April 4: Myles, Solomon, Coletti & Edmiston

This April 4, The Blue Letter comes on strong with performances from poetry legend Eileen Myles and legends-in-the-making Laura Solomon, John Coletti & Will Edmiston. This FREE event takes place Wednesday, April 4 at 8pm at Sal’s Pizzeria and Mama Maria Restaurant. Sal’s is located at 305 Court Street in Carroll Gardens Brooklyn, and is convenient to the F/G Carroll Street Station. Here is a map. Click here to RSVP on Facebook.

Eileen Myles was born in Cambridge, Mass. in 1949, was educated in catholic schools, graduated from U. Mass. (Boston) in 1971 and moved to New York City in 1974 to be a poet. She quickly became part of the reading, publishing and performance scene in the East Village, editing dodgems in the late 70s and becoming part of the community of St. Mark’s Poetry Project where she studied and was friends with Ted Berrigan, Alice Notley, Paul Violi and Bill Zavatsky. In 1979 she was assistant to poet James Schuyler. She was Artistic Director of the Poetry Project in 1984-86. Myles is a vivid interpreter of her own work and travels widely in the US and Canada and internationally giving readings and performances. She is the author of more than a dozen volumes of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction including Sorry, Tree (Wave Books, 2007), Chelsea Girls, Not Me, Skies, The New Fuck You/adventures in lesbian reading, Cool for You, and The Importance of Being Iceland: Travel Essays in Art, and Inferno (A Poet’s Novel) published by OR books and winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction. She wrote the libretti for Hell, an opera with music composed by Michael Webster which was performed on both coasts, 2004-2006. In 2007 she received The Warhol/Creative Capital art writers’ grant. In 2010 the Poetry Society of America gave her the Shelley Memorial Award. She contributes to a wide number of publications including ArtForum, Bookforum, Parkett, and The Believer. She’s a Prof. Emeritus at UC San Diego where she taught for five years. She lives in New York.

Laura Solomon was born in 1976 in Birmingham, Alabama. Her books include Bivouac (Slope Editions, 2002), Blue and Red Things (UDP, 2007), and The Hermit (UDP, 2011). Other publications include a chapbook, Letters by which Sisters Will Know Brothers(Katalanché Press 2005) and Haiku des Pierres / Haiku of Stones by Jacques Poullaoueq, a translation from the French with Sika Fakambi (Editions Apogée, 2006). Her poetry was recently included in the anthology Poets on Painters (Witchita State Press 2007), has appeared in magazines across North America and Europe and has been translated into ten languages. Most recently she has lived in Paris, Philadelphia, and Verona, Italy.

John Coletti is the author of Mum Halo (Rust Buckle Books 2010), Same Enemy Rainbow (fewer & further 2008), andPhysical Kind (Yo-Yo-Labs 2005). He recently served as editor of The Poetry Project Newsletter and co-edits Open 24 Hours Press with Greg Fuchs.

Will Edmiston is a poet living in Brooklyn.  His writing can be found in The Tiny, the Agriculture Reader, EOAGH, The Boog Reader 4, The Bridge and The Recluse.  His chapbook entitled “effie” was published by 3 Sad Tigers Press.  He works in various capacities in an art and design library in Manhattan.  He serves as the volunteer archivist at The Poetry Project.

Mar 7: Queen, Peiffer, Schapira

It just gets better. Wednesday, March 7, at 8pm, come on down to Sal’s Pizzeria and Mama Maria’s Restaurant at 305 Court Street in Brooklyn (convenient to F/G train to Carroll St). Belly up to some crazy affordable chow and booze and three of poetry’s most exciting new talents: Khadijah Queen, Kate Schapira, and Prudence Peiffer. It’s all FREE, it’s all HAPPENING, and it’s all BANGING.

Khadijah Queen is the author of two poetry collections: Conduit (Black Goat/Akashic 2008), and Black Peculiar, which won the 2010 Noemi Book Award for Poetry and was a finalist for the Switchback Books Gatewood Prize.

