About the Artist
2025 Wednesday, April 9 at 7pm Old Fox Books Annapolis, Maryland, Lailee McNair Bakhtiar, award-winning poet & author, will read from her newest book of poems: Severn Sky Sonnets & Poems . For at the Maryland Writers Association open mic First Fridays, one poem she calls her: "Voices in the TeaCup" series will be on the open mic reading on Friday, March7, 2025. Lailee read Sunday, July 28, 2024, 6 poems, at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel Washington, D.C. for "Etiquette Etiquette". Lailee produced, "Poetry & Petals", a 5 part series featuring Ambassador to Youth Poet, Tory Butterfield, representing the Annapolis International Book Club that she founded. Mayor of Annapolis, Ellen Moyer, asked Lailee to feature her literary experience in a 3 part series on F.Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsy. "The Mending Nations Program" featured at the San Francisco Public Library included Lailee (her maternal Persian roots), Myriam Chavez (daughter-in-law of Cesar Chavez), and Luba Brezhnev, (niece of Leonid Brezhnev) in a format to discuss how words and literature can heal. "Writers Around Annapolis" Jim Clark hosted an interview with Lailee on her novel, Harem Letters.
Lailee is a poet and author, who has spoken at the United Nations "World Peace Prayers Conference" in New York, New York inspiring her poetry book, Mending Nations, The Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Book Festivals with poetry book Chai, poetry and The Roses of Isfahan and was selected for the National Press Club Book Fair in Washington, D.C. for two books, one poetry, one short stories and poetry.
On PBS TV KCSM San Mateo Lailee hosted a 10-year running book program "Authors & Critics" interviewing over 400 authors. On the Washington Post/Newsweek cable TV in Burlingame, CA Lailee hosted "Writers Forum & Book Review" for 5 years. She was a contributing writer for tennis magazines for 10 years in 5 countries, 50 articles writing profiles on Chris Evert, Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe and more.
She has received an Independent Artist literary grant from both the MSAC Maryland State Arts Council and the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County, ACAAC, and was co-chair of 2024-25 April's National Poetry Month for "Poetry in Pictures" sponsored by the Annapolis Arts Alliance to honor National Poetry Month.
Awards for individual poems include: "World Widow" (2023), "Blindness in a Mending World" (2023), "One" (2023) . In award-winning poetry book City Dock Poetry (2014), the poems illustrate the whimsical aspects of the physical world of water to contemplate as a spiritual journey that begins at the city dock of Annapolis, Maryland, and extends around the world from the Severn River, the jewel of Maryland.
She is the author of 4 volumes of poetry including: Mending Nations poetry(2002), Chai (1999), City Dock Poetry (2014), Severn Sky Sonnets & Poems (2024), The Roses of Isfahan (1998).
"I'll Follow You Anywhere" (1st prize Capitol Press Women); Chai (1st prize NFPW 2014) and The Roses of Isfahan (short stories and poetry). She has won awards for her poems "Toward the Angels", and short story, "Down the Carpeted Road" .
The poems set the reader's mind and mood for an emotional response as well as an intellectual cultural understanding . Her inspiration derives from French fairy tales, including the poetry of Verlaine, Hugo, and Baudelaire. Also, the tales of adventure in Chanson de Roland, the political writings of Montesquieu, and the journal of Blaise Pascal, Les Pensees, are foundational authors for her. Reviving the engagement of cultural diversity Lailee writes poems of courageous women, Esther, Mandane, Cassandane, from the centuries of Sappho in Greece, but the place of Susa in Persia. Decisive words of contrast, proverbial wisdom, and peaceful paths through perilous battles are the poems that speak of women for justice. Women's stories that mingle with history are not alone in their power to contribute to building the ground work for peace. Whether Simon de Beauvoir, Maya Angelou, or Jean d'Arc, the enduring lives of brave women shine a bright light in the storms of life.
