SLAPERING HOL PRESS
Second
Friday Café
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SLAPERING HOL PRESS
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Second
Friday Café
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Second
Fridays at 7:30 March
14, 2008 Christine Boyka Kluge is the author of Teaching Bones to Fly (2003) and Stirring the Mirror (2007), both from Bitter Oleander Press. Her chapbook, Domestic Weather, won the 2003 Uccelli Press Chapbook Contest. Other honors include winning the 1999 Frances Locke Memorial Poetry Award and the 2006 Hotel Amerika Poetry Contest, and receiving several Pushcart Prize nominations. Christine’s writing is anthologized in No Boundaries: Prose Poems by 24 American Poets; Sudden Stories; Graphic Poetry; the forthcoming Riverine: An Anthology of Hudson Valley Writers and elsewhere. Her writing has appeared widely in print and online journals, including Arts & Letters, The Bloomsbury Review, The Cincinnati Review, Quarterly West, and Sentence. She is also a visual artist. Joshua Mehigan’s first book, The Optimist, was one of five finalists for the 2004 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry and winner of the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Sun, Poetry, and other periodicals. His reviews have been printed recently in Poetry and The Contemporary Poetry Review. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, Talia Neffson. Marc J. Straus is a distinguished oncologist, art curator and poet. He is the recipient of a 1993 Yaddo Fellowship and the 1998 Robert Penn Warren Award in the Humanities from Yale University Medical School. His poems have been published widely in literary journals including The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and TriQuarterly. Straus is author of three books of poetry including NOT GOD - A Play in Verse (2006), One Word (1994) and Symmetry (2000), all by TriQuarterly Books - Northwestern University Press. NOT GOD has been produced in theatrical and academic venues including, in 2007, as a staged reading at Yale and at the Depot Theatre in Garrison, NY. Straus, with his wife Dr. Livia Straus, co-founded the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill, NY. April
11, 2008 Joel Allegretti is the author of The Plague Psalms, which appeared in 2000 from The Poet’s Press and is now in its third edition. His second collection, Father Silicon, also from The Poet’s Press, was selected by the Kansas City Star as one of the 100 Noteworthy Books of 2006, a list that included novels by Thomas Pynchon and Cormac McCarthy. Allegretti’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Art/Life, Rattapallax, New York Quarterly, descant, The Laurel Review, Margie, Anglican Theological Review, BigCityLit, Wandering Hermit Review, Manhattan Literary Review, Porcupine, Knock, Confrontation, River Oak Review, and other publications. He is represented in the anthology Chance of a Ghost (Helicon Nine Editions, 2005), which also includes work by Billy Collins, Rita Dove and James Tate. His poem in that collection received an Honorable Mention in the 2006 edition of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, published by St. Martin’s Press. Jo Pitkin grew up in Somers, New York. She received a B.A. from Kirkland College and an M.F.A. from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. Finishing Line Press published her chapbook, The Measure. Her poems have appeared in Ironwood, Quarterly West, Dark Horse, Nimrod International Journal, Connecticut River Review, Vanguard Voices of the Hudson Valley - Poetry 2007, Riverine: An Anthology of Hudson Valley Writers, Stone Canoe, and others. Jo won the First Annual Hudson Valley Poetry Contest and Lyra’s Fourth Annual Poetry Prize and last year won Third Prize in both Vanguard Voices of the Hudson Valley and the Connecticut River Review competition. She has been a finalist in numerous contests, including Newburyport Art Association, Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Felix Pollak Prize, Nimrod/Hardman Literary Awards, Owl Creek Press, Peregrine Smith Poetry Competition, and Wesleyan University Press New Poets Series, and was a semifinalist in Ohio University’s Hollis Summers Prize and “Discovery”/The Nation Contest. A former editor at Houghton Mifflin, Jo works as a freelance educational writer and currently lives near the Hudson River in a former schoolhouse built in 1830. May
