Eleanor Berry has concluded the Second Sundays Series of Poetry Readings, which she has coordinated in Stayton for the past eight years, and is now launching a new project, with fewer regularly scheduled but more varied poetry events and productions.
The new project is organized under the name North Santiam Poetry Works. To mark this transition, two poetry events will take place in Stayton on the fourth weekend of June. Both events will feature three Oregon poets with new books – Gary Lark of Ashland, Nancy Carol Moody of Eugene and Mark Thalman of Forest Grove.
Books by the featured poets can be purchased at both events, which are free and open to everyone interested.
On Saturday, June 26, 1:30-3:30 p.m., the three poets will talk about their work and other contemporary Oregon poetry in the E. G. Siegmund Meeting Room at the Stayton Public Library, 515 N. First Ave.
On Sunday, June 27, 3 – 5 p.m., they will read from their new books at 349 N. Third Ave., in the space shared by Paul Toews’ studio and the Stayton Friends of the Library Used Bookstore.
Audience members are invited to share one or two short poems of their own or by others.
Lark’s Getting By, published in 2009 by Logan House as winner of its Holland Prize, is a collection of poems about work and working people, derived from his own experience growing up in the Umpqua Valley. He held a variety of jobs, including hospital aide, salesman, janitor, carpenter and librarian. Lark recently retired and moved from Coos Bay to Ashland.
He is also the author of three chapbooks of poetry, Eels and Fishes, in the Coos Writers Series, Tasting the River in the Salmon’s Flesh, from Traprock Books and Men at the Gates, from Finishing Line Press. Some of his poems have been read by Garrison Keillor during The Writer’s Almanac on public radio.
In addition to poetry, Lark writes stories, essays, and plays, and his work has appeared in numerous literary magazines. His play And One Flew South won first place in Pacific Northwest Writers Association contest and was produced in 2006.
Nancy Carol Moody’s collection titled Photograph with Girls, published last year by Traprock Books, contains lyric poems in a variety of forms and subjects. 
After growing up in southern California and later living for several years in Illinois, she settled in Oregon about 20 years ago. She lives in Eugene, where she works as a clerk for the U.S. Postal Service. Her writing has appeared in a variety of literary magazines.
Mark Thalman’s Catching the Limit, published in 2009 as part of the Northwest Poetry Series by Fairweather Press, gathers poems of his experiences in Oregon’s rural lands and wild places.
Born and raised in Eugene, he currently lives in Forest Grove, where he teaches English in public schools. He received masters degree in creative writing from the University of Oregon and has served as an assistant poetry editor for Northwest Review, a Poet-in-the-Schools for the Oregon Art Commission, an instructor for Chemeketa Community College and a board member for the Portland Poetry Festival. His poetry has been widely published in literary magazines and anthologies.
The June poetry programs in Stayton are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Marion Cultural Development Corporation, which also provides funding for donation of the featured poets’ books to the Stayton Public Library. For information, contact Eleanor Berry at 503-859-3045 or [email protected].