Lailee has taught English and French in Anne Arundel County Public Schools where one student won 3rd prize for an essay on Martin Luther King. Presently, she teaches the rhetorical essay, and French to students who are of all ages. She lives near the Severn River in Eastport, Annapolis, Maryland where she writes. The McNair family has resided in Annapolis for 150 years on her father's side, including a former Superintendent of the US Naval Academy, Admiral Frederick Vallette McNair the leader of 5 generations of McNairs at the Naval Academy.
Lailee McNair Bakhtiar is the author of ten books: four of poetry, one of short stories, two reference books, two novels, and one children’s book. Recently released in 2024 is a new book of poetry and essays. She was awarded third prize from the National Federation of Press Women in 2022 for Esther Entering Your Destiny, a non-fiction book based on her historical research on Esther in history, including first-hand in-country research in the ancient city of Susa. Lailee has written a compendium of poetry based on ancient fables inspired by inspiration from French poets: Hugo, Baudelaire, and La Fontaine. Educated in Maryland public schools in Montgomery County Maryland, Lailee benefitted from a strong literary experience.
Lailee has read poetry at the Alan Ginsberg Poetry Café for the San Francisco Book Festival, also at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the National Press Club Book Fair Washington, D.C. selected Chai and The Roses of Isfahan, and at the United Nations-New York Dag Hammerskjold auditorium as a speaker for the World Peace Prayer Conference. She hosted the PBS TV 10-year public television book program “Authors & Critics” (interviewed 400 authors), and 50 authors for literary Washington Post/Newsweek cable TV programs. Her 33 book and TV awards include: the National Federation of Press Women, the California Media Professionals, and the California Press Women. She chaired the Jack London Writers’ Conference benefitting Jack London State Park, and wrote 50 magazine articles. Lailee holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, a Masters in Teaching French from Notre Dame de Namur in Belmont, Ca, and an English Bachelor of Arts equivalency from Bowie State. She taught English and French for Anne Arundel County public schools, and currently tutors essay writing and rhetoric. Lailee contributed to Mayor Ellen Moyer’s project, “The Big Read”, interviewing for The Great Gatsby for Annapolis-TV, and with "Writers Around Annapolis". Her father’s family, the McNairs, have lived in Annapolis since 1854. Lailee resides in Eastport Ward 8 Annapolis for 23 years. Lailee’s Seven Sky Sonnets & Poems as well as City Dock Poetry (100 poems) begins at the City Dock of Annapolis. She believes beautiful words of poetry provide community expression, imagination, and creative thinking that inspires diverse populations.
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Artist's Statement
On April 9, 2025 of National Poetry Month, I will read from Severn Sky Sonnets & Poems at the Old Fox Bookshop at 35 Maryland Avenue, Annapolis, Maryland. "I traveled to villages on the ancient "Silk Route" in October 2000, camping with the nomads. Shortly before, I had spoken on "Mending Nations" at the United Nations World Peace Prayer Conference in New York at the Dag Hammerskjold Auditorium. After I returned to Annapolis , I realized perhaps the most magnificent experience I had had was sharing the "Fabled Tea" with the nomads on the desert floor. The poem, "Voices in the Teacup" is intended for the shepherding nomads around the world!
My literary arts work is best described as creative storytelling in the form of poetry with short video productions, short stories, novels, and non-fiction books. The variety of literary genres I engage in enables me to impact diverse groups of readers through stimulating their imagination and curiosity for expressing their own life journeys. As creative literary writer and a native of Maryland, my poetry books include: Severn Sky Sonnets & Poems and City Dock Poetry where I explore the geographic wonders of the waterways of Maryland. In Mending Nations, poetry, I engage in the wisdom of characters that are inspired by their world history. I am inspired by diversity, generational histories, and community stories of daily life. The human spirit is both colorful and compassionate in Chai, another book of my poetry. In The Roses of Isfahan, through short stories and poems, I look toward transformative wisdom of life a sojourn we all share. I have received awards for my poetry from the National Federation of Press Women, as well as a 2021 Biography & History award for Esther Entering Your Destiny, and hosted poetry and arts events during the pandemic at my writing studio in Eastport, Annapolis, Maryland in our beautiful Maryland community.
