This free event takes place at The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd.

Join us for a free screening of the documentary Ruth Stone’s Vast Library of the Female Mind, with an introduction from acclaimed director Nora Jacobson of Off the Grid Productions.  The film is a feature length documentary about the poetry and life of the celebrated Ruth Stone, who forged her art out of loss, and inspired countless others to create, from her hilltop home in the Green Mountains of Vermont.   Watch the trailer and learn more about the film here.  Photo credit: David Carlson

Film Synopsis: After tragedy strikes, acclaimed poet Ruth Stone retreated to the margins of the literary world, working tirelessly to provide for her children, and transforming her intense grief into poetry, using simple, startling language. Using a conversational, intimate approach, award-winning Vermont  filmmaker Nora Jacobson combines archival footage of Ruth at different times of her life, animation by her granddaughter Bianca Stone, and heartfelt observations by family members and poets, including Sharon Olds, Toi Derricotte, Major Jackson and Edward Hirsch. 

Ruth Stone was a promising young poet, living an idyllic life with her beloved husband, a poet and professor. When he died unexpectedly by suicide, Ruth was flung out into the world, destitute with three daughters to support.

Though not well known outside of the poetry world, Ruth won accolades and awards, such the National Book Award for Poetry, the Wallace Stevens Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, two Guggenheim Fellowships, the Delmore Schwartz Award, and she was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, among many others.

Beloved by many, Ruth’s house in Goshen, Vermont became a mecca for students, poets, friends and family members. There she inspired people to make art and write, not only through activities such as the “poetry game”, but by providing solace and nurture, surrounded by nature and camaraderie.

Ruth Stone read at the Poetry Center on Dec. 8th, 1965.  You can listen to a recording of that reading on the Poetry Center's archive, Voca.