5/8 Virtual Poetry Reading: Robert Walicki & Michael McGriff @ White Whale Cyberbookstore

7 PM EASTERN TONIGHT on a rectangle…

Excited to host Michael McGriff and to welcome back Robert Walicki (“back”in the figurative sense, of course, as this event’s online) for an evening of poetry. Head to our Bookshop site’s list titled “Recent and Upcoming Events (Pre-order!)” to order one of Bob’s books and several of Michael’s. You can also check out other curated lists and picks on our main site page, or use the search bar in the upper center-right to look for any book. (Using the book’s ISBN usually works best.)

This event will be hosted on Zoom. You’ll receive the link to the Zoom meeting the day of the event via email. Free registration/ticket sales will end at 6:30pm EDT on 5/8. Please email events@whitewhalebookstore.com if you miss this cut-off and need a ticket.

Robert Walicki’s work has appeared in and is forthcoming in a number of publications including Chiron Review, The City Paper, Fourth River, Signal Mountain Review, Red River Review, and others. A Pushcart and a Best of The Net nominee, Robert currently has two chapbooks published: A Room Full of Trees (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014) and The Almost Sound of Snow Falling (Night Ballet Press, 2015). His first full length collection of poems, Black Angels, is currently available from Six Gallery Press, and his most recent collection, Fountain, is now available at Main Street Rag Press.

Michael McGriff is the author of several books, most recently the poetry collection Home Burial (Copper Canyon Press, 2017) and the short story collection Our Secret Life in the Movies (A Strange Object, 2014), which was an NPR Best Book of 2014. His works has appeared in The New York Times, Poetry London, American Poetry Review, and on PBS NewsHour and NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday. He lives in northern Idaho.

3/6 Red Flag Poetry w/ John Stupp & Robert Walicki @ White Whale

7 PM FRIDAY, March 6…

This event is first-come, first seated. Please email us (events@whitewhalebookstore.com) if you have any accessibility needs and require that a seat be reserved for you in advance. We will have a limited number of these seats available. Thanks!

Join us and Red Flag Poetry for local poet JOHN STUPP’s chapbook launch! He’ll be reading from WHEN BILLY CONN FOUGHT FRITZIE ZIVIC, and ROBERT WALICKI will be joining him. We’ll be selling both their most recent books.

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JOHN STUPP is the author of the 2015 poetry collection Advice from the Bed of a Friend (by Main Street Rag) and the 2017 collection Pawleys Island (by Finishing Line Press). His manuscript, Summer Job, won the 2017 Cathy Smith Bowers Poetry Prize and was published in August 2018. John holds academic degrees from Notre Dame University, The University of British Columbia, and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He has lived and worked in various states as a university instructor, taxi driver, radio news writer, waiter, and paralegal. From 1975-1985 he worked professionally as a mediocre jazz guitarist. John lives near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and spends his spare time playing with his dog Buster and fishing in South Carolina.

ROBERT WALICKI’S work has appeared in and is forthcoming in a number of publications including, Chiron Review, The City Paper, Fourth River, Signal Mountain Review, Red River Review, and others. A Pushcart and a Best of The Net nominee, Robert currently has two chapbooks published: A Room Full of Trees (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014) and The Almost Sound of Snow Falling (Night Ballet Press, 2015). His first full length collection of poems, “Black Angels” is currently available from Six Gallery Press, and his most recent collection. “Fountain” is now available at Main Street Rag Press.

7/27 Staghorn presents Scott, Walicki, & Terman @ Staghorn Garden Cafe

Beat the heat and join Staghorn Poetry Series for a poetry reading with Wendy Scott, Bob Walicki and Philip Terman 4pm, Saturday, July 27th at Staghorn Garden Cafe (517 Greenfield Ave. 15207). Authors’s books will be available for purchase.

Bio’s:

Wendy Scott’s first book of poems, Soon I Will Build an Ark, was published by Main Street Rag. Her poems have appeared in Green Mountains Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Harpur Palate, among others. She is an editor of the Pittsburgh Poetry Journal, and has an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh. She is one of three editors for Show Us Your Papers, a poetry anthology about being permitting, documented and categorized, to be published by Main Street Rag. She has taught creative writing and composition at universities, elementary schools and halfway houses. She has also worked as a social worker, a legal assistant, a cashier and a waitress. Scott is a proud member of the Madwomen in the Attic creative writing groups at Carlow University.

