DiVerse Gaithersburg

Open Mic following the Featured Readers — feel free to share one poem, one page.

At Casey Community Center, 810 S Frederick Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 20877

kelly c bradley is a mother, poet, grave tender and griever. Her first book of poetry, love, loss and the enormity of it all (FootHills Publishing), was followed by a gift (Baeley Atlas Co imprint) and will be followed by and then in 2026.

Kristin Kowalski Ferragut is a poet-mom who teaches, writes songs and stories, rides her bike, and hosts readings and open mics. She is author of poetry collections Escape Velocity (Kelsay Books, 2021) and Love Letters from Cuckold Creek (cyberwit.net, 2025), and the children’s book Becoming the Enchantress (Loving Healing Press, 2021). Follow her Mind’s Eye blog at https://www.kristinskiferragut.com/mindseyeblog

Open Mic following the Featured Readers — feel free to share one poem, one page.

At Casey Community Center, 810 S Frederick Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 20877

Sam Schmidt
Sam Schmidt’s books include Suburban Myths (Beothuk Books, 2012) and Dark Bird (Galileo Press, 2024). He is also a copy editor specializing in creative works. For more than a decade, he edited and published WordHouse, a newsletter for Maryland writers, and hosted the reading series WordHouse at the Minás Gallery. His poems have been published in Passager, Free State Review, and Gargoyle. He is a two-time recipient of the Maryland State Individual Artist Grant and holds a master’s degree in Comparative Literature from Johns Hopkins University. His wife, poet Virginia Crawford, is the author of Questions for Water (Apprentice House Press, 2021). Schmidt lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland.

Virginia Crawford
Virginia Crawford, a Baltimore native, earned a BFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College in Boston and a Master of Letters from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. She has published individual poems in journals such as Gargoyle and has taught as a Maryland State Arts Council Artist in Education for more than twenty years. She is married to fellow poet Sam Schmidt. Her books include Touch (2013) and Questions for Water (2021).

Open Mic following the Featured Readers — feel free to share one poem, one page.

At Casey Community Center, 810 S Frederick Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 20877

Michele Wolf is the author of the poetry collections Peacocks on the Streets, Immersion, Conversations During Sleep, and the chapbook The Keeper of Light. Her poems have been featured in The Southern Review, Poetry, The Hudson Review, and elsewhere, including on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and the Poetry Foundation’s Poem of the Day. Among her honors are the Anhinga Prize for Poetry, a Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artist Award, and fellowships from the Montgomery County Arts and Humanities Council, Yaddo, the Edward F. Albee Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She teaches at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda and lives in Gaithersburg.

Indran Amirthanayagam has just published his translation of Kenia Cano’s Animal For The Eyes (Dialogos Books, 2025). Other recent publications include Seer (Hanging Loose Press) and The Runner’s Almanac (Spuyten Duyvil). He is the translator of Origami: Selected Poems of Manuel Ulacia (Dialogos Books). Powèt Nan Pò A (Poet of the Port), his love song to Haiti, was published by Mad Hat Press. Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant (Broadstone Books) is another collection of his poems. He edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly, hosts the Poetry Channel on YouTube, and publishes poetry books with Sara Cahill Marron at Beltway Editions.

Open Mic following the Featured Readers — feel free to share one poem, one page.

At Casey Community Center, 810 S Frederick Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 20877

Sunayna Pal‘s poetry graces the pages of numerous international journals, anthologies, museums, poetry festivals, textbooks, buses, and libraries, resonating with readers across the globe. Her debut book, Refugees in Their Own Country (B&W Fountain), tells the Partition of India in verse and illustrations. Her second book, Please Go to the Park (Bottlecap Press), is an invitation to embark on a journey of self-discovery. Beyond her writing, Sunayna serves as the Director of The Poetry Academy and is dedicated to Heartfulness meditation. For a deeper insight into her work and journey, please visit sunaynapal.com. She lives in Maryland with her family.

Henry Crawford is the author of three collections of poetry: American Software, published in May of 2017 by CW Books, his second collection, Binary Planet, was published by The Word Works in March of 2020 and released as a 2nd Edition in 2022. Screens, (Broadstone Books, 2025), is Crawford’s most recent full collection of poems. His poem, “The Fruits of Famine,” won first prize in the 2019 World Food Poetry Competition. His work has been published in Boulevard, Copper Nickel, Rattle, the Southern Humanities Review, and many others. He is a two time finalist for the Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest. He was nominated for the 2022 Rhysling Award by the Science Fiction Poetry Association. He is a longtime co-host of the Café Muse Literary Salon Online and producer of Poets vs The Pandemic (during the COVID years).

He Writes on Substack at https://everydaypoet.substack.com/.

Thursday, September 4th, Reading Featuring poets from Echoes Through the Stacks, poems from Quince Orchard Library’s poetry evenings 7:00-8:30 pm

Open Mic following the Featured Readers — feel free to share one poem, one page.

At Casey Community Center, 810 S Frederick Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 20877

eve is a Voices In The Glen storyteller, a public librarian, and a poet who shares her writing with Poetry Evenings, Sunday Poetry Afternoons, The Summer Poetry Workshop, and at other local venues. In and out of the library, she has led poetry groups for children, teens, and adults. She maintains a circulating collection of books by Local Poets at Quince Orchard Library in Gaithersburg, where she works. She has a husband and four adult children who love to cook, bake, dance, and make music; a naughty dog, a reformed cat, and a backyard full of bees.

Guest Host — Sandra Lawson.

