The 2020 Enoch Pratt Free Library / Little Patuxent Review Poetry Contest finalists read along with one of the contest judges and last year's winner.

Dave Eberhardt, the 2020 Poetry Contest winner, was born March 26, 1941. He retired in 2010 from 33 years of work in the criminal "INjustice" system. As a peace protester, he was incarcerated at Lewisburg Federal Prison for pouring blood on draft files. His action took place in 1967 with Father Phil Berrigan and two others to protest the Vietnam war. He has published three books of poetry: The Tree Calendar, Blue Running Lights, and Poems from the Website, Poetry in Baltimore. He has completed a peace movement memoir, For All the Saints: A Protest Primer.

Shane Moritz, 2020 Poetry Contest finalist, was born in Oregon, educated in Arizona and spent his formative years in Australia. He got his MFA from Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville. He teaches writing in Baltimore. (Photo credit: Ellis Fields.)

Kelechi Nwankwoala, 2020 Poetry Contest finalist, is a Creative Writing and Biology double-major at Johns Hopkins University. He writes because he likes words.

Jalynn Harris, the 2019 Poetry Contest winner, is a poet, educator, and book designer from Baltimore, MD. She founded SoftSavagePress for the sole purpose of promoting visual and literary works by Black people. She earned her MFA from the University of Baltimore, where she was the inaugural recipient of Michael F. Klein fellowship for social justice. Her work has been featured in Transition Magazine, Little Patuxent Review, Scalawag, and elsewhere. Exit Thru the Afro is her first poetry chapbook.

Steven Leyva, Little Patuxent Review editor, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and raised in Houston, Texas. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in 2 Bridges Review, Scalawag, Nashville Review, jubilat, Vinyl, and Prairie Schooner. He is a Cave Canem fellow and author of the chapbook Low Parish and author of The Understudy’s Handbook which won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from Washington Writers' Publishing House. Steven holds an MFA from the University of Baltimore, where he is an assistant professor in the Klein Family School of Communications Design.

Read "After ‘Blade Runner 2049’ and Anton Webern ‘Piano Variations’- Op 27 / Ruhig, fliessend" by Dave Eberhardt and "Phillis Wheatley questions the quarter" by Jalynn Harris.
Read "American Greetings" by Shane Moritz.
Read "Untitled" by Kelechi Nwankwoala.
Read "The Silver Screen Asks, 'What’s Up Danger?' After We Enter" by Steven Leyva.

Pictured clockwise from top left: Dave Eberhardt, Kelechi Nwankwoala, Steven Leyva, Shane Moritz, Jalynn Harris.

This event is part of Summer Challenge, a Pratt Library reading challenge for all ages. Log your reading, participate in activities, and more!

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