May 31, 2016 (Oaks, Blair, Smith, Walicki, Vollmer)

Hemingway's Poetry Series

May 31, 2016

Jeff Oaks is the author of four poetry chapbooks, including Mistakes with Strangers, Shift, The Moon of Books, and The Unknown Country. He's the recipient of three Pennsylvania Council of the Arts fellowships and has published poems most recently in Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Field, Ocean City Review, Mid-American Review, and Superstition Review. His essays have appeared in At Length, Creative Nonfiction, Kenyon Review Online, and the anthology, My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them.

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David Blair is a Pittsburgh poet who lives in the Boston area. His first book, Ascension Days, was chosen for the Del Sol Poetry Prize in 2007. This spring, my second book, Friends with Dogs, will be coming out from Sheep Meadow Press, and then a third book, Arsonville will be out in the fall from New Issues Poetry & Prose.

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Ellen McGrath Smith teaches at the University of Pittsburgh and in the Carlow University Madwomen in the Attic program. Her writing has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Los Angeles Review, Quiddity, Cimarron, and other journals, and in several anthologies, including Beauty Is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability. Smith has been the recipient of an Orlando Prize, an Academy of American Poets award, a Rainmaker Award from Zone 3 magazine, and a 2007 Individual Artist grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Her second chapbook, Scatter, Feed, was published by Seven Kitchens Press in the fall of 2014, and her book, Nobody's Jackknife, was published in 2015 by West End Press.

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Robert Walicki is the curator of VERSIFY, a monthly reading series in Pittsburgh, PA. His work has appeared in HEArt, Uppagus, VerseWrites and on the radio show Prosody. He won 1st runner up in the 2013 Finishing Line Open Chapbook Competition and was awarded finalist in the 2013 Concrete Wolf Chapbook Competition. He currently has two chapbooks published: A Room Full of Trees (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014) and The Almost Sound of Snow Falling (Night Ballet Press, 2015).

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Judith Vollmer's most recent volume, Water Books, was published in 2012 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. For some years she taught at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg and was a founding editor of the literary journal 5 AM. Her fifth full-length collection, The Apollonia Poems, the 2016 Four Lakes Prize book of the University of Wisconsin Press, is forthcoming in February 2017. Vollmer teaches in the low-residency MFA Program in Poetry & Poetry in Translation at Drew University.

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Open Mic

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Jimmy Cvetic Reads Reasons Behind the Reason

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May 24, 2016 (Squirrel Hill Poetry Workshop)

Hemingway's Poetry Series

May 24, 2016

M Soledad Caballero is associate professor of English at Allegheny College. Her published scholarship focuses on British women's travel writing to South America. Her poetry has appeared in The Missouri Review, The Mississippi Review, The Pittsburgh Poetry Review as well as other journals. She is working on her first collection of poetry titled "Immigrant Confessions."

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Erin Garstka won the 1999 Taproot Literary Review Contest, and she has been a featured reader at Bloomfield Sacred Arts Festival. Her poetry has appeared in The Lyric, Mediphors, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Loyalhanna Review, and The Exchange. She and her husband Mark conduct a local poetry forum, Monroeville Poets. Invisible River Publishing released her chapbook, The Thought of a Hat (2003).

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Nancy Esther James has had her poems published in various journals and literary magazines including Christianity and Literature, Time of Singing, and Poet Lore, as well as in publications such as Friends Journal and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Her poem, “To a Friend,” originally published in Christianity and Literature, was reprinted in the 2003 Poet’s Market. Her collection of poems, No Time to Hurry, was published by Dawn Valley Press (Westminster College) in 1979. She has taught poetry workshops at the St. Davids Christian Writers Conference and The Writing Academy Seminar and has judged poetry contests for St. Davids and for the Pittsburgh Poetry Society. Her chapbook, Resilient Spirit: Poems for Lorraine, was published in March 2013 by Finishing Line Press.

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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. He also 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 (Tebot Bach), and Signatures (Osher, Carnegie Mellon). His two books of poetry, Beyond Waking and Love and the Ten Thousand Things, were published by Tebot Bach in 2009.

