8/3 Poetry Reading: Silsbe, Wielkopolan, Tutolo, Kuzmish, & Pajich @ White Whale + Kevin Finn @ Night Market

7 PM SATURDAY

To kick off our poetry events during the month of August, White Whale’s delighted to welcome back local poets Scott Silsbe, Stefanie Wielkopolan, Meghan Tutolo, Bob Pajich, and Luke Kuzmish, for a reading in the store! All four writers will be selling their books and chapbooks during the reading as well.

LUKE KUZMISH is a new father, recovering addict, and software developer. He has released 4 collections of poems, the latest entitled Hurry Up Wagon, published by Poets’ Hall Press.

SCOTT SILSBE was born in Detroit. He now lives in Pittsburgh. His poems have been collected in three books—Unattended Fire, The River Underneath the City, and Muskrat Friday Dinner. He is also an assistant editor at Low Ghost Press.

MEGHAN TUTOLO’S poems have appeared in Nerve Cowboy, Rattle, Chiron Review, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and paper placemats and old receipts all over Western PA and beyond. Her first chapbook, Little as Living, was published in September 2014.

BOB PAJICH is a writer living in Forest Hills. His poetry collection,The Trolleyman, is available from Pittsburgh’s Low Ghost Press.

STEFANIE WIELKOPOLAN is a poet from North Carolina that prefers to call the past home. Up until the age of eight, she spent every Saturday watching cartoons at a bowling alley bar. She credits this experience for her love of a good dive bar, people watching, and writing poetry. In 2008, she received her M.F.A. in Poetry from Chatham University. Her poems have appeared in New Yinzer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Uppagus, Nerve Cowboy, and the anthology Unconditional Surrender: An Anthology of Love Poems from Low Ghost Press, among others. Her first collection of poetry, Border Theory, was published by Black Coffee Press in 2011.

ALSO Zachary Lee, Amy Melissen, & Sea of Dust author Kevin Finn will play some tunes in Market Square. Kevin goes on at 5:30.

The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership presents the Saturday Night Market: join us every Saturday from May 18 through October 26 for a night of art, jewelry, photography, games, food, music, and more!

As part of our Downtown Sound Initiative, we’ll be presenting a weekly free, live music series at the Night Markets in collaboration with community partners presenting diverse styles of local music on the Pittsburgh City Paper Stage.

🎵 Music partners include WYEP-FM, Women Who Rock, The Funhouse at Mr. Smalls, Deutschtown Music Festival, Blues Society of Western Pennsylvania, YMCA Lighthouse Project, Weather Permitting, BOOM Concepts, Liveburghstudio, and more!

Visit DowntownPittsburgh.com to see a weekly entertainment lineup, vendor listing, and more.

In addition to weekly Night Markets on Saturdays, join us for special Friday nights during the Three Rivers Arts Festival, Picklesburgh 2019, and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Gallery Crawls.

Media support for the Night Market + Concert Series is provided by 91.3 WYEP.

10/20 Poetry and Tales 3 Launch @ Ember+Forge

6PM TODAY,

Alien Buddha Press authors reading live at Ember + Forge in Erie

so there ya go.

7/7 Inflammatosis! by Mark Spitzer & Spell to Spell by Lea Graham launch party @ Nine Stories Books + Alien Buddha Invades Erie @ Ember+Forge

7PM Saturday, July 7 at Nine Stories Books, three scribblers from Arkansas join three from the 412 to celebrate the launch of Mark Spitzer’s latest book Inflammatosis, “a big, punk-ass Fuck You to all the petty, pretentious haters out there dicking around with 1) his life, 2) your life, 3) all our lives, and 4) fish.”

Mark Spitzer, novelist, poet, essayist and literary translator, grew up in Minneapolis where he earned his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Minnesota in 1990. He then moved to the Rockies, where he earned his Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Colorado. After living on the road for some time, he found himself in Paris, as Writer in Residence for three years at the bohemian bookstore Shakespeare and Company, where he translated French criminals and misanthropes. In 1997 he moved to Louisiana, became Assistant Editor of the legendary lit journal Exquisite Corpse, and earned an MFA from Louisiana State University. He taught creative writing and lit for five years at Truman State University and is now an associate professor of creative writing at the University of Central Arkansas.

Traveling with Mark from the home state of Johnny Cash & C. D. Wright will be Lea Graham & Scotty Lewis. We’ll also be celebrating the launch of Lea’s new chapbook.

