Local Writer Poetry Reading *For Teens and Adults

Books will be available for purchase and signing by several of our authors.

About our Poets:

Lillian Breen: 

My name is Lillian Breen, a resident of Ashland for 17  ½ years. I’ve been a long time passionate, personal story writer who has been wanting to organize a personal story/poetry writing group for several years. I have 3 grown children, 5 grandchildren & a great-granddaughter. My love of water-color painting, at Ashland Senior Center, for 15 years has also unfolded during that time. Everyone has stories to unleash, in writing & sharing ~ this develops into a wonderful mini-community.

Lillian leads Ashland Library’s “Garden of Words” Writing Group.

Howard Kogan:

We are celebrating the book birthday of Howard’s newest collection of poetry: Before I Forget

Howard J. Kogan is a retired psychotherapist now living in Ashland, Massachusetts, with his wife, Libby. His years of retirement have provided him with the opportunity to return to narrative poetry. His poems have appeared in Still Crazy, Occu-poetry, Poetry Ark, Naugatuck River Review, Jewish Currents Anthology, Literary Gazette, Pathways, Up the River, Point Mass Anthology, Misfit Magazine, Flair, The American Jewish World and Award Winning Poems from Smith’s Tavern Poet Laureate Contest (2010 and 2011 Editions). His other books of poems, Indian Summer and A Chill in the Air, are available from Square Circle Press. His chapbook, General Store Poems, published by Benevolent Bird Press in 2014, is available from the author.

Cynthia Franca & Cheryl Perrault: 

Cheryl Perreault is a poet, writer, and spoken-word artist. Cheryl has worked as host/producer of several programs for community arts and healing arts, including Wake Up and Smell the Poetry(with HCAM-TV), The Women’s Art Forum, The Labyrinth Roundtable/Speaker Series, and most recently, Common Ground Storytelling (HCAM-TV).

Cynthia Franca is the author of a book of Brazilian poetry, Poetic Treasure, published in Brazil in 2003. She has lived in Hopkinton, MA, for ten years. Author, local contributing artist/writer who has shared bi-lingual poetry, storytelling artist talks, and paintings at community arts events in Massachusetts. Cynthia has been a poet, juror, and editor at Art on The Trails Southborough Project.

Cynthia and Cheryl are co-editors of two anthologies of community poetry and stories, including Hopkinton Through Poetry: Celebrating 300 Years- Hopkinton, MA, published in 2015, and Hope Through Community: Words and Images in Response to a Global Pandemic, published in 2020 in response to the challenging time during the coronavirus pandemic.

You can learn more about Cynthia and Cheryl’s anthologies at: www.hopkintonthroughpoetrybook.com

Jason Tandon:

Jason Tandon is the author of five collections of poetry, including This Far North, The Actual World, and Give Over the Heckler and Everyone Gets Hurt, winner of the 2006 St. Lawrence Book Award for a first book from Black Lawrence Press. His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, The Southern Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, and the North American Review, among others, and they have been featured on NPR. He is a master lecturer in the Arts & Sciences Writing Program at Boston University.

This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Ashland Public Library.

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