9, 2008 A multimedia event with poetry, art, and jazz Jo Ann Clark’s poems and translations have appeared in Reactions, Link, The Western Humanities Review, The New Republic, and The Paris Review, among others. She earned an MFA from Columbia University and has taught literature and writing in Rome and at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She recently completed a three-year tenure as Director of CITYterm at The Masters School. Brad Davis teaches at the College of the Holy Cross (MA), edits the Broken Bridge Review, and directs the Broken Bridge Summer Arts Workshops at Pomfret School (CT). Winner of an AWP Intro Journal Award and the 2005 Sunken Garden Poetry Prize, his work has appeared in such journals as Poetry, The Paris Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Tar River, DoubleTake, Puerto del Sol, Ascent, and Image. He has three books of poems, Though War Break Out, Song of the Drunkards, and No Vile Thing (Antrim House: 2005, 2007, 2008), and a chapbook, Short List of Wonders (Hill-Stead Museum: 2005). Barbara Fischer’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Paris Review, Boston Review, Southwest Review, Ekphrasis, Western Humanities Review, Maryland Poetry Review, and other journals. She is the author of a critical study of the intersections of visual and verbal art, Museum Mediations: Reframing Ekphrasis in Contemporary American Poetry (Routledge, 2006), and she is a frequent contributor of review essays to Boston Review. She holds an M.F.A. in poetry from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in English and American Literature from New York University, and has taught writing and literature at Columbia, NYU, and Marymount College. She lives in Sleepy Hollow, NY, with her husband and three children. Seiferth, Davis, & Burnett is a jazz trio (guitar, bass, & drums) comfortable interpreting standards, pressing the free envelope, or backing a guitar strumming singer-songwriter. In fact, their primary service these days is as members of the alt-country indie band PHONOGRAPH. Abe, John, and Dave met and began playing together while studying at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. October
10, 2008 November
14, 2008 December
12, 2008
Past readings: February
8, 2008 Tara Betts is a writer, performer, educator and Cave Canem alum. She received an MFA in Creative Writing from New England College. Her work has appeared in Essence, the Steppenwolf Theater production “Words on Fire,” Callaloo, Obsidian III, MiPoesias, Drum Voices Revue, WSQ, PMS poemsmemoirstory and Columbia Poetry Review. Her work has been anthologized in Gathering Ground, Bum Rush the Page, The Spoken Word Revolution, Hurricane Blues, and elsewhere. Her work will appear in Thomas Sayers Ellis’ Breakfast and Blackfist: Notes for Black Poets, Wompology and a companion book to the Without Sanctuary photography exhibit. In addition to her experience with page and stage, she is a lecturer in creative writing at Rutgers University and teaches with Urban Word NYC and DreamYard. Lorna Knowles Blake’s poems, essays and reviews have appeared recently or are forthcoming in Barrow Street, The Hudson Review, Dogwood, The Bellingham Review, and other journals, as well as in several anthologies, including Ravishing DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English, Sonnets: 150 Contemporary Sonnets, and Chance of a Ghost: an Anthology of Contemporary Ghost Poems. She lives and works in New York City. Sally Bliumis-Dunn teaches Modern Poetry and Creative Writing at Manhattanville College. She received her B.A. in Russian language and literature from U.C. Berkeley in 1983 and her MFA in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College in 2002. Her poems have appeared in Lumina, BigCityLit, Nimrod, The Paris Review, Prairie Schooner, Poetry London, RATTLE, Rattapallax, Spoon River Poetry Review and Chance of A Ghost, an anthology put out by Helicon Nine in 2005. In 2002 she was a finalist for the Nimrod/Hardman Pablo Neruda Prize. Her manuscript, Talking Underwater, which has been a finalist for The University of Arkansas Press’ First Book Prize in 2006, a semifinalist for The Kenyon First Book contest in 2002, the Bright Hill Press in 2005 and a finalist for the Richard Snyder Poetry Prize from Ashland Press in 2006, will be published by Wind Publications in 2007. She lives in Armonk, New York with her husband, John. They share four children, Ben, Angie, Kaitlin and Fiona. A reading by poet/translators Ann Cefola and Greg Delanty. Ann Cefola is the author of Sugaring (Dancing Girl Press, 2007) and translator of Hélène Sanguinetti’s Hence this cradle (Seismicity Editions, 2007). Ann is a 2007 Witter Bynner Poetry Translation Fellow and recipient of the 2001 Robert Penn Warren Award judged by John Ashbery. In addition to journals such as Confrontation and Natural Bridge, her work has appeared in Hunger Enough (Pudding House, 2004) and Off the Cuffs (Soft Skull, 2003). Ann holds an MFA in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College and works as a creative strategist with her own company, Jumpstart (jumpstartnow.net). She and her husband, Michael, live in the New York suburbs. Greg Delanty is the Artist in Residence at St. Michael’s College, Vermont. He became a U.S. citizen in 1994. He ran as a candidate for the Green Party in U.S. elections. His Collected Poems 1986-2006 is recently out from the Oxford Poet’s series of Carcanet Press. His other more recent books are The Ship of Birth (Carcanet Press 2003, Louisiana State University Press 2007), The Blind Stitch (Carcanet Press 2001, Louisiana State University Press 2002) and The Hellbox (Oxford University Press 1998)). Greg Delanty has received numerous awards and has recently earned a Guggenheim for Poetry. Our 2nd Annual Veteran’s Day reading features Maxwell Corydon Wheat, Jr. and community poets and writers*. Wheat was named Poet Laureate of Nassau County in June at the historic home of poet William Cullen Bryant, in a ceremony organized by poets 20 days after the Nassau County Legislature turned down— because of the anti-war position of his book, Iraq and Other Killing Fields: Poetry for Peace—Wheat’s unanimous recommendation to the post by the Legislature’s Poet Laureate Panel. A poet and naturalist, Wheat has taught continuing education classes in poetry writing for many years. He has won both the Long Island School of Poetry Award from the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association and an award from the New York State Outdoor Education Association. A reading by poets Elizabeth Harrington and Natalie Safir. Elizabeth Harrington has a Ph.D. in psychology and works at a market research firm in New York. She grew up in Oklahoma, which is the emotional and physical setting for much of her poetry. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and in the anthology Split Verse: Poems To Heal The Heart. She was a winner of Passaic Community College’s Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award, first runner-up in the dA Center for the Arts Poetry Prize, and a finalist for Comstock Review’s Muriel Craft Bailey Award. Her chapbook Earth’s Milk was first runner-up in the Main Street Rag Chapbook Poetry contest. Natalie Safir’s poems have been published in Slant, Rhino, Mid-America Review, and many other journals, and anthologized in McGraw Hill college texts. Her books published are Moving into Seasons, To Face the Inscription, Made Visible, and most recently, A Clear Burning (2004), which poet Michael Waters called “a book of deep and wild sustenance.”. Of her earlier work, poet Thomas Lux wrote, “I admire very much these utterly lucid, distilled, and powerful poems.” She teaches private poetry writing workshops and memoir writing at The Neighborhood House in Tarrytown. Readings by poet Maria Terrone of New York City and Pittsburgh native Paola Corso. Maria Terrone’s second book of poetry, A Secret Room in Fall (Ashland Poetry Press, 2006), won the McGovern Prize. Her work has appeared in such magazines as Poetry, The Hudson Review, and Crab Orchard Review. Her first book, The Bodies We Were Loaned (The Word Works, 2002) is now being translated into Farsi. Paola Corso’s debut fiction book, Giovanna’s 86 Circles, was named “Best Short Stories of 2005” in The Montserrat Review and is a John Gardner Fiction Book Award finalist. Author of a book of poems, Death by Renaissance, Corso is a New York Foundation for the Arts poetry fellow and currently writer-in-residence in Western Connecticut State University’s MFA Program. Let the Laureates Speak: In celebration of National Poetry Month, readings by Stephen Stepanchev, the former Poet Laureate of Queens (1997-2000), Jackie Sheeler, Poet Laureate of Rikers Island, and Brenda Connor-Bey, Poet Laureate of Greenburgh, New York. Now a Hastings-on-Hudson resident, Stephen Stepanchev served as Poet Laureate of Queens from 1997 - 2000. He recently published his 11th collection, Beyond the Gate: New and Selected Poems (Orchises Press). It contains 27 new poems and selections from all 10 previous collections. Born in Serbia in 1915, he came to the U.S. in 1922 and grew up in Chicago. He taught at Purdue University, joined the Army in 1941, and then taught at New York University and Queens College, CUNY, until 1985. Recently named Poet Laureate of Riker's Island for her volunteer work with the young inmates at the Horizon school for 16-21 year olds, Jackie Sheeler is a native New Yorker whose energy is insatiable. Her book, The Memory Factory, won the Magellan Prize from Buttonwood Press and the anthology of police poetry she edited, Off the Cuffs (Soft Skull Press), won rave reviews. Jackie's work has appeared