Robert Walicki’s work has appeared in over 50 journals, including Pittsburgh City Paper, Fourth River,Chiron Review, and Red River Review. A Pushcart and a Best of The Net nominee, Robert has published two chapbooks: A Room Full of Trees (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014) and The Almost Sound of Snow Falling (Night Ballet Press), which was nominated to the 2016 List of Books for New York City’s Poets House. His first full-length collection, Black Angels, is now available from Pittsburgh’s Six Gallery Press.

Philip Terman is the author of five collections of poems, including, most recently, Our Portion: New and Selected Poems. A selection of his poems, My Dear Friend Kafka, has been translated into Arabic and published by Ninwa Press in Damascus, Syria. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Poetry Magazine, The Kenyon Review, The Georgia Review, The Sun Magazine, and 99 Poems for the 99 Percent. He’s a professor of English at Clarion University, where he directs the Spoken Art Reading Series and is the coordinator of The Bridge Literary and Arts Center in Franklin, PA. He has collaborated with other artists, including composers, painters, and sculptors, and performs his poetry with the jazz band, The Barkeyville Triangle. More information can be found at www.philipterman.com.

7/11 An Accident of Blood and Severance Book Launch @ White Whale

Come Join us on July 11, as Pittsburgh poet Charlie Brice will launch his new poetry collection, An Accident of Blood, at the White Whale Bookstore, 4754 Liberty Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15224, from 7-9 PM. Reading with Charlie will be Robert Fanning who will launch his new collection, Severance, as well as local poets Judy Brice, Kara Knickerbocker, and Robert Walicki. This event is free. Beverages will be served.

Author Bios:

Charlie Brice is a retired psychoanalyst and is the author of Flashcuts Out of Chaos (2016), Mnemosyne’s Hand (2018), and An Accident of Blood (2019), all from WordTech Editions. His poetry has been nominated for the Best in Net anthology and twice for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in over ninety publications including The Atlanta Review, The Main Street Rag, Chiron Review, Fifth Permafrost, SLAB, The Paterson Literary Review, Muddy River Poetry Review and elsewhere.

Judy Brice is a retired psychiatrist whose love of nature and experiences with illness informs much of her work. She has had over fifty poems published in many journals and anthologies, including The Golden Streetcar, Vox Populi, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Magnolia Review, and Annals of Internal Medicine. She has received two Editor’s Choice Awards in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize. She is the author of Renditions in a Palette and Overhead from Longing. Her poem, “Mourning Calls,” set to music by Tony Manfredonia, can be heard at https://www.manfredoniamusic.com/mourning-calls.

Robert Fanning is the author of four books of poetry: The Seed Thieves, American Prophet, Severance, and Our Sudden Museum, as well as two chapbooks: Sheet Music and Old Bright Wheel. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, Shenandoah, The Atlanta Review, and other journals. He is a Professor of Creative Writing at Central Michigan University and the founder and facilitator of the Wellspring Literary Series in Mt. Pleasant, MI., where he lives with his wife, sculptor Denise Whitebread Fanning, and their two children. To read his work, visit www.robertfanning.wordpress.com.

Kara Knickerbocker is the author of the chapbooks The Shedding Before the Swell and Next to Everything that is Breakable. She earned her BA in English from Westminster College in 2012 and is currently earning her MFA at Carlow University/Trinity College Dublin. Her most recent poetry and essays appeared in or are forthcoming from: Longridge Review, Moledro Magazine, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, One Sentence Poems, Uppagus, and the anthology Voices from the Attic, Vol. XXII, among others. Knickerbocker lives in Pittsburgh, where she co-curates the MadFridays Reading Series. You can find her online at www.karaknickerbocker.com.

Robert Walicki’s work has appeared in over 50 journals, including Pittsburgh City Paper, Fourth River,One, and Vox Populi. A Pushcart and a Best of The Net nominee, Robert has published two chapbooks: A Room Full of Trees (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014) and The Almost Sound of Snow Falling (Night Ballet Press), which was nominated to the 2016 List of Books for New York City’s Poets House. His first full-length collection, Black Angels, is now available from Six Gallery Press, and his next collection, “Fountain” is forthcoming from Main Street Rag Press.

