Curriculum Vita

MARGO TAFT STEVER
Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. 10591-1412
margostever@verizon.net
www.margostever.com

EDUCATION

Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York. M.F.A. in Poetry, 1988.

Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ed.M. Degree. Reading and Human Development, 1974.

Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. A.B. Degree, 1972. Cum Laude.

BOOKS

Frozen Spring. Minneapolis, MN: First Series Award for Poetry, Mid-List Press, 2002.

Reading the Night Sky. West Chester, PA: Winner of the Riverstone Poetry Chapbook Contest, Riverstone Press, 1996 (Introduction by Denise Levertov).

EDITED WORKS

Imperiled Landscapes, Endangered Legends, Universe Publishing, Division of Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., and the Portland Museum of Portland, Maine, 1997. A collection of photographs of endangered landscapes taken from horseback by Lynn Butler and poems about horses and the environment.

Voices from the River, Slapering Hol Press, 1991. A collection by poets who read in the Sleepy Hollow Poetry Series.

MUSEUM CATALOGUE

Looking East: William Howard Taft and the 1905 Mission to Asia, the Photographs of Harry Fowler Woods, by Margo T. Stever and James T. Stever.

POETRY PUBLICATIONS

Big City Lit; Valley Voices, 2006; Rattapallax, 2006; The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Autumn, 2005; The Connecticut Review, Spring 2005; The Cincinnati Review, Spring, 2004; Lumina, Summer, 2004 and Spring, 2003; Sarah Lawrence, 2002; Vo. 74, 2002; Connecticut Review ,Vol. XXIV, No. 1, 2002; The Preserve Observer: Friends of the Rockefeller State Park Preserve Magazine, Vol. VII, 2001 and Vol. IX, 2002; Poet Lore, Volume 96, Number 1, 2001; West Branch, Vol. 44, 1999; Nightsun, Vol. 18, 1998; West Branch, Vol. 41, 1997; The Seattle Review, Vol. XV, No.1, 1992; The Harvard Advocate 125th Anniversary Edition, Fall, 1971; Potato Eye, No. 6, 1992; Chelsea, Vol. 47, 1988; Ironwood, Vol. 15, No. 2, 1987; The Sarah Lawrence Review, 1987; The Croton Review, No. 9, 1986; Folio, American University, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1986; West Branch, Vol. 12, 1983; The Webster Review, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1983; Yet Another Small Magazine Vol. 2, No. 1, 1983; Poetry Now, Vol. VII, No. 1, 1982; Poet Lore, Vol. 77, No.3, 1982; The G.W. Review, Vol. 2, Nos. 4/5 & 2, 1981; The Washington Dossier, 1981; Crop Dust, No. 1, Spring, 1980; Phoebe, Vol. 9, Nos. 1&2, 1979; The New England Review, Vol. II, No. 2, 1979; Hanging Loose, Fall, 1970.

ANTHOLOGIES

Cadence of Hooves: A Celebration of Horses, Yarroway Mountain Press (in press). Dire Elegies, Foothills Press (2006); Chance of a Ghost, Helicon Nine Editions (2005); En(compass): The Poetry Caravan Anthology, Yuganta Press, 2005; The Breath of Parted Lips: Voices from the Robert Frost Place, Volume II, KavanKerry Press, 2004; Imperiled Landscapes, Endangered Legends, Rizzoli International Publications, 1997; The Dolphin’s Arc: Poems on Endangered Creatures of the Sea, (SCOP Publications, 1988; Voices for Peace Anthology, Disarmament and Peace Task Force of the Rochester Peace and education Center, 1983; No More Masks, Doubleday & Co., 1973.

PUBLISHED REVIEWS, ESSAYS, CRITICISM, AND TRANSLATIONS

Slapering Hol Press Newsletter, “The Chapbook Craze,” Issue 3, October, 2006.

Home Planet News, “Review of Late for Work (David Tucker), (2006).

New Delta Review, Review of Persuasions of Fall, by Ann Lauinger (2005).

Poets & Writers, November/December, 2004. “Poetry.com Struggles for Legitimacy.”

CALYX, A Journal of Art & Literature by Women, Vol. 22, No. 1, Summer, 2004. Review of Shards, by Ann Holmes.

Rain Taxi Review, Summer, 2004. Review of Bright Turquoise Umbrella, by Hermine Meinhard.

New World Poetry, 74, 2002 (Five poems from Frozen Spring translated into Chinese by Jianqing Zheng).

The Minnesota Review, 1989. Review of Heaven and Heck, by Denise Duhamel, and Timepiece, by Jane Flanders.

St. Mary’s College Poetry Festival, 1983. Presented paper on the political poem.

Renditions, No. 59/60 (2003). The Research Centre for Translation of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Translation of two poems with Jianqing Zheng.

TEACHING AND EXPERIENCE

Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida, 2006. Taught adult poetry workshop.

Barnard College N.Y. Guest Lecturer, 2000, 2005.

The Coachman Family Center, White Plains New York. Created literacy project in homeless shelter. Tutor in after school program.

Poetry Workshops, The Hackley School, Tarrytown N.Y., and various private and public schools.

Krebs School, Lexington, MA. Classroom teacher for special education students.