Sandra Lawson writes poetry because someone wanted to hear her voice, and when she rediscovered writing she realized she had much to say. She writes about a journey of change and remembering to see and live in the light. Her poems slant optimistic, and maybe right now we need to be reminded of the power of our light.

Open Mic following the Featured Readers — feel free to share one poem, one page.

At Casey Community Center, 810 S Frederick Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 20877

Morenike O. Rossman writes poetry, speculative fiction, and children’s skits. Based here in Gaithersburg, she works for MCPS as an AV technician and has the pleasure of being behind the scenes of her school’s theater, musical, and dance productions. And when she’s not working and writing, she’s creating visual art or behind the camera. Her work has appeared in Flurry and Struggle Magazine.

W. Luther Jett is a native of Montgomery County, Maryland and a retired special educator. His poetry has been published in numerous journals as well as several anthologies. He is the author of six poetry chapbooks: Not Quite: Poems Written in Search of My Father, (Finishing Line Press, 2015), and Our Situation, (Prolific Press, 2018), Everyone Disappears (Finishing Line Press, 2020), Little Wars (Kelsay Books, 2021), Watchman, What of the Night? (CW Books, 2022), and most recently The Colour War (Kelsay Book, 2024)s. His full-length collection, “Flying to America” was published by Broadstone Press in spring, 2024. Luther is facilitator of a monthly virtual open mike  sponsored by the Hyattstown Mill Arts Project in Maryland. He also coordinates two monthly on-line poetry critique workshops.

Open Mic following the Featured Readers — feel free to share one poem, one page.

At Casey Community Center, 810 S Frederick Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 20877

Colorfully rich with contextual landscapes, Dalila Brooks, has developed a spoken word performance offering viewers a deeply expressive body of work that explores topics of femininity, relationships and life from a woman’s perspective.

Her in-depth lyrical content brings harmony to words. Spirited with intonation and rhythm, she explores the simplicity of sound, variances in tone and dialects, offering audiences a unique perspective about her growth journey.

Her love for the written word and developing stories for film, inspired her to expound upon her skillset as a visual storyteller. She is currently extending platforms, building on her experience as a theatrical production director, writer and public speaker for her solo spoken word performances.

Kim Malinowski is a lover of words. She earned her B.A. from West Virginia University and her M.F.A. from American University. She is the author of Home, a title from Kelsay books, Phantom Reflection published by Silver Bow Publishing, Buffy’s House of Mirrors published by Q, an imprint of Querencia Press, Clutching Narcissus published by Twelve House Books, and Death: A Love Story published by Flutter Press. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Best of Net Award, and the Rhysling Award. She is studying archeology and is the editor of the ASM Ink, the newsletter of the Archeological Society of Maryland. She writes because the alternative is unthinkable.

Open Mic following the Featured Readers — feel free to share one poem, one page.

At Casey Community Center, 810 S Frederick Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 20877

Courtney LeBlanc is the author of the full-length collections Her Dark Everything; Her Whole Bright Life (winner of the Jack McCarthy Book Prize); Exquisite Bloody, Beating Heart; and Beautiful & Full of Monsters. She is the Arlington County Poet Laureate and the founder and editor-in-chief of Riot in Your Throat, an independent poetry press. She’s also the founder of the Poetry Coven, a monthly generative workshop she runs out of her home. She loves nail polish, tattoos, and a soy latte each morning. Find her online at www.courtneyleblanc.com. 

Mike Reis is a writer and environmental historian whose poems have appeared in Narrative Northeast, North of Oxford, Woven Tale, Gargoyle, Crossways, Lucille, The Broadkill Review, The Galway Review, The Raven’s Perch, Grand Little Things, Amelia, Northern New England Review, The Seventh Quarry, WWPH Writes, Superpresent, and the Maryland Literary Review. My work has also been published in the anthologies Cabin Fever, Pandemic of Violence II: Poets Speak, and Traitor/Patriot: A Reflection of January 6.

(July 11, 1959-May 23, 2025)

Our Dear Friend, Poet, Musician, Cliff Bernier died Friday morning, May 23rd. We had the honor of featuring him at DiVerse in Februrary. He leaves 3 sons, his beautiful wife, Kyoko, and a rich legacy of work. Our community mourns and is grateful to have engaged with his kind heart, insightful mind, and creative soul. Rest in peace, dear Cliff.

Open Mic following the Featured Readers — feel free to share one poem, one page.

At Casey Community Center, 810 S Frederick Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 20877

Free and feel free to just walk-in, or get a ticket on Eventbrite, to help us know how many people may attend.

Jay Hall Carpenter has been a professional artist for over 40 years, beginning as a sculptor for the Washington National Cathedral, and winning numerous national awards for his work.  His first poetry collection, Dark and Light, Poetry (2012), was followed by 101 Limericks, Inappropriate For All Occasions (2017), then by his celebrated collection, Model Home, Poems (2021), and Mount Fiji, 36 Sonnets (Fallen Tree Press, 2022).  His writings can be found in two anthologies, Faery footprints (Fae Corps Publishing, 2019), and Written in Arlington, (Paycock Press, 2020).  He has written poetry, plays, musicals, and children’s books throughout his career and now sculpts and writes on a mountain in Vermont.

Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram is the host and producer of the internationally recognized poetry podcast Quintessential Poetry: Online Radio, YouTube and Zoo. Through his work as a retired professor of Counselor Education and Supervision and as a noted poet and spoken word artist, Dr. Ingram also leverages the arts, especially poetry, to bring attention to the effects of power, privilege, and oppression in our society. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and his second poetry collection, Metaphorically Screaming, is eagerly anticipated. For more information about Dr. Ingram or the podcast, visit www.qporytz.com.