People who inspire us...and the Conference on Poetry and Teaching at The Frost Place

Tonight, a friend and inspiration of mine, Baron Wormser, is going to be reading from his new collection of poems and from the reissue of an older memoir of his at the Norwich (VT) bookstore. I was super bummed that I would not be able to attend; while Norwich is only about an hour from me, it is a "school night" and traveling in the dark is not something I can do easily. So I was super excited to find out last night that the reading will be livestreamed as well! 

Baron is a far different writer/poet than I am. I tend to mine my interior life, and I work in a more lyric mode almost exclusively. But Baron has had a profound influence on my life as a writer. I met Baron in 2000 at the very first Conference on Poetry and Teaching held at The Frost Place in Franconia. I saw a clip and send in the newspaper announcing the conference, and I was elated. I had a small child and I couldn't really travel to conferences, professional development options for English teachers were few and far between (okay, nonexistent, unless you count taking graduate classes), and here was a whole week, ten minutes from my house! That conference provided me with a lifeline I didn't even know I needed. I was unhappy in my job, it and I both felt really stale, and I was considering exploring other avenues of employment. After that one week, which ended in tears of self-realization and an overwhelming sense of "rightness," I found my way in my profession and in my writing life. 

His caritas forms the foundation of the conference. My friend Dawn Potter is now the director, after Baron retired from the position some years back. Dawn is the natural inheritor of his vision, and under her direction, the conference has not only grown and deepened, but it has also weathered the pandemic in virtual form. I've made life-long friends through this conference, and it is the touchstone of my year, every year. 

From this conference, other online workshops and seminars have grown, now under the heading The Frost Place Studio Sessions, for which I am the grateful associate creative director, assisting Dawn in her role as director. Without The Frost Place and the fine, caring people I've met over the last 23 years, I would not be published. I would not be almost ready to submit a small collection of my own to the world. I'd likely not even be teaching, and certainly not as I am today. 

I can't wait for June!

Take care,

C