Silver City, Nevada – Historic Silver City is the venue for a month full of poetry events this April. Several groups are collaborating to host four public events in the Comstock town during National Poetry Month.
Award winning poet Shaun Griffin will offer a reading of his poetry as part of Silver City’s month long celebration of poetry. His reading at 2pm on Sunday, April 24 will include some of his recent poems describing his experiences at the border of the U.S. and Mexico.
Shaun Griffin has received numerous awards for his work including the Nevada Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and the Rosemary McMillan Award for Lifetime Achievement in Art. In 2014 he was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.
He is the author of more than half a dozen books of poetry, and a memoir called Anthem for a Burnished Land. He has edited a number of books including an anthology of Nevada poets, and a volume about poet Hayden Carruth called From Sorrow’s Well. He’s also known for his translations of Chilean poet Emma Sepulveda’s Death to Silence, and has worked as a teaching poet at colleges and at writers’ conferences in Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Poet Gary Short notes that Griffin’s latest book, The Monastery of Stars, “creates a monument to the dignity of people he meets and observes.” Griffin has demonstrated this quality consistently. More than 30 years ago, he and his wife Deborah Loesch-Griffin co-founded Community Chest, Inc, a nonprofit agency serving Nevada children and families. For decades he taught creative writing workshops for inmates at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center, and edited Razor Wire, a journal that gave voice to the art, essays, and poetry of those prisoners. He has served on the board of the nonprofit Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey Counties for many years. His contributions were recognized with a Mike O’Callaghan Humanitarian Award in 2004.
Griffin’s reading is co-hosted by the the Resident Artist Program in Silver City and Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey Counties, with additional support from the Silver City Preservation Society, Silver City Arts, and the Silver City Volunteer Library.
Silver City’s inaugural poetry festival will also include a reading and workshop with Nevada Poet Gailmarie Pahmeier Sunday, April 3 at 3pm; a Saturday April 9th event at 2pm with the Nevada Women’s History Project to recognize poet Irene Bruce; and a reading by award winning poet David Lee on Sunday, April 10 at 2pm.
The Silver City Schoolhouse (community center) is the venue for all four April poetry events. It is located on the Comstock within the national historic district at 385 High Street in Silver City, Nevada 89428. Silver City is 3 miles south of Virginia City, 12 miles from Carson City, and less than 30 miles from Reno. For more information about Silver City’s month of poetry events, contact Resident Artist Program in Silver City director Quest Lakes at 847-0742.
