The 2022 Meredith Award for Poetry is shared this year by two poets, Christie Max Williams for his debut collection, THE WAGES OF LOVE, to be published soon by Antrim House, and Anne Harding Woodworth’s book, TROUBLE published by Turning Point. Foundation Board Member and Maryland Poet Laureate, Grace Cavalieri writes, “Woodworth’s poetry elevates everyday life and contributes to our common understanding. It’s an added pleasure to recognize Anne’s lifelong service to poetry, as well as her illuminating poems in TROUBLE.”
Woodworth writes of the downtrodden with precision and empathy, all those who have seen trouble. William Meredith speaks in a poem of the various kinds of trouble we all sometimes face, but ultimately he describes humanity as a “good bind to be in.” And as Werner Gundersheimer, Director Emeritus, Folger Shakespeare Library has said of her poetry, “Sickness and health, life and death take on new clarity through Woodworth’s compelling voices, her reasoned and unflinching gaze.” These are gritty, accurate poems. The voice is authentic and compassionate. The personae in her poems are unforgettable.
Christie Max Williams is a well-known Connecticut actor, poet, and impresario. The exquisite poems in his first collection (published soon in 2022 by Antrim House,) recount his love of women, children, and fatherhood. A lifetime as a footsoldier in the arts has prepared him for the mastery of language and the charming appreciation of the “good bind” he finds himself in at the joyful human moment demonstrated in his poems. They fulfill the highest potential of poetry: to teach, yes, but importantly, to delight. To paraphrase Saint Paul, the wages of love is life.
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