Talking Gourds: Tasmanian Poets Mason & Conan-Davies Featured, 8/5!

31 Jul Talking Gourds: Tasmanian Poets Mason & Conan-Davies Featured, 8/5!

Talking Gourds “Stories & Poems” Bardic Trails series happens the first Tuesday of each month. Featured guests give a 15-20 minute presentation each, followed by a short Q & A period after the presentation. Then there’s a passing of the gourd, when community members are encouraged to share stories or poems.

Bardic Trails is a project of the Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds Poetry Program, in collaboration with Telluride’s Wilkinson Public Library. Events are free and open to all ages, thanks to the generosity of the library, a Town of Telluride CCAASE grant, private donors and Talking Gourds’ Fischer & Cantor poetry contests.

For more information, text 970-729-0220 or email Goodtimes at art@tellurideinstitute.org. To visit the Talking Gourds website go to: www.tellurideinstitute.org/talking-gourds

Go here for more about Talking Gourds.

Coming to Telluride from “Down Under,” Tasmanian poets David Mason and Cally Conan-Davies are featured presenters at Bardic Trails Tuesday August 5, 7 pm MST.

“David and Cally are a fine poetry team, both being exceptional writers and performers of their work,” explained Art Goodtimes, Talking Gourds Director. “We are excited to be hosting them from halfway around the world.”

David Mason was born in Bellingham, Washington, but has lived all over the world.

David Mason, courtesy Talking Gourds.

David served four years as Poet Laureate of Colorado before moving to Tasmania in 2018. His many books include “The Country I Remember” (winner of the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award); “Ludlow: A Verse Novel” (winner of the Colorado Book Award); “The Sound: New and Selected Poems”; and “Pacific Light.”

David has also written four books of essays and co-edited several textbooks and anthologies. His libretti for operas by composers Lori Laitman and Tom Cipullo are all available on CD from Naxos.

Mason’s website can be found at https://davidmasonpoet.com

Cally Conan-Davies is an Australian poet who worked for years as a tutor and bibliotherapist before living on the road in a camper van, including at times in the US.

Cally, courtesy Talking Gourds.

Cally’s poems have appeared in such periodicals as Poetry, The Hudson Review, The Harvard Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Dark Horse and The Southwest Review. They have even been translated into Chinese.

Cally has given readings and workshops in Greece, the UK, the US and Australia. Currently she lives in her native Tasmania in a house near the sea.

For those that like prompts, this month’s will be “Islands.” Virtual attendees are encouraged to bring a story or poem to share each month after the featured reader, their own work or someone else’s.

September’s featured poet will be Peter Anderson of Crestone; October Betsy Quammen (formerly a reporter for the old Telluride Watch when Art was editor)  who will be telling ghost stories; November Beth Franklin of Boulder who runs the Colorado Poets Center will read; and December will brings Marie Fuhrman of Idaho (and currently heading up the poetry program at Western Colorado University in Gunnison).