Titillating Tongues: NYC Erotica in Poetry & Prose + Open Mic - Thursday, Nov. 3

The Inspired Word presents a hot night of sexy fun, lip-licking words, and utter debauchery – Titillating Tongues: NYC Erotica in Poetry & Prose, featuring some of New York City's best erotic writers: Rachel Kramer Bussel, Janice Erlbaum, Uche Nduka, Jennifer Blowdryer, Aimee Herman, Kathleen Warnock, Puma Perl, Elizabeth Rivera De Garcia, Jane LeCroy, and Sam J. Miller.

There will also be a 12-slot open mic open to all types of artists, where you can bring your own heat to the party.

Hosted by HBO Def Poetry star Gemineye.
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When: Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011

Where: One and One Bar & Restaurant (downstairs Nexus Lounge) 76 East 1st Street (corner of 1st Avenue) Manhattan, NYC Phone:(917) 703-1512

Doors open for open mic sign-up @ 6:30pm

Show starts @ 7pm

Cover Charge: $10

Must be 21 years old or older.

"The Inspired Word isn't just a series, it's a movement."
*****
And please join us for our Tuesday Night Open Mic Joint - same time, same place.
*****
FEATURE BIOS (in alphabetical order):

In 1988, Ms. Jennifer Blowdryer founded Smut Fests, a show that mixed sex workers performing their own material, however they saw fit, along with some burlesque, spoken word, and other ephemera. She took it on the road to London, Chicago, Hamburg, and Baltimore, Maryland. London was the most crazily good show, but Hamburg's red light district offered the best theater on earth, the Schmidt Tivoli. JB's currently working on a documentary called The 86ed Project, and an ebook called The Bitchez Guide to the Lower East Side. She resides on East 2nd Street, which is still Sport Bar free. For more info, please visit http://blog.jenniferblowdryer.com/.



Rachel Kramer Bussel is an author, editor, blogger and event organizer. She is the editor of 40 anthologies, including Women in Lust, Obsessed, Orgasmic, Gotta Have It, Fast Girls, Best Bondage Erotica 2011, Spanked, Bottoms Up, and more. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations and writes a sex column for SexIs Magazine. She writes widely about sex, dating, books and pop culture, and blogs at Lusty Lady (http://lustylady.blogspot.com/) and Cupcakes Take the Cake (http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/). For more info, please visit http://www.rachelkramerbussel.com/.



Janice Erlbaum is the author of Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir (Villard, March ’06), and Have You Found Her: A Memoir (Villard, Feb. ’08). A founding member of the now defunct performance collective Pussy Poets, her poetry and prose has been featured in anthologies including Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café, The Bust Guide To The New Girl Order, The Best American Erotic Poems From 1800 To The Present, The Autobiographer’s Handbook: The 826 National Guide to Writing Your Memoir, and Verses That Hurt: Pleasure and Pain from the Poemfone Poets.



Nicknamed SoulSistaRican (by artist/activist Earline Fisher) and Lovely Liz (by host Angel G of The Nuevo Latino Radio Show when sharing her erotic poetry), Elizabeth Rivera de Garcia is a poet, spoken word artist, actor and founder of MyPeopleProductions. She made her poetic debut at The Nuyorican Poet’s Café in Lady l for Banana Puddin’ Jazz and was invited again for Lady ll. Elizabeth has collaborated with Jazz singer Rome Neal for The Brooklyn Jazz Festival and has performed with Jazz Mojo at The Bowery Wine Co. She featured for Heaven on the Hudson at The Hudson River Café and is currently a resident poet of La Familia and company member of The Haiku Empire.



Aimee Herman, a queer performative poet, has been featured at various New York venues such as the Happy Ending Lounge, Dixon Place, Wow Café Theatre, Public Assembly, and Sidewalk Café. She has performed at reading/performance series such as: In the Flesh erotic salon, Hyper Gender, Sideshow: Queer Literary Carnival, and Red Umbrella Diaries. Her poetry can be found in Clean Sheets, Cliterature Journal, Pregnant Moon Review, InStereo Press, and/or journal, and Polari Journal. She can also be read in Focus on the Fabulous: Colorado GLBT Voices, hell strung and crooked (Uphook Press), Best Women’s Erotica 2010 (Cleis Press), Best Lesbian Love Stories 2010 (Alyson Books), Nice Girls, Naughty Sex (Seal), and the upcoming Women in Lust (Cleis). She currently works as an erotica editor for Oysters & Chocolate. She can be found writing poems on her body in Brooklyn. Find her @ http://aimeeherman.wordpress.com/.