6/4 Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series – Week 5

8 PM TUESDAY…

Hemingway’s Cafe, 3911 Forbes Avenue, Oakland
Founded by Jimmy Cvetic
Co-hosted by Joan E. Bauer & Kristofer Collins
Open mic after featured readings as time permits
Listen in @ www.hemingwayspoetryseries.blogspot.com
Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Hemingwayssummerpoetryseries/

Tuesday June 4 – Michele Battiste, Kristofer Collins, Leslie Anne Mcilroy, Emily Mohn-Slate & Bob Walicki

Michele Battiste is the author of three poetry collections, including Waiting for the Wreck to Burn, which received the 2018 Louise Bogan Award from Trio House Press and will be published in Spring, 2019. Her other books are Uprising (2014) and Ink for an Odd Cartography (2009), both from Black Lawrence Press. She is also the author of several chapbooks, including Left: Letters to Strangers (Grey Book Press). Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, The Rumpus, Memorious, and Mid-American Review, among others. Michele has taught poetry workshops for Wichita State University , the Prison Arts Program in Hutchinson , KS , Gotham Writers’ Workshops, and the national writing program Teen Ink. A finalist for the National Poetry Series, she has received grants and awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, AWP, the Center for the American West, the Jerome Foundation, and the NY State Senate. She lives in Colorado where she raises money to save the planet.

Kristofer Collins is the Books Editor at Pittsburgh Magazine, as well as being a frequent contributor to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He is the publisher of Low Ghost Press and Coleridge Street Books. His latest poetry collection, Salsa Night at Hilo Town Tavern, was published by Hyacinth Girl Press in 2017. He lives in Stanton Heights with his wife Dr. Anna Johnson and their son Cassidy.

Leslie Anne Mcilroy won the 1997 Slipstream Poetry Chapbook Prize for Gravel, the 2001 Word Press Poetry Prize for Rare Space and the 1997 Chicago Literary Awards. Her second book, Liquid Like This, was published by Word Press in 2008 and Slag by Main Street Rag Publishing Company in 2014. Leslie’s poems appear in Grist, Jubilat, The Mississippi Review, PANK, Poetry Magazine, the New Ohio Review, The Chiron Review and more. Leslie works as a copywriter in Pittsburgh where she lives with her son Silas.

Emily Mohn-Slate is the author of FEED, co-winner of the Keystone Chapbook Prize, forthcoming from Seven Kitchens Press (2019). Her poems and essays can be found in New Ohio Review, At Length, The Adroit Journal, Indiana Review, Tupelo Quarterly, and elsewhere. Her manuscript, THE FALLS, was a finalist for the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize offered by Kent State University Press, and the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize offered by University of Pittsburgh Press.

Robert Walicki’s work has appeared in over 40 publications including Fourth River , Stone Highway Review, Red River Review, and others. A Pushcart and a Best of The Net nominee, Robert currently has two chapbooks published: A Room Full of Trees (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014) and The Almost Sound of Snow Falling (Night Ballet Press), which was nominated to the 2016 Poet’s House List of Books in NYC. His first full length collection, Black Angels, is out now from Six Gallery Press.

5/22 Lea Graham, Mark Spitzer, & friends @ White Whale Bookstore

7 PM Wednesday, May 22…

Lea Graham & Mark Spitzer return to White Whale Bookstore w/ new books, joined by locals Anna Eidolon, Shawn Maddey, John Thomas Menesini, Daniel Parme, Jess Simms, & Robert Walicki.

FREE & BYOB, per White Whale policy. Possible vegan or pescetarian snacks, crackers guaranteed.

Here’s a bit about Lea’s book, From the Hotel Vernon, from Salmon Poetry.

The poems in this book grow out and around the Hotel Vernon, built at the turn of the 20th century in Worcester, Massachusetts. Once an elegant place for local politicians to make their backdoor deals at the edge of the city, it slowly fell into decline each decade following Prohibition. Despite this, it has always been a space where artists, newspapermen and neighbors gathered at the bar or, after the late 1940s, in its Ship Room, a room purportedly modeled after the second berth of the Mayflower. In its barroom is a 1940s mural of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” painted by the owner’s son-in-law bartender and his friends, including the cartoonist, Al Capp.

