Poet and Writer Charles Coe to Speak at Bay Path Commencement
LONGMEADOW — Charles Coe, a Massachusetts-based poet and writer, will address Bay Path University’s 2018 graduating class at its 121st commencement to be held Saturday, May 12, at 4 p.m. at the MassMutual Center in Springfield. More than 1,000 students will have earned specialist in education, master’s and bachelor’s degrees.
Coe will be one of two honorary degree recipients to be recognized at the ceremony. The author of two books of poetry, All Sins Forgiven: Poems for my Parents and Picnic on the Moon, Coe has published poems in literary reviews and anthologies including Poesis, Mom Egg, Solstice Literary Review, and Urban Nature. Selected by the Associates of the Boston Public Library as a “Boston Literary Light for 2014,” he is also the recipient of a poetry fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a fellow of St. Botolph Club of Boston, and the 2016-17 artist-in-residence for the city of Boston. In that role, he developed a community-based story collection called What You Don’t Know About Me, about people who live and work in or near Boston’s Mission Hill. He combined the art of storytelling with photographs to produce a series of stand-alone essays that would allow the subjects to share with the reader surprising aspects of their lives.
Vana Nespor, who retired from Bay Path in 2017, will also be a recipient of an honorary degree at the 2018 ommencement. Joining Bay Path in 1999, she was instrumental in launching the radical One-Day Program for adult women on the Longmeadow campus. In time, additional locations across the state were open to accommodate the overwhelming demand of the program, transforming the lives of thousands of women. She also played a key role in the development of the American Women’s College, an innovative learning model serving adult women online.
