The Noah Webster House and West Hartford Historial Society is sponsoring a poetry read-in with former West Hartford Poet Laureate Ginny Connors and University of Saint Joseph Professor Joan Hofmann.

Ginny Connors. Submitted photo

Submitted

On Friday, Oct. 14 at 6 p.m., (doors open at 5:30 p.m.) the public is invited to hear local poets Ginny Connors and Joan Hofmann as they lead an evening of poetry at the Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society, 227 South Main St., West Hartford, Connecticut.

Maria Sassi, West Hartford Poet Laureate Emeritus, will host the festivities, including an open mic portion.

Ginny Lowe Connors was the Poet Laureate of West Hartford from 2013-2015 and is the author of three poetry collections: The Unparalleled Beauty of a Crooked Line, Barbarians in the Kitchen, and recently, Toward the Hanging Tree: Poems of Salem Village. Among Connors’ many awards and recognitions is the Sunken Garden Poetry Prize for her chapbook, Under the Porch.

Joan Hofmann. Submitted photo

Joan Hofmann is Professor Emeritus at the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford and has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the School of Education for many years, with a special interest in creative writing and students with disabilities. In 2014, she published Coming Back, a collection of poetry and is currently working on a manuscript emanating from her work at Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ conferences. Hofmann is the Poet Laureate of Canton, Connecticut.

Maria Sassi, the host of the poetry read-in, is a prize-winning poet and playwright and served as the first Poet Laureate of West Hartford from 2005-2009. Sassi conducted poetry workshops for many years at the University of Hartford and is a recent recipient of an Artist Fellowship from The Connecticut Commission on the Arts. She feels deeply about poetry and its refined saving grace of our language, our life. Sassi’s book of poems, Rooted in Stars, is in its second printing and in the permanent collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. Her recent collection of poems, Rare Grasses, came out in November 2015.

Guests are encouraged to read their own works during the open mic portion of the evening. Light refreshments will be served.

The event is free to the public, but donations will be gratefully accepted. Open mic sign-ups begin at 5:30 p.m.

The Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society is a not-for-profit museum and cultural destination where citizens can learn to understand and appreciate the past. The museum preserves the birthplace of Noah Webster, the Founding Father, educator, author and lexicographer who taught generations of Americans what it means to be American. This National Historic Landmark is also a repository for the history of West Hartford, the community that molded Webster’s future and is still thriving over 250 years later. The historic house and exhibit spaces are open daily 1-4 p.m. For information on the museum’s extensive school and public programs, visit www.noahwebsterhouse.org or call 860-521-5362.