In these poems, oral histories are poised between and among flagrant sexuality, humor and abject poverty.  Patsy Cline, Babe Ruth, WWI’s “Sacrifice Division” and Roy Orbison inhabit this space alongside the local residents: the Baker, Maurie, Charlie and Stosh.  Names of neighborhood places—Rizutti’s Goodnight Café, The Nines, The Greyhound—are recited as both proof and pride in a neighborhood that was diminished through the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, cutting off foot traffic to local businesses by 1970.

& here’s a bit about Mark’s book, In Search of Monster Fish: Angling for a More Sustainable Planet, from University of Nebraska Press.

In Search of Monster Fish is an action-packed, knee-slapping ride into and out of the belly of the beast. Join extreme angler Mark Spitzer as he encounters man-eating catfish, ruthless barracuda, lacerating conger eels, berserk tarpon, and blood-curdling sharks in locales as exotic as the Amazon, Catalonia, the Dominican Republic, Senegal, and even in our own backyards.

But this eco-odyssey isn’t just about meeting and releasing some of the most grotesque lunkers in the world. It’s about implementing solutions for problems as behemoth as global warming and issues as common as choosing what to eat for dinner. And as the ice caps melt at the rate of 1 percent annually, Spitzer battles his most epic goliath: a leviathan that dwells in the depths of us all, making us ask who the real monsters are, what our responsibilities truly are, and what we can possibly do to sustain our planet and ourselves when faced with such demonic disenlightenment. Spitzer then beats this whopper into submission by reframing his call to action and finding his own way. A new portal to the underworld has been opened in the cutting-edge literature of monster fish, and this is your entry ticket.

BIOLOGICAL DATA

Originally from Brooklyn, Anna Eidolon moved to Pittsburgh in 2015. Her poetry and prose have appeared in The Village Voice, In Our Own Words, Resister, Spinning, and Edges. Most recently, she was the recipient of the Into the Light writing prize at Chatham University. She may ask you for a cigarette.

Lea Graham is a writer, translator and professor who lives in Rosendale, New York and Mayflower, Arkansas. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee and grew up in Northwest Arkansas. She has lived in Joplin, Missouri; Perth Amboy, New Jersey; Chicago, Illinois; Worcester, Massachusetts; Santiago, Dominican Republic; San Jose, Costa Rica; Florence, Italy and Quito, Ecuador. She earned her B.A. in English from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing from the University of Illinois-Chicago. She is Associate Professor of English at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York where she has been on faculty since 2007.

Graham is the author of the poetry collection, Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You (No Tell Books, 2011), along with three chapbooks, Spell to Spell (above/ground Press, 2018), This End of the World: Notes to Robert Kroetsch (Apt. 9 Press, 2016) and Calendar Girls (above/ground Press, 2006).

Her poems, reviews, essays and translations have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies that include 3Elements Review, Politics/Letters, Crab Creek Review, Bateau, Poor Yorick, Milk, The Southern Humanities Review, Reflecting Pool: Poets and the Creative Process (Codhill Press, 2018) and The Southern Poetry Anthology VI: Tennessee, Vol. 6 (Texas Review Press, 2013).

In 2018 she won the Literal Latte’ Poetry Contest.

Shawn Maddey doesn’t have a bio anymore. No one needs to know anything about him.

John Thomas Menesini is fluffing his bio or cranking out new poems, hopefully. He is the author of The Last Great Glass Meat Million, e pit ap h, endo: Poems & Sketches 2007-2011, & Gloom Hearts & Opioids. You know Johnny.

Daniel Parme is the author of Hungry, a novel about cannibals in Pittsburgh, and Confluence, a novel about noncannibals in Pittsburgh. Post, a novella about noncannibals not in Pittsburgh, is forthcoming from Running Wild Press. For years, he slung the suds at various local sudseries; currently, he oversees the suds-slinging at a proper drinking and dining establishment.

Jess Simms is a freelance ghostwriter and fiction writer. She’s an editor with the After Happy Hour Review and has had a handful of stories published in literary journals, with recent publications including the Oakland Review, Bardic Tales and Sage Advice, and Rind Literary Magazine.

Mark Spitzer is an associate professor of writing at the University of Central Arkansas. He is the author of more than twenty-five books, including Season of the Gar: Adventures in Pursuit of America’s Most Misunderstood Fish and Beautifully Grotesque Fish of the American West (Nebraska, 2017). Spitzer has consulted for Nat Geo’s Monster Fish and appeared on Animal Planet’s River Monsters.

