July 26, 2011 (Grand Finale)

Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series

July 26, 2011

Nour Abdelghani

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Nour Abdelghani moved to Pittsburgh in 2005. She is a 2010 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh where she co-edited the Three Rivers Review literary magazine and met a group of amazing writers. Her fiction has appeared in issue 05 of Weave Magazine and the second volume of The New Fraktur. She was the recipient on the 2009 Myron Taube award in fiction and the 1^st prize, Prosody/Writer’s Café creative non-fiction award. Her non-fiction was featured on WYEP’s Prosody in 2009.

Nour Abdelghani’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

David Adès has recently moved to Pittsburgh from Adelaide, Australia.  He has been a member of Friendly Street Poets since 1979. His poems have appeared widely in Australia in publications including over 20 of the Friendly Street Poetry Readers and numerous literary magazines such as Island, Tirra Lirra, Wet Ink, Famous Reporter, Five Bells, Social Alternatives, Verandah and Studio, with some poems also appearing in translation in Vatra (Rumania).  He has appeared on the Australian radio poetry program Poetica, and is one of 9 poets featured on a CD titled “Adelaide 9.”  His collection, Mapping the World, was commended for the Fellowship of Australian Writers Anne Elder Award 2008. 

David Adès’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Marilyn Bates, author of It Could Drive You Crazy, was a "Poet in Person" with the International Poetry Forum. She was an invited reader at the Noontime Reading Series at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC and at the James Wright Poetry Festival. Her work has appeared in The MacGuffin, The Paterson Literary Review, One Trick Pony, Poet Lore, and The Potomac Review.  Her work is anthologized in Pass-Fail: 32 Stories about Teaching; My Aunties' Book: 35 Writers Talk About Their Other Mother; Voices in Italian Americana; Along These Rivers and What Rough Beast: Poems at the End of the Century. Her one-act play, Life Without Nipples, was produced by the Pittsburgh New Works Theater Festival in 2007.  Her dramatic monologues were recited by Etta Cox in Womanscene, a fund-raising event for the Lupus Foundation.

Marilyn Bates’ Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Jerome Crooks began writing poetry in 1993 in Buffalo New York.  After finishing high school in Chesapeake VA in 1996, he moved to Pittsburgh, his father's home city, where he completed a BA in creative writing focusing on poetry at the University of Pittsburgh.  He is the son of Jerry and Mary Anne Crooks, brother to Theresa Leonard, brother-in-law to John Leonard, and proud uncle of Aeden.  He also co-authored, with Jason Baldinger, The Whiskey Rebellion (Six Gallery Press, 2011), has edited a book for Encyclopedia Destructica, and runs a literary press, Speed and Briscoe, based in Pittsburgh.  

Jerome Crooks’ Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Edna Machesney is a past president of the Pittsburgh Poetry Society, and is a frequent reader at their events.  Her poetry is short and lyrical.  One of her haiku won an international haiku competition in Japan.

Edna Machesney’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Deena November graduated SUNY Binghamton in 2005 with a BA in Creative Writing, Poetry and received her MFA in Creative Writing, Poetry from Carlow University in April 2009. In 2005 she co-edited the anthology, I Just Hope It's Lethal, for Houghton Mifflin. Her poems have also appeared in Pittsburgh City Paper, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and Warbler. Deena lives in Pittsburgh’s North Side with her husband and dog.

Deena November’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Fred Peterson grew up on Arkansas rice farms in the 1940s and 1950s and uses rural farmboy experiences to relive those days.  A resident of Pittsburgh for twenty-five years, he is a member of the Pittsburgh Poetry Society and has been working on a chapbook for longer than he cares to remember. 

Fred Peterson’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Lucille T. Seibert has lived in New York and Massachusetts. For the past 35 years, she has made her home in Pittsburgh, PA.  She studied with Pat Dobler as part of the Madwomen in the Attic program, and currently is a member of the Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange. The Unattended Kitchen Sink is her first book of poems, written over the past 54 years.

Lucille Seibert’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Ron Smits is Emeritus Professor of English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  His book of poems, Push, was published by the University of Scranton Press in 2009.  

Ron Smits’ Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Christine Telfer is a founding editor of Invisible River Publishing, and for some years was editor and publisher of The Exchange.  A returned Peace Corps volunteer from Bulgaria, she now teaches English as a Second Language in Pittsburgh.  Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Artcrimes 20, Main Street Rag, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Whiskey Journal and other journals and periodicals. 

Christine Telfer’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Don Wentworth writes poetry in the short form and has had work published in bear creek haiku, Rolling Stone, Modern Haiku, bottle rockets, The New Yinzer, Cotyledon, Encylopedia  Destructica, and the anthologies Prairie Smoke and To Life.  His first full-length volume, Past All Traps, was published by Six Gallery Press in 2011.

