Poets to read poems from ‘Child of My Child'

Warwick — The Warwick Valley Poetry Series will host a poetry reading on grandparenting at Baby Grand Books on Saturday, Sept. 18 at 4 p.m. Mary Makofske of Warwick, Barbara Adams of Newburgh and Ken Salzmann of Woodstock will read their own poems and poems by others from the newly released anthology “Child Of My Child: Poems and Stories for Grandparents.” Makofske, author of “The Disappearance of Gargoyles and Eating Nasturiums,” retired from Orange County Community College in 2006 and reads frequently in the area. Adams, author of “Hapax Legomena” and “The Ordinary Living” and winner of the Robert Frost Poetry Award, was a professor of English at Pace University from which she retired in 2000. Salzmann has been active in literary publishing and programming for more than 30 years. His poetry has appeared in journals and in anthologies including “Beloved on the Earth: 150 Poems of Grief and Gratitude,” “Riverine: An Anthology of Hudson Valley Writers,” and the forthcoming “Obamamentum.” “Child of My Child” explores both the timeless joys and the contemporary challenges of being a grandparent, as well as the impact of grandparents on our own lives. Its poems and prose pieces include tough issues that have a particular resonance today: • Step-families sorting out roles across the generations • Grandparents thrust back into roles as caregivers • Grandparents whose own troubled children bring their own children into a world darkened by substance abuse or economic or legal problems • Would-be grandparents grappling with the emotions brought on by abortion • Those who learn they are grandparents years after the child is born The works were selected from hundreds submitted by writers from across the nation, Europe and the Middle East. The anthology is edited by Sandi Gelles-Cole and Kenneth Salzmann. Copies of “Child of My Child” will be for sale at the reading or can be ordered ($14.95 postpaid) from Gelles-Cole Literary Enterprises, P.O. Box 341, Woodstock, NY, 12498, or online at www.ChildOfMyChild.weebly.com. Baby Grand Books is located at 7 West St., in Warwick.