Vachel Lindsay Home welcomes 2 poets Saturday

[September 19, 2013]  SPRINGFIELD -- Two poets, Justin Hamm and Erika Eckart, will visit the Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic Site on Saturday for the latest installment of the "Poets in the Parlor" series.

The free event will be at 2 p.m., and light refreshments will be served.

Hamm is the author of two chapbooks: "Illinois, My Apologies" and "The Everyday Parade/Alone with Turntable, Old Records." His work has appeared in a host of poetry reviews and journals. He also edits the Museum of Americana, an online journal.

Eckart's work has appeared in Quick Fiction, Quarter After Eight and Women's Studies Quarterly. She specializes in prose poems, saying the form gave her a new outlet. "To my delight and surprise, I discovered I wasn't a failed fiction writer but a poet who hated line breaks," Eckart said.

The Vachel Lindsay Association is co-sponsoring the event.

The Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic Site, at 603 S. Fifth St. in Springfield, is operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. The home was built about 1850. Poet, author and artist Nicholas Vachel Lindsay was born there in 1879 and died there in 1931. The site is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for free public tours.

[Text from file received from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency]