Deborah Bernhardt & Marcela Sulak at the Joaquin Miller Poetry Reading Series
I felt fortunate to be in the audience tonight to listen to these talented writers. In April, the directors of the reading series had the difficult job of choosing which people to read. Seeing the series come to life with poetry I’d formerly only read on the page was a rare pleasure.
Bernhardt read the majority of her poems from her book Echolalia and the audience laughed in all the right places and even applauded. Sulak read a number of food poems — “Chipotle” was a favorite of mine — and fascinated the audience (and probably made them hungry) with her personification of food.
About Deborah Bernhardt:
She received a BA in English/Art History/Photography from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. She has received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center/Provincetown, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, Summer Literary Seminars/St. Petersburg, Russia, and the Wisconsin Arts Board. Her work appears in recent issues of Court Green, Cue, and Fence. Her first poetry collection, Echolalia, was published by Four Way Books.
About Marcela Sulak:
Sulak teaches courses in poetics, world poetry, world literature and translation. Her collections of poetry include Immigrant (forthcoming) and the chapbook Of All The Things That Don’t Exist, I Love You Best (2008). Her three book-length translations include 19th-century Czech poetry and contemporary poetry from Zaire (Congo). She is currently completing a scholarly study called “1920s New York as a Construction Site for American Identity” which examines book-length poems about New York written by immigrant, migrant and foreign poets.
POETRY READING SERIES SCHEDULE —SUMMER 2009
Tuesday evenings at 7:30 at the Joaquin Miller Cabin in Rock Creek Park, Picnic Area #6, Beach Drive at Military Road Overpass. Sign up for opening reading at 7:15 pm. For more information and rain location, call Kathi Morrison-Taylor at 703-820-8113.
* June 16 —Tyler Caroline Mills with Jacklyn Potter Young Poets:
Katherine Casey & Baobao Zhang
* June 23 —Chris Goodrich & Nancy Krygowski
* June 30 —Melanie Henderson & Luke Johnson
* July 7 — April Linder & Bonnie Naradzay
* July 14 — George Drew & W. Luther Jett
* July 21 — Cynthia Atkins & Dan Vera
* July 28 — January Gill O’Neil, Joseph O. Legaspi & Joseph Ross