Issues. People. Events.

Poets from Edwina Trentham’s seventh annual summer poetry workshop, “Spasmodic Tricks of Radiance,” will read their work on Sunday, July 29, from 3:00 to 5:00 PM at Lemon ‘n Lyme Artisan Gift Shop and Gallery, in The Old Lyme Shopping Center at 19 Halls Road in Old Lyme. Owners, Linda and Barry Improte, were inspired to open this artisan gift shop and gallery, a year ago, with the hopes of furthering the missions of their community with the growth of the arts. Lemon ‘n Lyme features a wide variety of art—watercolors, oils, pottery, Brazilian hand-made jewelry, beautiful jackets, and quilt hangings. In addition, Lemon ‘n Lyme provides a showcase for artists to display their work, and the current exhibition features work by the Odyssey Painters.

Also available at Lemon n’ Lyme is the Health and Happiness collection. This collection, developed by Linda Improte, based on her years of experience as a nurse practitioner, is a tote filled with functional items designed to create an environment that helps raise a patients' sprits and boost their morale while transforming their room into an artful environment.

Readers at the July 29 poetry reading, the first of many planned poetry events at Lemon ‘n Lyme, include Carol Altieri, a member of Guilford Poets Guild, who is a retired English and science teacher working for conservation of natural resources and town senior organizations, who has published four books of poetry: In Beijing, There Are No Dawn Redwoods, The Isinglass River, The Jade Bower and Still Brooding On A Strong Branch; Guilford resident Evelyn Atreya, who is a member of the Guilford Poets Guild and the Greater New Haven Chapter of the Connecticut Poetry. Pat Barone, a painter and poet who lives in Clinton and whose work is included in the current exhibition of the Odyssey Painters at Lemon ‘n Lyme; Barbara Batt, who is happily retired, and lives (and writes) in Haddam; Gwen Gunn, who was a co-editor of the poetry magazine Embers, and as a member of the Guilford Poets Guild helps to organize their Second Thursday poetry readings at the Greene Gallery in Guilford; poet Janet Greenberg, who is a native of New Haven and teaches at Gateway Community College; Joan Hofmann, a Professor of Education at the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, Connecticut, who directed the Academy for Young Writers for over fifteen years and resides in Collinsville; Pat O’Brien, a published poet, who has been writing with grave determination for decades, and whose first collection of poetry, When Less Than Perfect Is Enough, will be published this July by Antrim House Books; Lana Orphanides, a poet and painter who lives in Groton; Mary Buell Volk, a member of the Connecticut River Poets, who last year published a book of poetry with photographer Carin Roaldset entitled Here After"; Steve Parlato, who is an assistant professor of English at Naugatuck Valley Community College, a soon-to-be-published YA novelist, and has had poetry in journals including Freshwater, Borderlands, MARGIE and Peregrine; and Edwina Trentham, who lives in Moodus and is the author of Stumbling into the Light (Antrim House), Professor Emeritus of English at Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield, and founding editor of the poetry journal Freshwater.

Refreshments will be served, and the reading is free and open to the public. Copies of the poets’ books will be on sale. For more information, contact Edwina Trentham at 860-873-1472 or The Lemon ‘n Lyme at 860-598-9313,lemonlyme@artgiftsoldlyme.com.
or go to their website at www.artgiftsoldlyme.com