We Read Poetry: A Tandem Reading by Gray Jacobik and Charles Douthat

Event Details

Poets, wordsmiths, and those looking to be moved: Come hear nationally recognized, award-winning Connecticut poets Gray Jacobik and Charles Douthat read their original life poems in tandem at the Library's first We Read Poetry event.

The format will follow one poet reading a poem on a chosen topic, with the other answering with one of their own. The paired poems will reflect on important life events: marriage and love, children leaving home, the passing of friends and parents, illness and recovery, losing one’s way, and finding their path.

Why You Should Come

Some poetry captures a moment. The best poetry captures a lifetime. Over the years, Gray Jacobik and Charles Douthat have experienced many of life's defining moments — love and loss, parenthood and friendship, illness and recovery, uncertainty and renewal. Through their work, those experiences have been transformed into poems that are intimate, insightful, and deeply human.

This unique event brings two acclaimed Connecticut poets into conversation with one another through their writing. As each poet responds to the other's work, audiences will experience a moving exchange of perspectives on the moments that shape us and the stories we carry with us.

About the Poets

Gray Jacobik has published eight collections of poetry, including most recently, The Banquet: New and Selected Poems, for which she won the prestigious William Meredith Award for Poetry. Jacobik is also an accomplished painter, a mentor to other poets, and University Professor Emerita from Eastern Connecticut State University. She lives in Deep River.

Charles Douthat is a poet, retired litigator and visual artist. He began writing poems during a long mid-life illness. His first collection, Blue for Oceans, won the PEN New England Award as the best book of poetry published in 2011 by a New England writer.  His second book, Again, was published in 2025 by Unbound Editions Press. He lives in Weston.