Jane LeCroy is a poet and performance artist, home-birthing mother of three, teacher, atheist, vegetarian, hedonist, who fronts the avant-pop band Transmitting with Tom Abbs. Her last book of poetry, “Names” was published by Booklyn (no “R”) as part of the award winning ABC Chapbook series. Her work has appeared in many publications including: Mudfish, Frank 151, Vector, and Teachers & Writers Magazine. LeCroy's last CD, Transmitting "Dark and Full of Life” was released on the European label, Delphy Records. She is a teaching artist working in New York schools through Teachers & Writers Collaborative, Global Writes and DreamYard, she does literacy advocacy through Read To Me. LeCroy has many books and recordings available at www.janelecroy.com where you can request to be put on her e list and receive free poems hot off her brain with every show invite.



Sam J. Miller is a writer and a community organizer. His work has been published in The Minnesota Review, Fiction International, Arts & Letters, West Branch, Washington Square, and The Rumpus, as well as anthologies like Best Gay Erotica 2006 & 2008. He's the co-editor of Horror After 9/11, forthcoming from the University of Texas Press. For more info, please visit http://samjmiller.com/.



Born and raised in Nigeria, Uche Nduka is a collagist, eroticist, and songwriter. He is the author of eight books of poems and winner of the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize in 1997. Some of his writings have been translated into German, Dutch, Romanian, Serbo-Croat, and French. He currently lives - and writes constantly - in New York City.



Puma Perl is a poet and fiction writer, producer, and performance artist who believes strongly in the transformative power of the creative arts. Her work has been published in over 100 print and online journals and anthologies. Her first chapbook, Belinda and Her Friends was awarded the Erbacce Press 2009 Poetry Award; a full length collection, knuckle tattoos, was published in 2010. She lives on the Lower East Side and has facilitated writing workshops in community based agencies and at Riker’s Island, a NYC prison. She is a founding member of DDAY Productions, and curates monthly shows at the Bowery Poetry Club.



Kathleen Warnock is series editor for Best Lesbian Erotica. Her own erotica has appeared in BLE, A Woman's Touch, Friction 7, and Best Lesbian Romance. She curates the reading series Drunken! Careening! Writers! at KGB Bar the third Thursday of every month (since 2004). For more info, please visit http://www.kathleenwarnock.com/.

2 Videos: Poets Joaquín Zihuatanejo & Natasha Carrizosa @ The Inspired Word

Poets Joaquín Zihuatanejo & Natasha Carrizosa @ Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011, One and One Bar/Restaurant, Nexus Lounge, Manhattan, NYC. Hosted by Theresa Poetresse Robbinson.

Natasha Carrizosa is a mother, a dreamer, and a lover of music and life. She is a poet/spoken word artist who celebrates her dual heritage (African- and Mexican-American) with works that weave an intoxicating blend of cultures, languages and impressions. She has shared the stage with Maya Angelou, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, E. Lynn Harris and countless other poets, authors, and artists. Her writings have been featured in Rhapsody, Her Mark, and x magazine (United Kingdom.) She is the author of mejiafricana, a spoken word CD and nude -- a collection of love and erotic poems. She recently recorded her second spoken word CD -- the dreamcatcher. In 2008 she collaborated with Joaquín Zihuatanejo on of fire and rain - a spoken word CD that is a testimony of life/love that spans from the barrios of East Dallas to the ghettos of the west indies. Selections from of fire and rain were published by Poetry in Motion, and organization that promotes the work of young American poets by publishing their work alongside the work of masters from the past on trains, subways, and buses across The United States. Natasha is the 2010 Austin International Poetry Slam Champion and one of two American poets (Joaquín Zihuatanejo, below, is the other) chosen to represent The United States at El Proyecto Poesia Slam 2010 in Madrid, Spain.

