Playwrights Theatre Hosts Poetry Reading with Penny Harter Tonight

Playwrights Theatre's will present a free reading at the Chase Room of the Madison Public Library, 39 Keep Street, Madison, NJ tonight, May 15, 2014 beginning at 7:00pm. Penny Harter will be reading excerpts of new poetry book THE RESONANCE AROUND US.

"This is a homecoming of sorts for Penny, as she taught at Madison High School for a number of years," said John Pietrowski, Artistic Director of Playwrights Theatre. "This will be a great opportunity for friends and fans of good poetry to hear one of the best poets in New Jersey perform her work." Pietrowski added, "This is another example of the partnership we have formed with the Madison Public Library to present evenings of spoken word to the greater Madison Community. We are very grateful for the library's continued support."

Publisher's Comments: The two sections of The Resonance Around Us offer some of Penny Harter's most evocative and insightful poems. The lyrics first section, "The Resonance Around Us," introduce themes picked up and responded to by the haibun in the second section, "The Great Blue." Whether crafting her poems around memories, dreams, or daily rituals, Harter offers a poetic exploration of what it means to live in, and leave, this world. The book is designed by Jonathan Greene and features a photograph by artist, Dobree Adams, on the cover.

About the Poet: Penny Harter is published widely in journals and anthologies, and her literary autobiography appears as an extended essay in Contemporary Authors. Her recent books and chapbooks include The Resonance Around Us (2013); One Bowl (a prizewinning e-book of haibun, (2012); Recycling Starlight (2010); The Beastie Book (2009); and The Night Marsh (2008).

A featured reader at the 2010 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, she has won three poetry fellowships from the NJSCA; the Mary Carolyn Davies Award from the Poetry Society of America; the first William O. Douglas Nature Writing Award for her work in the anthology American Nature Writing 2002; and a January 2011 fellowship from Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

She taught in Madison High School in the 1980s, and in 1991 moved with her late husband William J. [Bill] Higginson to Santa Fe for eleven years. They returned to North Jersey in 2003, and Harter moved to the South Jersey shore area after her husband's death in 2008. To learn more about Penny, visit her website www.2hweb.net/penhart.

About Playwrights Theatre: Founded in 1986, Playwrights Theatre is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit professional theatre and arts education institution dedicated to developing and nurturing the dramatic imagination of artists, students, and audiences. Our New Play Program, which includes the The New Jersey Emerging Women Playwrights Program and the Literary Artist Fellowship Program creates development opportunities for professional writers through readings, workshops and productions, and invites audiences to participate in authentic feedback experiences. Our New Jersey Writers Project, Poetry Out Loud, New Jersey Young Playwrights Contest and Festival, and Creative Arts Academy programs provide a comprehensive and hands-on arts education experience to over 31,000 students, Pre-K through adult.

Writers in the New Play Program are drawn from across the country, including our affiliation with the National New Play Network, a nation-wide group of theatres dedicated to the development and production of new work. Teaching Artists in our Education Programs are professional artists working in their field in the New Jersey, New York, and Philadelphia metropolitan areas. From 2003-2016, we have been designated a Major Arts Institution by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (along with only five other theatres: The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, George Street Playhouse, McCarter Theatre Center, Two River Theatre and Paper Mill Playhouse) as "an anchor institution that contributes vitally to the quality of life in New Jersey."

Funding for our activities comes from: the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Community Foundation, the F.M. Kirby Foundation, Inc., Dramatist Guild Fund, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, The Shubert Foundation, Novartis, The Victoria Foundation, and many corporations, foundations and individuals. Playwrights Theatre is a member of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, the National New Play Network, and Madison Arts & Culture Alliance.