6/15 Hemingway’s Poetry Series: Padua, Simms, Ussia, Walicki

7 PM ET, Tuesday, June 15…

White Whale Bookstore is thrilled and honored to help Joan E. Bauer and Kristofer Collins virtually host the 2021 Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series! Our lineup for Week 4 features Jose Padua, Michael Simms, Matthew Ussia, and Bob Walicki.

Browse our whole ready-to-ship website, which also has a wide selection of recommended and best-selling books, store merch, book subscription boxes, and more. You can request specific books you don’t see on the site through this form, too. All orders ship from our store in Pittsburgh.

Some of these writers’ books are available on our Bookshop.org list for recent and upcoming events. Check out our curated lists and picks on our main Bookshop.org affiliate 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 ET on 6/15. Please email events@whitewhalebookstore.com if you miss this cut-off and need a ticket. For questions, check out our FAQ for events here.

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About the Hemingway’s Series:

The Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series was founded by Jimmy Cvetic in 1974 or thereabouts. It is co-hosted and curated by Joan E. Bauer & Kristofer Collins. You can RSVP to all the events in this series right here on our Eventbrite page or through www.whitewhalebookstore.com/events. An eight-week series on Tuesdays mostly, running May 4-August 10 @ 7 p.m. ET. Check out the audio archive of past series at www.hemingwayspoetryseries.blogspot.com.

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About tonight’s writers:

Jose Padua’s first full length book, A Short History of Monsters, was chosen by former poet laureate Billy Collins as the winner of the 2019 Miller Williams Poetry Prize and is now out from the University of Arkansas Press . His poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in publications such as Bomb, Salon.com, Beloit Poetry Journal, Exquisite Corpse, Unbearables, Another Chicago Magazine, Crimes of the Beats, Up is Up, but So Is Down: New York’s Downtown Literary Scene, 1974-1992, and others. He has written features and reviews for Salon, The Weeklings, NYPress, Washington City Paper, the Brooklyn Rail, and the New York Times, and has read his work at Lollapalooza, CBGBs, the Knitting Factory, the Public Theater, the Living Theater, the Nuyorican Poets’ Café, the St. Mark’s Poetry Project, and many other venues. He was a featured reader at the 2012 Split This Rock poetry festival and won the New Guard Review’s 2014 Knightville Poetry Prize.

Born and raised in Texas, Michael Simms has worked as a squire to a Hungarian fencing master, a stable hand, a gardener, a forager, an estate agent, a college teacher, an editor, a publisher, a technical writer, a lexicographer, a political organizer, and a literary impresario. He identifies as being on the spectrum and as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse who didn’t speak until he was five years old. He is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, most recently American Ash, as well as four chapbooks, three novels and a textbook about poetry, and he’s been the lead editor of over 100 published books. As the founding editor of Vox Populi and the founding editor emeritus of Autumn House Press and Coal Hill Review, he was recognized in 2011 by the Pennsylvania State Legislature for his contribution to the arts. Simms and his wife Eva live in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Mount Washington .

Matthew Ussia is a professor, editor, podcaster, thereminist, writer softcore punk, social media burnout and all-around sentient matter. He is a founding editor of the Beautiful Cadaver Project and co-edited their Social Justice Anthologies. His writings have appeared in Mister Rogers and Philosophy, Winedrunk Sidewalk, Future Humans in Fiction and Film, North of Oxford, and The Open Mic of the Air Podcast among others. He is co-editor of The Dreamers Anthology: Writing Inspired by the Lives of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Anne Frank and Recasting Masculinity. His Theremonster alter ego performs doom metal on a theremin. Matt sang back up on the Silence LP The Countdown’s Begun. He lives in Pittsburgh . More info: www.matthewussia.com.

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 available from Pittsburgh’s Six Gallery Press.

2/26 White Whale Bookstore Presents: Vertical Bridges virtual book launch w/ Corso, Ellis, Lillis, & Walicki

First Six Gallery reading/book launch of the year & it won’t be the last, hosted by Anna Claire Weber of White Whale Bookstore.

Step to Eventbrite to RSVP.

Excited to fête Paola Corso’s recent release, Vertical Bridges: Poems and Photographs of City Steps this February! She’ll be joined by Karen Lillis, Angele Ellis, and Robert Walicki for a reading.

