Poetry Reading with Jeffrey Bean

The Poet’s Corner and Toad Hall Editions present poet Jeffrey Bean, who will read from his chapbook Ella’s Plan—winner of the 2022 Chapbook Contest hosted by Poet’s Corner and judged by distinguished poet Naomi Shihab Nye.

About her choice of Ella’s Plan as the prize winner, Nye wrote:

ELLA’S PLAN is mesmerizing, embodying the real presence of an imaginative, eccentric, tender daydreamer-child. I felt riveted by the series of exquisite poems with such potent, occasionally chilling (as in the unforgettable poem “Truths” about an abusive babysitter) images. I could not look away from these magical poems. I felt I had known and treasured this child all my life, but never read this much about her before. I felt these poems rising out of deepest understanding and care for the outcast, the wayward creative. I adore them. There would be no way for this NOT to be the winner.

The evening will also include a conversation with Richard Reitz Smith, chair of the Book Arts & Design program at Maine Media Workshops + College, who designed, printed and assembled Ella’s Plan.

FREE. All ages.

About the Artist

Jeffrey Bean is Professor of English/Creative Writing at Central Michigan University. He is the author of two chapbooks and the poetry collections Diminished Fifth and Woman Putting on Pearls, winner of the 2016 Red Mountain Prize for Poetry. His poems have been featured in the New Poetry from the Midwest anthologies and online at Poets.org and Verse Daily. Recent poems appear or are forthcoming in The Southern Review, Colorado Review, Cherry Tree, Sugar House Review, South Dakota Review, and Poet Lore, among other journals. www.jeffreybeanpoet.com Jeffrey Bean’s chapbook Ella’s Plan was selected by Naomi Shihab Nye as the winner of the 2022 Chapbook Contest, hosted by The Poets Corner and Maine Media Workshops + College.