November 9, 2024: Portland Poetry Festival 2
Here are some photos from the event, held at the Odd Fellows Hall, above Back Cove Books from 11:30-6:00
Here’s the Work Panel:
Steve Langan, Me (the moderator for this panel) James Ji Hyeong Kim, Betsy Sholl, Mihku Paul and Claire Millikin.
Musicians: Carl Dimow and Phil Carlsen.
Here’s the War Panel: Me, Kate Kearns, Matt Bernier, Kimberly Ann Priest and Marc Swan.
Musicians: Carl Dimow and Phil Carlsen.
November 2, 2024: le petit rassemblement des artistes Franco-Americain: a celebration of modern expression.
1:00-5:00 pm at LA Arts
The Franco-American Collection at the University of Southern Maine invites you to join us at LA Arts, 168 Lisbon Street in Lewiston on Saturday, November 2, 2024 at 1 pm for a half day event featuring a panel discussion of Franco-American creatives led by Paul Pare, Émilie-Noëlle Provost, Robert Sylvain, and Jeri Theriault, and ending with a talk by Dr. Susan Pinette about Franco-American activism.
June 29-30: Mapping Memory at Eastport Arts Center:
June 28, 2024 at 7:00 at Eastport Arts Center: Poetry and Cello
April 25 2024 at 6:00 at Back Cove Books: A GOOD HOUSE with Samaa Abdurraqib and Claire Millikin
This reading will benefit THROUGH THESE DOORS, Cumberland County’s domestic violence resource center.
April 20 2024 at 2:00: Spoken Word! Author Talk at South Portland Library. Introducing James Kim and Lauren Saxon.
April 13 2024: Celebrating Seamus Heaney with Jeffrey Thomson and Bobby Breen at the Maine Irish Heritage Center
April 2 2024 at 5:00. The Greene Block. Waterville with Dick Cass, Gary Lawless and Jane Brox
March 9 2024 at 2:00. Bangor Public Library
Franco-American Portraits: Telling Family Stories
Jeri will give an overview of Franco-American voices, reading excerpts from such works as David Vermette’s A Distinct Alien Race, Kerri Arsenault’s Mill Town, and Rhea Côté Robbins’s Wednesday’s Child.
The heart of her presentation will focus on her new book, a “self-portrait” created from memories as well as the likenesses and stories (read and imagined) of close ancestors, grandmother, mother, father, and others.
October 17, 2023 at Farmington Public Library at 5:00.
October 14 at Bailey Public Library, THE BOOKEY READINGS, 1:00 pm.
September 28 at Yarmouth History Center, 7:00 pm.
September 14 at Bethel Public Library (5:30) Reading
August 4th at the Greene Block + Studios in Waterville, ME
JULY 11TH at Mechanics Hall. Come to the party!
April 29, 2023: Author’s Talk at South Portland Library with guests Madolyn Roy, Cecilia Tangi, and Iris Young.
April 26: University of Southern Maine and MWPA present readings from the pandemic with Samaa Abdurraqib, Mike Bove, Robert Carr, Mihku Paul, and Jeri Theriault.
Mark Your Calendars: The next HITHr poetry reading featuring poets Jeri Theriault and Mike Bove is scheduled for Thursday January 26, 2023, 7pm at The Maine Jewish Museum. Here’s the announcement.
The Inflectionist Reading Series, episode #1: October 31, 2022. Fellow readers are Gina Williams and Kimberly Kralowec . You can read our poems and interviews at https://inflectionism.com.
October 13, 2022 Nonesuch Books in South Portland. Reading by Maine poets Jeri Theriault, Claire Millikin and Katherine Hagopian Berry.
Author’s Talk at the Windham Library: Wednesday, September 15, 2021 at 6:00.
Artword 2021, Part II: On Wednesday, April 21 at 7 p.m., poets Linda Aldrich, Mike Bove, Anne Cyr, Katherine Ferrier, Judith Grey, Éireann Lorsung, Jefferson Navicky, Dorson Plourde, Julie Poitras Santos, Kenneth Rosen, Janet Stebbins, and Jeri Theriault will read the poems they wrote in response to works of art at the Portland Museum of Art. Register for this Zoom Webinar here.
Littorally Alive! April 14 Join Jeri Theriault and nine poets as they read from WAIT: Poems from the Pandemic, Littoral Books’ latest poetry anthology.
Launch for WAIT: Poems from the Pandemic, hosted by Print. April 9 via Zoom. Featuring readings from Samaa Abdurraqib, Katherine Hagopian Berry, Wendy Cannella, Doug Rawlings, Rhea Côté Robbins, Jeri Theriault, Elizabeth Tibbetts, Myronn Hardy, and Douglas “Woody” Woodsum
Saturday, February 1, 2020 at the Green Street United Methodist Church in Augusta the Reprise Choral Ensemble offered a sampler of two centuries of Maine choral music, including two of Phil Carlsen‘s musical settings: the first on “At the Winter Window” by Lee Sharkey, and the second [I AM THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE] on “earth dance,” a poem I wrote for ArtWord 2017.