Check out a wide selection of titles on our ready-to-ship website, which also has a wide selection of recommended and best-selling books, store merch, book subscription boxes, and more. You can request specific books you don’t see on the site through this form, too. All orders ship from our store in Pittsburgh.

All these writers’ books are available on our Bookshop.org list for recent and upcoming events. Check out our curated lists and picks on our main Bookshop.org affiliate 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 ET on 2/26. Please email events@whitewhalebookstore.com if you miss this cut-off and need a ticket. For questions, check out our FAQ for events here.

Praise for Vertical Bridges:

“Under Corso’s nimble juggling of words and images, Pittsburgh’s staircases become a series of paths leading elsewhere-from China to Norway, from Italy back to the Three Rivers again. Together these narratives construct a fascinating ecology of urban spaces, emphasizing the delicate lives and quotidian strength of those who climb up and down: workers, immigrants, children, lovers. In each direction, these poetic flights offer an all-encompassing view.”

-LAURA E. RUBERTO, author of Gramsci, Migration, and the Representation of Women’s Work in Italy and the U.S. and co-editor of New Italian Migrations to the United States, Vol. 1 and 2

“I have expressed Pittsburgh’s city steps using maps and photographs. Here Paola Corso has done so with words and style, imagery and feelings. She offers a delightful way to experience the steps, not only in Pittsburgh but around the world.”

-BOB REGAN, author of Pittsburgh Steps and Bridges of Pittsburgh

“Pittsburghers will love Paola Corso’s mix of poetry and poetic imagery, from histories of the city’s staircases to stories that unfolded along them over time. It’s good to see the stairways being celebrated, preserved, and loved – in print and in real life.”

-BRIAN A. BUTKO, author of Greetings from the Lincoln Highway and editor of Western Pennsylvania History magazine

“In poems contemplative, lyric, hybrid, and explosive, Corso stays true to her working-class roots. Though the altitude is often dizzying, the elevation is well worth it-and the best of poems, like these, always give us a touch of vertigo. This is a remarkably imaginative book, replete with stunning archival photographs and equally stunning photographs by Corso herself. A marvel!”

-JOSEPH BATHANTI, author of The Life of the World to Come and East Liberty

About the writers:

Paola Corso‘s books are set in her native Pittsburgh, where her Italian immigrant family members were steel workers, most recently The Laundress Catches Her Breath, winner of the Tillie Olsen Prize in Creative Writing, Once I Was Told the Air Was Not for Breathing, a Triangle Fire Memorial Association Awardee, and Catina’s Haircut: A Novel in Stories. She is cofounder and resident artist of Steppin Stanzas, a grant-awarded poetry and art project celebrating city steps. She splits her time between New York’s grid and Pittsburgh’s grade.

Karen Lillis is a bookseller and the author of four novellas including Watch the Doors as They Close (Spuyten Duyvil) and The Second Elizabeth (Six Gallery Press). Find her work at Karen’s Book Row online.

Angele Ellis‘s haiku was featured on the marquee of the Harris Theatre after winning Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ G-20 Haiku Contest. Her poetry, fiction, and non-fiction have appeared in seventy publications and eighteen anthologies. She is the author of four books, two of which were published by Six Gallery Press—Under the Kaufmann’s Clock (2016), a fiction/poetry hybrid inspired by Pittsburgh, with photographs by Rebecca Clever, and Arab on Radar (2008), whose poems about her family and heritage won an Individual Fellowship in Poetry from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Angele lives in Friendship, both a Pittsburgh neighborhood and a state of mind.

Robert Walicki‘s work has appeared in a number of journals including Fourth River, Uppagus, Vox Populi, and Chiron Review. He 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), which was nominated to the 2016 New York Showcase of Books at The Poet’s House in NY. His first full-length collection of poems is Black Angels (Six Gallery Press, 2019) and his latest book, Fountain, was just released from Main Street Rag Press.

Vertical Bridges has gotten a little bit of press so far

https://www.littsburgh.com/start-reading-vertical-bridges-poems-and-photographs-of-city-steps-by-paola-corso/

https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/paola-corsos-vertical-bridges-pays-tribute-to-pittsburghs-beloved-city-steps/Content?oid=18561395

https://triblive.com/local/valley-news-dispatch/harrison-natives-book-encourages-readers-to-climb-to-new-heights/

& even made its way onto the “Steps of Pittsburgh” Wikipedia entry, so you know it’s legit.

