POETRY LUNCH with Linda Quinlan

Linda Quinlan won the Wicked Woman Poetry Prize with her manuscript Chelsea Creek, a series of poems reflecting on her upbringing in a blue collar New England town.  The prize is awarded by Brickhouse Books and will be presented by contest judge and club member Rose Solari.

  Long time activist and poet Linda Quinlan grew up the daughter of union parents, a factory worker and a carpenter. As PEN Award winner Michelle Tea says of the work, “Linda Whalen Quinlan renders the rough terrain of working class New England with a lush beauty that pulls no punches, letting the brute hardness of a place and its people coexist with longing and love, finding the tenderness hiding inside tragedy. I love these poems.”  Quinlan’s spare, evocative language can be seen in this excerpt from the poem “Marie”:

Two shopping bags

hitting her knees

and a scarf for church

almost hitting white ankle socks.

She left after 45 years,

taking what she came with

a Brooklyn accent

and five familiar blocks.

The event consists of a poetry reading followed by a lunch and opportunity for informal discussion with the poet.