Poetry by the Water w/ Josh Nicolaisen and Alison Kaiser
Join Squam Lakes Conservation Society as we welcome award winning local poets Josh Nicolaisen and Alison Kaiser for a reading by the water’s edge. Stories of place, love and madness are captured in the works of our guest poets. You can expect poems featuring life in rural New Hampshire, local flora and fauna, lots of water, as well as a tribute to the late great- Helen Mathieson. Relax by the water and be stirred by the power of spoken word.
Meet the Artists:
Josh Nicolaisen– a finalist for the Granite State Award –was born and raised in New Hampshire and his love of place shows in his work. Josh lives in Campton, teaches writing at Plymouth State University and owns Old Man Gardening. Josh cares for dozens of gardens surrounding Squam Lake. For eight summers, he served as a caretaker for the Chocorua Chapel Association on Church Island, where he began writing poems.
Josh holds a Master of Fine Arts from Randolph College and is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. He is a recipient of Appalachian Review’s Plattner Award in Poetry and the winner of the 2025 Fresh Voices Award from Mulberry Literary. His manuscript, Songs for the Memory Palace, was a runner-up for the 2025 Granite State Poetry Prize. He has been awarded fellowships from Middlebury’s Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference, Hewnoaks, Kettle Pond Writers’ Conference, and the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. His poems have appeared in Hunger Mountain Review, Permafrost, Shenandoah, Red Rocks Review, Four Way Review, Bellingham Review, and elsewhere.
Alison Kaiser is a rising star in environmental journalism and accomplished poet with a promising and powerful voice. A New Hampshire native and recent graduate of Plymouth State University, Alison served as president of Poets & Writers Club, editor of Centripetal literary magazine and took 1st place in the college division of NH Press Association's 2024 Distinguished Journalism Contest. Her work combines the natural with the philosophical and is published in Smoky Quartz, Quarter Notes, as well as the 2025 & 2026 YAS poetry anthology. She is currently preparing for a move to Syracuse, NY, to pursue a master’s degree in environmental studies at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
This event is in Brooke House