HALLOWELL — The Harlow will present poets Jane Brox and Betsy Sholl at 7 p.m. Friday, May 17, as part of their ongoing poetry series, The Bookey Readings at The Harlow. The public is invited to attend and experience an evening of excellent spoken word in an art gallery setting.

Sholl has published eight collections of poetry, most recently “Otherwise Unseeable” (University of Wisconsin Press, 2014), which won the 2015 Maine Literary Award for Poetry. Other books include “Rough Cradle” (Alice James

Betsy Scholl

Books, 2009) and “Late Psalm” (University of Wisconsin, 2004). “Don’t Explain” won the 1997 Felix Pollak Prize from the University of Wisconsin, and “The Red Line” won the 1991 AWP Prize for Poetry. Her chapbooks include “Pick A Card,” winner of the Maine Chapbook Competition in 1991, and “Betsy Sholl: Greatest Hits, 1974-2004” (Pudding House Publications) and “Coastal Bop” (Oyster River Press).

Sholl was a founding member of Alice James Books and published three earlier collections with them: “Changing Faces” (1974), “Appalachian Winter” (1978) and “Rooms Overhead” (1986). Among her awards are a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts and two Maine Writers’ Fellowships.

Her work has been included in several anthologies, including “Letters to America,” “Contemporary American Poetry on Race,” “Best American Poetry” and “Best Spiritual Writing,” and in a range of journals, including Field, Triquarterly, Brilliant Corners, The Kenyon Review, The Massachusetts Review and Beloit Poetry Journal. She has been a visiting poet at the University of Pittsburgh and Bucknell University.

Sholl lives in Portland and teaches in the MFA in Writing Program of Vermont College of Fine Arts. From 2006 to 2011, Sholl served as Poet Laureate of Maine. For more information, visit: www.betsysholl.com or en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Sholl.

Brox‘s most recent book, “Silence,” was published in January 2019. Her fourth book, “Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light,” was named one of the top 10 nonfiction books of 2010 by Time magazine. She is also the author of “Clearing Land: Legacies of the American Farm”; “Five Thousand Days Like This One,” which was a finalist for the

Jane Brox

National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction; and “Here and Nowhere Else,” which won the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award. She has received the New England Book Award for nonfiction, and her essays have appeared in many anthologies, including Best American Essays, The Norton Book of Nature Writing and the Pushcart Prize Anthology.

Brox has been awarded grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Maine Arts Commission. She has taught at Harvard University and Bowdoin College, and is on the faculty of Lesley University’s low-residency MFA Program. She lives in Brunswick. For more information, visit www.janebrox.com/.

All are welcome. Refreshments are served and a $3 donation to benefit The Harlow is appreciated at the door. For more information about the event, contact Claire Hersom at mamabelle@gwi.net. The Bookey Readings at The Harlow is a monthly poetry series running from April through November and has been running for over 25 years.

Visitors are invited to also view the current exhibitions: “Art2019, The Harlow’s 24th Annual Juried Show” and “Hypertexture: Ian Trask & Andrew Elijah Edwards.” Both shows are on view now through June 15.

Exhibitions are free and open to the public. Hours are noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday. For more information, visit harlowgallery.org or call 207-622-3813.