Pete's Big Poetry Series Spring 2008 Poet Bios
February 15th – Bill Rasmovicz & Jean-Paul Pecqueur & James Hoch
Bill Rasmovicz is a graduate of the Vermont College MFA in Writing Program and Temple University School of Pharmacy. His poems have
appeared in Hotel Amerika, Nimrod, Mid-American Review, and other publications. He has served as a workshop co-leader and literary
excursion leader throughout Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, England and Wales, and was the recipient of the Alice James Books 2006 Kinereth Gensler Award for his manuscript, The World in Place of Itself.
Jean-Paul Pecqueur is from Tacoma, Washington. His first book, The Case Against Happiness, was published by Alice James in 2006. He currently lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, the tornado capital of NYC.
Prior to teaching, James Hoch was a dishwasher, cook, dockworker, social worker and shepherd. His poems have appeared in Slate, Kenyon Review, Ninth Letter, and many others. He is the recipient of fellowships and scholarships from Bread Loaf, Sewanee, and Summer Literary Seminars, and received a 2007 NEA grant. Miscreants will be published by WW Norton in June, 2007. A Parade of Hands won the Gerald Cable Award and was published in March 2003 by Silverfish Review Press. He resides in Mahwah, NJ with his wife and son.
February 29th – Ada Limon & Melissa Koosmann & Rebecca Gopoian
Ada Limón's first book, lucky wreck, was the winner of the Autumn House Poetry Prize. Her second book, This Big Fake World, was the winner of the Pearl Poetry Prize. She is at work on a third book dealing mainly with rivers, sharks, and how to live in the world.
Melissa Koosmann is a graduate of the University of Arizona MFA program in poetry. Her poems have appeared in The Indiana Review, Diagram, Coconut, and other journals.
Rebecca Gopoian's poems have appeared in EOAGH, elimae, the DenverQuarterly, The Cupboard, Tarpaulin Sky, Margie, and others. Her articles, reviews and collaborative comics have appeared in The New York Times, Interfaithfamily.com and LitVert. She lives in Queens with her husband, cartoonist David Heatley, and their two children, Maya and Samuel.
March 14th – Stephanie Cleveland & Michael Schiavo & Andy Hughes
Michael Schiavo's poetry and nonfiction has appeared in The Yale Review, Tin House, The Believer, Forklift, Ohio, The Hat, Unpleasant Event Schedule, and elsewhere. He is a contributing editor to CUE and currently resides in North Bennington, Vermont. You can visit his blog which he occasionally posts to at http://michaelschiavo.blogspot.com.
Andrew Hughes divides his time between New York and Vermont. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Forklift, Ohio, Octopus, Spell, Cannibal, and others.
Stephanie Cleveland is a feminist who has spoken nationally and internationally against pornography, prostitution and rape. Her poems have appeared in Colorado Review, Boston Review, Another Chicago Magazine, jubilat and are forthcoming in Conduit and Phoebe. Her essays have appeared in Adonis Mirror and off our backs. Raised in rural Georgia, Stephanie now lives in Manhattan with her cat Lola and works in Brooklyn as a babysitter.
March 28th – Stephen Motika & Sue Nacey & Peter Spagnuolo
Stephen Motika's chapbook, Arrival and at Mono, was published by Sona Books in fall 2007. His work has appeared in The National Post of Canada, Another Chicago Magazine, and The Common Review, among other publications. "The Field," a collaborative exhibition with Dianna Frid, was on view at Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois, Chicago, in December 2003. He is the coordinator of public programs, education, and exhibitions at Poets House and publisher of Nightboat Books.
Peter Spagnuolo is the author of The Squatter's Midden (2001) and Ten by Fourteen (2005), limited edition/letterpress chapbooks from Booklyn. "Egg and Dart," a longer poem, is due out in Spring, 2008. He has been a past Poetry Fellow for the state arts councils of California and Pennsylvania, and his poems appear in Threepenny Review and Poetry. Mr. Spagnuolo works a day-job writing for mysterious figures at a criminal defense firm on the Lower East Side. He lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and loves key lime pie more than he can say.
