May 29, 2012 (Beatty, Vollmer, Ochester)

Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series

May 29, 2012

Jan Beatty’s most recent book, Red Sugar, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in Spring, 2008. Other books include Boneshaker (2002, U. of Pgh. 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. Her new book, The Switching Yard, will be published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in Spring, 2013.

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

Judith Vollmer's newest volume, Water Books, was recently published by Autumn House Press. Her previous collections have received the Brittingham, the Center for Book Arts, and the Cleveland State publication prizes. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Her essays and reviews are included in The Cambridge Companion to Baudelaire and elsewhere. She teaches at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg and in the Drew University MFA Program in Poetry and Poetry in Translation, and is a founding editor of the literary journal 5 AM.

Judy Vollmer’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Ed Ochester

Through his writing, editing and teaching, Ed Ochester has been a major force on contemporary letters for more than three decades. He edits the Pitt Poetry Series and is general editor of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for short fiction, both published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. From 1978 to 1988 he was director of the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh, and was twice elected president of the Associated Writing Programs. He co-edits the poetry magazine 5AM, and lives in a rural county northeast of Pittsburgh. His recent books include Snow White Horses: Selected Poems 1973-1988 (Autumn House Press, 2001), American Poetry Now: Pitt Poetry Series Anthology (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007) and Unreconstructed: Poems Selected and New (Autumn House Press, 2007). Poems just published or forthcoming in: American Poetry Review, Agni, Chiron Review, Great River Review and Nerve Cowboy.

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

Jimmy Cvetic reads Chippendale’s Riot

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

Open Mic

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

May 22, 2012 (Greenberg, Brice, Carter-Jones, Deahl)

Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series

May 22, 2012

Lois Greenberg is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who makes her living as a psychotherapist, specializing in grief and adoption issues.  She has  two grown children and earned her MSW from the University of Pittsburgh, where she served on the faculty from 1978-1991.  She has studied with Michael Wurster, Jan Beaty, Ellen Smith and others.  Her poetry has appeared in HEArt, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Paper Street, and the anthologies, The Eternal Fire, Along These Rivers: Poetry and Photography from Pittsburgh, Alternatives to Surrender, and Voices from the Attic. Her first full-length book of poetry, Willing to Lie, has recently been published by MadBooks.

Lois Greenberg’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Judith Brice, a former psychiatrist, credits much of her inspiration to her past work with her patients, her own experiences with illness, her love for nature and her strong feelings about politics. Her work has been published in several newspapers, reviews, and anthologies including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the City Paper (of Pittsburgh), the Paterson Literary Review, Poesia, and The Lyric. She has received Editor’s Choice Award in the Alan Ginsburg Poetry Contest in 2008 Paterson Literary Review for one of her poems, and another poem is currently in the permanent archives of the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Her book of poems, Renditions in a Palette, will be published by WordTech Communications in 2013.

Judith Brice’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Sheila Carter-Jones credits the domestic working women in the small coal mining community where she grew up as the spiritual source of her poetic inspiration. Her poetry is published in anthologies and journals including Crossing Limits, Pennsylvania Review, Riverspeak, and Coal: A Poetry Anthology, and a chapbook, Blackberry Cobbler Song. Her book of poetry, Three Birds Deep, was recently selected by Elizabeth Alexander for publication by Lotus Press.

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

James Deahl was born in Pittsburgh in 1945, and grew up in that city as well as in and around the Laurel Highlands of the Appalachian Mountains. He moved to Canada in 1970 and holds Canadian citizenship. He’s the author (or, in the case of Tu Fu’s poetry, translator) of twenty literary titles. His most recent books are North Of Belleville and Opening The Stone Heart. A cycle of his poems is the focus of a one-hour TV special, Under the Watchful Eye. Both the video and an audiotape have been reissued on CD and DVD by Silver Falls Video. In addition to his writing, he has taught creative writing and Canadian literature at the high school, college, and university levels. He no longer teaches, and for over a dozen years has mostly been a full-time writer/editor/translator. James Deahl lives in Sarnia. He is the father of Sarah, Simone, and Shona.