Robert Walicki’s work has appeared in over 50 journals, including Pittsburgh City Paper, Fourth River, Stone Highway Review, and Red River Review. A Pushcart and a Best of The Net nominee, Robert has published two chapbooks: A Room Full of Trees (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014) and The Almost Sound of Snow Falling (Night Ballet Press), which was nominated to the 2016 List of Books for New York City’s Poets House. His first full-length collection, Black Angels, is now available from Pittsburgh’s Six Gallery Press.

3/10 Free Association Reading Series @ City of Asylum

5PM SUNDAY…

Join us for an intimate evening of readings with exceptional writers co-curated by Pat Hart and Marc Nieson of the Free Association Reading Series. 

 

Featured Writers:

Robert Walicki‘s work has appeared in a number of publications including The City Paper, Fourth River, Signal Mountain Review, Red River Review, and others. A Pushcart and a Best of The Net nominee, Robert currently has two chapbooks published: A Room Full of Trees (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014) and The Almost Sound of Snow Falling (Night Ballet Press). His first full length poetry collection, Black Angels is currently available from Six Gallery Press. 

 

 

Leslie Anne Mcilroy won the 1997 Slipstream Poetry Chapbook Prize for Gravel, the 2001 Word Press Poetry Prize for her full-length collection Rare Space and the 1997 Chicago Literary Awards. Her second book, Liquid Like This, was published by Word Press in 2008 and Slag by Main Street Rag Publishing Company in December, 2014 as runner-up to their 2014 Poetry Book Prize. Leslie’s poems appear in Grist, Jubilat, The Mississippi Review, PANK, Pearl, Poetry Magazine, the New Ohio Review, The Chiron Review and more. Leslie works as a copywriter in Pittsburgh where she lives with her son Silas.

 

Sherrie Flick is the author of the novel Reconsidering Happiness and two short story collections, Whiskey, Etc. and Thank Your Lucky Stars (Autumn House Press, 2018). Her work appears in many anthologies and journals, including Norton’s Flash Fiction Forward, New Sudden Fiction, and New Micro as well as Ploughshares, SmokeLong Quarterly, and Booth. She serves as series editor for The Best Small Fictions 2018 and teaches in Chatham University’s MFA and Food Studies programs.

Photo credit: Richard Kelly

 

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Sophie Klahr is the author of Meet Me Here At Dawn (YesYes Books, 2016) and the chapbook _______ Versus Recovery (Pilot Books, 2007). Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, AGNI, Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. Her collaborative work includes choreography for Dorothy Hoover’s play Sahara Tahoe, scenic texts for the dance theatre collective inFluxdance, and writing with the poet Corey Zeller.  She has been on staff at Gigantic Sequins since 2009, where she is the co-creator of Teen Sequins, an annual celebration of poetry by teenagers. Currently, is the Spring 2019 Philip Roth Resident at Bucknell University’s Stadler Center for Poetry.

 

Curators:

Pat Hart, co-curator
Marc Nieson, co-curator

Pat Hart writes plays, monologues, short stories, and novels. Playwriting credits include “Book Wench” a one-act play, performed at the Strawberry One-Act Festival, Summer 2015, New York, New York and Murderous, a 10-minute monologue, performed at Practice Monologamy, Carlow University, September 2015. Published short stories include “The Vigil,” The Writing Disorder (Fall 2015), “New Wife vs. Old Wife, a love story,” (2015) and “Dragon Boogers” novel excerpt (2016) in Voices in the Attic, and “Spider Ball,” Rune (May 2015). Pat has a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Pittsburgh and is the founder of Free Association, a reading series for established and emerging writers in Pittsburgh. She is currently working on a novel set in Pittsburgh and Burma during the 1920s.

Marc Nieson is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and NYU Film School. His background includes children’s theatre, cattle chores, and a season with a one-ring circus. His memoir, SCHOOLHOUSE: Lessons on Love & Landscape, came out from Ice Cube Press in 2016. He’s won a Raymond Carver Short Story Award, Pushcart Prize nominations, and been noted in Best American Essays. He teaches at Chatham University, edits The Fourth River, and is at work on a new novel, HOUDINI’S HEIRS.

Founded in May of 2016, Free Association Reading Series is for established and emerging Pittsburgh writers of prose, poetry, and non-fiction. Not affiliated with any formal writing programs, FARS is ‘non denominational’ and draws writers from universities, workshops, and those toiling away alone in their garrets.