in numerous literary journals and she has performed her work on radio and TV. She is a multi-talented artist who has recorded and fronts for the rock & roll band "Talk Engine". She founded and curates the weekly readings series, Pink Pony West, now in its 7th year. Jackie continues to teach workshops and leads both group and private workshops throughout the NY metropolitan area. Named the first Poet Laureate of Greenburgh, New York, Brenda Connor-Bey is the author of Thoughts of an Everyday Woman/An Unfinished Urban Folktale, a collection of prose and poetry. She is the founder of MenWem Writers Workshop, a member of Slapering Hol Press Advisory Committee, the Harlem Writers' Workshop, the Poetry Caravan, and the Advisory Committee for the Westchester Center for Creative Aging. She is a recipient of the Westchester Fund for Women and Girls' Outstanding Arts Educator Award, a New York State CAPS award for poetry, four PEN awards for non-fiction (B.H.R.A.G.S. Celebrates Its People's Culture, The Brooklyn Museum), and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction. She is a MacDowell, YADDO and Cave Canem Regional Fellow. Recently, she completed a chapbook of poetry, Through the Mists of Remembering, and a collection of poetry, Crossroad of the Serpent. Brenda is an arts-in-education consultant, a teacher of creative writing at the Hudson Valley Writers' Center and the Kids' Short Story Connection and a facilitator of professional development workshops for administrators and teachers. Class Act: A reading by the students of Suzanne Cleary's advanced poetry class, including Francie Camper, Jo Ann Clark, Brenda Connor-Bey, Nancy Connors, Lisa Fleck, Kate Gallagher, Leslie Maddock, and Erica Mazzeo. We celebrate the poets of Toadlily Press "whose books juxtapose multiple voices in dialogue with one another and the reader." Victoria Givotovsky (Litchfield County, CT), Myrna Goodman (Chappaqua, NY), Pamela Hart (South Salem, NY), Noah Kucij (Troy, NY), Maxine Silverman (Nyack, NY), Meredith Trede (Sleepy Hollow, NY), and Jennifer Wallace (Baltimore, MD) will read poems from Desire Path and The Fifth Voice. Veteran’s Day Reading: Poets and Writers on War and Peace, featuring selections by poet Karen Swenson, author of the National Poetry Series Award-winning book The Landlady in Bangkok and Paul Rieckhoff, author of Chasing Ghosts and Founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Also included are readings by selected community poets and writers who submitted work for consideration by a panel of judges for SHP. Paul Rieckhoff is the executive director and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) (formerly Operation Truth), the first and largest organization for veterans of the War on Terror. Rieckhoff is a nationally recognized authority on the war in Iraq and issues affecting US troops, military families, and veterans at home. He is a frequent TV and radio commentator and has appeared on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Fox's Hannity & Colmes, NBC Nightly News, 60 Minutes II, CNN's Paula Zahn Now, ABC's World News Tonight, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Air America's Al Franken Show, and NPR's All Things Considered. Karen Swenson’s third book of poetry, The Landlady in Bangkok, was chosen by Maxim Kumin as winner of The National Poetry Prize and published by Copper Canyon Press. Swenson's travels have taken her to Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia and other realms. Her work has won acclaim from the Pushcart Prize, the Arvon Foundation in England and the Ann Stanford Award. She also has written of her travels for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Leader and several magazines. Other readers include: Natalie Safir, Catherine Gonnick, Estha Weiner, Pamela Hart, Denise Frasca, Catherine Wolf, Reggie Marra, Andrea Alterman, and Jennifer Lang. Host for the evening is Cindy Beer-Fouhy. A reading from Chance of a Ghost: An Anthology of Contemporary Ghost Poems (Helicon Nine Editions, 2005), edited by Philip Miller and Gloria Vando. Those reading include Joel Allegretti, Sally Bliumis-Dunn, Marilyn A. Johnson, Nicholas Johnson, Sarah Hannah, Gabrielle LeMay, Philip Miller, Margaret Ryan, Margo Stever, and Mervyn Taylor. A poetry reading by Jeffrey McDaniel (The Splinter Factory) and a reading by actors John Blaylock and Erin-Kate Howard of a one-act play, “The Price of Beauty,” by Joe Lauinger. Lauinger’s plays have been produced across the U.S. and in Australia, India, and England, and both he and McDaniel teach at Sarah Lawrence College. Slapering Hol Press is the small press imprint of The Hudson Valley Writers' Center Admission $5 ($3 for HVWC members) |