and story…Realistic with tinges of the surreal…She has, paradoxically, told the untold, touching on that which resides in both dreams and in life and in the borders between.”
Adams, who taught creative writing at Radford University, received a master’s degree in creative writing and English from Hollins College. A chapbook of her poems, “Looking for a Landing,” was published by Sow’s Ear Publishing in 2000. Her stories and poems have been published in numerous journals, including “Poet Lore,” “Potato Eyes,” “Albany Review,” “Southwestern Review,” “California State Poetry Quarterly,” “Huckleberry Magazine,” “Union Street Review, “Wind,” “Lucid Stone,” “Rhino” and the Alms House Press “Sampler.” “Java Poems,” a chapbook celebrating her addiction to coffee was published in 2007.
Adams comments on why she writes, “A phrase, a line, a bird, a tree won’t leave me alone. At first I don’t know what I will say about the words or image. But it lingers and the next line comes.”
Poet, novelist and scholar, Richard H. W. Dillard, says of Adams’ work, “The poems of Chelsea Adams, quiet and meditative, express moments of personal insight that not only reveal day by day wonders of the natural and human world but, also, like music, help to heal the scars that accrue from this often difficult life we lead.”
Both writers will be available following the reading for questions and a book-signing session. Books will be available for purchase. Light refreshments will be served.
