Watershed Literary Events Poetry Reading
April 16
3:00pm
Watershed Literary Events kicks off the 2023 season with a celebration of National Poetry Month. Poets Tina Kelley and Gretna Wilkinson will read at the Skate House in Meadowland Park on April 16, from 3-4:30 pm. The reading is free and open to the public.
For the first time, live music will be part of the event. Professional violinist Nancie Lederer will perform a selection of songs before and after the reading.
Watershed, now in its fifth year, is sponsored by the South Orange Department of Recreation and Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the Meadowland Park Conservancy.
Tina Kelley is the author most recently of Rise Wildly from CavanKerry Press.
Her previous poetry collections are Abloom & Awry, Precise, and The Gospel of
Galore, a Washington State Book Award winner. Tina reported for The New York
Times for a decade and shared a staff Pulitzer Prize for 9/11 coverage. She has also
written two nonfiction books focused on education and at-risk youth, Breaking
Barriers and Almost Home. Her poems have appeared in Cimmaron Review,
Southwest Review, Prairie Schooner, and The Best American Poetry 2009. She is
currently senior education reporter for NJ.com and lives in Maplewood, NJ, with
her husband and two children.
Gretna Wilkinson began her career as a missionary teacher in the jungles of her
native Guyana. She has authored five chapbooks and one full-length book,
Opening the Drawer (Cool Women Press). A Geraldine R. Dodge Poet, Gretna has
performed on radio and television and is published in Saranac Review, The
Literary Review, and the anthology Poets of New Jersey: From Colonial to
Contemporary. She’s been featured in The New York Times, The Star Ledger, and
Courier News. After 17 years as a college professor, she ran the Creative Writing
Program at the Visual and Performing Arts Academy of Red Bank Regional High
School. An honorary Eagle Scout, she holds many commendations and awards for
her teaching.
Nancie Lederer, violinist, is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music where she was a scholarship student of Glenn Dicterow, former Concertmaster of the NY Philharmonic. As an orchestral and chamber musician, she has given concerts throughout Europe, China, the Caribbean, and the United States, and has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden, and New Jersey Performing Arts Center. She maintains a private teaching studio in West Caldwell, NJ.
