In honor of National Poetry Month, Charis presents an exciting showcase of local and regional poets! jhane (to feel the darkness but choose the light), L.S. McKee (Creature, Wing, Heart, Machine), Elizabeth Michaud (Five Dreams), and Glenda Bailey-Mershon (Weaver’s Knot: Poems) represent a range of voices and styles in contemporary poetics. Join us virtually or in-person to explore these "small bites" of each poet's larger works, which are sure to leave you hungry for more!

Jhane has a B.S. in Literature, Media, and Communication and an M.A. in Gerontology. She has been published in Wren's Nest, Blood Moon Journal, and more. She is celebrating her most recent release, “to feel the darkness but choose the light,” available wherever you buy books. Keep up with her @quotedbyjhane on IG, TikTok, and Twitter.

L.S. McKee is an interdisciplinary writer and educator. Her work has appeared in Narrative, The Massachusetts Review, Best New Poets, Cincinnati Review, The Georgia Review, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the University of Maryland and was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in poetry at Stanford. She has taught writing at several universities, including MIT, and is now Coordinator of Writing Across the Curriculum at UGA. Originally from East Tennessee, and after several years in San Francisco, Atlanta, and Boston, she lives in Athens, Georgia with her family.

Elizabeth Michaud is a mother of three adult children, a teacher of foreign languages, and a writer currently living in GA. Originally from TX, Elizabeth has been writing since she was a teenager. She began first by writing short stories of horror. However, being an extremely impatient person by nature, she stumbled upon writing poetry as a means to more quickly facilitate writing dark prose...and thus, a storyteller-poet was born. As she delved more and more into the craft of writing poetry, she discovered it allowed her to address not only dark themes of horror, but themes of love, loss and longing; it provided a venue to address societal ills; it granted her a means to explore the African-American experience through verse, and everything else in between. After more than ten years of experimenting with form, meter, and free verse, Elizabeth was able to compile her writings into her first collection of poetry: Five Dreams. For her efforts, Five Dreams was recently named a 2023 Finalist for Best Book Award for Poetry by the American Book Fest.

When Elizabeth is not working or writing, she can be found enjoying the company of her children and family, reading, watching TV, playing word games, and hosting the occasional game night with friends and family.

Glenda Bailey-Mershon grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, at the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains, among a family of mixed heritage, who worked farms and textile mills. She has been a bobbin threader, a bartender, a university administrator, a bookstore and small press owner, and has taught writing, anthropology, women’s studies, and history, along the way. Her publications include Weaver’s Knot (Finishing Line Press, 2023); the novel Eve’s Garden (Twisted Road, 2014); several short collections; and four volumes as editor of anthologies. Her work has appeared in publications as varied as The Daily Beast and Appalachian Review, and has been frequently anthologized. She co-founded Jane’s Stories Press Foundation, which offers the Clara Johnson Award for Women’s Literature, and writes the popular Substack newsletter, The Inspiration Shelf. She is an activist for women, civil rights, and Romani culture.

The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate or in person the night of the event.

If you would like to watch the virtual event with computer-generated captions, please watch in Google Chrome and enable captions. If you have other accessibility needs or if you are someone who has skills in making digital events more accessible please don't hesitate to reach out to info@chariscircle.org. We are actively learning the best practices for this technology and we welcome your feedback as we continue to connect across distances.

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Charis Poetry Showcase