Individual poems, four times nominated for the Pushcart Prize, appear in jubilat, Fire and Ink: An Anthology of Social Action Writing (University of Arizona Press 2009), Best American Nonrequired Reading (Houghton Mifflin 2010) and A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poems (University of Akron Press 2012) among many other journals and anthologies. View sample poems online at Poets.org, Salt River Review, Muzzle, Esque, The Black Bottom, and In Posse Review.

The recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem, Squaw Valley Community of Writers and theNorman Mailer Writers’ Colony, she is currently working on an illustrated mixed-genre project. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University Los Angeles.

Prudence Peiffer is currently an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University, where she specializes in modern and contemporary and American art, with a particular emphasis on abstraction and artist’s writings.  Past poetry honors include the Amy Award (Poets & Writers) and the Frederick M. Clapp Fellowship from Yale University. Her poems have appeared in Many Mountains Moving and Poets & Artists among other magazines. With Oana Marian, she co-founded The Folding Chair, a monthly reading series at 61 Local in Brooklyn featuring writers, musicians and artists. Visit The Folding Chair on Facebook.

Kate Schapira is author of six chapbooks of poetry: Heroes & Monsters (Portable Press forthcoming 2009),Figure With Sunspots (Nasturtium Press forthcoming 2009), The Love of Freak Millways and Tango Wax (Cy Gist Press 2009), Case Fbdy and The Painting (Rope-A-Dope Press 2008), and Phoenix Memory (horse less press 2007). Curator of the Publicly Complex Reading Series in Providence. Serves as a Writer in the Schools in Providence elementary schools.

Feb 1: Prevallet, Zultanski, Turner, Burton

On Wednesday, February 1 at 8pm, come to the cozy back-room restaurant at Sal’s Pizzeria and Mama Maria Restaurant, 305 Court Street (at DeGraw), Brooklyn, NY 11231. Warm up with a $5 personal pizza, a full menu, beer, wine, spirits, and a working fireplace. And check out the fiery poetical talents of Kristin Prevallet, Steven Zultanski, Lindsay Turner, and Libby Burton. Nearest subway station is F or G to Carroll Street. Q-tip those ears and bring some friends!

Kristin Prevallet  is a poet, essayist, performer, hypnotherapist, and educator whose literary focus is to integrate political and personal consciousness into radical poetic forms. Here’s a recent interview with Dan Godston in the Examiner and with Geoffrey Watterman in Tinge Magazine.

Kristin was born in southwest Denver, CO. She is daughter of Annie Prevallet, feminist, teacher and Sister of Loretto, and Donald Schmitz, Littleton high school philosophy and psychology teacher. She is the partial owner of Buckskin Joe’s mine in Alma, CO; her ancestry lies in Franche-Comte (Levier) France. Early studies in alchemy, mythology, and surrealism; recent studies in ecology, performance art,  integrative hypnosis. Early education: Bluebirds (girl scouts), outward bound, Catholic Worker. Official education: studied journalism at the University of Northern Colorado; French literature at the Sorbonne; B.A. English at the University of Colorado, Boulder; M.A. Poetics and Media Study at the University of Buffalo. She now lives in Brooklyn. Has taught poetry and poetics, critical thinking and textual analysis at NYU, The New School, St. John’s University, Bard College, and Naropa University’s online MFA program. She has received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Mellon Foundation, a 2007 New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in Poetry and a 2004 PEN translation fund award.

Lindsay Turner holds a Masters degree in film studies from Université Paris III and an MFA in poetry from New York University. Her poetry and criticism have appeared in WebConjunctions, The Boston Review, Harvard Review, The Kenyon Review online, and elsewhere. She recently began a PhD at the University of Virginia. She is the recipient of the 2011 Lana Turner Journal Discovery Award.

Lisabeth Burton lives in Brooklyn, New York. She earned her MFA at Columbia University and works at Hachette Book Group. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Broome Review, Denver Quarterly, the North American Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Tin House. She is a recipient of the Stephen Dunn Prize in poetry and an Amy Award from Poets & Writers Magazine.

