Poet Laure Anne Bosselaar Joins 13th Annual PB Poetry Festival Faculty

Susan R. Williamson, Director of the Palm Beach Poetry Festival (PBPF), today announced that award-winning poet Laure-Anne Bosselaar has been added to the faculty list of the 13th annual Festival, which is returning to Old School Square for six days, January 16-21, 2017. The Festival's Special Guest Poet will be Charles Simic, past United States Poet Laureate (2007-2008) and 1990 Pulitzer Prize winner.

Ms. Bosselaar is replacing the previous announced Festival veteran Thomas Lux, who has withdrawn due to personal reasons. She is one of nine distinguished poets who will lead poetry writing workshops at the Festival, including David Baker, Tina Chang, Lynn Emanuel, Daisy Fried, Terrance Hayes, Dorianne Laux, Carl Phillips and Martha Rhodes. Individual conferences will be offered by nationally acclaimed poets Sally Bliumis-Dunn, Nickole Brown and Ginger Murchison. Performances at the Field House will offer sizzling spoken word by The Mayhem Poets: Mason Granger and Scott Raven.

"The Palm Beach Poetry Festival is offering a nationally recognized, world-class learning opportunity with more than a dozen of America's most engaging and award-winning poets in Delray Beach," said Ms. Williamson. "In addition to our workshops, the Festival brings the voices of America's most beloved living poets to the Crest Theatre stage. We work hard to present a diverse group of poetic voices, each expressing in their poems what we sometimes find inexpressible."

The newly added workshop will be:

Wait... Let Me Rephrase This with Laure-Anne Bosselaar

This very inter-active workshop will focus on revision and techniques: how can writers acquire the tools they need to revise poems on their own? Many aspiring and even experienced poets find it challenging to revise their work without the help of a workshop group or mentor. Participants will learn how to strengthen and sharpen their revision skills which will-systematically and in depth-address the craft elements of a poem: form, syntax, tone, metaphor, images, line-breaks, titles, closure, etc.

Laure-Anne Bosselaar is the author of The Hour Between Dog and Wolf; Small Gods of Grief, which won the Isabella Gardner Prize for Poetry; and A New Hunger, selected as an ALA Notable Book for 2008. With her late husband Kurt Brown, she translated a book by Flemish poet, Herman de Coninck: The Plural of Happiness. The editor of four anthologies, and the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, she has taught at Emerson College, Sarah Lawrence College, and is part of the core faculty at the Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program of Pine Manor College.

How to Apply for PBPF Workshops:

Each Palm Beach Poetry Festival workshop is limited to 12 qualified participants and three auditors, who must apply for admission and submit three poems that will be reviewed by an independent reader with a graduate degree and editorial experience. The admission process insures that all participants will make meaningful contributions to discussions. In addition, the workshops will help improve editing skills and/or stimulate the writing of new poems.

Application forms are available online at www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org, where detailed workshop descriptions and faculty biographies can be found. The deadline for this quick and convenient application process is November 14, 2016.

Tuition for workshops is $895 and includes five three-hour workshop sessions; admission to all festival events, including a ticket to attend the Festival gala and to read at open mics at the Poetry Festival book store. Limited scholarship assistance may be available.

Tuition for Auditors is $495 and includes observation of a workshop and admittance to all Festival events except the gala. Auditing is offered for beginning poets who may be shy about sharing their poems, or non-poets, and is a great opportunity to learn by observing and listening.

The cost for an optional One-on-One Conference is $99, and will be scheduled after acceptance.

Applications require a $25 non-refundable application fee plus a $225 tuition deposit. Tuition balances are due upon acceptance to a workshop.

The 13th annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival will be held January 16-21 at Old School Square in Delray Beach. The Festival features top poets at numerous ticketed public events, including readings, talks, interviews, panel discussions and more. Nine workshops will be offered for which applications are required.

Special Guest Poet in 2017 will be Charles Simic, past United States Poet Laureate (2007-2008) and 1990 Pulitzer Prize winner. Nine distinguished poets will lead poetry writing workshops at the Festival: David Baker, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Tina Chang, Lynn Emanuel, Daisy Fried, Terrance Hayes, Dorianne Laux, Carl Phillips and Martha Rhodes, and individual conferences will be offered by nationally acclaimed poets: Sally Bliumis-Dunn, Nickole Brown and Ginger Murchison. Performances at the Field House will offer sizzling spoken word by The Mayhem Poets: Mason Granger and Scott Raven.

For more information about the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, visit www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org.

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