This year, SCWA is hosting Author's Toolbox, a series to help members improve their craft and better understand the publishing world. The SCWA will celebrate National Poetry Month with two remarkable poets: Candice Kelsey (left) and Natalie Marino (right).

Kelsey is a Georgia poet, educator, and activist. She studied law for two years in Chicago but withdrew to pursue writing. Her work has won praise and prizes, including the 2021 Two Sisters Micro Story Contest, the 2020 Rebecca Laird Poetry Prize and the 2019 Common Ground Poetry Contest. She has been a fiction reader for The New England Review and a poetry judge for Ageless Authors. Her second full-length collection, A Girl / Woman / Teacher / Poet, was published by Alien Buddha Press last year.

“Kelsey's work bridges the gap between the personal and the political. These are poems of protest, but there's a celebration of beauty and strength,” says poet Taylor Byas.

Marino, a California poet, pediatrician and mother, has been published in Atlas and Alice, Gigantic Sequins, Isele Magazine, Plainsongs, Pleiades, Rust + Moth, The Shore and elsewhere. Her micro-chapbook, Attachment Theory, was published by Ghost City Press last year. Her chapbook, Under Memories of Stars, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press.

“Marino is a bright new talent, and her poems shimmer,” says poet Kelli Russell Agodon.

South Carolina poet and writer Arthur Turfa will host the event, which will include an open mic. Turfa, the author of six poetry books and a novel, is SCWA’s poetry chapter leader.

Free for SCWA members; $25 for nonmembers.

Zoom link will be provided at registration.