Joaquín Zihuatanejo is a father, husband, poet, and award-winning teacher. In his work he strives to capture the duality of the Chicano culture - the conquered and the conqueror, the Pagan and the Christian, the earth and the sky all find refuge in his voice. He has shared a stage with Maya Angelou, Billy Collins, E. Lynn Harris, Saul Williams, and Alicia Keys among others. He appeared on HBO Def Poetry in 2005 and is the author of Barrio Songs and co-author, along with Natasha Carrizosa, of the collection of poems of fire and rain. Joaquin has recorded seven spoken word CDs, Barrio Songs, Stand Up and Be Heard, Live at Longwood, of fire and rain, a spoken word collaboration with Natasha Carrizosa, Child of the Hood Days, HOPE 5 MILES, and Barbaric Yawps: Best of Joaquín Zihuatanejo. He is the winner of the 2008 Individual World Poetry Slam Championship and the 2009 European World Cup of Poetry Slam Championship held in Paris, France making him the number one ranked slam poet in the world on both sides of the Atlantic in the same year. He was recently awarded the Artist in Residence Award by the National Hispanic Cultural Center and will spend most of the summer writing and teaching at the NHCC in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The two passions in his life are his wife Aída and poetry - always in that order.

This event was funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc. with public funds from New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

Videographer: Denise Goins http://www.denisegoins.com/

Amber & Bonnie Tamblyn Go BOOM: A Mother-Daughter Evening of Explosive Poetry, Music & Foul Language + Open Mic - Tuesday, Oct. 25

The Inspired Word presents Amber & Bonnie Tamblyn Go BOOM: A Mother-Daughter Evening of Explosive Poetry, Music, & Foul Language + 15-slot open mic open to all types of artists.

Hosted by the cooleriffic Nathan P.



*****

BIOS:


Amber Tamblyn is a Venice, California native. She has been a writer and actress since the age of nine. She was nominated for an Emmy, Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award for her work in television and film. In 2005, Simon & Schuster published her debut collection of poetry Free Stallion. In 2007 she won the Locarno Film Festival award for Best Actress for her work in the film “Stephanie Daley,” in which she starred opposite actress Tilda Swinton. She most recently appeared in FOX’s television show “HOUSE” and in Danny Boyle’s critically acclaimed film, “127 Hours” opposite James Franco. She will next appear in Horton Foote’s “Main Street” opposite Colin Firth. She is most recognized for her work as Joan on the CBS television program “Joan of Arcadia." She is the producer of “The Drums Inside Your Chest,” an annual poetry concert (thedrumsinsideyourchest.com) and the nonprofit, Write Now Poetry Society (writenowpoets.org). Her second book of poetry and prose Bang Ditto (Manic D. Press) was released last Fall. She writes for The Poetry Foundation and lives in NYC. For more info, please visit http://www.amtam.com/.



Bonnie Tamblyn is a Californian singer/songwriter. She has written over 60 songs and released four albums, including the most recent Winter Wind. She performs with her daughter, poet and actress Amber Tamblyn in a vaudevillian variety show that encompasses beautiful harmonies, comedic Hollywood horror stories and lots of booze.

When: Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011

Where: One and One Bar & Restaurant (downstairs Nexus Lounge) 76 East 1st Street (corner of 1st Avenue) Manhattan, NYC

Phone:(917) 703-1512

Doors open for open mic sign-up @ 6:30pm

Show starts @ 7pm

Cover Charge: $10

NO AGE LIMIT.

"The Inspired Word isn't just a series, it's a movement."

Video - Poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths @ The Inspired Word Spoken Word Series of NYC

Poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths @ Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011 @ One and One Bar/Restaurant, Nexus Lounge, Manhattan, NYC.

Rachel Eliza Griffiths is a poet and a photographer. She is the author of Miracle Arrhythmia, The Requited Distance. Her visual and literary work has been widely published, including in Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review, Indiana Review, and RATTLE. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships, including Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, Vermont Studio Center, and the Cave Canem Foundation. This year, Griffiths was included in the first ever O magazine poetry issue. Her latest collection of poems, Mule & Pear (New Issues Poetry & Prose) will be released this fall. Currently, she teaches at Sarah Lawrence College. For more info, please visit http://www.rachelelizagriffiths.com/.