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Pam O'Brien began writing poetry at Allegheny College. Her career has included grant writing, community organization, public relations and advertising, and teaching Spanish. She currently holds a lectureship in the English Department of the University of Pittsburgh where she serves as the Associate Director of Public and Professional Writing. She was a 2012 finalist for the Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award and recipient of teaching excellence awards from the College of General Studies in 2008 and 2011. She has published three chapbooks, Kaleidoscopes, Paper Dancing and Acceptable Losses. Her full-length poetry book, The Answer to Each is the Same, was published in 2012.

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Rosaly DeMaios Roffman, a native New Yorker, taught creative writing, Classical Literature, World Mythology, and founded a Myth/Folklore Studies Center at IUP. She co-edited the prize-winning Life on the Line, and is the author of Going to Bed Whole, Tottering Palaces, The Approximate Message, and In the Fall of a Sparrow. She has read her poems in Ireland, Greece, Mexico, Israel, Spain, and Bratislava and has collaborated on 20 pieces with composers and other artists. Her work has been published in journals, magazines, and anthologies. She as received grants from the National Endowment and the Witter Bynner Foundations and was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Award in the Arts at IUP. She is the facilitator of Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill Poetry Workshop. In 2012 Tebot Bach published her latest book of poems, I Want to Thank My Eyes.

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Arlene Weiner has been a cardiology technician, a college instructor, an editor, and a research associate/member of a group developing educational software. A native of New York City, Arlene has lived in Pittsburgh for most of her adult life. Arlene has had poems published in Pleiades, Poet Lore, The Louisville Review, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, anthologized in Along These Rivers, and read by Garrison Keillor on his Writer’s Almanac. Poet Joy Katz wrote of Arlene’s collection of poems, Escape Velocity (Ragged Sky, 2006), “I want to keep my favorite of these beautifully alert, surprising poems with me as I grow old.”

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Open Mic

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Jimmy Cvetic Reads A Whore Poem

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May 17, 2016 (Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange)

Hemingway's Poetry Series

May 17, 2016

Ziggy Edwards is friendly. She knocks herself out as editor/co-founder of Uppagus and as a poetry editor and co-founder of Pittsburgh Poetry Review. Her chapbook, Hope’s White Shoes, was published by Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange in 2006. Her poems and short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in publications such as 5 AM, After Happy Hour Review, Dreams and Nightmares, Illumen, Main Street Rag, and Paper Street.

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Barry Govenor was born and raised in the steel town of Charleroi, PA, and now resides with his wife and two dogs in Brentwood. He earned his B.A. in biology at California University (PA) and split his healthcare career between Nuclear Medicine and Infection Control & Sterilization Technology. His subject material draws from his mill town roots and outdoor experiences and has appeared in The Pittsburgh Post Gazette,The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Flip Side, The Loyalhanna Review, The Pittsburgh Quarterly and Avocet.  He is a longtime member of Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange and has led poetry workshops at Brentwood Public Library, where he is currently a member of the Board of Trustees.

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Karla Lamb earned a B.A. in poetry from Grand Valley State University in Michigan, where she served as a copy-editor for Fishladder and as a contributor for INwriting newsletter. Her poetry has appeared in Pittsburgh City Paper, Voices from the Attic Vol. XIX, Runaway Hotel, Brooklyn-based A Women’s Thing Magazine, and Pittsburgh Poetry Review. She is a current MFA candidate in Carlow University’s Creative Writing program. Lamb edits for After Happy Hour Review and curates DOUBLE MIRЯOR EXHIBIT.
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Aaron Novick writes poetry on the model of the youthful Pope, who brashly proclaimed his solitude, and perhaps won it thereby. Otherwise, he is a graduate student in the History and Philosophy of Science department at the University of Pittsburgh, studying the relationship between contemporary developmental genetics and evolutionary theory.
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Nick Romeo is self taught, and always tries to absorb and learn from his environment. He then incorporates the multitudes of subject matter into his creative work. His main forms of expression are 3D digital renderings, fractal generation, photography, sculpture, audio/visual installations, and poetry. His poems have been published in The Brentwood Anthology (Lummox Press) and the upcoming Uppagus Issue #11. He also read his poetry on “Thoughts from the Top of a Ferris Wheel” podcast.
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Squirrel Hill native Stuart Sheppard graduated from Kenyon College, and has worked on Wall Street, Madison Avenue, and as a management consultant.  In 2003 he published a well-reviewed novel, Spindrift.  Stuart writes theatre, art, and book reviews for the Pittsburgh City Paper, and serves on the board of the Animal Care and Assistance Fund.  His most recent work can be seen in U.S. 1 Worksheets, the Pittsburgh Poetry Review, and other publications.

