April is National Poetry Month and the Leelanau Township Library in Northport has a series of programs planned to celebrate it. The events will be held every Tuesday evening in April from 7 – 8:30 pm. This Tuesday’s program features Carrie Cantalupo Sharp, Michael Hughes, and Chelsea Marsh. Carrie is a published poet who is working on a hybrid chapbook. Michael’s chapbook, First Risings, was published in 2012. Chelsea has been a writer and judge for the Traverse Area District Library (TADL) Poets Night Out.
April 9 Linda Nemec Foster will read from her 2023 book, “Bone Country, Prose Poems.” She was the first Poet Laureate of Grand Rapids from 2003-5. Information on all of the April programs is available on the library’s website.
I have to admit that I did not know what a chapbook is until I read about this. The history of chapbooks goes back to the 16th century, as soon as printed books became affordable. The early chapbooks were a type of printed street literature. They were small, paper-covered booklets, usually printed on a single sheet folded into books of 8, 12, 16, or 24 pages, and often illustrated with crude woodcuts.
