On June 2, contributors, staff, and friends gathered at Oliver’s Carriage House in Columbia, Maryland, to celebrate the release of the Summer 2019 issue of the Little Patuxent Review.
LPR Editor Steven Leyva welcomed the audience on the beautiful Sunday afternoon, saying, “Thank you so much for coming out for literature and for art and for the celebration of those things and what it does in our lives.”
Steven also acknowledged the hard work that went into creating this issue, which is a collection of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and visual art. This issue’s contributors range from experienced authors to a first-year college student, and several contributors were on hand to read their work.
Two of the readers were entrants in the Enoch Pratt Poetry Contest, which LPR staff judged again this year. Baltimore native Jalynn Harris read her winning poem “Phillis Wheatley Questions the Quarter,” a meditation from the perspective of the first published black African poet in the United States. Finalist Tom Large read his poem “October,” among others.
Other readers included Karolina Wilk, Ellery Beck, Lisa Poff, Jenny Binckes Lee, Benjamin Inks, and Mirande Bissell. Videos of all the contributors reading their work are available on LPR’s YouTube channel.
The launch was a wonderful reminder of the talent and hard work that goes into every piece in the issue, and of the power of literature to inspire awe in all of us. As Steven reminded everyone, “That’s what great literature does—it gives us this great framing, this great presentation, this great package to encounter the sacred, to put us in a state of awe.”
Experience it for yourself by ordering a copy of the Summer 2019 issue.
Little Patuxent Review 