April 11th – Chris Hosea & Mark Yakich & Joe Fletcher
Mark Yakich's latest poetry collection, The Importance of Peeling Potatoes in Ukraine, is forthcoming with Penguin in March 2008. Mark lives in New Orleans. His website is markyakich.com.
Chris Hosea's poems have been published in Swerve, Denver Quarterly, VOLT, Harvard Review, and elsewhere. His manuscript, The Promise of the Baffled, was a semifinalist for the 2007 Walt Whitman Award. He is a graduate of Harvard and the University of Massachusetts Amherst MFA Program. He works at the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center and lives in Brooklyn.
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. He lives and teaches in North Carolina.
April 25th – Evie Shockley & Brenda Ijima
Brenda Iijima is the author of Animate, Inanimate Aims (Litmus, 2007) and Around Sea (O Books, 2004). Her book, If Not Metamorphic was runner up for the Sawtooth Prize and will be published by Ahsahta Press. A work called revv.you'll-ution, is forthcoming from Displaced Editions in 2008. She is the editor of Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs (http://yoyolabs.com/). Together with Evelyn Reilly she is editing a collection of essays by poets concerning poetry and ecological ethics titled )((eco (lang)(uage(reader). She lives in Brooklyn, New York where she designs and constructs homeopathic gardens.
Evie Shockley is the author of a half-red sea (2006) and a poetry chapbook, The Gorgon Goddess (2001), both published by Carolina Wren Press. Her work appears or is forthcoming in numerous journals and anthologies, including 1913: a journal of forms, No Tell Motel,
PMS:PoemMemoirStory, and others. In 2007, she guest edited "~QUEST~": a special issue of MiPOesias featuring the work of contemporary African American poets and is currently serving as a guest editor of jubilat. Shockley is a Cave Canem graduate fellow. She teaches African American literature and creative writing at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
May 9th – Keith Newton &Erica Ehrenberg & Robyn Art
Keith Newton edits the online magazine Harp & Altar. His poems and essays have recently appeared in Harvard Review, Cannibal, and Octopus, among other journals, and a chapbook of his work is forthcoming in 2008 from Cannibal Books. He lives in Brooklyn.
Erica Ehrenberg is a graduate of Amherst College and the Creative Writing Program (in Poetry) at New York University. Her poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Goodfoot, jubilat, The St. Ann's Review, the Center for Book Arts broadside series, and in the anthology Dancing with Joy: 99 Poems (Crown, 2007). She teaches Poetry, Writing, and Irish Literature at Montclair State University. Currently, she is at work on completing her first collection of poetry, and on a graphic novel loosely based on the gangs of 19th century New York.
Robyn Art is a native of Lincoln, Massachusetts, hometown of the band They Might Be Giants. Her recent poems have appeared in Slope, The Hat, and Wicked Alice and her work will be included in the anthologies The Bedside Guide To No Tell Motel: Second Floor and Outside Voices Anthology of Younger American Poets. She is the author of the poetry manuscript, The Stunt Double In Winter, which will be published by Dusie Press in Spring 2008. Her text-visual collaboration with the artist Robin Barcus, "Dear American Lovechild, Yours, the Beautiful Undead" will be published by Dancing Girl Press in winter 2008.
May 16th - Betsy Wheeler & Frank Montesonti & Amy King & Morgan Schuldt
Morgan Lucas Schuldt is the author of Verge (Parlor Press: Free Verse Editions, 2007) and Otherhow (Kitchen Press, 2007), a chapbook. He lives in Tucson where he edits the literary journal CUE.
Amy King is the author of the poetry collection, Antidotes for an Alibi (Blazvox Books), which was a Lambda Book Award finalist, and the chapbook, The People Instruments (Pavement Saw Press Chapbook Award 2002). Her poems appear in numerous journals such as The Brooklyn Rail, CutBank, LIT, The Mississippi Review, Milk Magazine, MiPoesias, No Tell Motel, and Shampoo Poetry. She teaches Creative Writing and English at Nassau Community College and is an interview correspondent for miPOradio. |
