While researching on the Internet and contacting poets and authors, I came across a website called Poets Reading the News. Although the website is not New England-based (the project was born in Oakland, CA), it does have a number of excellent poems submitted by talented writers from New England, and we look forward to including some of them on our list of Recommended Poets/Writers very soon.

Many of the poems can be an unsettling read, much like today’s headlines, as poets react to current events and topics in the news. I cannot think of a clearer example of poets who “illuminate the inner and outer states of our natural and cultural environment.”

Poets Reading the News was co-founded in 2016 by J Spagnolo and Elle Aviv Newton. PRTN’s mission is to enact poetry’s vital cultural function as a processor for violence, cultural complexity, and political change for a society overwhelmed by the headlines. They’re out “to prove what we know is true: in times of darkness, poetry is essential reading.”

Vermont poet and career journalist, Yvonne Daley, delivers her poetry with the precision and intelligence of a military surveillance drone: very direct and leaving no place to hide. Caitlin Gildrien, also from Vermont, makes us painfully aware of the crisis and suffering in Yemen. “My daughter is also seven years old,” begins the first line of Her Name Means Hope. Yes, in times of darkness, poetry is essential reading. Some turn for solace and sanity, others for a more accurate way with words to balance today’s media coverage of important issues and events.

Poets Reading the News has published hundreds of original poems and is also known for curating dynamic, unique events that connect poetry with artists, activism and community. They host open mics, poetry installations, community dialogues, reading series, and appear at poetry festivals and conferences, teaching the art of journalistic poetry at writing workshops around the country. They are 100% community-funded.

— Scott Lesniewski, Contributing Editor, Brilliant Light Publishing