Thursday, September 17, 7:30 pm
A Reading with Poets Kate Greenstreet & Rebecca Wolff
MC134, Main Classroom, 1899 East 22 Street

Kate Greenstreet is the author of The Last 4 Things (Ahsahta,2009), and case sensitive (Ahsahta, 2006). She is also the author of three chapbooks, most recently This Is Why I Hurt You (2008). Her work has appeared in such journals as Court Green, Denver Quarterly, Fence, jubilat, and VOLT.

Rebecca Wolff is the author of three books of poems: The King (Norton, 2009); Figment (Norton, 2004), winner of the Barnard Women Poets Prize; and Manderley (University of Illinois Press, 2001), selected for the National Poetry Series by Robert Pinsky. She is the founding editor and publisher of Fence and Fence Books, and a Program Fellow of the New York State Writers Institute. She lives in Athens, New York, with her family.

Thursday, October 1, 7:30 pm
A Reading with Poet/Memoirist Mark Doty & Fiction Writer/Memoirist Paul Lisicky
Dively Auditorium, UR 112, Urban College, 1717 Euclid Avenue
This reading is presented in cooperation with the NEOMFA, The Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts Program

Mark Doty is the author of six books of poems including Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems (2008), which won the National Book Award for poetry, and School of the Arts (2005); and three memoirs: Dog Years (2007), Firebird (1999), and Heaven’s Coast (1996). Among his many awards are the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, two NEA Fellowships, Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships, and the Witter Bynner Prize. Doty is currently a professor at Rutgers University, and is a frequent guest at Columbia University, Hunter College, and NYU. He lives in New York City.

Paul Lisicky is the author of the novel Lawnboy (Graywolf Press, 2006), and the memoir Famous Builder (Graywolf Press, 2002). A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, his awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the James Michener/Copernicus Society, the Henfield Foundation, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. He has taught in the graduate writing programs at Cornell University, Sarah Lawrence College, and Antioch University Los Angeles. He currently teaches at NYU and in the low-residency M.F.A. program at Fairfield University. A novel and a collection of short prose pieces are forthcoming.

Thursday, October 15, 7:30 pm
A Reading with Poets Oni Buchanan & Carmen Giménez Smith
MC134, Main Classroom, 1899 East 22 Street

Oni Buchanan is the author of Spring (University of Illinois Press, 2008), selected by Mark Doty for the 2007 National Poetry Series, and What Animal (University of Georgia Press, 2003) selected by Fanny Howe as a winner of the University of Georgia Press Contemporary Poetry Series competition. She is also an acclaimed concert pianist, and has released three solo piano CDs. She holds an M.F.A. in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a Master’s degree in piano performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. She lives in Boston, where she maintains a private piano teaching studio.

Carmen Giménez Smith is the author of the poetry collection Odalisque in Pieces (University of Arizona Press, 2009), and the chapbook Casanova Variations (Dos Press, 2008). Her poetry has appeared in such journals as Boston Review, Colorado Review, jubilat, and Poetry. She is the publisher of Noemi Press, and the editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Puerto del Sol. She holds an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and lives in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where she is an assistant professor of creative writing at New Mexico State University.

Tuesday, October 20, 7:30 pm
A Reading with Poets David Baker & Kevin Prufer
MC134, Main Classroom, 1899 East 22 Street

David Baker is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently Midwest Eclogue (Norton, 2005), and three books of criticism. His poems and essays have appeared in such magazines as The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The New Republic, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Poetry, Slate, and The Yale Review. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the NEA, the Poetry Society of America, and the Ohio Arts Council. He is currently Professor of English and Thomas B. Fordham Chair of Creative Writing at Denison University, a faculty member in the Warren Wilson College M.F.A. program, and Poetry Editor of The Kenyon Review.

Kevin Prufer, a Cleveland native, is the author of four books of poetry, most recently National Anthem (Four Way, 2008), named one of the five best poetry books of the year by Publishers Weekly and Book of the Year by Virginia Quarterly Review. The editor of numerous anthologies (including New European Poets and The New Young American Poets) and of Pleiades: A Journal of New Writing, his work appears in such journals as American Poetry Review, The New Republic, The Washington Post, Best American Poetry, and The Pushcart Prize Anthology. He teaches at Central Missouri University and lives in rural Missouri.

Thursday, November 19, 7:30 pm
A Reading with Poets Helena Mesa, Mathias Svalina, & Allison Titus
MC134, Main Classroom, 1899 East 22 Street

Helena Mesa is the author of Horse Dance Underwater (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2009). Born and raised in Pittsburgh to Cuban parents, she holds an M.F.A. from the University of Maryland, and a Ph.D. from the University of Houston. Her poems have appeared in various literary journals, including Barrow Street, Indiana Review, and Third Coast. She is currently co-editing a collection of essays, Mentor & Muse: From Poets to Poets. She lives in Ann Arbor and is an assistant professor of English at Albion College.

Mathias Svalina is the author of Destruction Myth (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2009), as well as four chapbooks and four chapbook-length collaborations. His work has appeared in such journals as Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, and jubilat. He is the coeditor of Octopus Magazine and the press Octopus Books. He holds an M.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska. Born in Chicago, he now lives and teaches in Denver.

Allison Titus is the author of Sum of Every Lost Ship (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2009) and the chapbook Instructions from the Narwhal (Bateau Press, 2007). She holds an M.F.A. in Fiction from Virginia Commonwealth University and an M.F.A. in Poetry from Vermont College. She lives in Richmond, Virginia.