Steven Zultanski is the author of COP KISSER (Book Thug, 2010) and PAD (Make Now Press, 2010) and edits President’s Choice magazine, a Lil’ Norton publication.

Mad Good Upcoming Readings

Upcoming Blue Letter Readings

We have an excellent slate of readings on the calendar for the coming months. Remember: all readings will take place on the first Wednesday of the month at 8pm  at Sal’s Pizzeria and Mama Maria’s Restaurant, 305 Court Street (corner of DeGraw), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, NY 11231. Nearest subway is F/G to Carroll St Station. Map.

January 4: Saeed Jones, Megan Boyle, Thom Donovan

February 1: Kristin Prevallet, Steven Zultanski, Libby Burton, Lindsay Turner

March 7: Khadijah Queen, Kate Schapira, Prudence Peiffer

April 4: Eileen Myles, Will Edmiston, John Coletti, Laura Solomon

…and much more to come. If you are interested in reading, send an email with 10 pages of work attached to hosea [at] post [dot] harvard [dot] edu

Dec 7 at SAL’S: Reines, Marrin, & Languell

The Blue Letter is back, for our ninth edition of poetry magicke, at a new venue (the beloved, historic SAL’S PIZZERIA and RESTAURANT) on Wednesday, December 7 at 8pm, with three amazing poets: Ariana Reines, Aubrie Marrin, and Krystal Languell!

RSVP on Facebook!

Thanks are due to Watty & Meg Restaurant, which graciously hosted our first eight events. We’re lucky and delighted to continue the series down the street at our NEW LOCATION: the back room at SAL’S PIZZERIA, 305 Court Street (corner of DeGraw Street), Brooklyn, NY 11231. Click here for HOPSTOP Directions!  Most convenient subway is F or G to Carroll Street station. Also convenient to the 4 or R trains to Borough Hall. Come gather around the working fireplaces for some fine booze and chow and some not-to-be-missed lyrical fireworks.

Ariana Reines is author of  The Cow (Alberta Prize, FenceBooks: 2006), Coeur de Lion(Mal-O-Mar: 2007; FenceBooks: 2011), MERCURY (FenceBooks: 2011), and the play TELEPHONE, commissioned and produced by The Foundry Theatre, and presented at The Cherry Lane Theatre in February 2009, with two Obie wins. TELEPHONE can be read in PLAY: A JOURNAL OF PLAYS. In 2009 she became the youngest-ever Roberta C. Holloway Lecturer in Poetry at UC Berkeley. She featured, November 2009, in two special performances at Works+Process at the Guggenheim.  Translator of The Little Black Book of Grisélidis Réal: Days and Nights of an Anarchist Whore by Jean-Luc Hennig, for Semiotext(e), and MY HEART LAID BARE by Charles Baudelaire, for Mal-O-Mar.  A translation of TIQQUN’s Théorie de la Jeune Fille is forthcoming from Semiotext(e).

Aubrie Marrin’s poems have appeared in Pequod, Western Humanities Review, Guernica, and are forthcoming in Harp & Altar and The Colorado Review. Born and raised in upstate New York, she moved to the city in 1998 to attend New York University, where she received the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Poetry Prize. She received her MFA in Poetry from Columbia University in 2005. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn.

Krystal Languell was a semi-finalist for the 2010 University of Akron Poetry Prize and a finalist for the 2011 National Poetry Series. Her first book, Call the Catastrophists, was recently published by BlazeVox Books. She is a member of the collaborative board for Belladonna* Series, and also serves as an editor for Noemi Press and Bone Bouquet. She lives in Brooklyn.

Sept. 14: Myles, Donnelly, Nichols, & Christopher

The Blue Letter Series at Watty & Meg celebrates the ripeness of summer’s passing with a special grouping of four deeply moving and wildly adventurous poets: a charter of meditative discovery, a bee-bop sonic scat collage artist, a wistful neo-romantic amoralist, and living New York poetry legend Eileen Myles, about which all these things and more can be said.

