High Desert Poetry Cell

After a seven-year hiatus The High Desert Poetry Cell returns to DPL!

The High Desert Poetry Cell is comprised of five Central Oregon poets: Larry Jacobs, Don Kunz, John Kvapil, Peter Lovering and John Martin. This group is always a crowd-pleaser. They all write and perform poems that are approachable, entertaining–and sometimes funny.

The five men who make up the High Desert Poetry Cell are most definitely all about the poetry. But throughout their years together the dinners, wine and camaraderie have been a big bonus.

The High Desert Poetry Cell released their first collection, The Guys Big Book of Poetry, in 2010. In it, the men deal with love, relationships, fathers, loss-and a little sarcasm about some sacred cows. The group went on to release The Guys’ Home Relationship Maintenance and Improvement Manual in 2011.

About the High Desert Poetry Cell:
Larry Jacobs is a retired realtor from Bend.

Don Kunz taught literature, writing, and film studies at the University of Rhode Island for 36 years. He is a published essayist, short story writer, and poet. Don retired as URI Professor Emeritus of English, to Bend in 2005. In retirement Don enjoys studying Spanish, playing the Native American flute, and volunteering. He has served as a SMART Reader, a Board Member for the Nature of Words, and on the deconstruction team for the Habitat for Humanity Restore. Don has participated in Habitat for Humanity Global Village Builds in Guatemala and Thailand and was a Hurricane Katrina Disaster Responder in 2006 and 2008. Don considers himself fortunate to be a member of the High Desert Poetry Cell, which has been an incentive to keep writing for publication, and an opportunity to perform his work before local audiences.

John Kvapil is a retired Bend architect and a founding member of the High Desert Poetry Cell.

Peter Lovering is a retired construction manager and building contractor. Peter has been writing poetry since 1960. Four chapbooks of his work are still available, and his poems are included in three chapbooks published by the High Desert Poetry Cell which also include poems by all Cell members.

John Martin has taught creative writing to prisoners, written ad copy in the early days of digital advertising, penned general interest pieces for the Bend Bulletin and critiqued hundreds of poems in various writing groups over the last 30 years. His chapbook, The Nick of Time, was Published by Iota Press in 2006, and his book, Hold This, was published by Concrete Wolf Press in 2017.