Don Wentworth’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Bob Ziller is an artist, poet, translator, and singer.  His translation of Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo's Translated from the Night,  the first English rendering of a complete text by the "pure African surrealist” of Madagascar--was praised by Dr. Henry Louis Gates:  "These translations read beautifully."  Ziller's artwork has been widely displayed in streets, galleries and museums around the US. As a singer and lyricist, he has recorded with the bands, Bingo Quixote and Media Circus Extravaganza!- with the MCE! Song, "Waterboarding," garnering attention as a GaraeBand.com Track of the Day. 

Bob Ziller’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Jimmy Cvetic has been writing and performing poetry all his life. A retired county police officer, he is the director of the Pittsburgh Police Athletic League, and founder and director of the Summer Poetry Series at Hemingway's Cafe in Oakland.  His poems have appeared in the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette and other publications.  His first full-length book of poetry, Secret Society of Dog, was published in 2010. 

Jimmy Cvetic’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

July 19, 2011 (Waite, Beatty, Ochester)

Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series

July 19, 2011

Stacey Waite is originally from New York and received an MFA in poetry in 2003. For several years, she has been teaching courses in Composition, Women's Studies, Literature and Creative Writing as a PHD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh.  After receiving her MFA, Stacey published two collections of poems:  Choke (winner of the 2004 Frank O'Hara Prize in Poetry) and Love Poem to Androgyny (winner of the 2006 Main Street Rag Competition).  Her poems have been published most recently in The Cream City Review, The Marlboro Review, Gulf Stream and Black Warrior Review.  A new collection of poems, The Lake has No Saint, was published by Tupelo Press in 2010.  Stacey has also been teaching for the Carlow University sponsored community, Madwomen in the Attic.  This September 2011, she will be teaching at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Stacey Waite’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Jan Beatty’s new book, Red Sugar, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in Spring, 2008. Other books include Boneshaker (2002, University of Pittsburgh Press) and Mad River, winner of the 1994 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize. Ravenous, her limited edition chapbook, won the 1995 State Street Prize. Beatty’s poetry has appeared in Quarterly West, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, and Court Green, and in anthologies published by Oxford University Press, University of Illinois Press, and University of Iowa Press. Awards include the $15,000 Creative Achievement Award in Literature from the Heinz Foundation, the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, and two fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. For the past thirteen years, she has hosted and produced Prosody, a public radio show on NPR-affiliate WYEP-FM featuring the work of national writers. Beatty directs the creative writing program at Carlow University, where she runs the Madwomen in the Attic writing workshops and teaches in the MFA program. such as MARGIE: The American Journal of Poetry; AmeriQuests (Vanderbilt University); 580 Split (Mills College); and upstreet, among many others. 

Jan Beatty’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Ed Ochester

Through his writing, editing and teaching, Ed Ochester has been a major influence on contemporary letters for more than three decades.  His most recent books are Unreconstructed: Poems Selected and New (Autumn House Press, July 2007), The Republic of Lies (chapbook, Adastra Press, June 2007), The Land of Cockaigne (Story Line Press, 2001), and American Poetry Now (University of Pittsburgh Press, March 2007), an anthology of contemporary American poetry.  He edits the Pitt Poetry Series and is general editor of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for short fiction (both University of Pittsburgh Press). From 1978 to 1998, he was director of the writing program at the University of Pittsburgh, and was twice elected president of Associated Writing Programs.  He has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, recently won the $15,000 "Artist of the Year" award of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, and in 2006 won AWP's George Garrett Award for service to literature. He co-edits the poetry magazine 5 AM and is a core faculty member of the Bennington College MFA program. 

Ed Ochester’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Jimmy Cvetic reads Dog

Jimmy Cvetic - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Open Mic

Open Mic - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

July 12, 2011 (Edwards, Collins, Carter-Jones, Kane, Bauer)

Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series

July 12, 2011

Ziggy Edwards grew up in Pittsburgh and earned a BA in Fiction Writing from the University of Pittsburgh.  Her poems and short stories have appeared in publications including Confluence, Paper Street, Pittsburgh City Paper, Nexus, Main Street Rag, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Ship of Fools.  She has also been a guest on WYEP radio's Prosody.  Ziggy's first chapbook, Hope's White Shoes. was published in 2006. 

Ziggy Edwards’ Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Kristofer Collins is publisher and editor-in-chief of Low Ghost Press, former co-director of the TNY Presents Performance Series, managing editor of The New Yinzer 2005-2009.  He is the book reviewer for Pittsburgh Magazine.  He is the manager of Caliban Bookshop and owner of Desolation row Records & CDs.  A book of his poems, King Everything, was published in 2007 by Six Gallery Press, The Book of Names was published by Low Ghost Press in 2008, and The Liturgy of Streets was published by Six Gallery Press in 1009.  His latest collection, Last Call, was published by Speed & Briscoe in 2010.

