Two Poets Pair up at Guild Hall for a Special Free Reading Saturday Night

Join Guild Hall in East Hampton this weekend for a special “Poetry Pairs” with Toi Derricotte and Grace Schulman on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The event is free and all are welcome.

Poetry Pairs presents a local poet with a national poet to celebrate authors’ book releases and to make poetry accessible to the members of the community. It is produced by Fran Castan, who was named Long Island Poet of the Year in 2013. She will be introducing two poets of distinction, Grace Schulman, a local and beloved East End resident, and Toi Derricotte, a visiting guest. Each will read from her respective recent work in the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall.  A book signing, along with a wine and dessert reception will follow the reading. The event is free and all are invited to attend.

In Toi Derricotte’s poetry, the taboo, the restricted, and the repressed figure prominently; they are often the catalysts that prompt her to write, to confess the painful. She has published five collections of poetry, most recently, The Undertaker's Daughter (2011) which she will reading at Guild Hall.

Poet and editor Grace Schulman will read from “Without a Claim (2013).”  Philip Schultz, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Failure and The God of Loneliness says “Without a Claim is a modern Book of Psalms. Indeed, the glory in these radiant sacred songs meld an art of high music with a nuanced love of the world unlike any we’ve heard before. No matter your mood upon entering this world you’ll soon be grateful, and enchanted. In any such house of praise, God herself must be grateful.”

Fran Castan, will introduce the poets. A book signing with a wine and dessert reception will follow the reading.