Poetry Night at The New England Mobile Book Fair

Former Boston Poet Laureate Sam Cornish will host an evening of poetry at the New England Mobile Book Fair. The event will feature readings from four special guest poets: Ruby Poltorak, Deborah Pfeiffer, Elizabeth Quinlan, and Barbara Thomas.

Ruby Poltorak is a Yiddish vocalist and Klezmer drummer and is in the concert ensemble of a 100-member Yiddish Chorus, which has performed at the Somerville Theatre and Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center. She teaches and translates Yiddish. Her poems have been published in Summer Home Review, were on display at Boston City Hall, and have been staged at the Shubert Theater and the Wang’s Grand Lobby. She read for the 80th birthday celebration of Dennis Brutus (the African National Congress poet), and those poems reside in the Brutus Collection at Worcester State College.

Deborah Pfeiffer is currently working on A Week on the River, a book of poetry and prose inspired by Thoreau’s 1839 journey along the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. She has participated in the Writer’s Workshop at the Joiner Institute for the Study of War and Social Consequences, the Massachusetts Poetry Festival and the Boston Public Library Series. She has an MA in English Literature with a concentration in Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

Elizabeth Quinlan, author of Promise Supermarket (Ibbetson Street Press), is a poet and visual artist, and a graduate of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School. She received an Honor in Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts Boston and has been a member of the Joiner Institute for the Study of War and Social Consequences for sixteen years. She is presently working on a collection of poems based on the life of Maud Cuney-Hare (1874—1936) the eminent scholar of African American music—pianist, composer, biographer, playwright and community organizer in the arts.

Barbara Thomas, author of Seduced by Sighs of Trees (Cloudkeeper Press) currently teaches nature writing, and reviews books and journals. An English teacher in the Boston Public Schools for 35 years, Barbara is a graduate of Russell Sage College and Boston University. Her poetic research began at Joiner Center for War and Social Consequences where she is an active member, along with contributing to the Greek Institute and Glenbrook, an environmental writing group. She has poems published in Paterson Literary Review; Lalitamba; and Writing Nature.