By Doug Holder

This is the fifth season of the Somerville News Writer’s Festival. When Tim Gager and I started it in November 2003 we thought it would be a one shot affair. But much to our surprise it has become an annual tradition. With the support of The Somerville News and the Norton and Tauro families, we have presented an impressive roster of local and national poets and writers to the folks of Somerville and beyond. Over the years we hosted such readers as Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Franz Wright, head of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop Lan Samantha Chang, Boston Globe columnist and author Alex Beam, Andre Dubus III, Sue Miller, Hallie Ephron, Pulitzer Prize- winning novelist Robert Olen Butler," Plum Flower Dance" author Afaa Michael Weaver, and many others.

We have also founded an Ibbetson Street Press Poetry award. The first winner last year was Newburyport poet Michael Alpert. We have had quite a few submissions this year, and are pleased with the interest that has been stirred up.

At each festival we award an Ibbetson Street Press Lifetime Achievement Award. Ibbetson Street is a Somerville-based small literary journal and press, that gives the prize out to people who have played significant roles in the small press or the poetry community. Previous winners have been Jack Powers, Louisa Solano, Robert K. Johnson and David Godine. This year the winner will be Robert Pinsky, former Poet Laureate of the United States and founder of the Americans’ Favorite Poems antholgies.

I am proud to say I was in Pinsky’s first Favorite Poems anthology with my introduction to Robert Lowell’s poem “Waking in the Blue.” The poem was set at McLean Hospital where I have worked and run poetry groups for over 20 years.

With Pinsky and other literary headliners on the card, our fifth festival will continue our budding Somerville tradition Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. at Jimmy Tingle’s Off Broadway Theatre hosted by, you guessed it, comedian Jimmy Tingle. A number of distinguished wordsmiths will read poetry and fiction.

Academy Award nominee Tom Perrotta will bring his work for the Davis Square faithful to hear. Perrotta was nominated for the Oscar for his screenplay for Little Children, which he adapted from his own novel. Perotta bats lead off in a strong lineup that includes “Candy Freak” author Steve Almond, Stephanie Gayle, Errol Uys, Joe Ann Hart, and festival co-founder Tim Gager.

Reading poetry on Nov. 11 will be Gloria Mindock, Danielle Legros Georges, Irene Koronas, Lo Galluccio and yours truly Doug Holder. In the past we have had such talented singer/songwriters as Jennifer Matthews, and Meg Hutchinson perform as part of the festival. This year the literature will be complimented by the music of The Swaggering Growlers.

Of special note, Galluccio will read from the work of the late Boston poet Sarah Hannah. Hannah, a lecturer at Emerson College and a brilliant poet, tragically took her own life at the age of 40. The Tupelo Press is releasing Iridescence, a collection of her work, this fall.

As always we thank Porter Square Books, and Grub Street for sponsoring this event. We hope you will join us this year. Go to SomervilleNewsWritersFestival.com for more information. See you there.