A Celebration of Books,
Writers & LIterary Excellence

Save the Date


Gaithersburg
Book Festival

May 16, 2026

10am – 6pm

Bohrer Park


Genre: Poetry

Echoes Through the Stacks

Fran Abrams

Featured Title: Echoes Through the Stacks

Fran Abrams began writing poetry at the age of 73 after retiring from her career in government and nonprofit administration. Her poems appear in numerous journals and in more than 20 anthologies and have been published in five collections, most… Continue Reading

Convergence

Randall Amster

Featured Title: Convergence: Poetry on Environmental Impacts of War

Randall Amster, J.D., Ph.D., is the co-director and teaching professor of Environment & Sustainability at Georgetown University. He teaches and publishes on subjects including peace and nonviolence, social and environmental justice, political theory, and emerging technologies, and writes for a… Continue Reading

Kelly Catharine Bradley

Featured Title: a gift

kelly c bradley is a mother, poet, grave tender and griever. Her first book of poetry, “love, loss and the enormity of it all” (FootHills Publishing), was followed by “a gift” (Baeley Atlas Co) and will be followed by “and… Continue Reading

Echoes Through the Stacks

Eve Burton

Featured Title: Echoes Through the Stacks: Celebrating Five Years of Poems Penned at Poetry Evenings at Quince Orchard Library

eve is a Voices In The Glen storyteller, librarian, and poet who shares her writing with Poetry Evenings at Quince Orchard Library and other venues in Montgomery County, Md. She has led poetry groups for children, teens, and adults. She… Continue Reading

Convergence

Lisa Couturier

Featured Title: Convergence: Poetry on Environmental Impacts of War

A 2022 finalist for the Annie Dillard Award in Creative Nonfiction and a Pushcart Prize winner for her essay “Dark Horse,” Lisa Couturier is author of the collection of essays, “The Hopes of Snakes” (Beacon), and the poetry chapbook “Animals… Continue Reading

Michele Evans

Featured Title: purl

Michele Evans is the author of “februaries” (Yellow Arrow Publishing, 2026) and “purl” (Finishing Line Press, 2025). She is a fifth-generation Washingtonian (D.C.), poet, English and Creative Writing teacher, and adviser for “Unbound,” an award-winning high school literary arts magazine.… Continue Reading

Moderator

Kristin Kowalski Ferragut

Featured Title: Love Letters from Cuckold Creek

Kristin Kowalski Ferragut is a poet-mom who lives in Maryland where she teaches, plays guitar, sings, rides her bike, and hosts readings and open mics. She is author of the full-length poetry collections “Escape Velocity” (Kelsay Books, 2021) and “Love… Continue Reading

In the House of Modern Upbringing for Girls by Majda Gama

Majda Gama

Featured Title: In the House of Modern Upbringing for Girls

Majda Gama is an Arab-American poet born in Beirut to a Saudi father and an American mother. Majda is the award-winning author of “In the House of Modern Upbringing for Girls” (Wandering Aengus Press) and “The Call of Paradise, (Two… Continue Reading

The Sky Will Hold by Elizabeth Hazen

Elizabeth Hazen

Featured Title: The Sky Will Hold

Elizabeth Hazen is a poet and essayist. Her work has appeared in Best American Poetry, Epoch, American Literary Review, Shenandoah, and other journals. She has published three collections of poetry: “Chaos Theories” (2016), “Girls Like Us” (2020), and “The Sky… Continue Reading

Dorian Elizabeth Knapp

Featured Title: Causa Sui

Dorian Elizabeth Knapp is the author of three poetry collections: “Causa Sui” (Three Mile Harbor Press, 2025), winner of the Three Mile Harbor Press Poetry Prize; “Requiem with an Amulet in Its Beak” (Washington Writers’ Publishing House, 2019), winner of… Continue Reading

Christopher Kondrich

Featured Title: Tread Upon

Christopher Kondrich is a poet and writer whose third book, “Tread Upon,” will be published by Copper Canyon Press in April 2026. He is also the author of “Valuing” (University of Georgia Press, 2019), which won the National Poetry Series… Continue Reading

