Event
Riverwood Poetry Series
The series takes place in person on the second Wednesday of the month from September 2024 through May 2025. Each night typically begins with a poetry reading featuring regionally or nationally known poets, followed by an open mic featuring readers with one poem (one page).
On Wednesday, March 12, at 7 PM, Riverwood Poetry Series @ Real Art Ways will host Julie Choffel and Richard Michelson.
Authors’ books will be available to buy for book signing and conversation. Food and drinks will be available for purchase. Bring a friend!
This monthly event is free of charge. Ample parking is available via the 56 Arbor parking lot.
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Julie Choffel is a poet and educator. Her most recent book, Dear Wallace, won the Backwaters
Prize in Poetry from The Backwaters Press, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press.
She is also the author of The Hello Delay (Fordham University Press) and a handful of
chapbooks. Her poems have appeared in many journals, including New England Review, Tupelo
Quarterly, ORION, Conduit, New American Writing, and Denver Quarterly.
Born and raised in Austin, Texas, before moving to Massachusetts, California, and Connecticut,
Julie studied geography at Texas State University and later graduated from the MFA Program for
Poets and Writers at UMass Amherst. She has worked as a floral designer, a telephone surveyor,
a sandwich artist, a farm intern, a ropes course facilitator, a backpacking guide, an environmental
educator, a travel planner, a writing tutor, and an English professor.
From 2017 to 2020, she served as the Poet Laureate of West Hartford, Connecticut, where she
continues to curate readings and literary events for the Greater Hartford area. Julie teaches at the
University of Connecticut and lives near Hartford with her partner and their three children.
Richard Michelson’s poetry collections include More Money than God, Battles and Lullabies,
and Tap Dancing for the Relatives. He wrote the libretto for the off-Broadway musical theater
piece Dear Edvard, and his children’s books have been on the top ten lists of The New York
Times, Publishers Weekly, and The New Yorker. Michelson has received a National Jewish Book
Award. He is the owner of R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton, Massachusetts.
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About Riverwood Poetry Series
The Riverwood Poetry Series, Inc. is a non-profit arts organization committed to promoting and appreciating poetry in Connecticut. RPS, Inc. is invested in providing entertaining and thought-provoking programming while responding to the needs of our neighbors through community outreach and collaboration.
From their Facebook page: “The Riverwood Poetry Series has innovated many programs since our inception, all free to the public. We provide entertaining and thought-provoking poetry in a relaxed atmosphere.”
