Pulitzer Prize winner Yusef Komunyakaa and others come to Brattleboro for Literary fest

When I asked Gill poet and Brattleboro Literary Festival co-coordinator Lea Banks why Franklin County folks should venture up to the festival’s 15th iteration, she answered enthusiastically, “First off, downtown Brattleboro is amazing. It’s nestled there by the river and it’s got funky shops and nice shops, arts and entertainment and dining.”

And in this great location, the festival, running from Thursday, Oct. 13, through Sunday, Oct. 16, brings an eclectic lineup of writers who work in multiple genres — poetry, fiction and non-fiction — for a four-day event within a stone’s throw, or at least a roughly 20-minute drive, from our Franklin County doors.

Banks, who is embarking upon her fourth year volunteering as a coordinator for the festival, says that, years ago, she was moved by a poem by poet Jorie Graham, who will appear on Sunday, Oct. 16 at 1:30 at the Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro.

“I can’t memorize well,” Banks says, and then she proceeds to recite verbatim the opening lines of Graham’s poem, first published in 1983:

I watched them once, at dusk, on television, run,

in our motel room half-way through

Nebraska, quick, glittering, past beauty, past

the importance of beauty,

archaic,

not even hungry, not even endangered, driving deeper and deeper

into less.

Being able to hear a reading by a poet or writer who has deeply affected you, as Graham affected her, is probably the Number One reason to attend the festival.

Another poet who will be appearing this year is Pulitzer Prize winner Yusef Komunyakaa, whom Banks met a few years back while attending a six-day retreat at the Frost Place in Franconia, N.H. She was so impressed by him, she left the Frost Place and tracked down every book Komunyakaa had written at that time, Banks said. She and Komunyakaa will be among the judges of a poetry slam held at Landmark College in Brattleboro on Thursday, Oct. 13, 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. Komunyakaa will read after the slam, and he will read again on Saturday, Oct. 15, 10 a.m. at First Baptist Church, along with Baltimore poet Lia Purpura.

Award-winning writers and poets you may have heard of appearing include Bonnie Jo Campbell, Clarence Major, Dana Spiotta, David Means, Annette Gordon-Reed, Bill Littlefield, Dani Shapiro, Arun Gandhi and Harry Bliss.

Poets from the Pioneer Valley include Doug Anderson of Palmer, Martín Espada from Amherst and Paul Mariani of Montague. Mariani is appearing as a non-fiction writer this time, having recently published a biography, “The Whole Harmonium: The Life of Wallace Stevens.”

Shelburne Falls mystery writer Emily Arsenault will be included in an event on Saturday, Oct. 15, along with Brattleboro mystery writer Archer Mayor. (Check the website for more writers, local and otherwise.)

Banks says it doesn’t matter whether or not you’ve heard of the writers who will be appearing at this year’s Brattleboro Literary Festival. As a founder of the Collected Poets reading series at Mocha Maya’s in Shelburne Falls, Banks said it was particularly gratifying to have audience members approach her later and comment that a writer they’d never heard of had blown them away that night.

Though she didn’t choose all of this year’s pairings — she was co-coordinator with Westminster West poet Chard diNiord, 2016 poet laureate of Vermont — Banks says she likes to approach the pairing of readers “a bit quirkily.”

She might pair a street poet from New Jersey with a more ethereal poet.

“I want people to be surprised by the pairings,” Banks says, her wide smile evident in her voice, even over the phone.

Festival events are free and open to the public. But Banks emphasizes that the festival is run entirely by volunteers and, as a nonprofit entity, relies on support from grants and donations, including your own donations at the festival.

“That’s why you hear us saying, ‘If you can, just put some money in the basket on your way out,’” Banks says. “It’s really important.”

Check out www.brattleboroliteraryfestival.org for more information and complete schedules.