Award-winning local poet, Amanda Newell, Chair of The Gunston School’s English Department, recently took part in the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Erice, Sicily September 21-27. The conference in Erice is an extension of Middlebury College’s selective Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Vermont. Established in 1926 at the suggestion of Robert Frost, Bread Loaf is the oldest writing program in the United States.
Newell was selected to participate in a poetry workshop with Linda Bierds, whose ninth book of poetry, Roget’s Illusion, was published earlier in 2014. Bierds’ prizes include the PEN/West Poetry Award, two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and four Pushcart Prizes, among others.
“I’m grateful to have had this opportunity,” Newell said. “Gunston has been incredibly supportive of me as a working poet. Whenever I attend conferences and residencies like this, I always bring back craft tips and new approaches to my students.”
One highlight of the Sicily conference was having Pulitzer Prize winner and former United States Poet Laureate Philip Levine in attendance. He treated workshop participants to an informal question and answer panel with him, and he also read from his work, including poems he had never before read in public.
Newell is currently working on completing her first full-length collection of poetry, titled, Honeysuckle, Blood. A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, she is also the recipient of scholarships or fellowships from The Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference (Vermont), The Frost Place in New Hampshire, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Recent work appears in War, Literature & the Arts and Pembroke Magazine and is forthcoming in the next issues of Zone 3 and Gargoyle.
..
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.