Video - Poet Paulie Lipman @ The Inspired Word Spoken Word Series of NYC

Poet Paulie Lipman @ Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011 @ One and One Bar/Restaurant, Nexus Lounge, Manhattan, NYC.

Paulie Lipman is a poet/writer/musician/performer out of Denver, CO. He has been a part of 7 Denver Mercury National Slam Teams (including '04's second place and '06's national champions). In addition to extensively touring the U.S. and Canada, he has just put out a poetry w/music album The Obscene Gravity of Silence. His work has appeared in The Legendary, Borderline, and the Write Bloody anthology: The Good Things About America. He is a Libra, enjoys windy walks, and can't wait to meet you. For more info, please visit http://paulielipman.bandcamp.com/.

The Inspired Word Presents Uphook Press NYC Poetry Night + Open Mic - Thursday, Oct. 20

The Inspired Word Presents Uphook Press Night, featuring such gifted poets as Peter Carlaftes, Jane Ormerod, Sharon Mesmer, Roberto F. Santiago, George Wallace, John J. Trause, and Emily Kagan Trenchard.

In addition, there will be a 12-15 slot open mic. Hosted by 3-time HBO Def Poetry star Gemineye.

Uphook Press is a New York City-based publisher specializing in work by poets and spoken word artists who love both the ink and the mic.

–gape-seed- is its third anthology, taken from open submission, with the aim to promote a nationwide community of performing poets. It features 52 poets (from New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami, Nashville, Santa Fe, and elsewhere) and includes an interview with award-winning poet and spoken word pioneer Regie Cabico.

For more info, please check out http://www.uphookpress.com/

*****

BIOS:

Poet, playwright, and performer, PETER CARLAFTES began his entertainment career on the playground of the Bronx and, after seeing the world, branched out to Manhattan. He is the author of three books: Drunkyard Dog, Triumph for Rent, and A Year on Facebook—all published by Three Rooms Press.



SHARON MESMER’s many poetry and fiction publications include The Virgin Formica (Hanging Loose, 2008), Annoying Diabetic Bitch (Combo Books, 2008), and Ma Vie à Yonago (in French translation from Hachette Littératures, 2005). Sharon is a member of the flarf collective.



ROBERTO F. SANTIAGO writes placing pen to paper and fingertips to QWERTY all as an act of translation. Within poetry, he has discovered a booming collective of voices and a rickety soapbox for his multiple identities whereupon he can shout obscenities and prayers at the same time. Roberto also writes and produces music, and has been known to dance until he rips his pants.



JOHN J. TRAUSE is co-founder of the William Carlos Williams Poetry Cooperative in Rutherford, NJ, and the author of Seriously Serial, and Latter-Day Litany—the latter staged off-off Broadway. John has performed with Steven Van Zandt, Anne Waldman, and Karen Finley for the City Lights Books celebration at the Poetry Project, NYC.



EMILY KAGAN TRENCHARD began writing poetry while at the University of California, Berkeley. She now lives in Brooklyn and is co-curator of the renowned louderARTS Project Reading Series. A featured writer and performer at numerous reading series and universities across the country, and was a part of Def Poetry Jam’s seasons 3 and 4.



GEORGE WALLACE is author of twenty poetry collections, including Poppin’ Johnny (Three Rooms Press, 2010), Summer of Love Summer of Love (Shivastan Press, 2010), and Jumping Over The Moon (Boone’s Dock Press, 2011). Writer in residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace in Wet Hills, NY, George appears throughout the US and in Europe to perform, lecture, and conduct poetry workshops.



JANE ORMEROD is the author of the full-length poetry collection, Recreational Vehicles on Fire (Three Rooms Press, 2009), the chapbook 11 Films (Modern Metrics/EXOT Books, 2008), and the spoken word CD Nashville Invades Manhattan. Look carefully and you may spot her in the 80’s cult horror movie classic Screamtime.


*****
When: Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011

Where: One and One Bar & Restaurant (downstairs Nexus Lounge) 76 East 1st Street (corner of 1st Avenue) Manhattan, NYC Phone: (917) 703-1512

Doors Open for open mic sign-up @ 6:30pm

Showtime @ 7pm

Cover Charge: $10

NO AGE LIMIT.

"The Inspired Word isn't just a series, it's a movement."

