Hickory – Hickory poet, Doug McHargue, will be the featured reader at the next Poetry Hickory to be held at Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse in downtown Hickory at 7:00 PM on May 8.
McHargue’s first collection of poetry, The Woman in the Happy Dollar, was published last year by Finishing Line Press. McHargue has been active in the Hickory poetry scene for more than a decade, reading frequently at Poetry Hickory and in the Art of Poetry at the Hickory Museum of Art series. She was a finalist for the 2014 NC Poetry Society Poet Laureate Award, and her work has been featured in Wild Goose Poetry Review, The Dead Mule, and Bloodshot among other literary journals.
Poetry Hickory founder and coordinator, Scott Owens, comments that “Although this is her first book, Doug McHargue is not new to poetry. Many of us have been waiting for this for years. As she gave readings and published individual poems in journals, we fell in love with her unique, Southern everywoman voice; with her O’Connoresque characters; with her always surprising yet somehow always familiar imagery; and with the deliciously layered psychological depth and complexity of her stories.
Former NC Poet Laureate, Joseph Bathanti, says, “I have admired Doug McHargue‘s poems since I first encountered them in 1990. In her wonderful first book, she expertly showcases, in precise, lyric language, her penchant for parsing out and cataloging the daily devotions, fractures, and rituals that celebrate and illuminate shared humanity.
McHargue’s featured read will be followed by an Open Mic. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information or to register for the Open Mic, contact Scott Owens at 828-234-4266.
Scott Owens www.scottowenspoet.com www.poetryhickory.com
Image: Poet, Doug McHargue