Spell to Spell
by Lea Graham
$5

Gristle, (n.) cartilage; tough cartilaginous, tendinous, or fibrous matter

For Georganna Ulary

Grit’s spell. / A bone of sound / between hustle, just whistle. / Grist to the mill of welter, / close to grisly but more wattle / less huddle. / Tattooed thistle, / apple of my ire, / a subtle gris-gris / around the wrist of tussle. / The gist of it: / A muscle that fasts is lost. / We must wrestle that lustful, fustling angel of self, / bedazzle that recluse; / bust and move the offal, / dis refusal. / Wrest our names, / our castling  furies, / cast and fuss to surge, / gird and guzzle that shit; / grease the wheels against hair-shirts of hurt, / storm the bastille of cry, the cradle of grow; / jazz and cussle this tigress, /  this mottled grindle of rage, / muddle the sonic barb.  /  Steal away   steal away   steal away home

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2018
celebrating twenty-five years of above/ground press
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Lea Graham is the author of the forthcoming book, From the Hotel Vernon (Salmon Press, 2019), the chapbook, This End of the World: Notes to Robert Kroetsch (Apt. 9 Press, 2016) and the poetry book, Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You (No Tell Books, 2011). She is an associate professor at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY and a native of Northwest Arkansas.

This is Graham’s third above/ground press chapbook, after Calendar Girls (2006) and metric : a collaboration (with rob mclennan, 2011).

Here’s another poem from Spell to Spell at Crab Creek Review.

Scotty Lewis is a 2015 graduate of the Arkansas Writers MFA Program. His first book of poetry, Arkansas Ghoulash, came out last December on Six Gallery. Here’s an interview with Scotty talking about the book, & here’s another one.

The Pittsburgh lineup is pretty outstanding too:

Karen Lillis is a writer and bookseller. She is the author of four poetic novels, including The Second Elizabeth (Six Gallery Press, 2009), and runs Karen’s Book Row, a pop up and online bookshop. Her writing has appeared in The Austin Chronicle, The Brooklyn Rail, Evergreen Review, LA Cultural Weekly, and the Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology, among others. An Acker Award winner for Avant Garde Excellence in Fiction, her recent publications include Submerging Zine, From Somewhere to Nowhere: The End of the American Dream, and forthcoming prose in Local Knowledge (Fall 2018).

Ben Gwin is the Fiction Editor at Burrow Press Review. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Normal School, Bridge Eight, Word Riot, Mary: A Journal of New Writing, and others. His novel manuscript, Clean Time: The True Story of Ronald Reagan Middleton, was shortlisted for the 2014 Pressgang Prize, and named a semifinalist for the 2015 Horatio Nelson Fiction Prize. He lives in Pittsburgh with his daughter.

I’d add that Clean Time is out now & by all accounts hilarious. You can read a bit of it at Literary Hub.

Barbara Edelman is the author of the poetry collection Dream of the Gone-From City from Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2017. Her poems have appeared in journals nationally, including Prairie Schooner, Cimarron Review, and Poet Lore; in translation in the Italian journal Nuovi Argomenti, and in several anthologies. Her short prose has appeared in Rattle and Arts & Letters. She’s the author of two poetry chapbooks: Exposure, Finishing Line Press, 2014 and A Girl in Water, Parallel Press, 2002. Her work has been recognized with a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts individual artist’s grant in poetry and the Turow-Kinder Prize in short fiction.

Edelman teaches in the writing, composition, and literature programs at Pitt and coordinates the Writers’ Café. She won the 2012 CGS Student Choice Award for teaching. She holds a B.A. in English from Colgate University, an M.A. in English from California State University Northridge, and an M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Pittsburgh.

***

Meanwhile, in Erie, it’s

Open mic and featured writers series

feat. Jason Baldinger, Heath Brougher, Scott Thomas Outlar, Jay Miner, Jeremy Stolz, Luke Kuzmish, Matt Borczon, Thasia Anne, & Veronica Hopkins at Ember+Forge.

7/15 The Trouble With Poets @ Filmmakers; 7/16 With a Deepening Presence Launch Party @ Irma Freeman Center + BE Quarterly Zine Release & Artist Round-Up @ Percolate

THIS WEEKEND…

you have plenty of poetry options, including two chances to catch the great Don Wentworth & grab a copy of his new book With a Deepening Presence. On Friday,

Tom Weber’s film “The Trouble With Poets” comes to Pittsburgh Documentary Salon. Tom is an Erie-based filmmaker and former faculty member at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. Featuring live performances by poets Bigg Wash, Kim Noyes, Don Wentworth and Bob Ziller. Program starts at 7 pm sharp and admission is FREE (please bring a snack or bottle of wine to share).

