July 9, 2024 (Ashburn, Grieshober, Kitchens, McDermott & Yune)

 Hemingway's Poetry Series

July 9, 2024

Featured Readers

 

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Back Row: Robert Yune, Romella Kitchens, Kristofer Collins & Sharon Fagen McDermott

Front Row (L-R): Taylor Grieshober, Jen Ashburn & Joan Bauer

Kristofer Collins is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Low Ghost Press founded in 2008 and the longtime Books Editor for Pittsburgh Magazine. He is also the co-curator of the Hemingway's Summer Poetry Series. His latest book, Roundabout Trace, was published in 2022 by Kung Fu Treachery Press. His latest project, The Pittsburgh Book Review can be found at https://pittsburghbookreview.blogspot.com/. He lives in Stanton Heights with his wife, son and daughter.

Opening Comments by Kristofer Collins - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Joan E. Bauer is the author of three full-length poetry collections, Fig Season (Turning Point, 2023), The Camera Artist (Turning Point, 2021), and The Almost Sound of Drowning (Main Street Rag, 2008). Recent work has appeared in Paterson Literary Review, Slipstream and Chiron Review. She divides her time between Venice, CA and Pittsburgh, PA where she co-curates the Hemingway's Summer Poetry Series with Kristofer Collins. 

 

Additional Opening Comments by Joan Bauer - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Jen Ashburn is a poet and nonfiction writer. She’s the author of The Light on the Wall and has work published in numerous venues, including The Fiddlehead, The Writer’s Almanac, and Pedestal Magazine. She is the recipient of the 2023 Lori White Non-Fiction Fellowship and has been nominated for several Pushcart Prizes. Her current projects include a poetry manuscript, "Cracked Paraffin," and a memoir, "Borax, Cornmeal and Cherry Blossoms." She holds an MFA from Chatham University and lives in Edgewood.

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Taylor Grieshober earned an MFA in fiction from Oregon State University in 2018. Her short stories have most recently appeared in Joyland and the Columbia Review. You can find her debut story collection, Off Days (Low Ghost Press), at fine bookstores around the city. 

 

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Romella Kitchens has performed and read poetry with poets such as Ed Ochester, Terrance Hayes, Gerald Stern and many others. Her work has been published in Uppagus, Coal Hill Review, California Quarterly, Brevity, and numerous online publications including the University of Pittsburgh’s Hot Metal Bridge. For many years, she was a panel judge for the Pittsburgh level of Poetry Out Loud. She has published four chapbooks and has been anthologized in three Autumn House poetry collections. She holds two Masters Degrees in Education from the University of Pittsburgh and is a playwright as well as a poet. 

 

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Sharon Fagan McDermott is a poet and writer who teaches literature at a private school in Pittsburgh, PA. She has four collections of poetry published: Voluptuous; Alley Scatting (Parallel Press); and Bitter Acoustic (winner of 2011 Jacar Press chapbook competition) and a full manuscript, Life Without Furniture (Jacar Press, 2018). In November 2023, McDermott's book of hybrid essays about creative writing, co-authored with M. C. Benner-Dixon--Millions of Suns: On Writing and Life--was published by the University of Michigan Press (part of their “Writers on Writing” series). "Poets and Writers Magazine" just named it a "Best Book for Writers."

 

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As a Navy brat, Robert Yune moved 11 times by the time he turned 18.  After graduating from Pitt, he lived in Pittsburgh for the next 15 years. In the summer of 2012, he worked as a stand-in for George Takei and has appeared as an extra in commercials and movies such as Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and Fathers and Daughters. In 2009, he received a writing fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Yune won the 2017 Mary McCarthy Prize and his debut collection, Impossible Children, was published by Sarabande Books in 2018.

 

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Open Mic 

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June 25, 2024 (Switzer, Finn & Carter-Jones)

 Hemingway's Poetry Series

June 25, 2024

Featured Readers

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Back Row: Kristofer Collins

Front Row (L-R): Sheila Carter-Jones, Kevin Finn, Silas Maxwell Switzer & Joan Bauer

Kristofer Collins is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Low Ghost Press founded in 2008 and the longtime Books Editor for Pittsburgh Magazine. He is also the co-curator of the Hemingway's Summer Poetry Series. His latest book, Roundabout Trace, was published in 2022 by Kung Fu Treachery Press. His latest project, The Pittsburgh Book Review can be found at https://pittsburghbookreview.blogspot.com/. He lives in Stanton Heights with his wife, son and daughter.

Opening Comments by Kristofer Collins - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Joan E. Bauer is the author of three full-length poetry collections, Fig Season (Turning Point, 2023), The Camera Artist (Turning Point, 2021), and The Almost Sound of Drowning (Main Street Rag, 2008). Recent work has appeared in Paterson Literary Review, Slipstream and Chiron Review. She divides her time between Venice, CA and Pittsburgh, PA where she co-curates the Hemingway's Summer Poetry Series with Kristofer Collins. 

