Book Launch Event for ‘Neither Are Crows’ April 25, 2026

The Book Launch Reading for the 2025 Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award will be held on April 25 at The Poetry Center at PCCC in Paterson, NJ. Reading that day will be the winning poet, Terry Rae Hall, from her book Neither Are Crows (NYQ Books, 2026).

Terry Rae Hall earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the College of William & Mary and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Mary Washington College. Recent publication credits include Anti-Heroin Chic, Ink Nest Poetry, Black Fork Review, and Cider Press Review. Gyroscope Review nominated her poem “The Revisionist Reading of my Poem about the Bear'' for a 2023 Pushcart Prize. Her chapbook, The Something We Make from Nothing  (2024), was published by Seven Kitchens Press. Terry lives with her cat, Brontë, in Staunton, Virginia.

Also scheduled to read are two of the five finalists: Mary Paulson reading from Telling, and Michael Montlack, reading from Cosmic Idiot.

Mary Paulson’s poetry has appeared in a range of publications, including Sparks of Calliope, The Pomegranate London, Vita Brevis’ Poetry Anthology IV, Hares Paw, VAINE Magazine, Cathexis Northwest Press, Fevers of the Mind, The Gyroscope Review, The Metaworker Literary Magazine, Slow Trains, Mainstreet Rag, Painted Bride Quarterly, Nerve Cowboy, Arkana, Thimble Lit Magazine, and Tipton Poetry Journal. Her debut chapbook, Paint the Window Open, was published by Kelsey Publishing in 2021. She lives in Naples, Florida.

Michael Montlack is editor of the Lambda Finalist essay anthology My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them (University of Wisconsin Press) and author of the poetry collections Cool Limbo (NYQ Books) and Daddy (NYQ Books) and three chapbooks. His poems have appeared in Poetry Daily, Prairie Schooner, North American Review, Barrelhouse, The Cincinnati Review, Poet Lore, and Phoebe. He lives in NYC and teaches at NYU and CUNY City College. His finalist manuscript, Cosmic idiot, is forthcoming from Saturnalia.

The event is open to all. Lunch & Meet & Greet at noon. Readings with winner and finalists at 1 pm.

Directions to and information about The Poetry Center at PCCC