WEST MILFORD — Laurie Byro is hosting Circle of Voices poetry discussion at the West Milford Township Library on March 13, starting at 6:45 p.m. The group will discuss the work of award-winning Helene Cardona, an actor who appeared in "Chocolat." Naturally, chocolates and good discussion will be plentiful.
Byro's fourth book of poetry, "Bloomsberries and Other Curiosities," is being published this month by Kelsay Books, with her husband Michael's painting of Virginia Woolf on the cover.
Byro has been facilitating "Circle of Voices," currently at the West Milford Township Library, for more than 17 years. When a library was unavailable, her circle met at the Hillcrest Center and Byro even did "poetry on the porch."
This fourth volume of poems centers on Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell and other characters in the Bloomsbury Set, English writers, intellectuals and artists who met during the first half of the 20th century. There will be forthcoming readings and an event is planned for the month of June at the Suffern (N.Y.) Library that will feature Byro's latest book and Michael Byro's paintings.
The show, "Circles and Squares," got its name from a Dorothy Parker quote regarding the Bloomsberries - "They lived in squares, painted in circles and loved in triangles."
Additionally, Byro has received 49 poetry awards and will receive a 2017 New Jersey poet's prize for a poem in her new volume.
For more information or to sign up for forthcoming meetings, call 973-853-6717 or 973-728-2820.