From Watershed Literary Events:
Watershed Literary Events kicks off the 2023 season with a celebration of National Poetry Month. Poets Tina Kelley and Gretna Wilkinson will read at the Skate House in Meadowland Park on April 16, from 3-4:30 pm. The reading is free and open to the public.
Watershed, now in its fifth year, is sponsored by the South Orange Department of Recreation and Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the Meadowland Park Conservancy. The spoken word series features the work of both emerging and established writers with a connection to New Jersey. Past readers have included Roberto Carlos Garcia, Stewart Kestenbaum, Ann Marie Macari, Alicia Mountain, Brenda Shaughnessy, BJ Ward, and Jane Wong, among many others.
Tina Kelley (Photo credit: Joy Yagid)
Tina Kelley is the author most recently of Rise Wildly from CavanKerry Press. Her previous poetry collections are Abloom & Awry, Precise, and The Gospel of Galore, a Washington State Book Award winner. Tina reported for The New York Times for a decade and shared a staff Pulitzer Prize for 9/11 coverage. She has also written two nonfiction books focused on education and at-risk youth, Breaking Barriers and Almost Home. Her poems have appeared in Cimmaron Review, Southwest Review, Prairie Schooner, and The Best American Poetry 2009. She is currently senior education reporter for NJ.com and lives in Maplewood, NJ, with her husband and two children.
Gretna Wilkinson (Photo credit: Ed Romond)
Gretna Wilkinson began her career as a missionary teacher in the jungles of her native Guyana. She has authored five chapbooks and one full-length book, Opening the Drawer (Cool Women Press). A Geraldine R. Dodge Poet, Gretna has performed on radio and television and is published in Saranac Review, The Literary Review, and the anthology Poets of New Jersey: From Colonial to Contemporary. She’s been featured in The New York Times, The Star Ledger, and Courier News. After 17 years as a college professor, she ran the Creative Writing Program at the Visual and Performing Arts Academy of Red Bank Regional High School. An honorary Eagle Scout, she holds many commendations and awards for her teaching.
Watershed was founded in 2019 and hosts four readings a year, all free and open to the public. For more information about the series, please contact Peter Travers at ptravers@southorange.org.
