The distinguished Concord Monitor editor Mike Pride’s final book, Northern Voices, an exploration of the lives and works of a remarkable generation of Northern New England poets, will be the focus of a kickoff event at the Baker Free Library in Bow on Thursday, April 25, at 7 p.m.

The event features the reflections of one of its central subjects, the former Maine poet laureate Wesley McNair, whose most recent book is Late Wonders: New and Selected Poems.

A presentation titled “A Story Only He Could Write” by longtime friend and collaborator Mark Travis follows on Saturday, April 27, at 2 p.m. at the New Hampshire Historical Society.

Together, the events mark the release of Northern Voices as well as the first anniversary of Pride’s death from a longtime blood disorder on April 24, 2023. Both events are free and open to the public.

Pride called Northern Voices his poetry memoir. It is an exploration of the artistry of Donald Hall, Jane Kenyon, Charles Simic, Maxine Kumin, Sharon Olds and Wesley McNair, along with Hayden Carruth, with an emphasis on the effects the landscape and people of New Hampshire had on their work.

Pride’s passion for the written word, skillfully rendered, and his love of poetry and these masters of the art combine to leap off the pages of Northern Voices. Pride also brought his journalistic sensibilities to what is his ninth book, rendering his subjects — with their joys, struggles and foibles — with a clear eye and concise prose.

Northern Voices: Forty Years on the Poetry Beat (Bauhan Publishing, April 2024) is a book to be savored. “I am blessed to have known the poets who are the subjects of this memoir,” Pride wrote. “They have enriched my life, and I have done my best to represent them as I knew them.”

Refreshments will be available at the Bow library, which is located at 508 South St. in Bow. The state historical society is located at 30 Park St. in Concord.