9/8 Virtual Poetry Book Launch: “The River Is Another Kind of Prayer” by Kristofer Collins

7 PM Tuesday, Sept. 8, on your rectangle…

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 EDT on 9/8.

Rescheduled from March: We’re super excited to be helping local poet Kristofer Collins launch his latest collection, The River Is Another Kind of Prayer: New & Selected Poems! He’ll be reading alongside Daniela Buccilli, Richard Gegick, and Jamilla Rice.

Check out our Bookshop site’s list titled “Recent and Upcoming Events (Pre-order!)” to order Kristofer’s book. And you can check out other curated lists and picks on our main Bookshop 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.) We’ve also got a number of books available ready-to-ship from our store in Pittsburgh.

About the authors:

Kristofer Collins is the publisher of Low Ghost Press and the books editor at Pittsburgh Magazine. He is the co-host of the Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series. He lives in Pittsburgh, PA with his wife Dr. Anna Johnson and their son Cassidy.

Daniela Buccilli’s poetry chapbook is What it Takes to Carry (Main Street Rag). Her poems can be found in Coal River Review, Paterson Literary Review, Cimarron Review, Cider Press Review, and Italian Americana. She holds degrees in teaching and writing from Penn State, University of Pittsburgh, and Carlow University. She has co-edited an upcoming anthology Show Us Your Papers. She teaches high school.

Richard Gegick is from Trafford, PA. He is the author of the poetry collection, Greasy Handshakes, available from WPA Press. He lives in Pittsburgh where he writes and waits tables for a living.

Jamilla Rice dreams of when she can own her days and write. Until then, she squeezes out moments during her time as an athlete, educator, aunt, book nerd, baker, and British detective drama junkie. Her work has been published in previous volumes of Voices from the Attic and Pittsburgh Poetry Review, among other anthologies and periodicals. You may have heard her read at various events, on WESA’s Prosody, or at that one open mic in Toronto. Her work includes poetry, short fiction, flash nonfiction and combinations of all of the above and more. Topics generally explore the intersection of the personal and political; past as present and future; the beauty within the mundane and pain; the science, math, and absurdity of human behavior; and the undying insistence of marginalized peoples to thrive.

3/24 The River Is Another Kind of Prayer by Kristofer Collins launch @ White Whale

TUESDAY, MARCH 24…

We’re super excited to be helping local poet KRISTOFER COLLINS launch his latest collection, THE RIVER IS ANOTHER KIND OF PRAYER: NEW & SELECTED POEMS! He’ll be reading alongside DANIELA BUCCILLI, RICHARD GEGICK, and JAMILLA RICE.

KRISTOFER COLLINS is the publisher of Low Ghost Press and the books editor at Pittsburgh Magazine. He is the co-host of the Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series. He lives in Pittsburgh, PA with his wife Dr. Anna Johnson and their son Cassidy.

DANIELA BUCCILLI’S poetry chapbook is What it Takes to Carry (Main Street Rag). Her poems can be found in Coal River Review, Paterson Literary Review, Cimarron Review, Cider Press Review, and Italian Americana. She holds degrees in teaching and writing from Penn State, University of Pittsburgh, and Carlow University. She has co-edited an upcoming anthology Show Us Your Papers. She teaches high school.

RICHARD GEGICK is from Trafford, PA. He is the author of the poetry collection, GREASY HANDSHAKES, available from WPA Press. He lives in Pittsburgh where he writes and waits tables for a living

JAMILLA RICE dreams of when she can own her days and write. Until then, she squeezes out moments during her time as an athlete, educator, aunt, book nerd, baker, and British detective drama junkie. Her work has been published in previous volumes of Voices from the Attic and Pittsburgh Poetry Review, among other anthologies and periodicals. You may have heard her read at various events, on WESA’s Prosody, or at that one open mic in Toronto. Her work includes poetry, short fiction, flash nonfiction and combinations of all of the above and more. Topics generally explore the intersection of the personal and political; past as present and future; the beauty within the mundane and pain; the science, math, and absurdity of human behavior; and the undying insistence of marginalized peoples to thrive.

5/7 Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series – Week 1

8PM TUESDAY…

The 2019 Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series
Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. May-July
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

Tuesday, May 7 – Madwomen in the Attic: Introduction by Jan Beatty.
Valerie Bacharach, Doralee Brooks, Daniela Buccilli, Kara Knickerbocker, Jamilla Rice, Bernadette Ulsamer & Sarah Williams-Devereux

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

Doralee Brooks, a Writing Project Fellow (1995), teaches at the Community College of Allegheny County where she chairs the developmental studies department. Her poems have appeared in Uppagus, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Voices from the Attic, and The Paterson Review. Her chapbook, When Damballah Laughs, was a finalist for the 2016 Coal Hill Review Chapbook Prize. In 2017, her poem, “Trending This Fall,” was published in the anthology Nasty Women and Bad Hombres edited by Deena November and Nina Padolf. She writes with the Madwomen in the Attic poetry workshop.

Daniela Buccilli’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in publications that include Paterson Literary Review, Cimarron Review, Cider Press Review, US 1 Worksheets, and an anthology. She is completing her second MFA, this time 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. She is also working as an editor for Show Us Your Papers: A Poetry Anthology.

Kara Knickerbocker is a writer and world traveler from Saegertown, Pennsylvania and the author of the chapbooks The Shedding Before the Swell and Next to Everything that is Breakable. She 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 works at Carnegie Mellon University, writes with the Madwomen in the Attic, and co-curates the MadFridays Reading Series.

Jamilla Rice dreams of when she can own her days and write. Until then, she squeezes out the time between being an athlete, educator, speaker, aunt, gardener, book nerd, baker, and British detective drama junkie. She’s been published in Voices from the Attic, among other anthologies and periodicals. You may have heard her read at Penguin Bookshop, White Whale Books, Delanie’s Coffee House, on WESA’s Prosody, or that random open mic in Toronto.

Bernadette Ulsamer earned an MFA from Carlow University where she is a member of Madwomen in the Attic. She is the author of the chapbook “Trestling” published by Flutter Press. Her poetry has appeared in Pittsburgh City Paper, The Main Street Rag, Cossack Literary Journal, Roar Magazine, The Broken Plate, Meat For Tea: The Valley Review, and has been anthologized in Voices from the Attic, and Along These Rivers.

Sarah Williams-Devereux is a poet and teacher of writing. Her poetry has appeared in Snapdragon: A Journal of Art & Healing, Sampsonia Way Magazine, Pittsburgh City Paper; the anthologies Pittsburgh Love Stories and Nasty Women & Bad Hombres; and WESA-FM’s Prosody. She leads poetry workshops for the Madwomen in the Attic. She is certified in writing group leadership from Amherst Writers & Artists and volunteers for the Transformative Language Arts Network. She is pursuing her MA in teaching writing from Johns Hopkins University.

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.

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.

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.

1/28 The Light on the Wall launch @ Irma Freeman Center

THIS SATURDAY…

The Light on the Wall Book Launch

featuring poet Jen Ashburn with special guests Daniela Buccilli, Brittany Hailer, Scott Silsbe, and emcee Paula Levin

Saturday January 28th 6-8pm

Irma Freeman Center

5006 Penn Ave, Pgh 15224

Readings, book signings, wine & light hors d’oeuvres

 

We’ll also take up a collection for Bethlehem Haven, which supports women who are homeless, in danger of being homeless, or mentally ill.  For more on Bethlehem Haven, go to: wwwbethelehemhaven.org

Jen Ashburn‘s work has been published or is forthcoming in Chiron Review, Grey Sparrow, Lilliput Review, The MacGuffin, Nerve Cowboy, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the anthology Words Without Walls, and other journals. She completed her MFA at Chatham University in poetry and creative nonfiction, where she taught creative writing to inmates in the Allegheny County Jail. Originally from Indiana, she spent four years in Japan and greater Asia, and now lives in Pittsburgh.