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2021 Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series

Writing During the Pandemic

How have writers coped? Have they producd more or less? How has it effected what they write about? Their insights, observations, fears, hopes.

Norma Ketzis Bernstock – After retiring from a 34-year career in education in New York City and Northern New Jersey, Norma moved to Milford, Pennsylvania where she became a member of the Upper Delaware Writers Collective. She now works full-time writing and publishing her poetry which has appeared in many journals and anthologies including Stillwater Review, Exit 13, Connecticut River Review, Paterson Literary Review, Lips, Meta-Land—Poets of the Palisades II, Pennsylvania Seasons and the International Bilingual Anthology, Bridging the Waters, II. Norma is author of Don’t Write a Poem About Me After I’m Dead (Big Table Publishing.)

Sean Hanrahan is the author of the full-length poetry collection Safer Behind Popcorn (Cajun Mutt 2019) and the chapbooks Hardened Eyes on the Scan (Moonstone Press 2018) and Gay Cake (Toho 2020). He is head poetry editor for Toho, serves on the Moonstone Press Editorial Board and as an instructor for Green Street Poetry, writes poetry reviews for Mad Poets, and hosts a poetry series at Moonstone and Art with Spirits. photo credit to Reed Gustow

Elaine Terranova grew up in a working-class neighborhood and has held a variety of jobs: factory worker, office temp, preschool teacher, and editor. She taught at the Community College of Philadelphia, Temple University, the University of Delaware, and in the Rutgers, Camden MFA program. She is author of seven collections of poetry and two chapbooks. Terranova’s first book, The Cult of the Right Hand won the 1990 Walt Whitman Award, Perdido, 2018, is her most recent book. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Pleiades, Ploughshares, and other magazines and anthologies. Among her awards are a Pushcart Prize, the Margaret Banister residency at Sweet Briar, the Judah L. Magnes Gold Medal, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pew Center. Her memoir, The Diamond Cutter’s Daughter will be out this spring.

Charles S. Carr, Host