 

Additional Opening Comments by Joan Bauer - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

 

Silas Maxwell Switzer is a musician, poet, and history student who’s dedicated to exploring and preserving the local queer history in Pittsburgh, PA, his lifelong home. In his effort to emulate the noble possum, Silas has recently taken to allowing himself to be coaxed out of his hiding spots by pieces of interesting trash, an interest which he calls “digital archiving.” You can find him on most websites, including Patreon and Bandcamp, as silasmaxwellswitzer. His chapbook, Nine Parts Water, One Part Bleach, was published by Main Street Rag in 2023.

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Kevin Finn is a poet, musician, visual artist and martial artist from Pittsburgh, PA. His poetry has been widely published in journals and anthologies, and his latest collection is entitled, Consequence of Dream (Six Gallery Press, 2022).

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Sheila Carter-Jones is the author of Three Birds Deep (selected by Elizabeth Alexander as the winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Book Award) and the chapbook Blackberry Cobbler Song. Her chapbook Crooked Star Dream Book was named Honorable Mention for the New York Center for Book Arts Chapbook Contest. She is a fellow of Cave Canem, Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and a Walter Dakin Fellow of the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Her newest poetry collection, Every Hard Sweetness, was published by BOA Editions in April 2024.

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Open Mic

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June 11, 2024 (Bacharach, Brooks, Flick, Wentworth & Wielkopolan)

 

Hemingway's Poetry Series

June 11, 2024

Featured Readers

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Back Row (L-R): Sherrie Flick, Kristofer Collins & Don Wentworth

Front Row (L-R): Doralee Brooks, Stefanie Wielkopolan, Valerie Bacharach & Joan Bauer

Kristofer Collins is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Low Ghost Press founded in 2008 and the longtime Books Editor for Pittsburgh Magazine. He is also the co-curator of the Hemingway's Summer Poetry Series. His latest book, Roundabout Trace, was published in 2022 by Kung Fu Treachery Press. His latest project, The Pittsburgh Book Review can be found at https://pittsburghbookreview.blogspot.com/. He lives in Stanton Heights with his wife, son and daughter.

Opening Comments by Kristofer Collins - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Joan E. Bauer is the author of three full-length poetry collections, Fig Season (Turning Point, 2023), The Camera Artist (Turning Point, 2021), and The Almost Sound of Drowning (Main Street Rag, 2008). Recent work has appeared in Paterson Literary Review, Slipstream and Chiron Review. She divides her time between Venice, CA and Pittsburgh, PA where she co-curates the Hemingway's Summer Poetry Series with Kristofer Collins. 

 

Additional Opening Comments by Joan Bauer - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

 

Valerie Bacharach’s book, Last Glimpse, will be published by Broadstone Books and her chapbook After/Life will be published by Finishing Line Press in 2024. Her poem, “Birthday Portrait,Son,” published by the Ilanot Review, was selected for inclusion in 2023 Best Small Fictions. Her poem, “Shavli,” has been nominated for Best of the Net 2023 and a Pushcart Prize by Minyan Magazine. Her poem, “Deadbolt,” has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize by RockPaperPoem.

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Doralee Brooks is a facilitator for the Madwoman in the Attic poetry workshops at Carlow University and professor emerita of the Community College of Allegheny County in Developmental Studies. She is a fellow of the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project (95) and
Cave Canem (97 and 99). Doralee holds an MEd from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA from Carlow University. Her poems have appeared in several journals and anthologies including Voices from the Attic, Paterson Literary Review, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, and
Uppagus. Doralee’s chapbook, When I Hold You Up to the Light, won the 2019 Cathy Smith Bowers Chapbook Contest published by Main Street Rag. She is City of Asylum’s Poet Laureate of Allegheny County 2022-2024.

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Sherrie Flick is the author of a novel and two short story collections. Most recently: Thank Your Lucky Stars (Autumn House Press). She served as co-editor for the 2023 Norton Anthology Flash Fiction America and series editor for The Best Small Fictions 2018. She is
the recipient of a Creative Development Award from The Heinz Endowments and a Writing Pittsburgh Fellowship from The Creative Nonfiction Foundation. Recent work appears in Puerto del Sol, Western Humanities Review, and New England Review. Her debut essay collection, Homing: Instincts of a Rustbelt Feminist is forthcoming from University of Nebraska Press in September of 2024. 

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Don Wentworth is a Pittsburgh-based poet whose work reflects his interest in the revelatory nature of brief, haiku-like moments in everyday life. His poetry has appeared in Modern Haiku, Gargoyle, frogpond, Chiron Review, and Rolling Stone, as well as a number of anthologies. He is the author of three collections of brief work: Past All Traps (2011), Yield to the Willow (2014) and With a Deepening Presence (2016), published by Six Gallery, and is working on a
forthcoming collection of ghazals and a Selected and New Poems.

