Featured Readers
Kristofer Collins has been writing about books and their authors professionally for over twenty years. He has spent the last fifteen years as the Books Editor for Pittsburgh Magazine covering the local literary community. He is the author of several poetry collections, including Roundabout Trace published by Kung Fu Treachery Press in 2022. He was the publisher of Low Ghost Press from 2008-2020. His writing has appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The New Yinzer, 1839, LitHub, Belt Magazine, Chiron Review, Nerve Cowboy, Gasconade, Vox Populi, Kidsburgh, Appalachian Journal, The New Antiquarian, Jerry Jazz Musician, Uppagus, and more. He was nominated for a Robert L. Vann Award for Excellence in Written Journalism in 2022. He is co-curator with Joan Bauer of the long-running Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series. The Vesper Room (Luchador Press, 2025) is his latest poetry collection. He lives in Pittsburgh, PA with his wife Dr. Anna Johnson and their children.
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). With Judith Robinson and Sankar Roy, she co-edited the award-winning international anthology, Only the Sea Keeps: Poetry of the Tsunami (Bayeux Arts and Rupa & Co, 2005). Over 350 of her poems have been published in journals, periodicals and anthologies in the US and abroad. Recent work has appeared in Paterson Literary Review, Slipstream, Chiron Review and Vox Populi: A Curated Webspace for Poetry, Politics and Nature. For some years, she was a teacher and counselor. She now divides her time between Venice, CA and Pittsburgh, PA where she co-curates the Hemingway's Summer Poetry Series with Kristofer Collins.
Violeta Garcia-Mendoza is the author of Songs for the Land-Bound (June Road Press)— a 2025 National Indie Excellence Award finalist, 2025 Eric Hoffer Award honorable mention, and 2025 First Horizon Award finalist. In 2022, she received a grant from the Sustainable Arts Foundation for her poetry. Violeta’s work has appeared in Sugar House Review, The Dodge, RHINO, SWWIM, Psaltery & Lyre, and elsewhere. Her poem “Hiking Moraine State Park” was featured on an episode of The Slowdown, chosen by Maggie Smith. Violeta lives with her family on a small certified wildlife habitat in suburban western Pennsylvania.
Michelle Maher is a professor emeritus of English at La Roche University. Her poem “At the Brera, Milan,” was chosen by Toi Derricotte as the winner of the 2012 Patricia Dobler Poetry Award. Her book, Bright Air Settling Around Us, was published in 2020 by Main Street Rag. Her poems have appeared in Cordella, The Georgetown Review, and Presence, among other journals. She volunteers as a tutor for Literacy Pittsburgh, is a member of the Allegheny County Master Gardeners program, and is a longtime member of Carlow University’s Madwomen in the Attic program. She and her husband have 3 children and live in Wexford, PA.
Judith R. Robinson is an editor, teacher, fiction writer, poet and visual artist. A summa cum laude graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, she is listed in the Directory of American Poets and Writers. She has published 100+ poems, five poetry collections, one fiction collection; one novel; edited or co-edited eleven poetry collections. She teaches in the Osher program at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. Her newest book is the poetry/art collection, The Painted Poem, Forest Woods Media, 2026. In 2024, her poem, “A Stream in Late Autumn,” won First Prize, The Reuben Rose International Poetry Competition, Voices Israel. www.judithrobinson.com
Judith R. Robinson - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)Tony Norman is an award-winning columnist, editorial writer and feature writer who wrote for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from 1988 to 2022 where he spent a lot of time musing on the intersection of politics and culture. Tony is easily aggravated by injustice and bad-faith arguments and enjoys venting in polysyllabic terms his critics find either endearing or exasperating. When he's not raging about some slight against our democratic republic, he's reading books, listening to podcasts, learning to cook for himself and working on his long threatened Great American Novel (C). His message to everyone is simple: get off my lawn.
Tony Norman - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)Open Mic - Click to Play (Right-Click to Download)
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