March 15, 2016: Poetry Café Bellas Artes

DeMarko, Hager, and Read to Headline Poetry Café

By Maia Williams

Poetry Café Bellas Artes will host Florida poet, Juliet Zachary DeMarko, and two San Miguel poets, Michael Hager and Lois Read, on Tuesday, March 15th.

Juliet Zachary DeMarko received a B.A. in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1965 and her M.A. in English Literature in 1971 from The University of West Florida. She taught English as an adjunct professor at Pensacola State College in the 70s. Between 2010 and 2014 Juliet served on the board of directors of West Florida Literary Federation, both as a Board Director and as Poet Laureate of North West Florida.

In semi-retirement, she writes memoir cookbooks, leads a workshop in “Wild Writing for Women” at Pensacola’s Cultural Center and pursues the mystery of poetry at International Poetry and Creative Writing workshops.

Fashioned by Memory is Juliet’s second volume of poetry. The first, Blue Ridge Childhood, was published in 2011. She has three daughters, Laura, Anna, and Maricarmen and a stepdaughter, Talia. Juliet lives in Pensacola, Florida with her husband, Michael J. DeMarko, a retired attorney and judge.

Michael Hager is an admitted addict to the craft of writing. His passion for writing began when he first penned a piece of prose on the back of a napkin. After graduating from the University of California, Michael continued writing prose while launching a songwriting career with over 30 song credits recorded by various artists.

In 2001, he retired and moved to San Miguel to write his first novel, Just Beyond the Edge, which was published by Mill City Press in 2010.

Never content to stay within one genre of writing, he wrote his first play, The Last Ride, which was successfully produced in 2008. He recently completed his second novel, In the Times of Clouds & Sun. While continuing to work on his third novel, he has been exploring the craft of screen writing and has recently completed a four part historical mini series about the untold story of women who masqueraded as soldiers during the Civil War.

In 2016, he published his poetry anthology A Reckoning of the Heart, a collection of previously published works and recently written material.

Lois Read has written verse since high school, but her education and career were in the visual arts. She is a retired teacher of Art and History of Art at Hopkins School in New Haven. In the summer of 1978 she attended an Art School Program in Lacoste, a medieval hill town in the south of France, which is where she began to paint and to write poetry. She returned to teach in the art school and ten years later, on a painting sabbatical, continued journeying whenever she could, searching and listening for common threads and meaning.

A painter turned poet, Lois has produced three chapbooks of poems with watercolors and four collections of poetry. She has had poems in The Connecticut River Review and the Poetry of Yoga (vol. 2), and won honorable mention in the Maria Faust sonnet contest two years ago. Her poem “Bones” was judged fifteenth out of 4000 entries is the Writers’ Digest Poetry contest in 2013, and her poem “Tied With a Square Knot” was judged first place in the Altrusia contest for senior poets in Connecticut in 2015. Lois lives in Wallingford, Connecticut except in the winter when she lives in San Miguel de Allende.

The monthly Poetry Café Bellas Artes (August – April) features local and visiting poets — established and emerging — sharing their work in a casual setting.

Please arrive a few minutes early. Seating is first come, first seated.