Plunkett Breaks Out

Annual Plunkett Maine Poetry Festival calls on makers and writers to contribute works for hybrid event of visual and literary arts to be held on April 30, 2021.  Literary and art submissions are due March 1, 2021.

This past year has been challenging. We’ve been quarantining, masking, “pivoting,” rising up, breaking down, and just trying to keep it together.

To mark the events of this moment, the annual Plunkett Maine Poetry Festival will Break Out of its usual format to celebrate the University of Maine at Augusta’s (UMA) 2020-2021 academic theme of “Outbreak,” a topic inclusive of viral outbreaks, outbreaks of social justice, and outbreaks of creativity.

Accordingly, the Plunkett Festival will partner with the UMA Danforth Gallery will call on makers and writers of all kinds to contribute to a multifaceted literary and arts event scheduled to take place on April 30, 2021.

Anyone interested in contributing to one or more creative works to the Plunkett Festival should visit uma.edu/plunkett for details. Submissions are due by March 1, 2021.

The April 30 event will be filled with readings, art exhibits, an art installation, and performance by artist and UMA part-time lecturer, Patricia Brace. Brace’s work addresses the relationship between intersectional feminism and politics through her use of dance, new media, and installation.

Providing the keynote for the event will be Maine’s former poet laureate (2000 – 2006), Baron Wormser. Wormser is the author of nine collections of poetry, as well as two texts on pedagogy, a memoir, and two collections of essays.  He is an avid defender of poetry, peace, and the power of language to make collective change.  Wormser will speak on UMA’s academic theme of Outbreak, as well as read some of his work.

Additional details about the April 30 event will be made available on uma.edu/plunkett in the coming weeks.