Cold Verse 2021: December Poetry

Thư viện Quận Athens-Clarke

2025 Baxter Street • Athens, Georgia • 706 613 3650
Premiere: Sunday, December 12, 2021

Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice, or another winter holiday, it’s time again for meditations on the month of December. A host of local and regional poets recite their favorite seasonal verses, including original works.

Bob Ambrose, Jr. is an environmental engineer retired from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development. He has been writing poetry since 2009 and has been active in the Athens, Georgia Word of Mouth community. Bob has been featured reader at events in Athens, Cincinnati, and Austin. He posts on his blog site “Reflections in Poetry.” His first book of poetry, “Journey to Embarkation,” was published in 2016 and is available at Avid Bookshop.

Donna O’Kelley Butler serves as the Branch Supervisor of the Bogart Library, where she entertains and enlightens hundreds of patrons, school children and teachers with her renditions of folktales, legends, myths and historical tales.

Michelle Castleberry is a writer and therapist living in Oconee County. She owns and operates Four Directions Counseling, LLC.

Bob Deck is a native Georgian but he also was career US Navy, moving 11 times in 20 years, living in Greece, Italy and Diego Garcia. He enjoys reading, exercise, and working at the Bogart Library.

Tammy Gerson may be a retired librarian, but she keeps busy with a multitude of projects. Besides her love of reading all genres, she participates in a contemporary musical ensemble at her synagogue. She loves drumming, cooking, and having fun with her Maltipoo, Luna. Tammy lives in Athens with her husband, and has two children and three grandchildren.

Alice Mohor was born and raised in New Jersey, but has lived in Athens since 1972. She taught in several Clarke County schools. Alice wrote a rhyming poem to open and close each of her elementary physical education lessons, and continues to write and has published two books of poetry.

Theresa Price, Executive Assistant to the Director of ARLS, says: “The holiday season is my favorite time of year! As an elementary school student in an inner city public school, we celebrated ALL holidays. Back then I had no idea what celebrating the Holiday Season inclusively meant. I’m happy and honored to work in a space that strives to represent and include everyone, in every way. Happy Holidays!!”

Clela Reed is the author of seven collections of poetry. Recently Silk (Evening Street Press, 2019) won the Helen Kay Chapbook Prize and then the 2020 Georgia Author of the Year in chapbook competition. A Pushcart Prize nominee, former English teacher, and Peace Corps volunteer, she has poetry published in many journals and anthologies.

Theresa Rice has served as a creative consultant to artists, writers, and arts organizations. She has done all manner of writing, from press releases to novels, catalog copy to short stories. She loves old fashioned poets like Emily Dickenson, Robert Frost, e.e. cummings, and Walt Whitman. Theresa works in the ACCL Children’s Department.

Grady Thrasher was an Atlanta attorney for more than 30 years before he retired to Athens and his farm in Watkinsville in 2003. Grady is a published children’s book author—he was 2008 Georgia Author of the Year for Children’s Picture Books in 2008 and 2011. Grady and his wife Kathy Prescott, aka Sunnybank Films, have produced Athens in Our Lifetimes and other films.

Eddie Whitlock retired this year from managing the Library Store and coordinating volunteers for the Athens-Clarke County Library. He is the author of two books: Evil is Always Human (2012) and POTUS of the Living Dead (2014). He is currently working on a sequel to his first novel.

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