Highland Park Poetry

Part of the vanguard of poets fusing and refusing and queering the delineations between literary and oral poetry, Marty McConnell’s work blurs the lines between autobiography and personae to comment on and illuminate what it means to live and love outside the lines in 21st century America. McConnell's second poetry collection, "when they say you can't go home again, what they mean is you were never there," won the 2017 Michael Waters Poetry Prize and was published in 2018 by Southern Indiana University Press. Her first nonfiction book, “Gathering Voices: Creating a Community-Based Poetry Workshop,” was recently published by YesYes Books. She is the co-creator and co-editor of underbelly, a web site focused on the art and magic of poetry revision.

Michael Escoubas, a late bloomer who began writing poetry for publication at age 66 after retiring in 2013 from a 48-year career in the printing industry. Prior to this he read, studied and educated himself in poetry for approximately 25 years. His interest in poetry was spawned in childhood by his mother who encouraged him by saying, you have a gift for words and I hope you do something with that gift.  Now 71, Michael serves as editor and staff book reviewer for Quill and Parchment, a 17-year old cultural and literary arts online poetry journal. His poems have been published over 200 times in a variety of venues.

Mary Jo is the author of three books of poetry. “Joy in the Morning” and “gathering the harvest” (Bellowing Ark Press,) “Still,” (Future Cycle Press,) and a chapbook, Best Brothers, (Tiger's Eye Press.) She has recent work in Wilda’s Poetry Blog, Plainsongs, Poetry East, Avocet, Crab Creek Review, Quill and Parchment, Minerva Rising, Persimmon Tree, Bramble, Good Works Review, and The Ekphrastric Review. Poetry Store House has offered videos and a sound scape of two of her poems. She has nine Pushcart nominations and four Best of the Net. In the past three years, Mary Jo has been studying and writing haiku and haibun. She finds it begs slowing down, making her more present in her day to day life. Mary Jo is one of the founders of Grace River Poets, an outreach for women's shelters, churches, and schools.