The Palm Beach Poetry Festival will return in two years — but not in Delray Beach. Or Palm Beach County. Or Florida. With the passing of the festival founder and director Miles Coon in May 2022 at the age of 84, and the coincidental loss of its long-term venue in Old School Square, the future of the festival was in doubt. “I want to see the festival continue to … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Poetry Festival calls off 2023 event, plans return in 2024
DELRAY BEACH --- The Palm Beach Poetry Festival is taking a hiatus in 2023 as it regroups from the death of its founder, Miles Coon, and searches for a new home. Officials said the festival plans to return in 2024 in a new venue, a new city and with a new name. Founded in 2005, the festival brought many big-name poets, including poet laureates Billy Collins, Robert … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Poetry Festival founder Miles Coon dies at 84
Miles Coon, a former business executive who founded the Palm Beach Poetry Festival after coming to the art form late in life, has died, festival officials said. Coon, who was 84, died May 21, the festival said. Susan Williamson, the festival’s director, remembers Coon as the first poet who welcomed her to Florida in 2006 and got her a seat at the workshop that year, … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2020-21: Book, literary fests go virtual
Despite the dearth of live events during the winter of COVID-19, there are enough virtual literary events to keep one’s mind engaged. From poetry to fiction to children’s literature and books with local themes and authors, this year’s offerings, while reduced, offer enough stimulation and diversion to almost make you forget our altered state of collective reality. Palm … [Read more...]
Poetry Festival salutes the art of saying the unsayable
By Christina Wood Angela Narciso Torres admits she wrote some pretty bad poetry when she was a kid. Unlike countless other teens pouring out their hearts or communing with their angst in late night writing sessions, however, Torres returned to poetry later in life. She was living in New York with a husband and kids of her own, when she decided to sign up for a creative … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2018-19: Books
South Florida has a perhaps surprisingly strong books culture, and not just because it has been home to major writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Zora Neale Hurston. It also is home to Books & Books, a remarkably successful Miami-based chain of independent bookstores, and as the Miami Book Fair it helped found has grown, newer players have appeared on the scene to celebrate … [Read more...]
Arts Preview 2017-18: The season in books
Not so long ago, Palm Beach County readers had no choice, if they wanted to enjoy a book festival, but to drive to Fort Lauderdale or Miami. That’s no longer true. While events like Miami Book Fair International or the Literary Feast in Fort Lauderdale remain powerhouse attractions, Palm Beach County has a pair of well-established book and events right here: the Palm Beach … [Read more...]
Charles Simic’s happy obsession with writing poetry
Some of the most perceptive commentary written since the shock of the presidential election has come on the daily website of the venerable New York Review of Books, under the byline of Charles Simic, who, in his day job, is a former U.S. poet laureate and the winner of many top literary prizes, including the Pulitzer. Given that Simic’s most recent book, The Life of Images, … [Read more...]
The January Scene: Notable events for the month
Here is a quick overview of some of the notable events on tap for January, some of which will be explored in more detail in future ArtsPaper stories: Shakespeare in the Park Festival (Mizner Park, Jan. 6-8) Shakespeare Miami is teaming with the city of Boca Raton to present three free mountings of The Merchant of Venice at Mizner Park in the first week of the new … [Read more...]
2016-17 Season Preview: Books
If you want to see Trevor Noah, or Alan Cumming, or any of the celebrities at this year’s star-studded Miami Book Fair International, now is the time to make your plans and get your tickets. Because they are going fast. Really though, Hollywood and literary glitterati notwithstanding, the biggest star at the fair is sure to be Bernie Sanders. In post-election mode, Sanders … [Read more...]