[Feb 7] Julia Bloch & Jennifer Firestone

Join us Friday, February 7 at 7pm for a reading from poets Julia Bloch and Jennifer Firestone.

Julia Bloch is a poet, scholar, and author of three books of poetry, Letters to Kelly Clarkson, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, Valley Fever, and The Sacramento of Desire, each from Sidebrow Books. Her scholarly essays and reviews have appeared in Journal of Modern Literature, Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, The Volta, and elsewhere, and she is working on a critical monograph about lyric theory and the North American long poem. Julia received a BA in political philosophy at Carleton College, an MFA in creative writing at Mills College, and a PhD in English literature at the University of Pennsylvania. Her awards and honors include the San Francisco Foundation’s Joseph Henry Jackson Literary Award and a Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching. She has previously taught at Bard College and Mills College and is currently Director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2017, she was awarded a Pew Fellowship by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. She is on Twitter @julivox.

Jennifer Firestone's books include TEN (BlazeVOX, 2018), Gates & Fields (Belladonna*, 2017), Swimming Pool (DoubleCross, 2016), Flashes (Shearsman, 2013), Holiday (Shearsman, 2008), Waves (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2007), from Flashes and snapshot (2006 and 2004, Sona Books), and Fanimaly (Dusie Kollektiv, 2013). She coedited Letters To Poets: Conversations about Poetics, Politics and Community (Saturnalia, 2008). Firestone's work has been anthologized in Kindergarde: Avant-Garde Poems, Plays, Songs, & Stories for Children (Black Radish Books, 2013) and in Building is a Process / Light is an Element: Essays and Excursions for Myung Mi Kim (P-Queue/ Queue Books, 2008). She won the 2014 Marsh Hawk Press’ Robert Creeley Memorial Prize, and she is an assistant professor at the New School’s Eugene Lang College.

[Feb 8] William T. Vollmann Changed My Life

 Saturday, February 8, 2020 at 6 PM – 8 PM

"William T. Vollmann Changed My Life" – a Book Launch Party / Reading Event for Conversations with William T. Vollmann (University Press of Mississippi, 2020) – will be a gathering of Vollmann scholars, critics, readers - as well as contributors to the book. The evening will be a chance for Vollmann readers and fans to discuss what his writing means to them and how it has affected their lives, and to meet each other, connect, and exchange ideas about all things Vollmann.

Participants include:
Jordan Rothacker, Jimmy Cline, RV Branham, Michael Coffey, Ted Hamilton, Donna Seaman, Liz Fried, Marco Malvestio, Steven Ross, Bryan Santin, Madison Smartt Bell, Matthew Thompson, Miles Liebtag.

https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/C/Conversations-with-William-T.-Vollmann

About the book:

Across fiction, journalism, ethnography, and history, William T. Vollmann’s oeuvre—which includes a “prostitution trilogy,” a septology (Seven Dreams) about encounters between first North Americans and European colonists, and a more-than-three-thousand-page philosophical treatise on violence—is as ambitious as it is dazzling. Conversations with William T. Vollmann collects twenty-nine interviews, from early press coverage in Britain where his career first took flight, to in-depth visits to his writing and art studio in Sacramento, California.

Throughout these conversations, Vollmann (b. 1959) speaks with candor and wit on such subjects as grief and guilt in his work, his love of guns and his experience of war, the responsibilities of the artist as witness, the benefits of looking out into the world beyond the confines of one’s horizon, the limitations of what literature can achieve, and how we can speak to the future. Bringing to the fore several expanded, unpublished, and hard-to-find interviews, this volume offers a valuable set of perspectives on a uniquely rewarding and sometimes overwhelming writer. On the road promoting his books or in a domestic setting, Vollmann comes across as reflective and humane, humble in his craft despite deep dedication to his uncompromising vision, and ever armed with a spirit of mischief and capacity to shock and unsettle the reader.

[Jan 18, Saturday] La Esquina Open Mic

Join us for the the premiere of a new series presented to you by The Titere Poets: La Esquina Open Mic!

Come through! Bring your poetry! Bring your stories! Bring your songs!

When you join us for La Esquina there will be a few requirements:
- All ages
- Be respectful to all those in attendance
- Open Mic sign-up sheet opens at 7p sharp & closes by 7:30p. If you come later than 7:30 you will be put on a waitlist.
- Each participant will be given 3 minute to perform a single piece to give everyone a chance to read!
- Please take the opportunity to explore the amazing Unnameable Books hosting this event!

Featured Readers:

Thomas Fucaloro The winner of a performance grant from the Staten Island Council of the Arts and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Thomas Fucaloro has been on six national slam teams. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the New School and is a co-founding editor of Great Weather for Media and NYSAI press. He is an adjunct professor at Wagner College and BMCC where he teaches courses, "Poetry and Protest", "The Art of The Found Poem" and "Poetry and Comic books. His latest chapbook, “There is Always Tomorrow” was released in 2017 by Mad Gleam Press.

Sarah Serrano-Esquilin is a Puerto Rican poet, visual artist, art therapist-in-training, and special educator. Her work has been featured in galleries, print, and digital platforms. Sarah is a Vona and Highlights magazine alumna. She is a professional haikuist, and has performed and written for celebrities, NYFW, DKNY, Forbes, and more. Please check her out via her website: https://cantfightthefro.wixsite.com/cantfightthefro.


Free to the Public

This event will be held at Unnameable Books, which is located in Prospect Heights at 600 Vanderbilt Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238.