The Camden Festival of Poetry previously announced Glenis Redmond as the Camden Festival Writer-in-Residence. Unfortunately, she has had to defer accepting the residency until May 2027.

We’re very pleased, however, to announce that Donna Spruijt-Metz will be this year’s poet-in-residence. Donna was a finalist in our considerations, and we’re fortunate that she is able to join us on short notice this year. She’ll be offering a workshop during the Festival entitled “Approaching the Sacred: A Generative Poetry Workshop” and she’ll be among the readers at the opening night Feast of Poetry & Song on Tuesday, May 12th at the Camden Public Library.

Donna’s books include To Phrase a Prayer for Peace (2025, Wildhouse Press), General Release from the Beginning of the World (Parlor Press, 2023), and with co-author Flower Conroy, Scuttle My Balloon (Picture Show Press, 2025), as well as collection of Lucas Hirsch’s Dutch poems in English translation, Wu Wei Eats an Egg (Ben Yehuda Press, 2025). Her poems appear in “Poem-a-day” (The Poetry Foundation), Alaska Quarterly Review, American Poetry Review, and elsewhere. She’s an emerita psychology professor, MacDowell fellow, rabbinical school drop-out, former classical flutist, and briefly, a rock and roll bassist. 

While in residence, Donna plans to work on her project of writing about grief. She describes this work by calling on poet Denise Levertov who, in her poem “Talking To Grief,” observed: “Ah, Grief, I should not treat you / like a homeless dog / who comes to the back door / for a crust, for a meatless bone. / I should trust you.” After her husband’s sudden and unexpected death, in October of 2024, she writes that “I have been trying to learn to trust grief, to let it in, to find a place for it in my life, to make use of it and to let it use me. I have been trying to learn this: “to give grief / a seat on the couch / —move over— / find a spot that is comfortable / for us both.”