CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
Richard Moore's Poetry Exchange, which has been meeting every Sunday from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the Harvard Coop, Cambridge, Mass., has been discontinued. The last meeting was February 8, 2004.
Any poetry discussion groups still taking place in the Coop have nothing to do with Richard Moore.
Richard Moore is alive and well, and can be reached at richardmoorepoet@att.net
Click here for Richard Moore's website.
NORTHERN VIRGINIA
Sponsored by the Poetry Society of Virginia (PSV)
The Northern Virginia Poetry Exchange is also suspended until further notice.
For more information on the Northern Virginia Poetry Exchange or the Poetry Society of Virginia, contact Claudia Gary Annis at claudiagary@att.net
Click here for Claudia Gary Annis' website.
Renowned poet, critic, performer, and raconteur Richard Moore presents the Poetry Exchange on Sunday afternoons in Cambridge, Mass. and Northern Virginia. The Cambridge group meets weekly, with an alternate leader when Moore is out of town. The Northern Virginia meetings (formerly in Leesburg) are approximately once a month on announced dates.
The Poetry Exchange, free and open to the public, is a discussion/workshop that Moore calls "a cooperative venture in the performance, appreciation, and understanding of poetry, one's own and that of others, including the great ones." Participants are invited to bring a poem (one's own or another's), or just to sit back and listen. Each session begins with a poem by a well-known poet, which Moore performs--often from memory--and which the group then discusses. After this, those present may each read a poem, on which the group comments. The commentary ranges freely over philosophical and esthetic questions raised by the items read. Moore's flexible but strong leadership, deep knowledge of literature in several languages, and gift for lucid explanation greatly enhance the proceedings.
Richard Moore's original Poetry Exchange has developed into one of Boston's most lively poetry groups. Since 1997 Moore has also presented its counterpart for readers and writers of poetry in the Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia area. The Northern Virginia (formerly Leesburg) Poetry Exchange is sponsored by the PSV and organized by its northern regional vice president, Claudia Gary Annis.
Moore and his Leesburg Poetry Exchange were the subject of a lively feature story by Brian Braiker in the Washington Post's "Loudoun Extra" section August 12, 1999, as well as a remarkable interview by David Williams in the May-June '99 issue of Loudoun Art magazine.
Richard Moore is the author of ten volumes of poetry, one of which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His most recent poetry book is The Naked Scarecrow, published in spring 2000 by Truman State University Press/New Odyssey Series. Other recent poetry collections include Pygmies and Pyramids (Orchises Press, 1998) and The Mouse Whole: An Epic (Negative Capability Press, 1996), the latter with a foreword by Howard Nemerov. His earlier books include two other poetry collections from Orchises Press, No More Bottom (1991) and Bottom Is Back (1994). His latest collection, The Naked Scarecrow, was published in spring 2000 by Truman State University Press/New Odyssey Editions. He has also published a novel, The Investigator (Story Line Press, 1991); a collection of essays, The Rule That Liberates (U. of South Dakota Press, 1994); and translations including Euripedes' Hippolytus (in the U. of Pa. Press Greek Drama Series). Moore's poetry has appeared in such journals as The New Yorker, The Hudson Review, Poetry, Harper's, Atlantic Monthly, The Formalist, Sparrow, Sewanee Review, The Lyric, Light Quarterly, Edge City Review, et al. He has taught at Boston University, Brandeis University, the New England Conservatory, and Clark University.