Readings Galore

Poetry from the Rooftops: Cynthia Cruz, Laynie Browne, and Valzhyna Mort

August 20, 2009, 6:30 p.m.

VENUE CHANGE:The Zoo School Building (next to the Arsenal Building at Central Park), Enter at 64th Street at 5th Avenue, New York, NY
Free and open to the public

This summer, the Academy of American Poets continues its tradition of summer poetry readings by working with the City Parks Foundation to present Poetry from the Rooftops. Step out of the flow of traffic and hear these poets "bare their brains to heaven": Cynthia Cruz is the author of Ruin (Alice James Books, 2009). Her poems have appeared in Paris Review, Boston Review, Pleiades, Black Warrior Review, among others, and have been anthologized in Isn't it Romantic: 100 Love Poems by Younger Poets and The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries. Laynie Browne is the recipient of the 2007 National Poetry Series award, and is the author of several collections, including The Scented Fox (Wave Books, 2007), Original Presence (Shivistan Books, 2006), and Drawing of a Swan Before Memory (University of Georgia Press, 2005), winner of the Contemporary Poetry Series.

Valzhyna Mort’s collections include Factory of Tears (Copper Canyon, 2008) and I’m as Thin as Your Eyelashes (Belarus, 2005). She was born in Belarus and composes her work in Belarusian and English. She has been the recipient of the Crystal of Vilenica award in Slovenia in 2005 and the Burda Poetry Prize in Germany in 2008.

Poetry from the Rooftops: View the complete line up for the 2009 series
Sponsored by Academy of American Poets and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Info: (212) 274-0343
academy@poets.org
http://www.poets.org
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I'll be in Westchester so I'll miss this reading but it the readers and the backyard are both worth the trip to Prospect Hieghts
August 22nd, 2:30

Craig Morgan Teicher
Ana Božičević
Graeme Bezanson

381 Park Place between Underhill and Washington in Prospect Heights. Cate wants everyone to know that her zip code is 11238 in case you want to mail yourself there!
Bring yourself something to imbibe. We're in a recession for christ's sakes!
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Hopefully, I'll be back in time for this:
Pour some poems on your steamy late August with Emily Kendal Frey, Phil Memmer, Jeni “truck darling” Olin, Zachary Schomburg, JodiAnn Stevenson & Janaka Stucky!

Emily Kendal Frey lives in Portland, Oregon and teaches at Portland Community College. She is the author of AIRPORT (Blue Hour Press, 2009).

Philip Memmer is the author of three collections of poems: Lucifer: A Hagiography, winner of the 2008 Idaho Prize for Poetry; Threat of Pleasure, winner of the 2008 Adirondack Literary Award for Poetry, and Sweetheart, Baby, Darling. His work has been published in many journals, including Poetry Magazine, Epoch, and Mid-American Review, and has been included in several anthologies, including 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day and Don’t Leave Hungry: Fifty Years of Southern Poetry Review.

Truck Darling (published as “Jeni Olin”) lives in NYC where she rages in posh isolation with her dog named Good Times. Truck received her BA & MFA from Naropa University. Her first full-length book BLUE COLLAR HOLIDAY was published by Hanging Loose in 2005. Her most recent publication is a chapbook of pharmaceutical sonnets about antidepressants titled THE PILL BOOK from Faux Press, 2008. Her next book called HOLD TIGHT! will be published this April 2010 by Hanging Loose.

Zachary Schomburg is the author of Scary, No Scary (Black Ocean 2009) and The Man Suit (Black Ocean 2007), and the co-editor of Octopus Magazine and Octopus Books. A collaborative chapbook with Emily Kendal Frey called Team Sad will be published by Cinematheque Press in the fall. He lives in Portland, OR.

JodiAnn Stevenson makes her home in Bay City, Michigan where she is an Assistant Professor of writing and poetry at Delta College. She founded Binge Press, to showcase women’s work, in 2004 and 27 rue de fleures, an online journal of women’s poetries in 2005. Her first collection of poetry, The Procedure, was published in the fall of 2006 by March Street Press. Her second collection of poetry, We, the Emperors was a finalist in the Gertrude Press Chapbook Award in 2008. An excerpt of her Kamikaze Death Poetry is forthcoming in the “faux histories” issue of SPECS. Her recent blog project, Ms. Fish, the relentless, can be found at: http://msfishtherelentless.blogspot.com. Some of her visual poetry resides at www.bowlofmilk.com.

Janaka Stucky is practicing the perfection of effort while working on silent relationships with knives, hairpins, & a history of tentacles. Other passions include whiskey and pugilism. He is also the Publisher of Black Ocean and its literary magazine, Handsome. Some of his poems have appeared in Cannibal, Denver Quarterly, Fence, Free Verse, No Tell Motel, North American Review, Redivider and VOLT.


Goodbye Blue Monday
1087 Broadway
(corner of Dodworth St)
Brooklyn, NY 11221-3013
(718) 453-6343

J M Z trains to Myrtle Ave
or J train to Kosciusko St
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oh and how about you rip your ears off listening to this
I want to invite you to another installment of the bliss-out post
avant-miasma that is Sportsman's Paradise!

This Thursday, August 20th, 8pm at the ISSUE PROJECT ROOM in Brooklyn.


We're playing with Cotton Museum + Sick Llama which sounds intriguing
and contagious.


Here's the website:
http://issueprojectroom.org/2009/07/08/sportsman%E2%80%99s-paradise-cotton-museum-sick-llama/


We will debut a ten minute vocal piece and full-on expand a tested
soundscape of descent.

Bring earplugs or stick some toilet paper in your ears. We will end loudly.

I can let you know in the evening of the day we play when we'll go on
by text or email, if you'd like. I'm not sure if we play last or what.

Here's the address:

At the Old American Can Factory
232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11215