Poetry Month Ends With Poetry Reading

April is National Poetry Month and the Canastota Public Library will be holding a very special poetry reading to celebrate the national holiday!  On Tuesday, April 26 at 7pm, poet Rachael Z. Ikins will provide select readings from her newly published book of poetry, "Transplanted."

Ikins was born and raised in Central New York's Fingerlakes Region.  She is an accomplished poet and illustrator.  Ikins is a member of the library's afternoon writing group.  she has won eight poetry prizes, among them the National League of American Penwomen in 2006 and 2008.

"Transplanted" will be available for purchase and an author autograph.  Light refreshments will be served.

Connecting to Canastota

We make connections with others every day, don't we?  We meet someone new and find out that they know someone that we know or they have worked somewhere that we have worked or visited.  I find these connections very interesting. 

Recently, I've been spending a lot of time emailing with a fiction author, Kate Racculia.  Kate, who lives in Boston, wrote the book, "This Must Be The Place" and is hard at work at her second book.  Kate wrote her book on weekends while holding down a full time job...she is my hero!  I've come to realize that Kate and I have a little bit in common.  I'm currently working on writing a book so we are both writers!  We both love suspenseful murder mysteries--to read and to watch on tv or the big screen.  We've also both held numerous jobs in life.  Kate has been a has been a bassoonist, a planetarium operator, a coffee jerk, a designer, a proposal writer, and a karaoke god, so far in her life.  I have been a pianist (for about two months), pretzel baker, a clothing buyer, a fundraiser, a coffee jerk, and a Scrabble queen!

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Kate also has ties to Central New York and Canastota, in particular!  After reading her book, I visited Kate's website and asked her if she might consider coming to the Canastota Public Library to do an author talk and book signing.  She contacted me within two days and said she would be delighted to speak here as she grew up in Central New York.  She spent many summers vacationing on nearby Oneida Lake and some of her relatives lived in Canastota!

Kate's great grandfather, Leland  Benjamin Cardner was the village butcher in the 1930's.  Kate's grandmother, Marion Ruth Cardner (Van Skiver) graduated from Canastota High School in 1936.  Her cousins--Virginia and Shirley Cardner also graduated from CHS a few years later.  We even have a few patrons who attended school with Kate's grandmother!

Kate Racculia is a fresh voice in publishing!  Her writing is thoughtful, uplifting and a bit quirky--right up my alley!  I hope you stop by the library when she visits us on April 14th at 7pm for her author talk.  If you, like me, are an aspiring writer, please consider signing up for our Writer's Workshop with Kate on Saturday, April 16th from 1 - 3pm.  Both sessions are free and open to the public.

We hope you will come to the library and make a connection with Kate!