Claire Blotter of California, last year’s winner of the Fischer Poetry Prize, will be the featured performance poet of Bardic Trails Tuesday, Oct. 6th at 7 pm MDT.
“I was delighted when Blotter won last year’s Fischer Poetry Prize,” said Talking Gourds director Art Goodtimes. “She is an amazing performance poet I first heard in Aspen a dozen years ago.”
Blotter has published three chapbooks and a full-length poetry collection, EXPANDING.WATER.WAYS. (Kelsay Books,2024). She’s been reading and performing these poems along U.S. wetlands threatened by a 2023 Supreme Court decision. Her work has been published in Rattle, Slipstream, the Plant-Human Quarterly, California Fire and Water: A Climate Crisis Anthology and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications.
She represented San Francisco in National Poetry Slams in Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, has taught poetry writing and performance at San Francisco State University, Dominican University and the College of Marin and currently teaches first grade poets at four Mill Valley elementary schools.
Her award-winning video documentary, WAKE-UP CALL: SAVING THE SONGBIRDS, has been screened in 11 film festivals from Mill Valley to Chicago. She is currently writing a poetry-prose memoir about her experiences listening to trees and nature and how their voices have shaped her life. Her website is <claireblotter.com>
For those that like story or poem prompts, we are suggesting “Healing,” although poems on any subject are welcome. Virtual attendees are encouraged to bring a story or poem to share each month after the featured reader — their own work or someone else’s.
The Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds Poetry Program hosts the free Bardic Trails virtual zoom series on the first Tuesday of each month. The Wilkinson Public Library continues as our collaboration partner, with town support from Commission for Community Assistance, Arts & Special Events. Featured reader for Nov. 3 will be poet, professor, and 2021 Chamberlain Award winner Kate Kingston of Trinidad.
Participants are encouraged to visit <https://www.tellurideinstitute.org/western-slope-calendar> to get the zoom link each month, if they aren’t already on our mailing list. Or email Art Goodtimes directly.
Thanks to the Cantor Family, the Guttman Family Foundation, CCAASE and our Fischer and Cantor contest participants for supporting our program and projects.
OTHER PROGRAMS
The Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds Poetry Program teamed up with Grand Junction’s Art Center of Western Colorado to host the first Book Cliffs Poetry Festival, a one-day extravaganza “packed with poetry,” on Saturday, Sept. 26th. Headliners included Wendy Videlock, Danny Rosen, Dr. David Rothman and as the occasion for the awarding of the Karen Chamberlain Award for lifetime achievement in Colorado poetry to the late Andrea Gibson of Denver, as well as the transferring of the biannual Western Slope Poet Laureate title from Wendy Videlock to Danny Rosen.
Talking Gourds continues its collaboration with the Naturita Community Library on the second Thursday of each month at 6 pm for the West End Stories & Poems series. On Oct. 8th Cliff Allred will be leading a discussion about all things paranormal – near-death experiences, ghosts, unexplained encounters and other mysterious experiences.
Telluride’s Wilkinson Public Library and Talking Gourds host a live Stories & Poems series at the library’s Magazine Room on the third Tuesday of every month at 5:15 pm.. On October 20th, Elle Metrick of Norwood and Rob Schultheis of Telluride will be the featured poets. Participants are encouraged to bring a poem or story to share.
The international Fischer Prize poetry contest and the Colorado-focused Cantor Prize poetry contest has concluded, and winners were announced at the Book Cliffs Poetry Festival. Lesley Wheeler of Virginia was the Fischer final judge, and Scott Nicolay of New Mexico the Cantor final judge. A press release is forthcoming.
For more information, visit the Telluride Institute Talking Gourds website: tellurideinstitute.org/talking-gourds