Don’t miss this very special Blue Letter Series event at Watty & Meg, 248 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY (convenient to Bergen St F/G Station): Wednesday, September 14, at 7:30 pm featuring Eileen Myles, Timothy Donnelly, Mel Nichols, and Lonely Christopher.

NOTE: Blue Letter Readings now start at 7:30pm. Plan to arrive at Watty & Meg by 7:30 pm on Wednesday, September 14. Feel free, of course, to come earlier to take advantage of happy hour drink specials and Watty & Meg’s delicious menu, which includes everything from delicious budget snacks to full entrees.

Eileen Myles was born in Boston in 1949, attended catholic schools in Arlington, Mass. and graduated from UMass (Boston) in 1971. She came to New York in 1974 to be a poet. Inferno (a poet’s novel) which comes out in fall of 2010 from OR books chronicles the adventures of a female writer in hell very much like Eileen Myles. Myles first became known to many people for her openly female write-in campaign for President of the United States in 1991-92. She received her poetic education at The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church in 1975-77 where she participated in workshops lead by Alice Notley, Ted Berrigan and others. In 1977 and 79 she published issues of dodgems, a poetry magazine which presented a collision of New York School, Language Poetry, performance texts and other likely aesthetics of the time. She co-edited the feminist anthology Ladies Museum (w Timmons, Kraut and Notley), worked as assistant to poet James Schuyler in 1979, and was a founding member of the Lost Texans Collective (w Nauen & McKay) which produced Joan of Arc a spiritual entertainment and Patriarchy, a play. Her books include The Importance of Being Iceland/travel essays in art (2009) for which she received a Warhol/Creative Capital art writing grant, Sorry, Tree (poetry) 2007, Tow w/ artist Larry C. Collins (2005), Skies (2001), on my way (2001), Cool for You (novel, 2000), School of Fish (1997), Maxfield Parrish (1995),Not Me (1991), and Chelsea Girls  (stories, 1994). In 1995, with Liz Kotz, she edited The New Fuck You/adventures in lesbian reading. From 1984 through 1986 Myles was Artistic Director of St. Mark’s Poetry Project. In 2004 she wrote the libretto for the opera, Hell, composed  by Michael Webster and performed on both coasts and in Tijuana in 2004 and in 2006. She is a Professor Emeritus of writing & literature at UC San Diego where she taught from 2002 to 2007.  In Spring, 2010 she was the Hugo Writer at U. of Montana in Missoula. In November of 2010 she will be Fannie Hurst Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. She contributes to a wide number of publications including Artforum, Parkett, The Believer, Vice, Cabinet, The Nation, TimeOut, Book Forum and AnOther Magazine. She received an Andy Warhol/Creative Capital art writers’ grant for “Iceland.” The Poetry Society of American awarded her the Shelley Prize in 2010. She lives in New York.

Timothy Donnelly is the author of The Cloud Corporation (Wave Books, 2010) and Twenty-seven Props for a Production of Eine Lebenszeit (Grove Press, 2003). His work has been translated into German and Italian and has also appeared in numerous anthologies, including Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century, Isn’t It Romantic: 100 Love Poems, Joyful Noise: An Anthology of American Spiritual Poetry, and Poet, Poems, Poetry edited by Helen Vendler. A graduate of Johns Hopkins, Columbia and Princeton Universities, he is a poetry editor for Boston Review and teaches in the Writing Program at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two daughters.

Mel Nichols’s most recent books are Catalytic Exteriorization Phenomenon (Edge Books, 2009) and Bicycle Day (Slack Buddha, 2008). She teaches at George Mason University. Read her poem “I Google Myself.”

Lonely Christopher is an American poet, fiction writer, dramatist, and filmmaker. He is the author of the poetry volume Into (with Christopher Sweeney and Robert Snyderman) and the fiction collection The Mechanics of Homosexual Intercourse. Currently he is directing his first feature length film, MOM, which he also wrote. His latest chapbook, Poems in June, is forthcoming from The Corresponding Society.

