Margaret Gibson Poetry Reading: Draw Me Without Boundaries

Please join us for a unique poetry evening as Margaret Gibson reads from her new book, Draw Me Without Boundaries. Reading with Margaret will be actress Tori Richnavsky.

Draw Me Without Boundaries is a book that crosses genre lines, combining poetry and prose as it unfolds the lives of Lena, an elderly writer suffering from memory loss and living her remaining days in a memory care facility, and her granddaughter Zoe, a painter who moves into Lena’s old house to struggle with the aftershocks of a failed marriage and an unexpected, life-changing decision she must make. Draw Me Without Boundaries weaves its narrative as Lena and Zoe present their interior monologues in stirring counterpoint. In this dramatic presentation, Margaret Gibson will be reading Lena, and Tori Richnavsky will be reading Zoe.

L. Williams ends his review of Gibson’s new work with this sentence: “Margaret Gibson’s Draw Me Without Boundaries is quietly stunning, an important and necessary dramatic poem for our time.” “Draw me without boundaries,” Lena says to her granddaughter Zoe, an artist. This book, a suspenseful read and a fluid meditation, is their love story, set against the shifting background of global climate crisis and the COVID pandemic. DRAW ME WITHOUT BOUNDARIES is a compelling investigation of the deep connections possible between people despite their physical isolation. Margaret Gibson, long respected for her skillful poetry and for a depth of attention that is both fearless and tender, has given us a brilliant book that reflects back to us the profound issues of our time.

MARGARET GIBSON, Connecticut’s State Poet Laureate (2019-2022), has published 14 books of poems, all with LSU Press, most recently DRAW ME WITHOUT BOUNDARIES. Awards include The Lamont Selection, Melville Kane Award, Connecticut Book Award (twice). She was a Finalist for the National Book Award, 1993, and for the Poets’ Prize, 2016. With a grant from the Academy of American Poets, she edited an anthology, Waking Up to the Earth: Connecticut Poets in a Time of Global Climate Crisis. A Professor Emerita, University of Connecticut, Gibson lives in Preston, CT. Visit her website:

TORI RICHNAVSKY has been involved in theater both on stage and behind the scenes since the age of 5. She graduated from the Warner Theatre Center for Arts Education in Torrington, CT, and received her BA in Theatre with an acting concentration from Columbia College Chicago. She has performed with many theaters throughout Chicago and Connecticut, most recently spending most of her time with Phoenix Stage Company in Oakville Connecticut. Tori also served for a time as Chair of the Connecticut Community Theatre Association.