Poetry Reading with Joan Barasovska, Unblessed, Unsung, and Maria Rouphail, this small house, this big sky

After Maria Rouphail and Joan Barasovska read from their new books, they will discuss their beloved craft: their influences, how they work, and poetry in today’s world.

Joan Barasovska serves on the Board of the North Carolina Poetry Society and hosts a poetry series at McIntyre’s Books. Her poems have been nominated for Best of the Net and three times for a Pushcart Prize. Joan is the author of Birthing Age (Finishing Line Press, 2018), Carrying Clare (Main Street Rag, 2022), Orange Tulips (Redhawk Publications, 2022), and Unblessed, Unsung (Main Street Rag, 2025). 

Unblessed, Unsung, a deeply researched history of the author’s mother’s family in Philadelphia, is an immigrant story, a World War II story, and a study-in-poetry of a complicated woman.

Maria Rouphail, is Senior Lecturer Emerita from North Carolina State University. this small house, this big sky, her fourth poetry collection, explores themes of family trauma and reconciliation, as well as those forces affecting women and the environment. 

Rouphail’s previous collections include Apertures and Second Skin. All the Way to China, her third collection, was a 2020 finalist in both the University of Wisconsin Brittingham Poetry and the Blue Light Press competitions. Poetry editor at The Main Street Rag, and currently serving as the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for Central North Carolina (2024-25), Rouphail lives in Raleigh.