This special reading celebrates the publication of our 2008 Slapering Hol Press chapbook competition winner, Liz Ahl’s A Thirst That’s Partly Mine.
Liz
Ahl is a poet and teacher who lives in New Hampshire. Her poems, some of which
have received Pushcart Prize nominations, have appeared recently or are forthcoming
in Four Corners, White Pelican Review, 5AM, Court Green, Margie, The Women’s
Review of Books, Prairie Schooner, Alimentum, and North American Review.
Her work has also been included in several anthologies, including Red, White
and Blues: Poets on the Promise of America (University of Iowa Press, 2004),
Mischief, Caprice, and Other Poetic Strategies (Red Hen Press, 2004), and
Like Thunder: Poets Respond to Violence (University of Iowa Press, 2002).
Cornelius
Eady is the author of seven books of poetry. the most recent being the critically
acclaimed Hardheaded Weather (Penguin, 2008). His other titles include
Victims of the Latest Dance Craze, winner of the 1985 Lamont Prize from the
Academy of American Poets and The Gathering of My Name, nominated for the
1992 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. His work has appeared in many journals and magazines
and the anthologies Every Shut Eye Ain’t Asleep, In Search of Color
Everywhere, and The Vintage Anthology of African American Poetry, (1750-2000).
With poet Toi Derricote, Eady is co-founder of Cave Canem, a summer workshop/retreat for African American poets. He is the recipient of numerous awards including an NEA Fellowship in Literature (1985), a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry (1993), and The Prairie Schooner Strousse Award (1994). In 1997, an adaptation of his book, You Don’t Miss Your Water was performed at the Vineyard Theatre in New York City. Two years later, Running Man, a music-theatre piece co-written with jazz musican Diedre Murray and focusing on the African-American family and the barriers of color and class, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama and awarded a 1999 Obie for best musical score and lead actor in a musical. In January 2002, a production of his 2001 book, Brutal Imagination (with a score by Diedre Murray) opened at the Vineyard Theatre, where it won the 2002 Oppenheimer award for the best first play by an American Playwright.
Eady has taught poetry at SUNY Stony Brook, where he directed its Poetry Center; City College; Sarah Lawrence College; New York University; The Writer’s Voice; The 92nd St Y; The College of William and Mary; and Sweet Briar College. At present he is associate professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Notre Dame.
Cornelius Eady photo credit Chip Cooper
All readings include a question & answer period and a reception with books by the author(s) for sale.
Suggested
Donation: $5 ($3 for HVWC members and those under age 18)
Programs and events at The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center are made possible, in part, by grants from the Bydale Foundation, David G. Taft Foundation, Orchard Foundation, William E. Robinson Foundation, and Thendara Foundation; with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts; and by the Basic Program Support Grant of the Westchester Arts Council with funds from Westchester County Government.