Christie Max Williams named first Poet Laureate of Stonington

By Nancy Burns-Fusaro Sun staff writer

STONINGTON — The town made history during National Poetry Month — twice in one day.

On April 23, under the advisement of the Stonington Cultural District Commission, the Board of Selectmen officially established the position of Stonington Poet Laureate. Then they appointed Mason's Island resident Christie Max Williams as the first person to ever be named to the position.

"It is deeply satisfying to be Stonington's first poet laureate," said Williams in an email Friday afternoon. "I consider it a great honor, but also an important responsibility and unique opportunity to bring poets and poetry to touch the lives of folks in all the neighborhoods in our town's community."

Residents should expect good things from their poet laureate, added Williams.

Williams, 75, who is well known in the region as an actor, poet and former longtime director of the Arts Café Mystic, "will be an ambassador for poetry in written, spoken, or sung word," according to the official announcement from the town, and "will implement a community outreach and education program to encourage the appreciation, writing, reading, and performance of poetry."

Williams' poetry has been published in journals, magazines and anthologies. He has won the Grolier Prize, placed second in the Connecticut River Review Contest and was a finalist for the National Poetry Series and Morton Marr Prize.

His 2022 debut poetry collection, "The Wages of Love," earned him a prestigious William Meredith Poetry Prize. 

"The exquisite poems in his first collection ... recount his love of women, children, and fatherhood," said Richard Harteis, president of the William Meredith Foundation, when making the announcement. 

"A lifetime as a footsoldier in the arts has prepared him for the mastery of language and the charming appreciation of the 'good bind' he finds himself in at the joyful human moment demonstrated in his poems," Harteis said. "They fulfill the highest potential of poetry: to teach, yes, but importantly, to delight. To paraphrase Saint Paul, the wages of love is life."

Connecticut Poet Laureate Emerita Margaret Gibson, in a statement about "The Wages of Love," said "Williams fully inhabits his poems with mellow humor and pleasure, without shirking the darker imponderables and challenges that come with learning to be fully human, or as he puts it, learning to be a ‘good man'."

"This is a good man," she wrote, "and a good poet."  

Stonington Cultural District Commission Chairman Paul Geise, noting that the announcement was made in April to align with National Poetry Month, said "Given Stonington’s rich reservoir of talent in various creative arts, this recognition and honor is not only logical but important to celebrate."

"Christie is an ideal inaugural poet laureate who will impact the community in ways that no doubt will stir our souls," Geise said in an email Friday afternoon. "I know I speak for the entire commission in expressing our delight." 

Jumping right in

As he sipped a cup of peppermint tea in a café across from the Stonington Free Library one recent morning — just days after his appointment was made public — Williams spoke of his family, his new role, his poetry and his plans.

"The position comes with a job description," he said with a smile. And while "still in the formative stages," he said, there are plans being made to formally introduce him to the community at events scheduled for later this spring and summer.

The first event is scheduled for Monday, May 19, at a program called "Words and Welcome: Celebrating Stonington’s New Poet Laureate," at La Grua Center from 4–6 p.m.

Other events might include readings, writing workshops, in-person and online discussions and presentations that will be free and open to the public.

Williams, who has lived on Mason's island with his wife, Catherine Moffatt, for more than three decades, said he's also planning to create partnerships with area schools and community groups, other artistic and cultural organizations, and places like the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center and StoneRidge Senior Living, which are "vital parts of the community."

"There are so many places that are natural settings for poetry," he said. "I hope to make them places where poetry and poets are welcome."

The official job description says: "Seeking to be sustainable, the honoree will provide a system and platform for emerging young poets to present their work in conjunction with local partners as well as to encourage an appreciation of the diverse cultural heritage of the town of Stonington."

"This little corner of the world is really, really rich with a tradition of poets and poetry," said Williams, who went on to mention such well-known poets as Henri Cole, the late J.D. "Sandy" McClatchy, and the late James Merrill.  

"And of course the Merrill House, the Stonington Free library, La Grua Center and the Arts Café Mystic," he said, listing the local places where poetry has been long been celebrated.

"I'd love to stretch the boundaries," said Williams, who applauded local schools and teachers.

Stonington High School, has, for a long time, he said, "selected a student poet laureate." 

"To me, that suggests that the teachers are doing good work," he said, "and that there are student poets who need to be heard."

"I'd also like to provide some of the fine poets I know in this region with places to be heard," he said, "and to let new audiences be entertained and amused."

After all, he said, "Poetry is cultural entertainment ... like movies and plays and music ...poetry offers a way to engage people and to connect with their emotions."

SoCal roots

Williams grew up in Southern California, earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Master of Arts degree from the University of California at Irvine. He worked as an actor and director in California, a fruit vendor in Paris, a salmon fisherman in Alaska, a consultant on Wall Street, a writer for the National Audubon Society and at a number of nonprofit organizations. When he fell in love with Moffatt, he said, they married and lived in New York for many years before moving to Connecticut.

"I am unusually fortunate to have known Southern California, then the Bay area and Berkeley, and then New York, and then to end up here in southeastern Connecticut."

"I am fortunate," he said. "They are all interesting and beautiful places, and my wife's family has tentacles all over this area." 

Interestingly enough, he said, he found out the Williams family does too.

During some genealogy research on the Williams family, a cousin discovered that Williams is a direct descendant of Col. William Williams, a signer of the Declaration of Independence representing the state of Connecticut, who was born in Lebanon, Connecticut and who, in 1776, was appointed as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress.

"He had courage," said Williams, noting that part of being an artist "makes you reflect on where you are from, where you are and where you are going."

"It's extraordinary," he mused, "isn't it?"

"A representative panel of judges, overseen by the Cultural District Commission, reviewed and recommended the honoree," said the news release from the Town of Stonington, noting that the panel included Director Emeritus of Stonington Free Library Belinda deKay; Director of Research and Scholarship at Mystic Seaport Museum Elysa Engelman; Willard Spiegelman, a former English professor at Southern Methodist University who currently teaches MFA graduate students in the Columbia University writing program; Ann-Marie Houle, a seasoned social studies educator in the Stonington Public Schools system; and Marya Ursin, a dancer and actor who serves as executive director for the Dragon’s Egg and a co-director of the Mystic Paper Beasts.

"It has been a huge pleasure for us to work on this project," said Ursin in an email Saturday, "and to have such a bonny outcome!"

From Dylan to destiny

As he finished is tea last Wednesday morning, on the last day of National Poetry Month, Williams smiled deeply when he recalled his introduction to poetry.

It was when he was a young teenager, he said, playing in a rock band. One day, he said, his older brother came home and told him he should write songs.

"He introduced me to Bob Dylan," said a smiling Williams. "Who couldn't be impressed with the poetic songs of Bob Dylan?"  

"I tried to write songs," he said with a laugh, "but I was terrible. My poetry was terrible too."

"I read a ton of poetry after that," he said, and "somewhere in there I tried to write a love poem or an angry political poem."

"But this is the God's truth," he said. "I did not write a poem I thought was good until I was in my early thirties, when I became a new father."

At that, Williams recited — from memory and with tenderness — "Bethlehem, Again," a poem from "The Wages of Love."

Moffatt and Williams have two adult children — Cody Williams, a chef at Suraya in Philadelphia, and Tess Williams, an architect who lives in Brooklyn and is the mother of their two grandchildren, Nora, 2, and Logan, who was born on Easter Sunday.

"I just hope to make the world a better place," he said, still smiling.