COFFEE WITH THE AUTHORS -Holly Wren Spaulding

Coffee With The Authors is a live, conversational interview with local and regional authors about the writing craft and process. This Glen Arbor Arts Center series continues with poet Holly Wren Spaulding in a conversation about keeping and banning words. Sarah Bearup-Neal, GAAC gallery manager, leads the discussion.

Spaulding, a Northern Michigan native now living in Southern Maine, published her third book of poems, Familiars, in 2020. It was a response to the 2015 deletion of words by the Oxford Junior Dictionary. The OJD’s deleted-words list included names of flora and fauna, in order to make room for newer words from the world of technology, such as “chatroom” and “bullet point.”  Familiars is full of poems about “trees, flowers, magic, touch, memory, erasure, power, and [Spaulding’s] grief over the changing climate.” Spaulding’s work is a reflection of her long, close association with the natural world. In her July 30 conversation, Spaulding will talk about the power of words, choosing them with care, and the ways in which she works to keep language vital through her writing.

Coffee With The Authors is offered without charge.