Poet Carol Graser next in SUNY Adirondack's Writers Project

QUEENSBURY, New York (Feb. 17, 2026) — Carol Graser was 10 years old when she discovered the power of poetry. 

“In fifth grade, I was a quiet kid, but I ended up writing rhyming poetry and they tended to be funny and got a lot of attention,” she recalled.

Throughout the decades since, Graser has worked through joy, pain and the extraordinary and mundane beauty of everyday life with her poems, which she delivers in a monthly open poetry night at Caffe Lena and in her latest book, “Prayer for the Sorrowful Brain.”

Graser will speak at 12:40 p.m. Monday, Feb. 23, as part of SUNY Adirondack’s Writers Project series in the college’s Visual Arts Gallery in Dearlove Hall.

“Writing is just a part of my identity and I feel a little bit lost if I don’t do it,” Graser said. 

She studied literature and creative writing at SUNY Binghamton. Once she married and started a family, she wrote for herself for years, then started reading at local venues that offered poetry nights.

In 2003, she showed up at the legendary Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs for a poetry night only to find it had been canceled. She struck up a conversation with the manager at the time, and they agreed she could host a monthly poetry night on a three-month trial.

“I appreciate when people come to my open mic and really share parts of themselves, and you can see how it helps them — that’s a positive thing about poetry,” she marveled. “It’s a nice way for people to share themselves with each other: There’s a protection of being onstage, it’s intimate but it’s not because you’re behind the mic. It’s a nice community of support.”

Graser has hosted poetry workshops for teenagers and at-risk youth, read at rallies, fundraisers and poetry events, and still hosts Caffe Lena’s Poetry Night.

She is author of the poetry collections “Prayer for the Sorrowful Brain” and “The Wild Twist of Their Stems.” Her work has been published in many journals, including Apricity Magazine, The Berkeley Poetry Review, Evening Street Review, Hollins Critic, I-70 Review, The MacGuffin, Midwifery Today, So to Speak, Southern Poetry Review and Midwest Quarterly. 

“One way of being in the world is trying to find poetry in it, if you’re just looking for something to make the world an easier place to live during a boring or tough situation, ‘Where is the beauty in this, the poetry in it?’” Graser said. “Once I tell my stories in a way, then I can let that story go.”

Writers Project events are free and open to the public. The event is also screened live via Zoom at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7977212478?pwd=ZXU5WlpJRXZ1YmZoNFNJak1yYVpSUT09.

The series continues with the following:

• 12:40 p.m. Monday, March 30: William Kennedy, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and journalist, will speak; sponsored in part by a $2,500 literacy grant from Ian Fleming Foundation.
• 12:40 p.m. Monday, April 13: Casey Walsh, author of “The Full Catastrophe,” will discuss this  thought-provoking read on grief, trauma and ultimately recovery.
• 12:40 p.m. Monday, April 27: SUNY Adirondack Distinguished Professor of English and founder of the Writer's Project K. Lale Davidson, Ph.D., will read from and discuss her short-form fiction.