10/11 Poetry Matters @ Shaler North Hills Library

7PM THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11…

Art and Inspiration is excited to be hosting Poetry Matters, a reading by local poets featuring: Robert Walicki, Valerie Bacharach, Daniela Buccilli, and Elisabeth Crago.

Valerie Bacharach’s poetry has appeared in several publications including Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Pittsburgh City Paper, Pittsburgh Quarterly, US 1 Worksheets, The Tishman Review, Topology Magazine, Poetica, VerseWrights, and Voices from the Attic.She is a member of Carlow University’s Madwomen in the Attic workshops and conducts weekly poetry workshops for the women at Power House and CeCe’s Place, halfway houses for women in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. Her first chapbook, Fireweed, will be published in 2018 by Main Street Rag. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Daniela Buccilli’s poetry has appeared in Paterson Literary Review, Cimarron Review, Cider Press Review, and several other publications, and one anthology. Her degrees include an MFA in fiction and one that she is working on in poetry. She has taught at public high schools for 25 years. Her poetry chapbook How Much It Takes To Carry will be published in 2019 by Main Street Rag.

Elisabeth Crago is a graduate of the MFA program at Carlow University where she studied poetry and completed a creative non-fiction manuscript. Her work has been published in Voices from the Attic, vols 21 and 22 and in Eye to the Telescope. A graduate of Lehman College, CUNY and the University of Michigan, she has undergraduate degrees in English and Nursing and a master’s degree in Nursing. Crago directed the Breast Program at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, PA. She then spent 12 years in New Zealand involved in farming and aquaculture where she also served on the board of a retreat center with a primary focus on women’s spirituality. After relocating to Pittsburgh in 2014, she became a Madwoman. Crago is also a volunteer at the Women in Transition program of the Center for Women and at City of Asylum.

Robert Walicki’s work has appeared in a number of publications including The City Paper, Fourth River, Signal Mountain Review, Red River Review, and others. A Pushcart and a Best of The Net nominee, Robert currently has two chapbooks published: A Room Full of Trees (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014) and The Almost Sound of Snow Falling (Night Ballet Press), and his next collection, Black Angels is forthcoming from Six Gallery Press.A longtime volunteer at City of Asylum and The Animal Rescue League, Walicki also works as a plumber and lives in Pittsburgh.

6/14 Pittsburgh in Poems and Pictures: Clever, Ellis, Walicki @ Coffee Buddha

7PM  THURSDAY…

Join Rebecca, Angele, & Bob for an evening of poetry that goes to the heart of the Pittsburgh experience–along with an exhibit of Rebecca’s striking photographic prints & an Open Mic for local poets! Coffee Buddha is one of the coolest venues in da Burgh. Both books & photos will be on sale during the event, & will be available afterward at Coffee Buddha.
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Over the past two decades, REBECCA CLEVER has served as a reporter, newspaper editor, columnist, promotional and technical writer, book editor/designer, and photographer. Her poetry, nonfiction, interviews and pictures have been published in various newspapers, literary journals, books and anthologies. She is a past recipient of the Laurie Mansell Reich poetry award, co-sponsored by the Academy of American Poets and Chatham University; she was the recipient of a residency fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center, and she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the AWP Intro Journals Project. Rebecca received her MFA in Creative Writing from Chatham in 2011, where she was a finalist for best thesis. She resides in the North Hills with her partner, Theresa, their children, and nine pets.

ANGELE ELLIS’s most recent book, Under the Kaufmann’s Clock: Fiction, Poems, and Photographs of Pittsburgh, with photos by Rebecca Clever (Six Gallery Press), is a hybrid valentine to her adopted city—where her winning haiku appeared on the Harris Theater marquee after Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ G-20 Haiku Contest. A longtime editor and community activist, she also is author of Spared (A Main Street Rag Editors’ Choice Chapbook) and Arab on Radar (Six Gallery), whose poems won her a fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Angele is a contributing editor to Al Jadid Magazine; her poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in 75 journals and anthologies.

ROBERT WALICKI’s work has appeared in over 50 journals, including Pittsburgh City Paper, Fourth River, Stone Highway Review, and Red River Review. A Pushcart and a Best of The Net nominee, Robert has published two chapbooks: A Room Full of Trees (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014) and The Almost Sound of Snow Falling (Night Ballet Press), which was nominated to the 2016 List of Books for New York City’s Poets House. His first full-length collection, Black Angels, is forthcoming from Six Gallery Press.

