June Nirschl will be the featured poet at the Dickinson Poetry Series at the Fellowship on March 9th at 7:00 pm. The Dickinson series is named after Emily Dickinson, the famous American poet and includes a performance by a “featured” poet and then an open mic where poets from the audience have the opportunity to present one of their poems.

An animating insight on the poetry June will share with us:

Do you remember reading about a great snowstorm of the past? Perhaps it was the one described by John Greenleaf Whittier. Wow! The descriptions were so vivid, and June Nirschl recalled an earlier winter storm in Milwaukee when she was a child…a similar event, but different. Whittier’s Snowbound caught her imagination and invited possibilities.

Poetry starts with the ear and enters the heart. Sometimes it reaches the mind. The possibilities then and experiences up to the present have directed the course of Nirschl’s poetry. She strives for poetry that sings. Through the years she has had the pleasure of reading other poets, taken numerous workshops, and participated in poetry groups. It was the excitement of writing poems that first attracted her to the county in 2000, where poetry was already a vigorous endeavor.

June worked with Judy Roy and Nancy Rafal to publish Slightly Off Q in 1994 and followed that book with Judy Roy to publish Two Off Q: A Conversation in Poetry. The latter book was recognized by the Wisconsin Library Association as an outstanding achievement in poetry. She has since published Before & After. Her work has been recognized by the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and by the Grutzmacher award from the Peninsula Pulse.