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Jenny Smith has been writing poetry and flash nonfiction since 2013, when she returned from a six-month solo trek on the Appalachian Trail. She is a member of Pittsburgh Writers Studio, Madwomen in the Attic, and Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange. Her writing has appeared in Voices from the Attic. She grew up in Alaska and Pennsylvania, has an education in mathematics and many years of experience in software development, and is now uncaged.

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David Joez Villaverde is an editor for the After Happy Hour Review in Pittsburgh. His writing has been featured in Cheap Pop, After the Pause, the Belle Rêve Literary Journal and the Jewish Literary Journal among others. He has forthcoming work in the Great American Wiseass Poetry Anthology. He lives in Mount Washington with his cat Yoshimi. His writing can occasionally be found at schadenfreudeanslip.com

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Open Mic

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May 10, 2016 (Pittsburgh Poetry Society)

Hemingway's Poetry Series

May 10, 2016

Jeen-Shang Lin currently teaches civil engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. He wrote poems in his youthful days during college. Only in the past few years did he start writing again, an indisputable living proof that inhaling enough Pittsburgh air is a sufficient condition for becoming a poet. However, he only has a small repertoire; it could be that his professional writing is smothering the poetry in him, or more plausibly, he simply writes at the pace of a snail crawling.

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Christine Doriean Michaels came to Pittsburgh from England in 1971 and joined the Squirrel Hill Poetry Workshop in February 1984. A retired psychologist, she was a member and word-weaver for Tea Time Ladies, a poetry performance group, in the 1990s. More recent publications can be found in Fission of Form and Labyrinth Pathways 2009, and a review in OUT. Earlier works can be found in Only the Sea Keeps: Poetry of the Tsunami; Along These Rivers: Photography and Poetry from Pittsburgh; Voices from the Attic;The Exchange; No Choice but to Trust; Pittsburgh and Tri-State Area Poets; Taproots, Songs for the Living and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

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Randy Minnich is a retired chemist, now focusing on writing, environmental issues, t’ai chi, and grandchildren.  A member of the Squirrel Hill Poetry Workshop and Pittsburgh Poetry Society, he has published two books, Wildness in a Small Place and Pavlov’s Cats.  His work has also appeared in Main Street Rag, Pearl, Pudding, Snowy Egret, Blueline, and other publications.

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A career educator, Christine Pasinski taught secondary English in the West Mifflin Area School District for over 36 years. Following her career in public education, she supervised student teachers for Penn State University. A lifelong devotee of poetry, she took her high school and her university students to the International Poetry Forum, where she served on the Advisory Council for 36 years. Currently, she enjoys membership in the Pittsburgh Poetry Society. Her poems have been published in numerous literary journals, and she has read them at various venues in the city. In 2011 she published a book of her poetry, Rustlings of Regret.

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Fred Peterson grew up on rice farms throughout Southeast Arkansas in the 1940's and 1950's, the son of a sharecropper and the seventh of eight children. His poetry takes one on a journey with a family rich in love. A teacher early in his career, his life-path took him from Arkansas to St. Louis and to Pittsburgh with his life-partner where they have lived for 30 years. He is past president of Pittsburgh Poetry Society. His book of poetry, Writing by Flashlight, was published by Awesome Books in 2012.

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Joanne Samraney, author of the poetry chapbook, Grounded Angels, which won the 2001 Acorn-Rukeyser Award and co-author of Breaking Bread with the Boscos, a collection of family memoirs and recipes has poems in many literary magazines and journals such as Main Street Rag, Verve, Voices in Italian Americana, Loyalhanna Review and most recently in Hudson View, Earth Daughters and Steam Ticket. Her poems have also appears in both Along These Rivers and the Sandburg-Livesay anthologies. Her latest chapbook, Remaking Driftwood was published by Finishing Line Press (2010).

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Shirley Stevens is a member of the Pittsburgh Poetry Society and the Squirrel Hill Poetry, and St. David’s workshops. She serves as a mentor for the Writing Academy and a poetry workshop leader for Passavant Retirement Village and The First Word. Her poems most recently appeared in The Potter’s Wheel, Honing the Poem, and A Time of Singing, as well as Poet Lore, Along These Rivers, Fission of Form, The CommonWealth: Pennsylvania Poets on Pennsylvania Subjects, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Squirrel Hill Magazine. She is the author of Pronouncing What We Want to Keep.