2019 Maine Literary Awards: Short Works (Poetry) winner! Bangor Public Library, June 13, 2019. https://www.themaineedge.com/style/maine-literary-awards-announced
Here’s the mini-interview I completed as a MLA winner:
Where do you find inspiration to write your poetry?
Family stories—my grandmother’s clever hands, my grandfather’s discarded name—have always inspired me. Myths, both ancient and modern, are great source material. Ariadne and Aphrodite, Demeter and Daphne speak in my poems. Mrs. Robinson and Barbie have also made appearances. I am currently working on a poem inspired by Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey.
Visual art inspires. I have written quite a few ekphrases—poems that respond to artistic works. An example is “inukshuk,” a poem written in response to Celeste Roberge’s “Rising Cairn” for the 2018 ArtWord program sponsored by MWPA and the Portland Museum of Art.
I am drawn to the way the sounds and meanings of words clash or coalesce. For example, the word mother holds moth and other. It might also be written as mo[u]ther or [s]mother. Isn’t that the start of something interesting?
Where do you feel most comfortable in the world?
I came late to travel, but loved it. I taught and lived in Prague for seven years—first at a local Gymnasium and then at the International School of Prague. I spent some weeks in Paris, two weeks at the Writers’ Center in Dublin and lots of time in London. There were shorter stints in Istanbul and Cairo, Athens, Kiev and Bratislava. So, while I’d say I’m most comfortable in Maine, preferably near the coast, I still feel at home in Prague and central Europe. I have a fondness for European trains and airports. Oh, but I’m also “at home” in the Maritimes of Canada where I’m writing these responses. Phil Carlsen and I have a cottage on PEI. I love everything about the island.
What role does format play in your writing process?
Since I became a visual artist about twelve years ago, I’d say the white space on the page has become more important. I began more experimentation with formatting after Radost, my red was released (Moon Pie Press, 2016). My current manuscript (tentatively titled [sw]allowing) offers a wide variety of formats, from word-dense true narratives (such as “free-write”) to sparse more lyric sketches (“charm for a DuLac daughter”).
Since I want to emphasize or foreground multiple meanings, I am increasingly drawn to erasures and cross-outs, parenthesizing and blurring. So, for example “the girl with almost useless hands” ends:
I married
young [g]owned
[g]reedy & p[r]ettily
[g]loved.
May 6, 2019: Jeri Theriault is one of three featured readers at Word Portland, 9:00 at LFK on Longfellow Square, Portland.
April 30, 2019: Jeri Theriault and Kevin Sweeney read at Walker Memorial library in Westbrook at 5:00.
April 27, 2019: Local Writers at the Busy Bee (Cape Elizabeth Thomas Memorial Library). Eight writers featured in Balancing Act 2. 4:00-5:00
December 15, 2019: Launch party for Balancing Act 2 at SPACE Gallery.
Wednesday, October 3, 2018: Featured at the HOOT, long time series run by the Portsmouth Poet Laureate program. Glad to read with the excellentMatt W. Miller.
Monday, May 1, 2017: Napa bar and art gallery, Prokopská 296/8 Mala Strana, Prague.
What a fun night! Meeting old friends and new. I featured at Alchemy more than 10 years ago when I was living in Prague. Welcome home!
Friday, April 14, 2017: The Portland Museum of Art hosts ArtWord! More than 30 poets will read poems inspired by particular works of art at the PMA.
I’ll read poems inspired by Louise Nevelson and David Driskell.
Saturday, March 4, 2017: BOOKS IN THE BROOK in Westbrook. Once again I am reading with my friend and Colby classmate, Dick Cass.
Saturday, January 28, 2017 I’ll be reading at THE LOCAL BUZZ in Cape Elizabeth.
My co-reader is the amazing Dick Cass, author of Solo Act, first installment of the Elder Darrow mysteries.
Friday, December 2, 2016. 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. Wrapping with the Authors
Paul Ledman: Walking Through History:Portland on Foot; Steve Luttrell: Plumb Line (poetry); Meg North: Daniel’s Garden / The Heart of a Lie / The Curtain Falls: Ron Romano: Early Gravestones in Southern Maine: The Genius of Bartlett Adams;
October 6, 2016 at Longfellow Books: Reading with fellow Moon Pie poet, Duff Plunkett.
Poets Marita O’Neil, Betsy Sholl, Lee Sharkey, Jeri Theriault, Duff Plunkett and Alice Persons at Longfellow Books.
Sept. 29, 6:30-7:30. At Bates with Rob Farnsworth. Commons 211, the Renyi Meeting Room.
