“CEDAR KEY POETS 2013” CHAPBOOK NOW ON SALE; POETS’ ANNUAL READING THIS THURSDAY

March 3, 2013 - A new compilation by the Cedar Key Poets is on sale at the Library, in time for the Poets` annual reading this Thursday, March 7, at 5 pm, upstairs at the Library. The 48-page chapbook, "Cedar Key Poets 2013," is priced at $7.

The Cedar Key Poets came together in January 1995 as a weekly reading and listening group. The group met upstairs at the Art Center for its first years. On the coldest days, the poets would flee the dank chill of the pre-climate controlled Art Center second floor for the warmth of Molly Jubitz`s Yellow Door coffee shop.

When Molly Jubitz became the manager of the Library, the Cedar Key Poets followed her to the Library. The Library`s small upstairs room became the poets` regular meeting space.

For three of the Cedar Key Poets, this is the 19th year of weekly exchanges of poems-in-process: New Yorkers Graham and Evelyn Duncan and local resident Hedy Havel.

The Duncans had been lured to Cedar Key in December 1994 by State University of New York colleagues Luke Zilles and Bill Stalter. With R.D. Levin (who had been coming to Cedar Key from New York City with her husband Ed for about ten years), Zilles and Stalter started a poetry group in Cedar Key in early 1995 and urged the Duncans to join. Hedy Havel joined at R. D. Levin`s invitation.

For a number of years prior to joining the Cedar Key group, the Duncans had been members of poetry groups in the Ithaca-Cooperstown area. Their experience has been a boon to the group.

Perhaps as early as 2005, Molly Jubitz invited the Cedar Key Poets to give a public reading on the Library`s spring program series. In recent years, the Cedar Key Poets` public reading has been an annual event.

It`s not certain how many Cedar Key Poets chapbooks have been published but, thanks to Hedy Havel`s library, seven have been documented. (See photo.)

Cedar Key Poets chapbooks through the years, at Pat's on 2nd Street for lunch. Photo by Jean Rigg.

The earliest book in Hedy Havel`s collection is undated but most likely was published in 1996. Chapbooks for 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000 followed, all published with the assistance of the Cedar Key Arts Center.

Although the poetry group met regularly in the years following 2000, apparently the next chapbook wasn`t published until 2006. Both "Cedar Key Poets 2006" and "Cedar Key Poets 2013" were published with assistance from the Cedar Key Friends of the Library.

Libby Cagle produced this year`s book, which includes poems by ten winter and year-round residents of Cedar Key. In addition to the Duncans and Hedy Havel, poems included are by year-round residents Teri Brennan, Jim Hoy, and Libby Cagle, plus winter visitors Rob Farmer (Ohio), Ginnah Howard (New York), Jackie Johnson (Colorado), and Nancy Macmillan (Ontario).

(For those who may remember, the 1996 and 1997 poets: R. W. Brown, Evelyn Duncan, Graham Duncan, Hedy Havel, Peggy Herrick, Ruth Kennedy, R.D. Levin, Ed Levin, Jane McClellan, Yvette Phillips, Lola Roppel, Margaret Shaffer, William Stalter, Luke Zilles.)