 

3/23 & 4/13 Pittsburgh Poets Rock the Apollo 2 @ Apollo Memorial Library

Two readings by Pittsburgh poets at the Apollo Memorial Library, each featuring four poets and a mid-reading OPEN MIC for local poets! FREE!!

**FRIDAY, MARCH 23**

A seventh-generation Pittsburgher, JAY CARSON taught creative writing, literature, and rhetoric at Robert Morris University, where he was a faculty advisor to the student literary journal, Rune. He has published more than 100 poems in national literary and professional journals, magazines, and anthologies. Jay published a chapbook, Irish Coffee, with Coal Hill Review and a longer book of his poems, The Cinnamon of Desire, with Main Street Rag. He considers his work Appalachian, Irish, accessible, the problem-solving spiritual survival of a raging, youth—and just what you might need.

BRI GRIFFITH studies Creative Writing at Carlow University, where she’s a proud member of the Madwomen in the Attic. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Alien Mouth, Rogue Agent, Maudlin House, and Pittsburgh City Paper’s online feature Chapter & Verse.

SHARON FAGAN McDERMOTT is a poet, musician, and literature teacher at Winchester Thurston School in Pittsburgh. Her poems have appeared in Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, West Branch, and Slipstream, among other journals, and in numerous anthologies, including Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania (Penn State University Press) and A Fine Excess: Contemporary Literature at Play (Sarabande Books). She has received a PA Council on the Arts Grant, a Pittsburgh Foundation Artist Award, and a Pushcart Prize nomination. Her most recent chapbook, Bitter Acoustic, was selected by poet Betty Adcock as the winner of the 2011 Jacar Press chapbook contest.

ROBERT WALICKI’s work has appeared in over 50 journals, including Pittsburgh City Paper, Fourth River, Stone Highway Review, and Red River Review. A Pushcart and a Best of The Net nominee, Robert has published two chapbooks: A Room Full of Trees (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014) and The Almost Sound of Snow Falling (Night Ballet Press), which was nominated to the 2016 List of Books for New York City’s Poets House. His first full-length collection, Black Angels, is forthcoming from Six Gallery Press.

**FRIDAY, APRIL 13**

DANIELA BUCCILLI’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Rogue Agent, Cimarron Review, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Paterson Literary Review, U.S. Worksheets 1, Free State Review, Quail Bell.com, and Italian Americana. She holds an MFA in fiction from Pitt, and is currently working on a poetry MFA at Carlow. She is a member of The Madwomen in the Attic workshops, and teaches public high school outside of Pittsburgh. Her poetry manuscript All She Is Willing has been short-listed in a few contests, but, alas, has not been published. Nonetheless, she persists.

Over the past two decades, REBECCA CLEVER has served as a reporter, newspaper editor, columnist, promotional and technical writer, book editor/designer and photographer. Her poetry, nonfiction, interviews and pictures have been published in various newspapers, literary journals, books and anthologies. She is a past recipient of the Laurie Mansell Reich poetry award, co-sponsored by the Academy of American Poets and Chatham University; she was the recipient of a residency fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center, and she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the AWP Intro Journals Project. Rebecca received her MFA in Creative Writing from Chatham in 2011, where she was a finalist for best thesis. She resides in the Greater Pittsburgh area with her partner, Theresa, their children, and nine pets.

ANGELE ELLIS’s most recent book, Under the Kaufmann’s Clock: Fiction, Poems, and Photographs of Pittsburgh, with photos by Rebecca Clever (Six Gallery Press), is a hybrid valentine to her adopted city. A longtime editor and community activist, she also is the author of Spared (A Main Street Rag Editors’ Choice Chapbook) and Arab on Radar (Six Gallery), whose poems won her a fellowship from the PA Council on the Arts. Angele is a contributing editor to Al Jadid Magazine; her poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in 75 journals and anthologies. Her latest manuscript, Fallout Shelter, was a first-round finalist in the 2017 Two Sylvias Chapbook Contest.

LISA PANEPINTO is the author of On This Borrowed Bike (Three Rooms Press) and Poetry Editor for Cabildo Quarterly, a literary broadside and online journal.