The nationally renowned series, founded by poet Gail Mazur and sponsored by CCAE, opened its 33rd year of poetry and fiction programming on Feb. 2 with authors Karen Wheeler and Robert Cohen. On March 27, Mazur herself will share the podium with Lexington poet Joyce Peseroff. Mazur will read from her new book, “Zeppo’s First Wife: New and Selected Poems“, which has just been nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Peseroff from her own new collection, “Eastern Mountain Time.”

Mazur, who is Writer-in-Residence at Emerson College, and a member of the Writing Committee of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, was nominated for the 2001 National Book Award. She was the 1996-97 Bunting Institute's Fellow in poetry and serves on the boards of PEN New England and several literary magazines. She is the author of four books of poems: Nightfire, The Pose of Happiness, The Common, and They Can't Take That Away from Me.

“In ’Zeppo's First Wife,’” said Mazur, “I am very interested in that first-generation American Jewish phenomenon, the wild energy that, for example, the Marx Brothers, brought to our culture, and also how eventually everyone here who isn’t a celebrity becomes disregarded.” This viewpoint may have been shaped by her upbringing; Mazur attended the populous Temple Israel as part of a large, extended Jewish family, the Beckwiths. “I feel,” she said, “as Arthur Miller said of the salesman, ‘Attention must be paid.’"

Peseroff’s books include Eastern Mountain Time, Simply Lasting: Writers on Jane Kenyon, Mortal Education, The Hardness Scale, A Dog in the Lifeboat. A Visiting Professor and Poet in Residence at UMass Boston, she was the first Managing Editor of Ploughshares, and Associate Poetry Editor from 1988-1991. She has contributed to journals including Agni, Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares the literary journal of Emerson Colleges, and Slate.

"The Blacksmith House really hasn't changed that much from when I
first knew it," said Andrea Cohen, a poet who assumed responsibility for the series in 2002. While in college, she started helping Mazur by taking donations to pay the poets, and for five years before Mazur stepped down, she served as the series’ Fiction Coordinator. A Cambridge resident, she has contributed to Ploughshares, is the author of The Cartographer’s Vacation and won the PEN Discovery Award for poetry and the Annual Owl Creek Competition. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in The Iowa Review, Crazyhorse, Poetry Northwest, and elsewhere. "Gail's creation and stewardship of the series has been such a gift to our community," said Cohen. "It's a privilege to carry the torch forward.

"We're fortunate that the series is so well-respected,” Cohen added. “So many talented writers, both established and emerging, are eager to read with us."

“The Blacksmith Poetry series remains a home for me,“ said Mazur. “I go knowing there will be a great comfort level and a true poetry audience.”