*****

And please join us for our Tuesday Night Open Mic Joint - same time, same place!

Poet Aimee Herman @ The Inspired Word - Manhattan, NYC

Poet Aimee Herman @ Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word, Thursday, June 30, 2011 @ One and One Bar/Restaurant, Nexus Lounge, Manhattan, NYC. Hosted by Gemineye.

Aimee Herman is a performance poet who has been featured at various NYC reading series including In the Flesh Erotic Salon, Hyper Gender, Sideshow: Queer Lit Carnival, and Red Umbrella Diaries. She can be read in anthologies such as: Best American Erotica 2010 (Cleis Press), Nice Girls, Naughty Sex (Seal), hell strung and crooked (Uphook Press), and Focus on the Fabulous: Colorado GLBT Voices. Beyond poetry, Aimee edits erotica for Oysters & Chocolate and also has a column called: notes from a dirty young woman. She is deeply inspired by Charles Bukowski, gender deconstructors, and alphabetized book shelves. She can next be seen at the HOTT festival in July at Dixon Place.

The Inspired Word is New York City's hottest new spoken word poetry open mic series happening every Tuesday and Thursday night in downtown Manhattan, produced by longtime journalist and former Village Voice columnist Mike Geffner and hosted by HBO Def Poetry star Gemineye and the NYC spoken word legend Nathan P.

Maggie Nuttall's By the Seat of My Pants: True Stories of Wit & Grit + Open Mic - Thursday, Oct. 13

The Inspired Word presents Maggie Nuttall and her one-woman show, By the Seat of My Pants: True Stories of Wit & Grit. + a 15-20 slot open mic open to all types of artists. Hosted by 3-time HBO Def Poetry star Gemineye.

*****

BIO:

Maggie Nuttall has a B.A. in Theatre from Marywood University. This is her 3rd solo show in as many years. Her other solo shows are Off the Beaten Path in 2009 Me Me Me Festival hosted by the Broadway Comedy Club, and Roll With It at the 2010 NYC Frigid Theatre Festival produced by HorseTrade Theatre. She has taken on such roles as Beatrice from Effect of Gamma Rays on Man In The Moon Marigolds and Leona in Tennessee Willimas' Confessional. She is a frequent performer at the NYC MOTH Story Slams and has told stories onstage at The Bitter End, The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Housing Works, and SouthPaw in Brooklyn.

"Maggie Nuttall tells powerful stories. She is angry and she is funny and sometimes I am afraid of her. I can always count on her to keep me on the edge of my seat." - Jenifer Hixson, The MOTH Senior Producer



*****

When: Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011

Where: One and One Bar & Restaurant (downstairs Nexus Lounge)
76 East 1st Street (corner of 1st Avenue)
Manhattan, NYC

Phone: (917) 703-1512

Doors Open for open mic sign-up @ 6:30pm

Showtime @ 7pm

Cover Charge: $10

NO AGE LIMIT.

"The Inspired Word isn't just a series, it's a movement."

The Inspired Word NYC Open Mic - The Videos

Videos - Poet Patricia Smith & Novelist Bruce DeSilva @ The Inspired Word

The married couple of poet Patricia Smith & novelist Bruce DeSilva @ Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011, One and One Bar/Restaurant, Nexus Lounge, Manhattan, New York City. Hosted by Nathan P. Patricia Smith is the author of five books of poetry, including "Blood Dazzler," a 2008 National Book Award finalist, and "Teahouse of the Almighty," a National Poetry Series selection. In addition to appearing in The Best American Poetry 2011 and The Best American Essays 2011, her work has been published in The Paris Review, Poetry, TriQuarterly and many other anthologies and journals. She is a four-time champion of the National Poetry Slam, the most successful poet in the competition's history. Patricia is the editor of the anthology "Staten Island Noir" and teaches at CUNY/College of Staten Island and in the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. For more info, please visit http://wordwoman.ws/.

