COASTAL VERSE: Poetry at Pascal Hall
Carol Bachofner
Midcoast Poetry Journal & Publishing Presents COASTAL VERSE: Poetry at Pascal Hall on Monday, February 2 from 6:00–7:30 PM at Pascal Hall, 86 Pascal Avenue, Rockport. FREE!!!
The evening will feature a headlining poet, a spotlight reader, and an open mic for community members. Experience poetry on the coast in a free and welcoming atmosphere.
Join Midcoast Poetry Journal & Publishing for an inspiring evening of poetry, creativity, and community at COASTAL VERSE: Poetry at Pascal Hall. This event welcomes everyone, whether you’re a seasoned poet, an avid reader, or simply curious about the literary arts.
Featured Poet: Carol Willette Bachofner, renowned poet, photographer, and watercolorist Carol Willette Bachofner is former Poet Laureate of Rockland, Maine (2012–2016). She will headline the evening. Bachofner is the author of seven acclaimed poetry collections, with her latest book, Every Place I Look, women with embers at their feet, released in November 2025 by Main Street Rag. Four years in the making, Every Place I Look, women with embers at their feet has arrived to tell its secrets. It featuresstory-poems. Secrets laid bare and shared. These poems are a reclamation of the feminine, the sensual, the bravery & the carnal delights of women’s lived experience. There is an undercurrent of danger in some of the poems. The author lays out big secrets, secrets women that they themselves are hesitant to tell and have entrusted to her to reveal. Real women with real lives. The author makes no claims of sainthood for these whose stories she tells. She lets the reader decide for empathy.
Her work has appeared in respected journals and anthologies, including Prairie Schooner, The Connecticut Review, and Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Writings from Indigenous New England. Through her poetry, Bachofner explores themes of tenderness, desire, bravery, and risk, inviting readers into empathy and reflection.
“Poetry is a living thing, always evolving but never losing sight of its parentage, its legacy.” — Carol Willette Bachofner
Spotlight Reader: Zachary Cole The evening will also feature Zachary Cole, whose fiction and poetry have appeared in the2ndhand, Off the Coast, and the first two volumes of the Midcoast Poetry Journal. As a manuscript consultant, Cole has worked with writers such as Jonathan Evison and Thomas Kohnstamm. Cole brings a fresh perspective from Rockland’s vibrant literary scene.
Open Mic: Share Your Voice Following the featured readings, the stage will open to community members for an open mic session. All are welcome to share poetry, no registration required. Sign up at the door and be part of a supportive, creative atmosphere.
What to Expect : Inspiring readings from established and emerging voices, opportunities to connect with fellow poetry enthusiasts, a welcoming environment for sharing your own work and community conversation
For More Information : Visit http://midcoastpoetrycalendar.com for event details, updates, and contact information.
Midcoast Poetry Journal & Publishing supports poets and the literary arts in Midcoast Maine through publications and public events that welcome both emerging and established voices.
We look forward to celebrating poetry with you at Pascal Hall!
Carol Bachofner
One of many wonderful works by Carol.
Spotlight poet.
About this blog:
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What's the Buzz? About the Author
Eleanor Cade Busby: Unpublished, Unfiltered, and Unrepentant
Eleanor Cade Busby is an unpublished award-winning writer, photographer, blogger, and chronic user of the Oxford comma. She simply adores writing about herself in the third person, and therefore considers this bio a personal highlight of her literary career.
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Writing from Midcoast Maine, where the air is salty, the coffee is strong, and the opinions come with footnotes.
A preacher’s kid who made it her mission to lovingly obliterate every single stereotype about “the minister’s daughter,” Busby grew up all over New England collecting stories, theater programs, and at least three kinds of student loan debt. She attended Goddard College, the Rhode Island Conservatory of Music, and the School of Life—majoring in everything she could wedge into her skull without a crowbar.
She has had her own office (with an actual door!) and a red stapler that was not to be touched, thank you very much. She has worked in social services for decades, won both national and local awards, and was recently named a co-recipient of the PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award—along with one million of her closest friends—for being loud in the best way possible.
Busby has directed more plays than she can count, acted in more than she should probably admit, and written a few too—including some that were performed on purpose. She’s done everything in theater except hang the lights, because she has a strict “no ladders” clause in her personal safety policy.
Her work has appeared in publications ranging from earnest local weeklies to CRACKED magazine, which pretty much sums up her range. She believes if it isn’t funny or relevant, it probably belongs in a compost heap, not her blog.
Eleanor lives in Midcoast Maine with a cat who believes in early-morning blood sacrifice (hers), and she writes "What's the Buzz?" to chronicle what’s happening, what might be happening, and what absolutely should be happening, according to her and no one else.
Suggestions for topics and comments are always welcome at eleanorcadebusby@hotmail.com
