In Memoriam: Kim Bridgford (1959 – 2020)
I met Kim at the poetry conference at West Chester University, Pennsylvania, in 2001. We got to know each other when we both took a workshop with Charles Martin in 2003. I was there when her poetry collection In the Extreme: Sonnets about World Records won the Donald Justice Poetry Prize in 2007. After founders of the conference, Dana Gioia and Michael Peich, stepped back, they appointed Bridgford as director in 2010.
Bridgford directed the poetry conference at West Chester University, Pennsylvania, from 2010 to 2014, afterwhich she founded the conference Poetry by the Sea at Madison, Connecticut. The first conference was held in 2015. Bridgford served as its directer until her death.
In 2006 she founded the online magazine for women, Mezzo Cammin, and, as a special feature, created The Mezzo Cammin Women Poets Timeline Project, an encyclopedic collection of essays about women poets and their work. The launch for the timeline was held at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in March (2010) to celebrate women’s accomplishments during Women’s History Month, just before National Poetry Month in April.
Kim died on June 28, 2020, after a brief battle with breast cancer. The Poetry by the Sea Global Poetry Conference will resume in 2022 (May 24 – May 27).
Services have been held online, an anthology has been published, and a virtual single-day celebration was held on May 25, 2021, in her memory. (See links below.)
Joyce Wilson
April 2021
Bridgford was a frequent contributor to The Poetry Porch.
Here is a list of her work on these pages:
The Children of Paradise (15 sonnets)
Four sonnets on a theme:
Strangers on a Train
Rear Window
North by Northwest
Hitchcock’s Vison(Photo credit: KB and JW in 2017)
OTHER LINKS:
Poetry by the Sea Spring Conference 2021 — Kim Bridgford Tribute — Wednesday, May 26, 2021. The full program is available here PBTS YouTube Channel . See the Web site Poetry by the Sea for additional information.
An Amaranthine Summer, an anthology of poems dedicated to Kim Bridgford, Kelsay Books, 2021. Available through kelsaybooks.com.
FUMFA for Kim: Remembering and Celebrating Dr. Kim Bridgford
See Wikipedia Kim Bridgford bio
List of her book publications:
Undone (WordTech Communications, 2003)
Instead of Maps (WordTech Communications, May 1, 2005), nominated for the Poets’ Prize
In the Extreme: Sonnets about World Records (Contemporary Poetry Review Press, 2007), winner of Donald Justice Poetry Prize
Take-Out: Sonnets about Fortune Cookies (David Roberts Books; WordTech Communications, 2010)
Hitchcock’s Coffin: Sonnets about Classic Films (David Roberts Books; WordTech Communications, 2011)
Bully Pulpit: Poems (White Violet Press, 2012)
Epiphanies: Poems (David Roberts Books; WordTech Communications, 2013)
Doll (Main Street Rag, 2014)
Human Interest (White Violet Press, 2016)
A Crown for Ted and Sylvia (Wipf and Stock, 2019)
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