Available at bookshop.org & wherever else sells it (booksellers can get it straight from Ingram).

11/20 Poetry Reading: Russell, Mohn-Slate, McDermott, Walicki

7 PM FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20…

Please register for this event by snagging a ticket on Eventbrite! There are both free tickets and pay-what-you-can tickets available. Registration will end at 6:30pm ET on 11/20.

Tune in for a poetry reading with local (or formerly local but still local in our hearts) poets Lauren Russell, Emily Mohn-Slate, Sharon Fagan McDermott, and Bob Walicki!

Copies of Emily’s book The Falls are available on our main website! Check out our ready-to-ship website, which has a wide selection of recommended and best-selling books, store merch, book subscription boxes, and more. You can request specific books you don’t see on the site through this form, too. All orders ship from our store in Pittsburgh.

Other books by these authors are available on our Bookshop.org list for recent and upcoming events. You can also check out our curated lists and picks on our main Bookshop.org affiliate page, or use the search bar in the upper center-right to look for any book. (Using the book’s ISBN usually works best.)

Lauren Russell’s first full-length book, What’s Hanging on the Hush, came out from Ahsahta Press in 2017. Her second book, Descent, is a winner of the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards and came out from Tarpaulin Sky Press in June, 2020.

Emily Mohn-Slate is the author of The Falls, winner of the 2019 New American Poetry Prize (New American Press, 2020) and Feed, winner of the 2018 Keystone Chapbook Prize (Seven Kitchens Press).

Sharon Fagan McDermott is a poet, musician, and a teacher of literature at a private school in Pittsburgh, PA. Her most recent poetry collection, Life Without Furniture, was published by Jacar Press in 2018.

Robert Walicki 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, (Six Gallery Press, 2019).

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.

4/17 Virtual Versify: Eidolon, Ellis, Mcilroy, Moody, & Shaw

8 PM THIS FRIDAY on your rectangle…

Join us for a very special virtual reading via Zoom, featuring Anna Eidolon, Angele Ellis, Leslie Anne Mcilroy, Jonathan Moody, and Fred Shaw!

There will also be an open mic, so bring poems!

Connection information is below. We will be live around 7:30 to work out any kinks, so feel free to join either meeting at that time, whether you are participating or just listening in!

The URL to connect via internet with a computer/pad/smart phone is https://zoom.us/j/466459462
https://zoom.us/j/249258433?pwd=d29xWFR6SHdWT2RkZDR6SFdteExJdz09

When you click on that, Zoom will just come up and connect if you have used it before on that device.

If not, you will be asked to allow Zoom to be installed.
When prompted enter the meeting ID and password below:

Meeting ID: 249 258 433

Password: 257632

If you are unable to connect you can simply dial in (audio only) as you would a normal phone call. When you dial in, you will be prompted to key in the meeting ID and password

One tap mobile

+16465588656,,249258433#,,#,257632# US (New York)

+13126266799,,249258433#,,#,257632# US (Chicago)

Dial by your location

+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)

+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)

+1 253 215 8782 US

+1 301 715 8592 US

+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)

Meeting ID: 249 258 433

Password: 257632

Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/acCqKyk0yA

Hosted by Bob Walicki.

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.

6/22 Read Local/Eat Local @ Peters Township Public Library

The Peters Township Public Library will host 25 local authors at its 2nd annual Read Local/Eat Local event on Saturday, June 22 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The library is encouraging the community to read books by Pennsylvania authors that represent all genres for all age groups. No registration required to attend.

Authors at the event will include:
• Audrey Abbott, Author
• Elizabeth Babcock
• Chuck Beard
• Brian Butko
• Michael Buzzelli
• Jamie Beth Cohen, Writer
• Carrie DiRisio
• Angele Ellis
• David Finoli
• Ellen Goodlett Author
• Melanie Linn Gutowski
• Ben Gwin
• Peter Hayes
• Tom Imerito
• Lori Jakiela
• Quelcy Kogel
• J Judson Lacko
• Joe Moore
• Jacqui Phillips
• Leah Pileggi
• Chad and George Shannon The Best Seven Years of My Life
• The Tuesday Table Ladies from Longwood at Oakmont
• Bob Walicki

No registration is required to attend the rest of the Read Local/Eat Local event. Plan to Eat Local while at this free event or passing through the area. Three food trucks, Burgh Bites, Southside BBQ Company, and Udderly Fresh, will be in the library parking lot with refreshments for sale that afternoon.

