Northshire Books Reading Series, October 22

Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga Springs has a continuing series of readings & book signings, which makes great business sense since they sell books (duh!). This night’s readers were 2 wonderful regional poets whose work I’ve been following (& promoting at reading series that I run) for a number of years, Natalya Sukhonos & Lucyna Prostko. In fact, I already had & read each of their recent books, but I made the trip to Broadway in Saratoga Springs to hear their poems in their own voices & to be in that mezzanine room with so many other wonderful regional poets also listening.

The host & MC was Rachel Person from Northshire Bookstore who introduced each poet, who then read from their books, followed by a book signing.

Natalya Sukhonos read from Sunlight Trapped in Stone (Green Writers Press, 2026), mostly from the 1st of 3 sections, poems about her family, her grandmother, mother & her own memories of Odesa, Ukraine. The last poem she read, “Tunnel Vision,” was inspired by early memories of coming to New York.

Lucyna Prostko’s book, House of Wandering (Finishing Line Press, 2026), is divided into 5 parts. When she read the title poem she remarked that she had never read it out previously. She too read poems of her family, of her mother & her grandmothers, memories & tales of Poland, often mixed in with dreams of these memories, as in the poem “Layers of a Dream.” 

Both poets were born into languages other than English & have crafted intricate, supple, tender poems written in English, & both are now living in upstate New York, their poems as native & as tasty as apples. Find their books, & if you hear of either (or both) of them reading somewhere you can get to, go.