Young Poet Series--Endicott College

Since the Ibbetson Street Press and Endicott College formed an affiliation a few years ago, we have tried to reach out to the creative writing student body as well as the faculty. During this time we have published student interviews with such accomplished poets and writers as Marge Piercy, Maxine Kumin, Diana Der-Hovanessian, and others in our literary magazine Ibbetson Street. Students, as well as faculty have seen their own poems published in my column in The Somerville News. Students have written book reviews on our popular literary blog Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene, and in the bible of the small press itself: The Small Press Review.

Ibbetson Street has also started a small press collection with the help of the Halle Library staff at Endicott that houses alternative, small press poetry and fiction books from around the country in the tradition of the great rare book and poetry collections at University of Buffalo, Brown University, and the University of Wisconsin/Madison. We feel this growing collection will be an invaluable resource for future literature and creative writing students at the college and for the literary community in general.



We have arranged readings for students at such venues as Medicine Wheel Productions in South Boston and the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston, as well as helping them get literary internships in the Boston area.



The Endicott College/Ibbetson Street Visiting Author Series has brought such acclaimed authors as DeWitt Henry, Sam Cornish, Fred Marchant, Richard Hoffman, Luke Salisbury, Bert Stern, Miriam Levine, Tom Daly, Michael Mack, Vivian Shipley, and many others to campus; so the students can hear first class writing and get insight into their own work from talking with these authors.



Dan Sklar, a professor of Creative Writing at Endicott College and I discussed other ways that we could reach out to the Endicott community. We decided on a Young Poet Series that would publish the work of talented undergraduates once an academic year.



Our first poet is Emily Pineau. Pineau is a student of Dan Sklar's and has reviewed books, interviewed poets, and has had work published in Ibbetson Street, Endicott Review, and other magazines. In fact Pineau was nominated for a Pushcart Prize (By Zvi A. Sesling, editor of the poetry journal  Muddy River Review)--a prize given for excellent writing within the vibrant literary subculture of the small presses and literary magazines.



Emily has an accessible, honest and evocative style that shows great promise. We hope this little poetry book No Need to Speak will inspire her to keep writing and publishing, and inspire other young writers in the Endicott community.



Doug Holder/Director of the Ibbetson Street Press/Endicott College/ Beverly, Mass./Feb. 2013