April 25, 2026 Book Launch and Reading
for the Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award

Join the Laura Boss Poetry Foundation and The Poetry Center in celebrating the publication launch of the winning book for the 2025 Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award with a reading by the winning poet and some finalists. Maria Mazziotti Gillan is a board member of the Foundation.

The 2025 winner is Terry Rae Hall for her collection Neither Are Crows. The final judge was Joe Weil. Her collection is published by NYQ Books. This award includes a $5,000 prize, 25 author copies, and today’s featured reading. Terry is the author of the chapbook The Something We Make from Nothing (Seven Kitchens Press, 2024). Other recent publications include Cider Press Review, San Pedro River Review, Pine Row Press, and Litmosphere.

Also scheduled to read are two of the five finalists: Mary Paulson, reading from Telling, and Michael Montlack, reading from Cosmic Idiot.

Mary Paulson’s poetry has appeared in a range of publications, including Sparks of Calliope, The Pomegranate London, Vita Brevis’ Poetry Anthology IV, Hares Paw, VAINE Magazine, Cathexis Northwest Press, Fevers of the Mind, The Gyroscope Review, The Metaworker Literary Magazine, Slow Trains, Mainstreet Rag, Painted Bride Quarterly, Nerve Cowboy, Arkana, Thimble Lit Magazine, and Tipton Poetry Journal. Her debut chapbook, Paint the Window Open, was published by Kelsey Publishing in 2021. She lives in Naples, Florida.

Michael Montlack is editor of the Lambda Finalist essay anthology My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them (University of Wisconsin Press) and author of the poetry collections Cool Limbo (NYQ Books) and Daddy (NYQ Books) and three chapbooks. His poems have appeared in Poetry Daily, Prairie Schooner, North American Review, Barrelhouse, The Cincinnati Review, Poet Lore, and Phoebe. He lives in NYC and teaches at NYU and CUNY City College. His finalist manuscript, Cosmic idiot, is forthcoming from Saturnalia.

Finalists unable to attend the reading: Daniel Donaghy, Rowhome in Flickering Light; Kelleen Zubick, Bird Mnemonic; Sarah Anne Stinnett, The Hard Problem.

Daniel Donaghy is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Somerset, co-winner of the 2019 Paterson Poetry Prize. His previous poetry collections are Start with the Trouble, winner of the University of Arkansas Poetry Prize, and Streetfighting. He earned a BA in English from Kutztown University, an MA in English/Creative Writing from Hollins College, an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Cornell University, and a PhD in English from the University of Rochester. Donaghy has received the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award, the Auburn Witness Poetry Prize, the Theodore Christian Hoepfner Literary Award, and two Connecticut Office of the Arts Artist Fellowships. He is a Professor of English and the 2023 University Distinguished Professor at Eastern Connecticut State University, where he edits Here: a poetry journal with his students.

Kelleen Zubick's work appears in Kenyon Review, Mississippi Review, Agni Online, Barrow Street, december, Dogwood, Many Mountains Moving, The Seattle Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Antioch Review, and Willow Springs. She received an MFA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University and has been awarded artist residencies from the Anderson Center and from the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. Kelleen lives in Denver and works for the national No Kid Hungry campaign.

Sarah Anne Stinnett is a Boston-based writer and educator. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University and an ALM in Dramatic Arts and ALB in Humanities from Harvard University. Her poetry appears in Plume, Booth, Palette Poetry, Mom Egg Review, On the Seawall, Chicago Quarterly Review, Tar River Poetry, and elsewhere.

All are invited for a luncheon at noon, with the readings to follow starting at 1 pm.

See laurabosspoetryfoundation.org for information on all the finalists, the Foundation’s work, and the manuscript award.

Information all all readings at The Poetry Center at PCCC

Maria Mazziotti Gillan's newest poetry collection is When the Stars Were Still Visible (2021). Other recent publications are the poetry and photography collection, Paterson Light and Shadow, and the poetry collections What Blooms in Winter and The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets, a pairing of her poems with her paintings.
Maria's artist website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.