Kristofer Collins’ Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Sheila Carter-Jones has spent many years in the field of education and is currently an education consultant and a full-time poet. She is a fellow of both the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project and Cave Canem. Her work has appeared in several anthologies and journals, including Crossing Limits, Pennsylvania Review, Tri-State Anthology, River Speak and Coal. Her chapbook, Blackberry Cobbler Song, was recently released by Publish Today. Her book of poetry, Three Birds Deep, selected by Elizabeth Alexander, is forthcoming from Lotus Press.

Sheila Carter-Jones’ Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Kelli Stevens Kane's poetry is featured or forthcoming in Spider Magazine, Denvery Syntax, The Poetry Super Highway, Little Red Leaves and Maintenant.  Her poetry manuscript, Hallelujah Science, is currently making the rounds. She is the recipient of a Serpent Source Foundation grant for her second manuscript, an oral history about the Hill District of Pittsburgh. Kelli was a regular in the San Francisco poetry scene in the late nineties. She returned to the stage in December 2009, and since has read widely, including performances at the Cornelia Street Cafe and Bowery Poetry Club in New York, NY, the August Wilson Center for African American Culture in Pittsburgh, PA. 

Kelli Steven Kane’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Joan E. Bauer is the author of The Almost Sound of Drowning, published by Main Street Rag (2008).  Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals ranging from 5 AM, New Renaissance, Slipstream to Quarterly West, and nearly a dozen anthologies, including Come Together: Imagine Peace (Bottom Dog Press), Along These Rivers: Poetry and Photography from Pittsburgh (Quadrant), and Voices from the Attic (Carlow University Press), among others. Her poetry has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and she recently completed work on a new poetry manuscript, Dreaming of Prague. 

Joan Bauer’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Jimmy Cvetic Reads Get Real High and They'll Name a Clinic After You

Jimmy Cvetic - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Open Mic

Open Mic - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

July 5, 2011 (Carson, St. John, Kitchens, Karasek)

Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series

July 5, 2011

Jay Carson teaches creative writing, literature, and rhetoric at Robert Morris University, where he is also a faculty advisor to the student literary journal, Rune.  Active professionally, he regularly presents and participates in readings, both locally, nationally, and occasionally, internationally.  Jay has published more than 60 poems which have appeared in local and national literary and professional journals, magazines, and anthologies. He has just finished a book of his poems, entitled The Cinnamon of Desire.

Jay Carson’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Richard St. John's book of poems, The Pure Inconstancy of Grace, was published in 2005 by Truman State University Press, as first runner up for the 2004 T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry. His poem “Shrine” was released as a chapbook from Finishing Line Press in March 2011.  His work has also appeared in Sewanee Review, Poet Lore, and Carolina Quarterly as well as many other periodicals and anthologies. He received degrees in English from Princeton University and the University of Virginia. In 2002, he completed a mid-career Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife Kate.

Rick St. John’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Romella Kitchens is a graduate of the University  of Pittsburgh with three masters degrees in education. She has been published in Main Street Rag, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Rune Literary Magazine, Essence Magazine, The California Quarterly, 5 AM,  Mud Fish and many more. Her poetry lesson plan is included in Autumn House's The Working Poet: 75 Writing Exercises and a Poetry Anthology, edited by Scott Minor.  Her published chapbooks include: Hip Hop Warrior, The Immortals, The Heaven Of Elephants and her latest The Red Covered Bridge through Pudding House Press. Currently, she is dividing her time between writing plays, seeking publication of a book of short stories and seeking publication of a full-length book of poetry.  

Romella Kitchens’ Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Joseph Karasek performed as an actor and violinist with The Theater Within, an improvisational theater group in New York City.  A former violist with the National Orchestral Association, he created school orchestras on the elementary and secondary levels, and taught music composition and music theory at Long Island University.  Living in Pittsburgh, PA since 1991, he has taught philosophy at the Academy for Lifelong Learning at Carnegie Mellon University.  Several years ago, he led a study group on James Joyce's Ulysses there.  His poetry has been published in Only the Sea Keeps: Poetry of the Tsunami (Bayeux Arts) and Blue Arc West: An Anthology of California Poets.  His first two books of poetry, Beyond Waking and Love and the Ten Thousand Things, were published IN 2009 by Tebot Bach.   

Joe Karasek’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Jimmy Cvetic reads Rude Awakening

Jimmy Cvetic - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Open Mic

Open Mic - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)