This anthology is just a sampling of the diverse talent pool of poets in Broward County. When you think literature, especially poetry, Broward may not pop to mind. New York and Chicago easily come to mind as Poetry Foundation, a formidable poetry establishment, is located in Chicago and New York is most noted for the Harlem Renaissance, Beat Poets and the New York School. Broward, the county between Miami-Dade and West Palm Beach, also has a poetry scene with readings, slams and other spoken word events. This anthology shares a slice of life of the poets and their poems. The poets are selected from those who attended poetry reading in Fort Lauderdale at the courtyard of Savor Cinema, formerly known as Cinema Paradiso. What is special about this anthology is that the selections are diverse as each poet brings their own style and influences from prose poems to traditional poems, from free verse to a rhyming scheme and from academia to urban.
About the Author: Anastasia Clark is the author of several poetry books, including a chapbook, Confetti Stampede (Finishing Line Press, 2013). Her work has appeared in Ascent Aspirations, FLARE: The Flagler Review, Red River Review and Subtletea among others. She served as Broward County, Florida Poet-in-Residence for six years. She leads workshops and serves as a judge for poetry contests.www.anastasiaclark.com. Suzzette Dawes is a poet and hosts a monthly poetry reading at Savor Cinema (formerly known as Cinema Paradiso - Fort Lauderdale) Her fourth book, Seventieth Avenue, is available now! Shawn Jackson is a poet who recently participated in a local 100 Thousand Poets for Change event. His theme for the reading was "Breaking the Silence" and included poems spotlighting depression, sexual abuse, gay bashing, physical violence against women, and police injustice toward Blacks. Ellen Kendrick is an accidental poet who didn't know she had poetry in her until about 10 years ago. She loves the freedom of poetry, because "you don't have to follow any rules if you don't want to." Susan Malone is a wife, mother, grandmother, non-political Christian, poet, composer and cutter of paper shapes. The highlight of her professional life was teaching preschool for fifteen years. Rick McKenzie is a second generation poet (his dad was also a poet) whose work has appeared in the Minnetonka Review, Pearl, Wisconsin Review, and several other literary magazines. His poetry book "Money" is available for your e-reader from Amazon or Barnes & Noble Sally Naylor is a poet, counselor and educator whose first book, Firebird, a story of regeneration, published in January 2012 is available on Amazon. As are her memoir, Rogue Nirvana, and two additional volumes of poetry: Heresies and Sweet Basil, 2014 and Riffs, 2016. She currently is at work on both a text and workbook of innovative creative writing activities for high school students with a focus on writing a dynamic college essay. The transcendental possibilities of all creative endeavors intrigue her. Meryl Stratford won the 2013 YellowJacket Press competition for her chapbook, The Magician's Daughter. Her poems have appeared recently in Rattle, Amsterdam Quarterly and Poetrybay, and have been anthologized in Crossing Lines (Main Street Rag), MALALA: Poems for Malala Yousafzai (FutureCycle Press), and Glass Bottom Sky (YellowJacket Press) among others. Meryl is an associate editor for SoFloPoJo, southfloridapoetryjournal.com.