Bruce DeSilva is the author of "Rogue Island," winner of the Mystery Writers of America's coveted Edgar Award for best first novel of 2010. The book has also been nominated for the Anthony and Barry awards and was a Publishers Weekly "first fiction" selection as one of the year's top debut novels. "Cliff Walk," the second book in the series, will be published early in 2012, and DeSilva is currently writing the third. DeSilva worked as an investigative reporter, editor, and writing coach at The Providence Journal, The Hartford Courant, and, most recently, The Associated Press, before retiring from journalism two years ago to write fiction. Stories he edited have won virtually every major journalism prize including The Polk (twice), The Livingston (twice) and The Pulitzer. His book reviews have appeared in The New York Times book review section, and he continues to review fiction regularly for the AP. For more info, please visit http://www.brucedesilva.com/.

The Inspired Word is New York City's hottest new spoken word poetry open mic series happening every Tuesday and Thursday night in downtown Manhattan, produced by longtime journalist and former Village Voice columnist Mike Geffner and hosted by HBO Def Poetry star Gemineye and the NYC spoken word legend Nathan P.

Videographer: Denise Goins http://www.denisegoins.com/
 

Big Apple BAP/Fall Edition: NYC's Best American Poetry Poets w/Host David Lehman - Thursday, Oct. 6

The Inspired Word proudly presents this SPECIAL EVENT: Big Apple BAP/Fall Edition: NYC's Best American Poetry Poets.

It is a night celebrating this city's finest poets, whose poems over the years have been honored with inclusion in the highly respected annual anthology. http://www.bestamericanpoetry.com/

The lineup includes a stunning array of accomplished poets: Truck Darling, Matthea Harvey, Julie Sheehan, Kimiko Hahn, Marilyn Nelson, Marc Jaffee, Anna Ziegler, Jason Schneiderman, Cornelius Eady, Timothy Liu, and Gregory Pardlo.

Hosted by the founding editor of Best American Poetry series, David Lehman.

Each poet will read the poem or poems appearing in BAP, as well as something new.

Please join us for what promises to be an amazing night of poetry.

STUDENT DISCOUNT - $7
*****
When: Thursday, Oct .6, 2011

Where: One and One Bar & Restaurant (downstairs Nexus Lounge) 76 East 1st Street (corner of 1st Avenue) Manhattan, NYC Phone: (212) 598-9126

Time: 6:30pm

Cover Charge: $15 ($7 for those with valid student ID)

NO AGE LIMIT.
*****
Born in Houston, Texas in 1974 & a current resident of NYC, Truck Darling received my BA and MFA degrees in Writing & Poetics from Naropa University in 1999. Her books BLUE COLLAR HOLIDAY and HOLD TIGHT: THE TRUCK DARLING POEMS were both published by Hanging Loose Press in April 2005 and 2010, respectively. The German press luxbooks published a bilingual edition of her poems in a book titled ICH HABE ANGST UM MEINEN HEDGEFONDS in March 2008 and Faux Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, published my chapbook THE PILL BOOK in April 2008. Darling's poems have recently appeared in The Portable Boog Reader, The Hat, LIT, and Hanging Loose magazines. She appeared in The Best American Poetry 2004.

Marc Jaffee attended Vassar College, and received his MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. He lives in Brooklyn. His work can be found in The Best American Poetry 2004, Hanging Loose, Storyscape, The Saint Ann's Review, and Spork.

Julie Sheehan’s three poetry collections are Bar Book: Poems & Otherwise, Orient Point and Thaw. Her honors include a Whiting Writers’ Award and NYFA Fellowship in Poetry. Her poems have appeared in many magazines and anthologies. She teaches in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton. She appeared in The Best American Poetry 2005.



Jason Schneiderman is the author of Striking Surface, winner of the Richard Snyder prize from Ashland Poetry Press, and Sublimation Point, a Stahlecker Selection from Four Way Books. His poetry and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, The Best American Poetry, Grand Street, The Penguin Book of the Sonnet, Story Quarterly, and Tin House among other places. He has received fellowships from Yaddo, The Fine Arts Work Center, and The Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. He was the recipient of the Emily Dickinson Award from the Poetry Society of America in 2004. He currently directs the Writing Center at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. He appeared in The Best American Poetry 2005.