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Christine Aikens Wolfe is a reading specialist with the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Christine has published poems in Sonnetto Poesia, a bi-lingual quarterly out of Ottawa since fall 2006.  Her poetry, fiction, and articles have appeared in the publications of the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project, including Parachute, the WPWP Bulletin, Riverspeak, and Threads, and in the Pittsburgh Poetry Society's  bi-annual magazine, The Potter's Wheel.  Her poetry has also been published in Woman Becoming and Poetry Magazine, and the multi-media book, Fission and Form. She is the co-editor of The Poetic Classroom (Autumn House Press) and currently serves as president of the Pittsburgh Poetry Society. 

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Judy Yogman is a retired ESL teacher.  She enjoys trying new poetic forms, misses Anita Byerly's little workshop and recently became a member of the Pittsburgh Poetry Society. Though lazy about submitting poems, she has submitted work that has appeared in the Post-Gazette and in various anthologies, including Out of the Rough: Women's Poems of Survival and Celebration, Along These Rivers, and Written on Water: Writings about the Allegheny River.  She is married, with three sons and three granddaughters.

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Open Mic

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May 3, 2016 (Madwomen In the Attic)

Hemingway's Poetry Series

May 3, 2016

Tess Barry was shortlisted for the 2015 Manchester Poetry Prize (UK). Twice a finalist for North American Review’s James Hearst Poetry Prize and Aesthetica Magazine’s (UK) Poetry Award, she was also shortlisted for the 2014 Bridport Poetry Prize (UK).  Her poems recently appeared or are forthcoming in Mudfish Vol. 19 and online at Manchester’s website: http://www.manchesterwritingschool.co.uk/news/news-2015-manchester-writing-competition-short-lists-announced

Barry is a Fellow of the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project and teaches literature and creative writing at Robert Morris University.

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Julie Cecchini is a member of Monroeville Poets, Pittsburgh Writer’s Studio, and Madwomen in the Attic. Her poems have appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Loyalhanna Review, Innisfree, Tattoo Highway & Voices from the Attic.  She is a featured poet in Verse Envisioned, an art/poetry exhibit and book project with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and Panza Art Gallery.

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Amy Lee Heinlen studies poetry and publishing in the MFA program at Chatham University. Her poetry and reviews have appeared in Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Pretty Owl Poetry, Olentangy Review, Mom Egg Review, multiple volumes of the Voices from the Attic anthology, Coal Hill Review, and elsewhere. She is the current poetry editor for the newly launched Bloodletters Literary Magazine.

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Michelle Maher is a professor of English at La Roche College. Maher won the 2012 Patricia Dobler Poetry Award, a national contest sponsored by Carlow University. Her poem, "At the Brera, Mila,'' was selected from 380 poems by judge Toi Derricotte. Her work has appeared in journals such as the Chautauqua Literary Journal, The Georgetown Review, Atlanta Review, and ​U.S. 1 Worksheets.

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Emily Mohn-Slate’s recent poems are forthcoming or have appeared in Cimarron Review, Indiana Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Poet Lore, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. She was runner-up for the 2014 Indiana Review Poetry Prize. She holds an MFA from Bennington College, and teaches writing at Chatham University and Carnegie Mellon University.

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Marilyn Marsh Noll, earned her MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) at American University in Washington, D.C. in 1994. Her poems have appeared in Comstock Review, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Folio, Voices From the Attic and The Potter’s Wheel. Her chapbook, Thirteen Ways of Looking at Bones, won the Pennsylvania Poetry Society Chapbook Award in 2007. Her children’s book, Jonathan and the Flying Broomstick (Sunlight and Shadow Press), was published in August 2010. She is a Madwomen in the Attic and a member of the Pittsburgh Poetry Society.

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Michelle Stoner is the author of the full-length collection Flats and Riots (WordTech, 2008) and was a finalist for the 2015 Robin Becker Chapbook Prize. Her work has appeared in 5AM, Bloom, and The Collared Peccary, among others. Stoner holds an MFA in Creative Writing, Poetry from Carlow University and is a sound engineer for Prosody, NPR-affiliate WESA’s weekly show featuring the work of national writers.

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Open Mic

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Jimmy Cvetic Presents Pieces Of a Broken Heart

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