Candace R. Curran

2025-08-24T15:00:00.005-04:00

Candace R. Curran- Poet Talk with Ellen Miller-Mack 8/22/2025

Audio only from the WMUA Podcast (also available on Spotify). Candace R. Curran's newest poetry collection, The Sound of Her Good Name, published by Slate Roof Press, is available here . Captions are available with the video (auto-generated). Photo by Doug Anderson

Miscellaneous Works

2025-08-18T18:13:00.005-04:00

https://slateroofpress.com/books/the-sound-of-her-good-name.html

https://masspoetry.org/getting-to-know-candace-curran/

Six Feet Between and Under by Candace R. Curran – Straw Dog Writers Guild

Eagle Reserve / Candace Curran — Writing the Land

Have You Ever Won/What is This About: Two Poems | The Typescript

2025-05-16T18:30:00.008-04:00

>New Book- The Sound of Her Good Name

Winner of the Elyse Wolf Prize/ Slate Roof Press Chapbook Contest!

Order here- https://www.slateroofpress.com/books/the-sound-of-her-good-name.html

Close Call

How we find each other in a good dinner
down back streets with the music of Fruit Bats
and drive&listen a choreography of liquored
romancing and kitchendancing until enough
is enough of this happyhorseshit and you turn
the switch the we never know when we’ll wake
dreamscape the place where snap and dinner’s over
in the streets of Saigon Paris on motorbikes
the symphony of full bodied reds Cowboy Junkies
and kitchen dances when I am sent home because
you’ve had enough of this each in the other’s
arms where you could lose yourself if not careful

2023-06-09T14:16:00.011-04:00

Unbuttoned Presents Series!

June 9, 2023- Slate Roof Press poets Candace R. Curran and Janet MacFadyen definitely rocked the boat at Luthier's last night in Easthampton, MA, as part of the Unbuttoned Presents Series!

Speak Easy - Open Mic

2022-09-27T14:20:00.007-04:00

You are invited to Speak Easy, a poetry open mic featuring local poets, Jody Stewart & Candace Curran at the Buckland Public Library. Friday, October 28th from 6 to 7 pm. Sign up for 5 minute slots at 5:45 pm.

The Winner of the 2022 Elyse Wolf Prize/ Slate Roof Press Annual Chapbook Contest!

2022-09-04T18:33:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Candace R. Curran, winner of the 2022 Elyse Wolf Prize/
Slate Roof Press Annual Chapbook Contest!

We have the honor to announce the selection of The Sound of Her Good Name, by Candace R. Curran of Shelburne Falls, MA, as the winner of our 2022 chapbook contest. Candace becomes the newest member of Slate Roof Press, and receives the $500 Elyse Wolf Prize and publication of her chapbook in an art-quality edition. This year we focused on poets from our home territory in western Massachusetts.

Finalists:

Sarah Levine of Easthampton, MA, for Each Knuckle with Sugar
Annie G. Rogers of Amherst, MA, for Becoming Bird

We thank everyone who participated for their considerable time, work, and heart in preparing and submitting a manuscript. The selection process was difficult; we received many excellent manuscripts representing a broad spectrum of poetic styles and concerns, and each one was carefully considered. Our selection process was blind.

About the winning author and manuscript

Candace R. Curran is the author of Playing in Wrecks, and a co-author of the collaboration, Bone Cages (with John Hodgen, Doug Anderson, and others), both published by Haley’s Press. Her poems have been published in Meat For Tea, Silkworm, RAWNerVZ, and elsewhere; and anthologized in Writing the Land, Honoring Nature, WTL: Northeast, Poet’s Seat Poetry Silver Anniversary, Compass Roads, and Poems in the Time of Covid. She has won the Poets Seat Contest twice. Candace has organized and participated in word and image collaborations including Four On The Floor, Three On a Tree, INTERFACE I-I0, and Exploded View. She has also served children and adults for many years in both public and school libraries. Candace's partner is a librarian, and books are an important part of their world.

We at Slate Roof were drawn to The Sound of Her Good Name for its truth telling, piercing perceptions of human behavior, and fierce momentum. It is an open-eyed, heart-felt manuscript that handles the most difficult material with grace and craft. Here is an excerpt:

Daisy Ring

He sets about stringing a necklace
if she'll have it      taking up her wrists
placing them around his own neck
he believes he loves her     she loves him
not     and most likely he can’t make her
sing but     what won’t she do to skirt that
sting    so he collars her     welding as fast
as petals fall    weaving her to his thin
wishbone    on vines he hopes will take

Upper Downtown Looks/Feels Like Another Country

2022-09-04T18:22:00.006-04:00

Brattleboro Book Launch

2021-10-07T20:47:00.007-04:00

Poems Around Town (PAT) is a project of Write Action, with support from Time to Write and the Brattleboro Literary Festival. The April 2021 event featured submitted poems placed in shop windows throughout downtown Brattleboro. I was honored to have two poems included in the companion book "Poems in the Time of Covid" published by Small Pond Press.

