Alice-Anne, Elizabeth and Mark host the series and welcome you to The Poetry Institute where OUR FOCUS is creating a warm and inviting atmosphere for YOUR ENJOYMENT of poetry.

Alice-Anne Harwood

Alice-Anne is our special events and workshop coordinator. She is an accomplished poet and emerging playwright.  She’s also the charismatic Festival Director for CTFolk , where live music joins with educational events and environmental stewardship. And she lends her soaring vocals to New Haven’s indie-folk rock band, Document 183.  Their lyrics draw you in, and their unforgettable music holds you there.

Elizabeth Cleary

Eli manages the Poetry Institute’s website and is also one of our bookings coordinators. She works in Corporate America by day and is a poet by night (or those odd moments when she isn’t working). Published recently in  Boston Literary Magazine and Tipton Poetry Journal, she tends to her poems like her garden, nurturing a unique perspective on people and the events that influence their lives. She performs with the poetry troupe Shijin, (along with Alice Anne) and is founder of the Sleeping Giant Poets Guild in Hamden, Connecticut. Visit elicleary.com.

Mark McGuire-Schwartz

Mark manages our email and press activities and serves as our primary feature bookings coordinator. He sometimes imagines that he was raised by bears, and it shows.  He believes that laughter is a gift to be shared. People often laugh out loud when they read his writings. Then again, they laugh at a lot of things he does.  Mark is author of a short play, Meeting Arthur Miller, which was produced as part of the Short and NEAT program during the 2004 International Festival of Arts and Ideas, in New Haven.

Our hosting philosophy

We work hard to create a friendly and inviting atmosphere for poetry lovers to enjoy poetry

We want you to enjoy sharing your poetry, whether it’s the poem’s first draft or final.  We encourage first time readers to give reading at the open mic a try. We encourage all readers to bring a favorite poem, — whether it’s one you wrote or your favorite poem written by someone else.    And because listening to poetry can play such an important role in improving the writing of poetry, we will work to bring our audience an ecclectic mix of feature poets — some well-known and some not so famous  —who share their original and interesting poetic voices, to top off a great open mic.

What we won’t do: We won’t bore you with pages and pages of our own poetry.  The venue is not an excuse for us to feature our own work month after month. We only read in our own open mic if it’s NOT our night to host.  So you’ll find us rotating the role:  Open Mic Host, Introducing the Feature, and our most important role, “door-buzzer manager”.  Remember — Only ring once and give us time to sprint to the buzzer to let you in!

Contact us at:  PoetryInstitute [at] gmail [dot] com