Maine Lit Fest – A Showcase of Black Poets Laureate

Come on out and listen to five Black poets from all over the U.S. who have held or currently hold the title of Poet Laureate in their city! A$iahMae (Charleston, South Carolina), Andrea Vocab Sanderson (San Antonio, Texas), Diannely Antigua (Portsmouth, New Hampshire), Junious “Jay” Ward (Charlotte, North Carolina), and Melissa Ferrer-Civil (Kansas City, Missouri) will read their original work and engage in a discussion moderated by former Poet Laureate of Portland, Maine Maya Williams.

Back Cove Books will sell books. 

The Maine Lit Fest is a statewide celebration of books, stories, and community that features 50+ celebrated and emerging writers, poets, and illustrators from Maine and beyond at 20+ conversations and events over 11 days across multiple Maine towns and cities including Farmington, Portland, Brunswick, Waterville, Bangor, and Presque Isle, and online.

AsiahMae, stylized A$iahMae, (they/she) is a Black, non-binary Southern poet, humorist and curator with roots in Georgia, South and North Carolina. A multi-hyphenated artist, their background spans across film, curation, production, performance and language arts. Their work is an attempt to document the duality of the internal exploration and external expression of spirit, love, ritual and Black Southern connection to land and sea. A$iahmae is a Watering Hole Fellow and has been featured in The Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston Food & Wine Festival, The Charleston Literary Festival, and most recently in This is The Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets, curated by Kwame Alexander. They are currently serving as the Second Poet Laureate of Charleston, SC.

Andrea Sanderson performs as “Vocab” in her hometown of San Antonio, Texas. She teaches poetry workshops, mentors, builds up and encourages artists to pursue their art, and gives them platforms to showcase their talent.

Her poetry is published in, The Texas Observer, January 2016 Issue, Pariah Anthology SFA Press, March 2016, and Sycorax’s Daughters, Cedar Grove Publishing, January 2017, Soundbite Vol. 3, Anti-Languorous Project, Spring 2019. Her debut book entitled: She Lives In Music, published on Flower Song Press, was released on Valentine’s Day 2020. Her album She Tastes Like Music, is available on all music streaming platforms.

She received awards, Performer of the Year, Influencer of the Year, from Project Forward, and Dream Voice, from the Dream Week Commission. Sanderson is the winner of the 2019 People’s Choice Award, awarded by Luminaria Artist Foundation (formerly known as: Artist Foundation of San Antonio).In May of 2020 she was awarded Best Live Entertainment/Band Musician of the Year by the SEA Awards.

Diannely Antigua is a Dominican American poet and educator, born and raised in Massachusetts. She is the author of two poetry collections, Ugly Music (YesYes Books, 2019), which was the winner of the Pamet River Prize and a 2020 Whiting Award, and Good Monster (Copper Canyon Press, 2024). She received her BA in English from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where she won the Jack Kerouac Creative Writing Scholarship, and received her MFA at NYU, where she was awarded a Global Research Initiative Fellowship to Florence, Italy. She is the recipient of additional fellowships from CantoMundo, Community of Writers, Fine Arts Work Center Summer Program, and was a finalist for the 2021 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and chosen for The Best of the Net Anthology. Her poems can be found in Poem-a-Day, Poetry, The American Poetry Review, Washington Square Review, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. In 2022, she was proclaimed the 13th Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, NH, the youngest and first person of color to receive the title. In 2023, she was awarded an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship to launch The Bread & Poetry Project, and in 2024, she was awarded an Excellence in Artistry Award from Black Lives Matter New Hampshire. She currently teaches in the MFA Writing Program at the University of New Hampshire as the inaugural Nossrat Yassini Poet in Residence. She hosts the podcast Bread & Poetry which seeks to make poetry accessible to all in a way that nourishes the soul.

Junious ‘Jay’ Ward is a poet and teaching artist from Charlotte, NC. He is a National Slam champion (2018), an Individual World Poetry Slam champion (2019), author of Sing Me A Lesser Wound (Bull City Press 2020) and Composition (Button Poetry 2023). Jay currently serves as Charlotte’s inaugural Poet Laureate and is a 2023 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. Ward has attended Breadloaf Writers Conference, Callaloo, The Watering Hole and Tin House Winter Workshop. His work can be found in Columbia Journal, Four Way Review, DIAGRAM, Diode Poetry Journal and elsewhere.

Melissa Ferrer Civil (she/they) is a poet, organizer, and educator living on Kaw, Kickapoo, Kansa, and Oceti Sakowin lands. A self proclaimed artist-in-exile, they are preoccupied with constructing new communication for the manifestation of a home we all hold in our hearts. Having delved through the hellish catacombs of mental illness, Melissa emerges with new language forged in the fires of transformation. In 2020, Melissa published her first chapbook, BIRTHING PAINS, through turnsol editions. Melissa received their MFA in Creative Writing from Randolph College, and is a Charlotte Street Studio Resident, Chrysalis Institute Alumni and the first Poet Laureate of Kansas City, MO. They are the founder of the arts and organizing event series A Nation In Exile. You can find their publications and videos on their website www.melissaferrerand.com. You can find their performance updates on their instagram: @melissaferrerand. You can also follow A Nation In Exile on instagram and at their website of the same name.

Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who was selected as Portland, ME’s seventh poet laureate for a July 2021 to July 2024 term. Maya received a MFA in Creative Writing with a Focus in Poetry from Randolph College in June 2022. Eir debut poetry collection Judas & Suicide (Game Over Books, 2023) was selected as a finalist for the New England Book Award. They also have a second poetry collection, Refused a Second Date (Harbor Editions, 2023). Maya was selected as one of The Advocate’s Champions of Pride in 2022 and one of Maine Humanities Council’s recipients of the Constance Carlson Public Humanities Prize in 2024.  Follow her at mayawilliamspoet.com