August 17: Heise, Kearney, Reynolds

It has been hot, it is hot, and it is going to be hot. Of that we may be sure, just as we are certain that the back room at Watty & Meg will be temperate and cool, full of lyrical spirits, delicious cocktails, scrumptious morsels, and brilliant numbers on Wednesday, August 17, when we will be entertained by three remarkable poets, each distinguished in his or her own way: Thomas Heise, Simone Kearney, and Christie Ann Reynolds. The action will get underway at 8 p.m., though as always we encourage you to show up a bit early to grab a table and order some booze and nosh. Watty & Meg is at 248 Court Street, Brooklyn, close to the Bergen F/G stop and a stone’s throw from the Borough Hall R/4/5.

Thomas Heise is the award-winning author of two books, Urban Underworlds: A Geography of Twentieth-Century American Literature and Culture (Rutgers University Press, 2010) and Horror Vacui: Poems (Sarabande Books, 2006). His writing also has appeared in Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century, Ploughshares, Columbia Poetry Review, Conduit, Canary, Another Chicago Magazine, and many other journals. Heise has received the Gulf Coast Prize in Poetry, a Pushcart Prize nomination, and the Robert Frost Fellowship in Poetry from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Heise was recently awarded tenure from McGill University in Montreal, where he is an Assistant Professor of English.

Simone Kearney’s poems can be found in Post Road Magazine, Elimae, Maggy, Sal Mimeo and Supermachine. She received her MFA in poetry from Hunter College, and in 2010 she was a recipient of the Amy Awards from Poets & Writers Magazine. She teaches at Pace University, and for the Thierry-Goldberg Projects gallery in the Lower East Side. She is also a visual artist, and lives in Brooklyn.

Christie Ann Reynolds has an MFA in Poetry from The New School. She is the author of three chapbooks: idiot heart (New School University Chapbook Competition), Girl Boy Girl Boy (The Corresponding Society) and Revenge Poems(Supermachine.)

Christie Ann teaches writing at Hofstra University and is a co-curator of the poetry reading series at Goodbye Blue Monday in Brooklyn. Her work is forthcoming or can be found in Barrelhouse, Big Lucks, BlazeVox, LIT, Sink Review and others.

Wed, Jul 13: Geoffrey G. O’Brien, Mónica de la Torre, and Alan Gilbert

RSVP ON FACEBOOK!

The sixth Blue Letter Series at Watty and Meg comes on strong with the urgent political-lyrical-Californian interventions of Geoffrey G. O’Brien, improvisational explorations of the uncanny from Mónica de la Torre, and post-everything bricolage and absurdist gallows humor courtesy of Alan Gilbert. There are sure to be many surprises! But, as Obama every day reminds us all, “make no mistake”: as usual there will be $3 beers, FREE admission, Watty & Meg’s delicious food and cocktails, and plenty of poets and poetry-lovers on hand.  Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 8pm, Watty & Meg Restaurant, 248 Court Street (at Kane), Brooklyn, NY.

Watty & Meg is convenient to the Bergen F/G station as well as to the Borough Hall 4/5/R.

Geoffrey G. O’Brien is the author of Metropole (2011), Green and Gray (2007) and The Guns and Flags Project (2002), all from The University of California Press, and coauthor (in collaboration with the poet Jeff Clark) of 2A (Quemadura, 2006). He teaches in the English Department at UC Berkeley and also teaches for the Prison University Project at San Quentin State Prison.

Mónica de la Torre’s poetry books in English are Talk Shows (Switchback, 2007) and Public Domain (Roof Books, 2008). She is also author of two poetry books in Spanish published in Mexico City: Acúfenos (Taller Ditoria, 2006) and Sociedad Anónima (Bonobos/UNAM, 2010). As a translator and editor of Latin American poetry in translation, her most recent project is the anthology of post-Latino writing Malditos latinos, malditos sudacas: Poesía hispanoamericana Made in USA (Billar de Lucrecia, 2010). She is a 2009 NYFA poetry fellow and senior editor at BOMB Magazine.