ARTISTIC PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2004-Present
Organized and directed exhibition, Looking East: William Howard Taft and the 1905 Mission to Asia, the Photographs of Harry Fowler Woods (www.ohiohistory.org/tafttrip). Developed exhibition team, selected photographs for exhibition, research and writing text for exhibition, fundraising, writing of museum catalogue, and developed traveling exhibit.

1990-Present
Founder and co-editor, Slapering Hol Press, Sleepy Hollow, New York. Designed and developed Slapering Hol Press, the small press imprint of The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center (www.writerscenter.org). Edit and publish an annual poetry chapbook, winner of the Slapering Hol Press Poetry Chapbook Contest and poetry anthologies.

1988-2001
Chairperson, Board of Directors, founder and member of Board of Directors, The Hudson Valley Writers' Center, Inc. (HVWC), Sleepy Hollow, New York. [Also, served as executive director from 1989 to 1995 until the first paid, full-time executive director was hired.] General oversight of administration of the organization; principal fundraiser for capital and large operating grants; prepared grant applications and administered major grants; artistic director on several projects. Functions included final approval of the programmatic content of the poetry and fiction reading series and oversight of the thematic choices for writers’ workshops held at the Writers’ Center. While in dual roles as Chairperson and executive director, founded and administered original reading series and workshop series; began outreach programs; conceived and raised primary seed money for acquisition and restoration of the Philipse Manor Railroad Station for adaptive re-use as the HVWC’s headquarters.

1996-2000
Project Director, Comprehensive Literacy Project, Coachman Family Center. Organized, funded, staffed, and worked as tutor for joint Westhab and HVWC literacy project at largest homeless center in Westchester County. Project originated from after-school writing workshop that was ongoing from 1990 to 2003. Other elements included art workshops in metal sculpture, photography, dance and singing; computer lab for literacy skills development; reading lab; pre-school educational enrichment; and development of scholarship program.

1983-1989
Founder and Director, Sleepy Hollow Poetry Series, Tarrytown, New York. Created reading series at the Warner Library. Responsible for fundraising, setting up and administrating reading series in which approximately twenty four writers presented their work each year. From the beginning of the series, the emphasis was on providing a forum to represent the diversity of poets and writers in America with entire year-long celebrations of Native American, African American, and women writers.

SELECTED POETRY PERFORMANCES

Numerous public readings, both live and recorded and rebroadcast on radio from 1969 to the present including Poet and the Poem with Grace Cavaliari, and several appearances on Westchester TV Channel 12; Past readings include Hampshire College, Amherst, MA; The Red Bookstore, Cambridge, MA; Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.; Spotlight on New York Writing Programs presented by the Poetry Society of America. Numerous recent readings include the University of Cincinnati (2002), Cincinnati, Ohio; Sarah Lawrence College (2002), Bronxville, NY, The Blacksmith House (2002), Cambridge, MA; Chapters Bookstore (2003), Washington, D.C.; The Northern Westchester Center for the Arts (2002), Mt. Kisco, N.Y., Sotto Voce Lounge (2003), Park Slope, New York; Atticus Books (2003), Amherst, MA; Cody’s Books (2003), Berkeley, CA; The Society of the Four Arts Library, Palm Beach (2004, 2006), Florida; Cornelia Street Café (2004, 2005), Greenwich Village, New York; The Ear Inn, Greenwich Village, New York (2006).

OTHER CONTESTS AND AWARDS

Four times nominated for Pushcart Prize; Finishing Line Press Chapbook Contest, Semi-Finalist, 2006; Bright Hill Chapbook Contest Finalist, 2005; 3rd Place, 2004; Richard Snyder Publication Prize Book Contest Finalist, Magellan Prize, 2001; Buttonwood Press Book Contest, Semi-Finalist, 2001, 1999; Silverfish Review Chapbook Contest, Finalist, 1988, 1989, 2000, 2001; Brittingham and Pollak Prizes in Poetry, University Press of Wisconsin Press Poetry Series, Finalist, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001; Defined Providence Press, Book Contest, Finalist, 2000; Hollis Summers Poetry Prize, Ohio University Press Swallow Press Book Contest, Finalist, 1999; American Literary Review Poetry Contest, Finalist, 1997; The Bluestem Press, Emporia State University Press Book Contest, Finalist, 1996; The Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y, “Discovery”/The Nation Contest, Finalist, 1985.

OTHER ARTISTIC PUBLICATIONS

Finding Time for Poetry, feature interview by Donya Dickerson appeared in Poet’s Market (p. 338-341)2004. Poem displayed with photographic art in Lynn Butler's, Preservation of Historic Landscape and Landmarks, at Nikon House, New York, N.Y., Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine, and many other museums from 1992 to 1996; Photograph published as book jacket cover of Relearning the Alphabet by Denise Levertov, New Directions, 1972; Photographs published in The Movement Towards a New America, edited by Mitchell Goodman, Pilgrim Press, 1970. Photographs published in numerous journals and magazines; Numerous photographs published in The Harvard Advocate and other periodicals.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS/ACTIVITIES

Academy of American Poets; Poetry Society of America; Print Club of New York.

References available upon request.