Order "Poems in the Time of Covid" at https://writeaction.org/about/covid-poems.html

Stone Road Trail

2021-06-26T18:13:00.003-04:00

Cold Case File

2021-06-25T18:13:00.002-04:00

New Anthology

2021-03-18T11:55:00.007-04:00

Order the Book Here!

NatureCulture is something in which I am proud to be a participant. Thanks to Lis McLoughlin and Paul Richmond of Human Error Publishing for inviting me to be part of this book and associated events.

Facebook

2020-09-20T18:51:00.015-04:00

My Facebook Timeline is a good way to stay up to date with my latest news. Send me a friend request or a private message!

Bio- Umpteenth Iteration

2020-09-19T18:44:00.005-04:00

Candace Curran grew up as part of an old New England farm family, in the shadow of Wachusett Mountain in rural Princeton, Massachusetts. She is a founder and organizer of collaborative word and image multimedia exhibitions including INTERFACE, and most recently, Exploded View. She was twice named western Massachusetts Poet’s Seat Laureate and has judged for that competition, as well as for the Massachusetts Book Awards and for Poetry Out Loud. Candace is the winner of the 2022 Elyse Wolf Prize Slate Roof Press Annual Chapbook Contest. Curran’s publications include, Bone Cages, an anthology with Doug Anderson, John Hodgen, and others, and Playing in Wrecks, Haley’s Press and journals; Raw NerVZ, Meat For Tea, Compass Roads and Silkworm. She engineers word and image on the Buckland side of the Iron Bridge in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts in the heart of beautiful Western Mass.

A Bridge (not) Too Far...

2020-09-19T18:26:00.005-04:00

Bardwell's Ferry Bridge

Shameless Commerce

2020-09-07T12:46:00.007-04:00

(purchase from Bookshop)

Candace Curran's poetry is "beautiful, ....
poised between ache and ecstasy: startling
images, like "she let him pull her / dignity
down / like a shade to the floor"

- Robert Cormier, author of The Chocolate War and I Am the Cheese

She writes, "I pull on your fantasy so hard,
it comes off in my sign language hands,
a snake skin shining like spider silk in the
day bed". Curran's poems are like that
shining spider silk, unexpected and replete
with multi-layered depth and fine craft.

- Lori Desrosiers, Westfield State College,

Editor of Naugatuck River Review and thepoetrynews.com

Writing the Land

2020-09-01T18:27:00.000-04:00

WRITING THE LAND

Exploded View- Paper Jam

2018-08-31T11:11:00.004-04:00


Great Falls Discovery Center September 9, 2018 @2pm

2018 Exploded View!

2018-08-29T11:16:00.001-04:00

Exploded View 2017 Curated art exhibit and live performance - Dicovery Center, Turners Falls

2018-08-01T11:20:00.000-04:00

Photo by Julian Parker Burns

Part one in preparation for June's Exploded View: River series.

2017-04-23T21:40:00.000-04:00

Exploded View Performance Sunday, May 7th, 2-4pm

2017-04-21T14:16:00.000-04:00

Cirque des Bougies

2016-06-11T10:21:00.000-04:00

Meat for Tea Release Party Reading June 2016

Use your words! Every Second Tuesday @ Deja Word, Wendell

2016-05-24T18:11:00.000-04:00

Amherst Art Walk and Poetry Night

2016-05-09T18:18:00.001-04:00

The Emily Dickinson Museum participates in the Amherst Art Walk on first Thursdays monthly from 5-8PM. Each month enjoy a one-night-only art exhibit, a poetry open mic, and featured readers. The Art Walk is just one way the Museum is bringing local contemporary talent into Emily Dickinson’s creative space. All events are free and open to the public.

Event Schedule

5:00-6:00pm Poetry Open Mic sign-ups

6:00pm Poetry Open Mic

THE full disclosure festival. HUMAN IMPACT UPON THE ENVIRONMENT, PAST PRESENT, AND FUTURE

2016-05-02T18:47:00.000-04:00