Alan Gilbert’s poems have appeared in BOMB, Boston Review, Chicago Review, Denver Quarterly, jubilat, and The Nation, among other places. His writings on poetry and art have appeared in a variety of publications, including Aperture, Artforum, The Believer, Cabinet, Modern Painters, and The Village Voice. His collection of essays and articles entitled Another Future: Poetry and Art in a Postmodern Twilight was published by Wesleyan University Press in 2006. He is the recipient of a 2009 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry and a 2006 Creative Capital Foundation Award for Innovative Literature. Late in the Antenna Fields is his first collection of poems. He lives in Brooklyn.

Elizabeth Willis, Lucy Ives, and Matt Longabucco at Watty & Meg, Wed, June 15, 8pm

This Wednesday, June 15, come to Watty & Meg for the fifth installment of The Blue Letter Reading Series. In Watty & Meg’s air-conditioned, gorgeous back room, treat yourself to the latest work by superstar poets Elizabeth Willis, Matt Longabucco, and Lucy Ives. As always, Watty & Meg will provide $3 beers, cocktail specials, scrumptious fries and burgers and other treats from their elegant full menu. Click here for directions. Click here to RSVP on Facebook.

Elizabeth Willis s the Shapiro-Silverberg associate professor of creative writing at Wesleyan University. She is the author of five books of poetry, ADDRESS, SECOND LAW, THE HUMAN ABSTRACT, TURNERESQUE, and METEORIC FLOWERS. Her work has been selected for the National Poetry Series, and her awards include the Boston Review Prize, an award from the Howard Foundation, a Walter N. Thayer Fellowship for the Arts, and a grant from the California Arts Council.

Matt Longabucco‘s poems have appeared in With+Stand, Painted Bride Quarterly, Conduit, Pleiades, and Washington Square. He teaches writing and literature in the Liberal Studies Program at New York University, and is a founding member of the Brooklyn Writers’ Collaborative and the POD reading series. He lives with his wife and daughter in Brooklyn.

Lucy Ives’s ANAMNESIS (Slope Editions, 2009) was recently released on vinyl by Unicorn Evil / Flying Object. Her Early Poems is forthcoming from Ahsahta Press in 2013. She lives in New York and is a contributing editor at Triple Canopy.

Wednesday, June 15, 8 pm at Watty & Meg, 248 Court Street (at Kane), Brooklyn, New York.

Watty & Meg is convenient to the Bergen St F/G Station.

Wed, May 18: Wier, Hawkey, and Fletcher

Join us at Watty & Meg at 248 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 at 8pm on Wednesday, May 18 for stirring, profound, funny, and outstanding performances by poets Dara Wier, Christian Hawkey, and Joe Fletcher. As always, Watty & Meg’s lovely and brilliant staff will be serving cheap beer, cocktail specials, scrumptious food and snacks, espresso drinks, and delicious desserts. The magic begins at 8 pm in Watty & Meg’s spacious, beautiful back room.

Dara Wier’s SELECTED came out from Wave in 2009.  She works in the program for poets and writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  She’s co-founder and co-director of the Juniper Initiative for Literary Arts and Action and an editor and publisher for Factory Hollow Press.  New poems can be found in Maggy, Make, Oh No, Boston Review, notnostrums,  Spring Formal, Telephone, The Nation, Blue Letter.  She lives in North Amherst, Massachusetts.

Christian Hawkey has written three full-length collections and three chapbooks of poetry. His newest book, Ventrakl, a cross-genre exploration of the life and work of Georg Trakl, has just been released by Ugly Duckling Presse. His work has been translated into thirteen languages.

Joe Fletcher’s chapbook, Sleigh Ride is available from Factory Hollow Press. His poems have also appeared or are forthcoming in jubilat, Poetry International,Octopus, Kulture Vulture, Hoboeye, and elsewhere. His chapbook, Already It Is Dusk, is forthcoming from Brooklyn Arts Press. He lives in Carrboro, North Carolina