2009 - 2010 Writer in Residence

Annabelle Moseley

Annabelle Moseley was the first Walt Whitman Birthplace Association Writer in Residence, named to the position for 2009-2010.  During her tenure, she founded the WWBA Book Fair, to showcase the work of Long Island writers. Moseley's longstanding connection to the Whitman Birthplace began as a fifth-grader, when she won First Place in the WWBA Children's Poetry Contest.

Born and raised on Long Island, Moseley published internationally while still an undergraduate at Fairfield University.  She graduated summa cum laude and as a Phi Beta Kappa scholar in 2001.  The next year, Moseley won the Poetry Center Prize from C.W. Post.  She then began an intensive study of art and art history, traveling extensively in Italy and writing about the experience.  In 2005, Moseley served as Curator of Poetry at the Safe-T Gallery in Brooklyn, and began a three year tenure as Poet-in-Residence at The Stevenson Academy of Fine Arts in Oyster Bay. There, she organized many literary events and explored the intersection of poetry and art in her annual “Gallery of Poetry.”  Most recently, she founded String Poet, an on-line journal of poetry and the arts, which also lead to the creation of the String Poet Studio Series in 2011, an exciting new series that combines poetry and music in an artistic setting, to much critical acclaim.  She has also founded the String Poet Women Writers of Tomorrow poetry prize, a contest for girls in grades 3-12.   She is currently an adjunct professor at St. Joseph's College in Patchogue, NY.

She has published hundreds of poems in such journals as The Texas Review, Oberon, The Seventh Quarry, The Lyric, and Mezzo Cammin. She is the author of five poetry chapbooks, most recently: A Field Guide to the Muses (Finishing Line Press, 2009) and Bridging the Waters, published jointly in New York and Wales by Cross- Cultural Communications.  Moseley is also the author of a young adult novel, the first in a trilogy: The Delaney: Journey to Banba.  Her many distinctions include an Amy Award from Poets & Writers Magazine.  Her full-length book of poetry, The Clock of the Long Now, is forthcoming from David Robert Books in February of 2012.

Moseley looks back on her childhood experience at the Birthplace as a defining moment in her life.  Witnessing her performance and acceptance of the award were William Stafford, Vince Clemente, David Ignatow and her father, John Moseley, an English teacher and professor.  Her father died a few months later.  “From that point on, Walt Whitman was even more special to me.  He was not just the Father of American Poetry, which I truly believe him to be; he was connected to my own father.” Part of what distinguished Moseley's tenure at WWBA was her work with schoolchildren, whom she strove to encourage the way her father encouraged her, “in the spirit of Walt.”

Watch Annabelle Moseley read her poetry