For more information about Read Local/Eat Local, call the library at 724.941.9430 ext. 5771.

Kicking off the event at 10:00 a.m. will be a talk by New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict followed by a book signing.
THIS PROGRAM IS FILLED. You do have the option to arrive at 10:45 a.m. to line up for a book signing ONLY after the 10 a.m. talk.
Independent bookstore Riverstone on the Road with Marie Benedict will be handling books sales for Marie Benedict that day. They suggest you preorder your book/s before Read Local/Eat Local, by calling Riverstone Books at 412.366.1001.

Marie Benedict is a lawyer with more than ten years’ experience as a litigator at two of the country’s premier law firms. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College with a focus in History and Art History, and a cum laude graduate of the Boston University School of Law. While practicing as a lawyer, Marie dreamed of a fantastical job unearthing the hidden historical stories of women — and finally found it when she tried her hand at writing. She embarked on a new, narratively connected series of historical novels with “The Other Einstein”, which tells the tale of Albert Einstein’s first wife, a physicist herself, and the role she might have played in his theories. The following novel in this series is “Carnegie’s Maid”, which tells the story of one brilliant woman who many have spurred Andrew Carnegie’s transformation from ruthless industrialist into the world’s first true philanthropist. Marie’s 3rd installment in the series, “The Only Woman in the Room”, was published in January of 2019. A powerful novel based on the incredible true story of Hedy Lamarr, glamour icon and scientist whose groundbreaking invention revolutionized modern communication, “The Only Woman in the Room” is a masterpiece. Writing as Heather Terrell, Marie also published the historical novels “The Chrysalis”, “The Map Thief”, and “Brigid of Kildare”. She lives in Pittsburgh with her family.

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.

4/13 Poetry Fundraiser for & @ Millvale Community Library

5PM SATURDAY…

April is National Poetry Month, and April 7th-13th is National Library Week! Support the Millvale Community Library by attending our 2nd annual poetry fundraiser. Admission for this event is $5. All proceeds will benefit our after-school meal program.

Lineup includes:

Stephen Lin
Shan Soleil
Mattie Hyer
Chelsea Margaret Bodnar
James Croal Jackson
Bob Walicki

Event hosted by Ｍｉｓｓ　Ｍａｃｒｏｓｓ

2/7 Poetry & Music Night to Benefit HIAS @ Irma Freeman Center

7PM THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7…

Please bring a donation, suggested $10 – $20.

Join us as we voice our support for HIAS and for refugees, our friends. The event will be filled with the words and songs of 11 poets and musicians Avi Diamond and Angela Autumn – all local to Pittsburgh. The evening will start with a brief introduction by hosts Laura, Valerie, and Deena, as well as by director Leslie Aizenman and volunteer coordinator Andrew Van Treeck of JFCS Immigrant & Refugee Services.

Poets: Celeste Gainey, Phil Terman, Bob Walicki, Ava Anne C. Cipri, Angele Ellis, Marina Lopez, Deena November, and Valerie Bacharach.

Galleries: “Impressions & Found Work” by Irma Freeman (Upper Gallery) and “neshama – paintings & installation” by Laura Rosner (Lower Gallery)

On October 27th, 2018, the tragic mass shooting at Tree of Life *Or L’Simcha Congregation occurred, and 11 precious lives were lost during Shabbat morning services. The perpetrator was in part motivated by the congregation’s philanthropic work to benefit the Hebrew International Aid Society (HIAS), an American-Jewish organization established in 1881 to assist Jewish refugees. HIAS has since expanded its outreach to non-Jewish refugees fleeing conflicts in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Hungary, Iran, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Tunisia, Vietnam, and the successor states to the former Soviet Union. The organization’s goal is to help refugees escape persecution and to resettle in safety.

Lots of love, and hope to share this night with you.