This community poetry workshop invites residents of all ages to reflect on personal and family histories, cultural roots, and the stories of Maplewood and South Orange. This panel of award-winning local poets will be moderated by Eric Shorter and followed by a workshop/opportunity to collaborate with your fellow neighbors using writing prompts and group dialogue. Bring your creative energy!
Kathy Kremins
Kathy Kremins is a poet, photographer, and independent scholar. She is a retired NJ public school teacher and coach and holds a doctorate from Drew University. She has three poetry chapbooks: Unrehearsed with Toma Zbrizher (Two Key Customs, 2025), Seamus & His Smalls (Two Key Customs, 2023), and Undressing the World (Finishing Line Press, 2022). Her first full-length book of poetry, The Curve of Things, was published by CavanKerry Press in May 2024. Her second collection, Sipping a Cloud, is forthcoming from Read Furiously in Spring 2026. She is the author of The Ethics of Reading: The Broken Beauties of Toni Morrison, Arundhati Roy, and Nawal el Sadaawi (2010) and an essay contributor to Too Smart to be Sentimental: Contemporary Irish American Women Writers (2008). She is also an editor for NJ Audubon Magazine. www.kathykremins.com
Jung Hae Chae
Jung Hae Chae is a Korean-American poet and essayist, and the author of the forthcoming memoir-in-essays, Pojangmacha People, winner of the 2022 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize. Her work has been distinguished with the 2021 Crazyhorse Prize in Nonfiction, the 2019 Emerging Writers Contest in Nonfiction from Ploughshares, and a 2019 Pushcart Prize in nonfiction. Jung Hae’s writing can be found widely in literary journals like Agni, Guernica, New England Review, Ploughshares, swamp pink (formerly Crazyhorse), and in anthologies including The Best American Essays and the Pushcart Prize collections. Her work has been supported by fellowships from MacDowell, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and Sustainable Arts Foundation, as well as scholarships from Bread Loaf, Sewanee, Community of Writers, among others. When not writing, she likes to play puzzle games and cook with her teenaged daughter.
Tina Kelley
Tina Kelley's fifth full-length poetry collection, Field Guide to North American Words, is due out in the fall from Jacar Press, joining Rise Wildly, Abloom & Awry, Precise, and The Gospel of Galore, a Washington State Book Award winner. She reported for The New York Times for ten years, shared in a Pulitzer covering 9/11, and wrote two nonfiction books. She received a 2023 and 2025 Finalist award from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She and her husband have two children and live in Maplewood, NJ.Ras Heru Stewart
Heru Stewart (also known as Ras Heru) is an artist, author, elementary school teacher, and businessman based in Maplewood, NJ. A 5-time author, workshop producer, publisher and Dodge Poetry Festival poet, Heru is also the founder of HS1 Arts & Education - a literary and creatives opportunity creator for writers, artists, professionals, institutions and communities.
Kathy Kremins is a poet, photographer, and independent scholar. She is a retired NJ public school teacher and coach and holds a doctorate from Drew University. She has three poetry chapbooks: Unrehearsed with Toma Zbrizher (Two Key Customs, 2025), Seamus & His Smalls (Two Key Customs, 2023), and Undressing the World (Finishing Line Press, 2022). Her first full-length book of poetry, The Curve of Things, was published by CavanKerry Press in May 2024. Her second collection, Sipping a Cloud, is forthcoming from Read Furiously in Spring 2026. She is the author of The Ethics of Reading: The Broken Beauties of Toni Morrison, Arundhati Roy, and Nawal el Sadaawi (2010) and an essay contributor to Too Smart to be Sentimental: Contemporary Irish American Women Writers (2008). She is also an editor for NJ Audubon Magazine. www.kathykremins.com
Jung Hae Chae
Jung Hae Chae is a Korean-American poet and essayist, and the author of the forthcoming memoir-in-essays, Pojangmacha People, winner of the 2022 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize. Her work has been distinguished with the 2021 Crazyhorse Prize in Nonfiction, the 2019 Emerging Writers Contest in Nonfiction from Ploughshares, and a 2019 Pushcart Prize in nonfiction. Jung Hae’s writing can be found widely in literary journals like Agni, Guernica, New England Review, Ploughshares, swamp pink (formerly Crazyhorse), and in anthologies including The Best American Essays and the Pushcart Prize collections. Her work has been supported by fellowships from MacDowell, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and Sustainable Arts Foundation, as well as scholarships from Bread Loaf, Sewanee, Community of Writers, among others. When not writing, she likes to play puzzle games and cook with her teenaged daughter.
Tina Kelley
Tina Kelley's fifth full-length poetry collection, Field Guide to North American Words, is due out in the fall from Jacar Press, joining Rise Wildly, Abloom & Awry, Precise, and The Gospel of Galore, a Washington State Book Award winner. She reported for The New York Times for ten years, shared in a Pulitzer covering 9/11, and wrote two nonfiction books. She received a 2023 and 2025 Finalist award from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She and her husband have two children and live in Maplewood, NJ.Ras Heru Stewart
Heru Stewart (also known as Ras Heru) is an artist, author, elementary school teacher, and businessman based in Maplewood, NJ. A 5-time author, workshop producer, publisher and Dodge Poetry Festival poet, Heru is also the founder of HS1 Arts & Education - a literary and creatives opportunity creator for writers, artists, professionals, institutions and communities.
Eric Shorter
Eric Shorter was born in the Bronx and raised in Teaneck. His writings have been published by numerous independent outlets over the years; most recently by The Stillwater Review, La Piccioletta Barca, and Prometheus Dreaming, as well as anthologies from Jacar Press and Poet's Choice. An LP record of his work was released in 2019 on Birs Recordings, and fragments of his poems can be found in the permanent art installation, “Lines of Sight” by Diane Samuels. Eric is a long-standing resident of Maplewood, where he raised his three wonderful children.
Do you like this post?
Showing 1 reaction
Sign in with
Facebook Twitter