Courtney LeBlanc

Featured Title: Her Dark Everything

Courtney LeBlanc is the author of the four full-length collections, most recently “Her Dark Everything.” She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Riot in Your Throat, an independent poetry press, and Poetry Coven, a monthly generative workshop. She loves nail… Continue Reading

Megan Leonard

Featured Title: Larkspur Queen

Megan Leonard is the author of “Larkspur Queen,” “book of lullabies,” and the forthcoming “Dear _____.” A poet, visual artist, and essayist, Meg’s work has appeared in Electric Literature, the Bellevue Literary Review, The Fourth River, and elsewhere, and her… Continue Reading

Arden Levine

Featured Title: Spoke

Arden Levine’s poems, essays, and reviews have been featured by the Poetry Foundation, Poetry Society of America, and WNYC’s Radiolab, and appeared in Harvard Review, AGNI, Barrow Street, Indiana Review, and elsewhere. A member of the National Book Critics Circle… Continue Reading

Cynthia Manick

Featured Title: No Sweet Without Brine

Cynthia Manick is the author of “No Sweet Without Brine” (Amistad-HarperCollins, 2023), which received 5 stars from Roxane Gay, was named among the Best Poetry of the Last Year (2023) by Ms. Magazine, and was selected as a New York… Continue Reading

Kim Roberts Meikle

Featured Title: America's Future: poetry & prose in response to tomorrow

Kim Roberts Meikle is the author of seven books of poems, most recently “Q&A for the End of the World,” a collaboration with Michael Gushue (WordTech Editions, 2025), and two guidebooks, including “The District’s Departed: Walking Tours of D.C.-Area Cemeteries”… Continue Reading

Chloe Yelena Miller

Featured Title: Perforated

Chloe Yelena Miller is a writer and teacher living in Washington, D.C., with her partner and child. She’s the author of “Perforated” (2026) and “Viable” (2021), both published by Lily Poetry Review Books, and also the poetry chapbook, “Unrest” (Finishing… Continue Reading

Echoes Through the Stacks

Sunayna Pal

Featured Title: Echoes Through the Stacks: Celebrating Five Years of Poems Penned at Poetry Evenings at Quince Orchard Library

Sunayna Pal’s poetry graces the pages of numerous international journals, anthologies, museums, poetry festivals, textbooks, and libraries, resonating with readers around the world. Her debut book, “Refugees in Their Own Country” (B&W Fountain), narrates the “Partition of India” through verse… Continue Reading

All the Possible Bodies by Iain Haley Pollock

Iain Haley Pollock

Featured Title: All the Possible Bodies

Iain Haley Pollock is the author of three poetry collections, “Spit Back a Boy” (2011), “Ghost, Like a Place” (Alice James, 2018), and “All the Possible Bodies” (Alice James, 2025). His poems have appeared in numerous publications, ranging from American… Continue Reading

Steven Ratiner

Featured Title: Grief's Apostrophe

Steven Ratiner is a poet, essayist, editor, and educator. He is the Poet Laureate Emeritus for Arlington, Mass., and the President of the New England Poetry Club, one of the oldest literary associations in America. His new poetry collection, “Grief’s… Continue Reading

The Place That Is Coming to Us by J.D. Smith

J.D. Smith

Featured Title: The Place That Is Coming to Us

J.D. Smith has published seven collections of poetry, most recently “The Place That Is Coming to Us” from Broadstone Books in September 2025. He has received Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Center for the… Continue Reading

Capital Queer

Piérre Ramon Thomas

Featured Title: Capital Queer: A Pride Celebration from Washington Writers' Publishing House

Piérre Ramon Thomas is a Black queer writer whose work orbits around identity, gender, sexuality, queer love, erotica, and nature. He is rounding out his first year at American University pursuing an M.F.A. in Creative Writing. Piérre has been published… Continue Reading