Poet/Playwright Cornelius Eady is the author of several poetry collections: Kartunes; Victims of the Latest Dance Craze, winner of the 1985 Lamont Prize; The Gathering of My Name, nominated for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry; You Don't Miss Your Water; The Autobiography of a Jukebox; Brutal Imagination; and most recently, Hardheaded Weather (Putnam, 2008). His awards include Fellowships from the NEA, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Traveling Scholarship, and The Prairie Schooner Strousse Award. His work appears in many journals, magazines, and the anthologies Every Shut Eye Ain't Asleep, In Search of Color Everywhere, and The Vintage Anthology of African American Poetry, (1750-2000). He is co-founder of Cave Canem, and is currently The Miller Family Endowed Chair in Literature and Writing and Professor in English at The University of Missouri-Columbia. He appeared in The Best American Poetry 2008.



Marilyn Nelson is the author or translator of twelve books, three chapbooks, and has appeared three times in The Best American Poetry - 2003, 2006, and 2007. Her books have won many awards and honors. Her most recent book, Snook Alone (Candlewick, 2010), is an allegory masquerading as a picture book, lavishly illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering. Nelson is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Connecticut; founder and former director of Soul Mountain Retreat, a small writers’ colony; and former (2001 - 2006) Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut.



Timothy Liu (Liu Ti Mo) was born in 1965 in San Jose, California. He is the author of eight books of poems, including Of Thee I Sing (2004), selected by Publishers Weekly as a 2004 Book-of-the-Year, and Vox Angelica (1992), which won the Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book Award. Translated into ten languages, Liu’s poems have appeared in such places as Bomb, Grand Street, Kenyon Review, The Nation, New American Writing, Paris Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, Virginia Quarterly Review and The Yale Review. His journals and papers are archived in the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library. Liu is a Professor of English at William Paterson University and on the Core Faculty at Bennington College’s Writing Seminars; he lives in Manhattan. He appeared in The Best American Poetry 2002.



Born in Philadelphia in 1968, Gregory Pardlo is a graduate of Rutgers University, Camden. As an undergraduate, he managed the small jazz club his grandfather owned in Pennsauken, NJ. He received the MFA from NYU as a New York Times Fellow in Poetry. Pardlo is the author of Totem, winner of the 2007 APR/ Honickman Prize, and translator of Niels Lyngsoe’s, Pencil of Rays and Spiked Mace (Bookthug, 2004). He has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Cave Canem, the MacDowell Colony, and the NEA. He currently serves as an associate poetry editor for Callaloo, and is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at George Washington University. He divides his time between Washington, D.C. and Brooklyn. His website is http://pardlo.com. He appeared in The Best American Poetry 2010.



Matthea Harvey is the author of four books of poetry—Of Lamb (an illustrated erasure with Amy Jean Porter), Modern Life, Sad Little Breathing Machine and Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form as well as a fable for children and adults, The Little General and the Giant Snowflake, illustrated by Elizabeth Zechel. She is the winner of the Kingsley Tufts Award and the Addison M. Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She appeared in the 2003, 2005, and 2007 editions of The Best American Poetry.



Anna Ziegler’s plays include Photograph 51, Dov and Ali, BFF, The Minotaur, Variations on a Theme and others. Ziegler’s work has been published in New Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2007 (Smith and Kraus), Best Ten-Minute Plays 2010 and Ten-Minute Plays for 2 Actors: The Best of 2004 (both by Smith and Kraus, Inc.) and New American Short Plays 2005 (Backstage Books, ed. Craig Lucas). BFF, LIFE SCIENCE and PHOTOGRAPH 51 are published by Dramatists Play Service. Ziegler’s poetry has appeared in The Best American Poetry 2003, The Threepenny Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, Reactions, The Mississippi Review, Arts and Letters, Mid-American Review, Smartish Pace, The Saint Ann’s Review, and other journals. A graduate of Yale, she holds an MFA from Tisch. For more info, please visit http://www.annabziegler.net/.

Kimiko Hahn, author of eight collections, finds her material from disparate sources--whether exhumation (The Artist's Daughter) or classical Japanese texts (The Narrow Road to the Interior). Rarified fields of science triggered her latest work in Toxic Flora and continue in her current writing (some which can be found in Field, Drunken Boat, and a forthcoming American Poetry Review). Other writing projects have taken her to film and TV. Her most recent award was Guggenheim Fellowship and she is a distinguished professor in the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Literary Translation at Queens College, City University of New York. She appeared in two editions of The Best American Poetry – 1996 and 2010.