The Plunkett Maine Poetry Festival, an annual celebration of emerging and established poets and poetry, will be held on Saturday, April 27th on the UMA Augusta Campus and Online.

This year’s keynote speaker is Brian Turner, poet, musician, professor, and US Army veteran who served in Bosnia-Herzegovina and as an infantry team leader in Iraq. Best known for his poems about serving in the Iraq war, Turner has authored five collections of poetry including the critically acclaimed Here, Bullet and his newest The Wild Delight of Wild Things. Roxana Robinson of The Washington Post proclaims, “Turner is…a poet, and he cannot help but see the world, even the world of combat, in terms of beauty, fragility and heartbreaking splendor…. [His] eloquent rendering illuminates both the shared space and the painful divide between poet and soldier, mission and memory, war and peace.”

Festival Activities:

Two free workshops will be offered concurrently from 1:00-2:30 pm in Jewett Hall. Attendees may choose “Phantom Noise: Entering the Sound Archive” with Maine Poet Laureate Julia Bouwsma or “Poetry of Transmutation” with Maine Poet Claire Millikin. Each session is limited to 16 participants. Both workshops are free of charge but do require pre-registration. Visit uma.edu/plunkett to register.

A panel discussion on Publishing will be held from 2:45-3:45 pm in the Farber Forum, in Jewett Hall, and live streamed. All the panelists are from small, independent, Maine-based presses and publications. Panelists include Steve Luttrell of Café Review: International Journal of Art and Poetry, Maya Stein of Kerning Journal and Toad Hall Edition, and Agnes Bushell of Littoral Books.

Readings and Open Mic, a festival favorite, will happen from 4:00-4:30 pm in Jewett Hall’s Danforth Gallery.

From 4:30-6:00 pm is the Keynote Event. There will be music performed by UMA jazz students, and this year’s student poetry contest winners will read their poems. Poet Brian Turner will then take the stage and present the keynote address, after which will be a time for questions and answers.

The day’s events conclude with a reception in the Danforth Gallery from 6:00-7:00 pm. Hors D’oeuvres will be served.

The festival is free and open to all. Reservations are encouraged for the keynote address and required for the workshops to ensure adequate seating is available. All events are held in UMA’s Jewett Hall at 46 University Drive in Augusta and will also be available online. For updates, more details, and to register, please visit uma.edu/plunkett.