James Deahl’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Open Mic

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

May 15, 2012 (Barnes, McNaugher, Vicari)

Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series

May 15, 2012

Madeleine Barnes is about to graduate from Carnegie Mellon University with a bachelor's degree in creative writing and fine arts. Her poems have appeared in The Rattling Wall, Weave Magazine, Open Thread, The Albion Review, Allegheny Review, 5AM, North Central Review and other journals.  She is the recipient of the 2009 Borders Open Door Poetry Prize, judged by Billy Collins, the Princeton Poetry Prize, and the Women's Press Club Prize for journalism. Some of her poetry and artwork can be found on the website: madeleinebarnes.com

Madeleine Barnes’ Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Heather McNaugher teaches poetry, nonfiction, and literature at her alma mater, Chatham University, and is poetry editor of Fourth River. Her work has appeared in 5 A.M., The Bellevue Literary Review, New Ohio Review, The Gay & Lesbian Review, Leveler, and The Cortland Review, and on the radio show, Prosody. Her chapbook, Panic & Joy, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2008. She worked as a house cleaner and barista in Seattle, as a dog walker in Brooklyn, and then got her Ph.D. in English from The State University of New York at Binghamton. While working for the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, she almost became a librarian. She's tried living elsewhere, but keeps coming back to Pittsburgh. Her book of poetry, System of Hideouts, was published by Main Street Rag in April 2012.

Heather McNaugher’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Justin Vicari's first full-length collection of poetry, The Professional Weepers, won the 2007-2008 Transcontinental Poetry Award, and was published in 2011 by Pavement Saw Press. He is the author of the poetry chapbook, Siamese Twins of the 21st Century (West Town Press, 2008), and also the translator of Woman Bathing Light to Dark: Prose Poems of Paul Eluard (Toad Press, 2006) and The Baden-Baden Learning Play on Acquiescence by Bertolt Brecht (Toad Press, 2009). His work appears in The Ledge, Rhino, Southern Poetry Review, Fugue, Phoebe, Redactions, 32 Poems, Paper Street, Eclipse, Interim, and The Modern Review, and is forthcoming in Hotel Amerika. In 2005, he received the Third Coast Poetry Award.

Justin Vicari’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Jimmy Cvetic reads 13 Ways to Look at a Boxer

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

Open Mic

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

May 8, 2012 (Madwomen in the Attic)

Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series

May 8, 2012

Tess Barry has an MA in English from the University of Pittsburgh and is currently enrolled in Carlow University's MFA program.  Her work has appeared most recently in Natural Language: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Sunday Poetry and Reading Series Anthology, Carlow University Press's Voices from The Attic: Volume XVI, Girls with Glasses, and Sampsonia Way, an online magazine sponsored by City of Asylum/Pittsburgh.  She has been a guest poet on WYEP's weekly radio show Prosody.

Tess Barry’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Doralee Brooks, a teacher in the Developmental Studies Department at the Community College of Allegheny County, is a Cave Canem fellow and a fellow of the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project. Doralee is an MFA candidate at Carlow University. Her work has appeared in the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette, the Pennsylvania Literary Journal, and Callaloo.

Doralee Brooks’ Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Angela J. Cornelius is an artist, raconteur, entrepreneur, and foremost – a seeker.  She has worked for the federal government in international intelligence, corporate marketing and business, and higher education. Angela studied creative writing at George Mason University in Virginia, and the Richard Hugo House in Seattle.  She was the flash fiction winner at Bumbershoot Arts Festival in 2004. As an educator, Angela was a public high school art teacher, nonprofit art instructor at Seattle 911 Media Arts, and Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Center for the Arts, and she was a professor in digital media at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. Angela currently runs her own creative consulting business.

Angela Cornelius’ Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Caley Ferguson teaches Adult Basic Education through Literacy AmeriCorps in Pittsburgh and serves as a low-level ABE tutor in Squirrel Hill through the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council.  She graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College with a BA in English literature and minors in creative writing and gender studies.  In college she served as poetry editor for two years with the WVW literary journal, The Vandalia, where her work was also published. As an undergrad she studied with Aaron Smith, and has been studying with Jan Beatty through the Madwomen program since fall of 2011.

Caley Ferguson’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Celeste Gainey holds a BFA in film and television from New York University and an MFA in creative writing/poetry from Carlow University.  Her chapbook, In the land of speculation & seismography, selected by Elioses Klein Healy as a runner-up for the 2010 Robin Becker Chapbook Prize was Published by Seven Kitchens Press was published in 2011.  Most recently, her poems have appeared in Columbia Poetry Review and BLOOM. 

Celeste Gainey’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Emily Mohn has published her poems in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh City Paper, and Carlow University's Voices from the Attic. She has taught middle-school English, and currently works in the English department at Carnegie Mellon. A Pittsburgh native, she earned a BA from Colgate University and an MA from Boston University.

Emily Mohn’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Maritza Mosquera, best known for her thousand-arm reach toward creating community and ending oppression through art; lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Being born amidst the Ecuadorian Andes peaked her desire for hot luscious delicacies close to her palate both in food, loving and art. She is best known for her work with contemporary artists, curators, educational leaders, community activists and leadership organizations; building lasting partnerships. Words have always existed in her work, both as printed and ethereal matter. Mosquera received her MFA from University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She exhibits her artwork and builds community through dialogues nationally and internationally.

Maritza Mosquera’s Reading - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Open Mic

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