Then,

This Saturday, July 16th, at the Irma Freeman Center for Imagination, from 7:30 to 9:30, is the launch of With a Deepening Presence. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Presence will be sold at the special reading price of $8.

Reading will be Kristofer Collins, Christine Starkey, Che Elias, Scott Pyle, Rosaly Roffman, Bart Solarczyk, Bob Ziller and myself [the great Don Wentworth]. Food and drinks (water, beer) will be provided. 

Don says,

The Filmmakers reading will be a general overview of my work. The launch reading will focus on the new book and a raft of all new poems never performed before. So, two nights, two very different readings.

UPDATE: Short List rectangle!

Saturday afternoon, more troublesome poets, including master of mischief Scott Silsbe, will perform at this BE Quarterly event. Via Joan Bauer & Kelly Andrews…

BE Quarterly Zine Release and Artist Round-Up

featuring Gopalakrishnan, Grieshober, McDermott, Silsbe, Tutolo & Williams!

Percolate Art Gallery

317 S. Trenton, Pittsburgh, PA 15221

Dream City Art Walk

Saturday, July 16, 2016

1:30-4:00PM

In celebration of BE Quarterly’s recent release of “Issue 3… Finally!”, we’ll be rounding up Wilkinsburg-local contributors from the zine’s first three issues to perform at Percolate Art Gallery from 1:30 to 4pm as part of Wilkinsburg’s annual Dream City Art Walk on Saturday, July 16th! Bobbi Williams’ Dream Theater will perform at 1:30, and the readers’ performances will start a bit after 2:00.

Kamala Gopalakrishnan is a queer poet who has called this city her home since 2013. In April of this year, she received her MFA in Poetry from the University of Pittsburgh, where for three years she studied under acclaimed poets Yona Harvey, Terrance Hayes, and Dawn Lundy Martin, among others. She is among the poetry finalists for Best of the Net 2015. This reading will feature poems from her first collection, Public Fruit, in which she explores themes of vulnerability, assimilation, and hindu mythology.

Taylor Grieshober writes from her lovely home in Wilkinsburg. Her latest story can be found in Burrow Press Review.

Sharon Fagan McDermott is a poet and musician who teaches literature at a private high school in Pittsburgh. She has published three chapbooks, including Alley Scatting (Parallel Press, University of Wisconsin) and Bitter Acoustic, winner of the 2011 Jacar Press chapbook competition, chosen by poet Betty Adcock. Fagan McDermott was a 2001 recipient of a Pittsburgh artist award and a 2002 love” published by Jacar Press (NC).recipient of a PA Council on the Arts award. In 2005, she was awarded the Bellet Excellence in Teaching in the Arts and Science award from the University of Pittsburgh. Her work has been published in many anthologies and literary journals including Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, and Eclectica Magazine (online.)

Scott Silsbe was born in Detroit and now lives in Pittsburgh. His poems and prose have appeared in numerous periodicals including Nerve Cowboy, Chiron Review and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He is the author of two poetry collections: Unattended Fire and The River Underneath the City. He was also a finalist for the Cultural Weekly’s 2014 Jack Grapes Poetry Prize.

Meghan Tutolo is an artist with some writing degrees and two cats with smooshy faces. She romances olives and pasta for a living. Otherwise, she can be found sleepless, painting, writing, doodling, grading, playing music (horribly), and coffee drinking. Meghan’s publications include everything from product labels to ads to poems. Her first chapbook Little As Living (2014) was published by Dancing Girl Press.

Bobbi Williams is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, activist and visionary. Williams holds a Master’s degree in Fine Arts in Playwriting and Acting from Carnegie Mellon University and Moscow Art Theater School. Williams has received a BFA in directing from Point Park College and has attended the National Theater Institute and the Academy of Natural Healing NYC. Ms. Williams is an international artist, healer, shaman and performer. Some of her directing work has taken her to the United Nations, the Apollo Theater and the Joseph Papp Public Theater, to name a few. On July 16, she will be leading “Improvisation Lab Presents: Dream Theater,” a fun session of astral travel as she and her talented students build solidarity and connection by exploring dreams through improv.

BE Quarterly is a hand-bound, multi-genre periodical arts and literature zine that gathers the work of talented Pittsburgh artists and is run out of Biddle’s Escape Coffee Shop in Wilkinsburg, PA.

If you still like poetry after all that, you may be eligible to apply for an unpaid internship here at Six Gallery. Beef up your resume &/or criminal record! The exciting world of small press publishing awaits…