MATTAPOISETT — Award-winning members of the Southcoast Poets will read at the Mattapoisett Free Public Library on Tuesday, April 30 at 6:30 p.m.

Library Director Susan Pizzolato, herself a member of the group, will introduce Vivian Eyre, Elizabeth Sylvia and Margot Wizansky, who each will read from their award-winning books.

Vivian Eyre's recently published "Ishmael's Violets" depicts in lyric detail her concern for the plight of whales and sea. Eyre’s poems have appeared in many literary journals, and she recently started a series, Poets in Conversation, in an art gallery at the Imago Foundation for the Arts in Warren, Rhode Island, where she resides.

Elizabeth Sylvia's debut book "None But Witches," won the 3 Mile Harbor Book Prize in 2022. Her poems have been published in many journals, and she is currently circulating a manuscript centered around Marie Antoinette, privilege and climate change. Sylvia teaches English at Bourne High School and lives in Mattapoisett.

Margot Wizansky has recently published two books, "Wild for Life" in 2022 and "The Yellow Sweater" in 2023. She has poems in many literary journals and has edited two anthologies: "Mercy of Tides: Poems for a Beach House," and "Rough Places Plain: Poems of the Mountains." In "Don’t Look Them In The Eye: Love, Life, and Jim Crow," she transcribed the oral history of her friend, Emerson Stamps, whose parents were sharecroppers and grandparents were enslaved. Her original poems accompany his story. Margot lives in Mattapoisett, where she also paints, and in Brookline.

The books by these poets will be available for purchase and signing at the reception following the reading in the community room downstairs in the library. This event is part of the Purrington Lecture Series sponsored by the Mattapoisett Library Trust. Everyone is welcome to attend.