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Stefanie Wielkopolan is a poet and educator with deep Midwestern roots. She is in love with Western Pennsylvania and calls Pittsburgh home. Her poetry collection, Home is a Sweater, was published in 2023 by Finishing Line Pres, and her first book of poems, Border Theory, was published in 2011 by Black Coffee Press. She currently teaches writing to middle school students and works as an administrator for a college writing center. When she isn’t working,
she can be found writing, napping, reading, anxiously trying to figure out the world, or watching reruns of “Newhart.”

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Open Mic

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May 28, 2024 (Barnett, Fisanick, Irwin, Sankey & Hoot)

 

Hemingway's Poetry Series

May 28, 2024

Featured Readers

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Back Row (L-R): Christina Fisanick, Cameron Barnett, Byron Hoot & Kristofer Collins

Front Row (L-R): Joan Bauer, Shannon Sankey and Jason Irwin

Kristofer Collins is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Low Ghost Press founded in 2008 and the longtime Books Editor for Pittsburgh Magazine. He is also the co-curator of the Hemingway's Summer Poetry Series. His latest book, Roundabout Trace, was published in 2022 by Kung Fu Treachery Press. His latest project, The Pittsburgh Book Review can be found at https://pittsburghbookreview.blogspot.com/. He lives in Stanton Heights with his wife, son and daughter.

Opening Comments by Kristofer Collins - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Joan E. Bauer is the author of three full-length poetry collections, Fig Season (Turning Point, 2023), The Camera Artist (Turning Point, 2021), and The Almost Sound of Drowning (Main Street Rag, 2008). Recent work has appeared in Paterson Literary Review, Slipstream and Chiron Review. She divides her time between Venice, CA and Pittsburgh, PA where she co-curates the Hemingway's Summer Poetry Series with Kristofer Collins. 

 

Additional Opening Comments by Joan Bauer - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)

Cameron Barnett is a poet and teacher from Pittsburgh. He is the author of The Drowning Boy’s Guide to Water, the winner of the Autumn House Press Rising Writer Prize and a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He is a graduate of Duquesne University and earned an MFA in creative writing from the University of Pittsburgh. Other honors include a 2019 Carol R. Brown Creative Achievement Award for Emerging Artist and serving as the ’22-’24 Emerging Black Writer in Residence at Chatham University. Cameron teaches at his middle school alma mater, Falk Laboratory School. His work explores the complexity of race, place, and relationships for Black people in America. His second full length book of poetry, Murmur, was published by Autumn House Press in 2024.

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Christina Fisanick is the editor or author of more than thirty books, including the memoir The Optimistic Food Addict (MSI 2016) and Digital Storytelling as Public History (Routledge 2020) with co-author Robert Stakeley. In addition, her poems, essays, and articles have appeared in a broad range of publications. She is passionate about the history of her hometown, Wheeling, WV, which is the subject of her forthcoming collection of essays, Pulling the Thread: Untangling Wheeling History.  When not writing or making art, Dr. Fisanick serves as professor of English at PennWest, the president of the Writers Association of Northern Appalachia (WANA), and the co-host of WANA LIVE! Learn more about her work at christinafisanick.com.

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Shannon Sankey is the author of WE RAN RAPTUROUS (The Atlas Review, 2019). She holds an MFA in Poetry and Pedagogy from Chatham University, where she was the Margaret L. Whitford Fellow. She is the recipient of a 2017 Academy of American Poets University & College Prize and a 2019 SAFTA Residency, and she was selected for Best New Poets 2019.

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Jason Irwin is the author of three full-length poetry collections, most recently The History of Our Vagrancies (Main Street Rag, 2020). In 2022 he was a Zoeglossia Fellow and part of the Poetry Foundation’s Disability Poetics Project. His nonfiction has been published in Santa Ana Review, Panorama, The Catholic Worker, and City of Asylum’s Pittsburgh Live/Ability: Encounters in Poetry and Prose Project. He grew up in Dunkirk, NY, and now lives in Pittsburgh. https://jasonirwin.blogspot.com/

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Byron Hoot was born and raised in Morgantown, WV, and he lived there until he went to college, a 12-year excursion. He never returned to West Virginia but he never left it. Appalachia, the hills and streams, the people, his memory of those first 18 years are deeply embedded. He now lives in northwestern Pennsylvania . . . still in Appalachia, continuing his work as a published poet. His work has appeared in Rattle, The Watershed Journal, Tobacco Literary Arts Journal, and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He is co-founder of The Tamarack Writers and The Fernwood Writers Retreat. His most recent book is Poems of a Mad Hunter and Other Tales (2023). For more, go to www.hootnhowlpoetry.com

 

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Open Mic

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