Poetry Matters welcomes Bonnie Bolling, editor-in-chief of Verdad Literary Magazine, at Stay Gallery March 30. Bolling lives in Southern California and the Persian Gulf, and she writes of an ancient culture coming in contact with modern ways, from the vantage point of an American woman living in the Middle East.
Her poetry confronts violence, and the anger many residents feel, but it also shows the daily kindness and humanity that occur along with the region’s turmoil. Bolling won the prestigious John Ciardi Award for her new book, The Red Hijab , which explores a place filled with beauty, culture, and family, amid the everyday lives of people. Their growing collective empowerment has become one of the major issues of our time.
Bolling has received praise from important local poets: “In this, her second book, Bonnie Bolling leaves no doubt as to her important place in America’s contemporary poetry.” -Frank X. Gaspar. She also has this commendation from the Poet Laureate of the United States: “This is one of the finest set of verses I have read in years.”- Juan Felipe Herrera.
The public is invited to come and hear her share her poems and experiences. Doors open at 7 p.m.