From the Hotel Vernon

These poems center on the Hotel Vernon, built at the turn of the 20th century in Worcester, Mass. Once an elegant place for local politicians to make their backdoor deals, it fell into decline. Despite this, it has always been a space where artists, newspapermen and neighbors gathered at the bar. In these poems, oral histories are poised among flagrant sexuality, humor and abject poverty. Patsy Cline, Babe Ruth, WWI’s Sacrifice Division and Roy Orbison inhabit this space alongside local residents. Names of neighborhood places-Rizutti’s Goodnight Caf’, The Nines, The Greyhound- are recited as both proof and pride in a neighborhood that was diminished by interstate highways. Lea Graham is a writer, editor, translator and professor who lives in Rosendale, New York and Mayflower, Arkansas. She is Associate Professor of English at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, where she has been on faculty since 2007. Her poems, reviews, essays and translations have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies.