Diane Croft has spent most of her career as a publisher at National Braille Press, a nonprofit braille printing and publishing house. She has edited and published numerous books, including the award-winning Louis Braille: A Touch of Genius. Her most recent book of poetry, The Unseen Partner: Love & Longing in the Unconscious, won a 2017 New England Book Show Award, and is a finalist for the 2016-2017 Reader Views Literary Award. She lives in a Victorian farmhouse in Boston with her family.
Pamela Gemme is a poet, artist, and a political activist whose poems have been published in Haiku Journal, J Journal, Eclipse Literary Journal, Ibbetson Review, Heliotrope, and many others. She is a member of Poemworks (Newton).
Barbara Helfgott Hyett has published five collections of poetry, most recently, Rift from the University of Arkansas Press, which won the Boston Foundation’s Father John Fellowship for Excellence in the Arts. Her poems have appeared widely in journals and magazines, as well as in over fifty anthologies. Recipient of many grants, residencies, and fellowships, she works as a professor of English, and, is also the Director of PoemWorks, The Workshop for Publishing Poets, named “One of the Best Workshops in Boston” by the Boston Globe.
Sherin Shibu is a 12th grader, who has been writing since she was five. Her poem that will be stenciled on The Street, was submitted to the Ocean Awareness Student Contest, hosted by Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs (fromthebowseat.org), a Boston-based nonprofit that works to inspire teens to get involved in ocean conservation through education and engagement with the arts.
Margery Hutter Silver’s first career was as an editor, for the Atlantic Monthly and Boston book publishing houses. In her second career, as a geriatric neuropsychologist, she researched centenarians, wrote journal articles and co-authored Living to 100 (Perseus, 1999). Upon retirement, she began to write poetry. Her work has appeared in Paper Nautilus, Third Wednesday, and Muddy River Poetry Review.
Located at the Showcase Super Lux to the left of entrance
Artful Unveiling: Hidden Poetry Installation
Located at La Rotisserie Entrance (Pond Side)
Located near corner of David's Tea (Pond Side)
Located at Legal Seafood Entrance (Pond Side)
Located at the Corner of Intermix (Rt. 9 Side)
Bios of the Winning Poets
Steven Ablon has published four books of poems: Tornado Weather (Mellen Press, 1993), Flying Over Tasmania (Fithian Press, 1997), Blue Damsels (Peter Randall Press, 2005), and Night Call (Plain View Press, 2011). His work has appeared in many magazines. He is an adult and child psychoanalyst and an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard University Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Susan Nisenbaum Becker’s first book of poems, Little Architect of Time and Space, was published in 2013. She is a psychotherapist, poet, actor, playwright and collaborative performer with musicians and dancers, reading and performing internationally. Her work has been published in the Harvard Review, Crab Orchard Review, and Salamander, among others. She has received numerous awards including residencies at the Banff Center, Yaddo, MacDowell, Ragdale and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Zachary Bos is editor of The New England Review of Books and an alumnus of the Boston University graduate poetry workshops. His public writing has a strong focus on site-specific and plein air poetry. In 2017 he was named to the Disquiet Poetry Prize long list. Originally from New Jersey, he now lives in Malden with his wife.
Eileen Cleary is a nurse and poet. She earned an MFA at Lesley University. A member of Poemworks (Newton) and The Concord Poetry Center, she co-founded the Lilly Poetry Salon in Needham, MA. She is on the poetry reading committee of Carve and a volunteer reader for North American Review. Her poems have been published in poems2go, Naugatuck River Review and Apeiron.
Located to the Left of Entrance to Lululemon Athletica.
Located at the Front Entrance (Route 9 Side) of Star Market.
POETRY IN PLACE
This project, part of the Newton Festival of the Arts, is a partnership between Poetry in Place and the generous corporate sponsorship of The Street | Chestnut Hill.
Located at Legal Seafood (Route 9 side Ramp to Patio
On Wednesday, May 10th, we celebrated with the nine poets whose poems were selected from the more than eighty submissions. These poems, stenciled on sidewalks at The Street | Chestnut Hill are on display through the end of May 2017. A special clear spray was used to write the poems, so that they are invisible until the surrounding pavement is darkened by rain. That’s when the dry words emerge and treat pedestrians to the surprise of “hidden” poems.
Located on the Right Side of Lululemon Athletica Entrance.
Sidewalk Poetry Reception at The Street | Chestnut Hill
left to right: Susan Nisenbaum Becker, Eileen Cleary, Pamela Gemme, Zachary Bos, Grey Held (project director), Margery Hutter Silver, Barbara Helfgott Hyett, Steven Ablon (missing from photo are poetry contest winners Diane Croft & Sherin Shibu)