Tuesday, November 19th at 6:00pm
ALICE JAMES BOOKS CELEBRATION
Featuring Shara McCallum, Richard McCann, Mihaela Moscaliuc, and Lisa Sewell
Co-sponsored by: the Creative Writing Program
KELLY WRITERS HOUSE
University of Pennsylvania
3805 Locust Walk Philadelphia, PA 19104
Alice James Books is a nonprofit cooperative poetry press, founded in
1973 by five women and two men: Patricia Cumming, Marjorie Fletcher,
Jean Pedrick, Lee Rudolph, Ron Schreiber, Betsy Sholl and Cornelia
Veenendaal. Their objectives were to give women access to publishing and
to involve authors in the publishing process. The press remains true to
that original mission and to publishing a diversity of poets including
both beginning and established poets, and a diversity of poetic styles.
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Alice James Books is one of the original and few presses in the country
that is run collectively. Our cooperative selects manuscripts for
publication through both regional and national annual competitions. The
cooperative offers two book competitions a year: the Kinereth Gensler
Award and the Beatrice Hawley Award. The winners of the Kinereth Gensler
Award competition become active members of Alice James Books and act as
the editorial board after their manuscripts are selected for
publication. The winner of the Beatrice Hawley Award is exempt from the
cooperative work commitment.
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Originally from Jamaica, Shara McCallum is the author of four books of
poetry: The Face of Water: New and Selected Poems, This Strange Land, a
finalist for the 2012 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, Song of
Thieves, and The Water Between Us, winner of the 1998 Agnes Lynch
Starrett Prize for Poetry. For her poems, she has received awards and
fellowships, including a 2013 Witter Bynner Fellowship from the Library
of Congress and a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Poetry
Fellowship. Her work has appeared in journals, anthologies, and
textbooks in the US, UK, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Israel and
been translated into Spanish and Romanian. She lives with her family in
Pennsylvania, where she is Director of the Stadler Center for Poetry and
Professor of English at Bucknell University.
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Richard McCann is the author of Mother of Sorrows, a work of fiction,
and Ghost Letters, a collection of poems (1994 Beatrice Hawley Award,
1933 Capricorn Poetry Award). He is also the editor (with Michael Klein)
of Things Shaped in Passing: More ‘Poets for Life’ Writing from the AIDS
Pandemic. His fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in
such magazines as The Atlantic, Ms., Esquire, Ploughshares, Tin House,
and the Washington Post Magazine, and in numerous anthologies, including
The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 and Best American Essays 2000. He is
currently working on a memoir, The Resurrectionist, which explores the
experience and meanings of illness and mortality through a narrative
exploration of his experience as a liver transplant recipient. For his
work, Richard McCann has received grants and awards from the Guggenheim
Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Christopher
Isherwood Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, Yaddo, The MacDowell
Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Fine Arts
Work Center in Provincetown, on whose Board of Trustees he served from
2000-2008. He earned his MA in Creative Writing and Modern Literature
from Hollins University and his Ph.D. in American Studies from the
University of Iowa, where he was a Rockefeller Fellow. He grew up in
Silver Spring, Maryland, and he has lived in numerous places, including
Sweden, Germany, and Spain. He now lives in Washington, DC, where he
teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at American University.
He also serves the Board of Directors of the PEN Faulkner Foundation and
is a Member of the Corporation of Yaddo.
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Mihaela Moscaliuc is the author of Father Dirt, winner of the Kinereth
Gensler Award from Alice James Books and translator of Carmelia Leonte’s
The Hiss of the Viper (Carnegie Mellon UP, forthcoming). She is the
editor of a collection of essays on poet Gerald Stern (Trinity
University Press, 2014). Her poems, translations, reviews and articles
have appeared in Arts & Letters, America, Mid-American Review, The
Georgia Review, TriQuarterly, and Poetry International among others. Her
articles on Roma/Gypsies and on poet Kimiko Hahn appear in History of
the Literary Cultures in East-Central Europe. Junctures and Disjunctures
in the 19th and 20th Centuries, in Soundings, An Interdisciplinary
Journal, and in Orient and Orientalisms in American Poetry and Poetics.
She is Assistant Professor of English at Monmouth University and core
faculty in the MFA Program in Poetry and Poetry in Translation at Drew
University.
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Lisa Sewell is the author of The Way Out (Alice James Books), Name
Withheld (Four Way Books), and Long Corridor, which won the 2009
Keystone Chapbook Award. She is also co-editor, with Claudia Rankine, of
American Poets in the 21st Century: The New Poetics and Eleven More
American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Poetics Across North American,
both from Wesleyan UP. Recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in
Ploughshares, Harvard Review, The Fox Chase Review and Drunken Boat. She
teaches in the English Department at Villanova University.
Mel Brake has won several awards for his poetry and musical talents. He was born and raised in Philadelphia, and proud of it. He lives in Springfield, PA because the water is fresh, clear and tasty. Many publications and journals have published his poems including Fox Chase Review, Philadelphia Poets, Mad Poets Review, E Pluribus Unum:An Anthology of Diverse Voices, Apiary Magazine, Word Riot Magazine, Poetry Ink, The New Verse News and many others. You can read the poetry of Mel Brake in The Fox Chase Review at these links: 
Suzán Jiván’s poems have appeared in Frog Pond and the Poetry Ink Anthology. Her chapbook Looking in and Sipping was released in 2012. You can read the poetry of SuzánJiván in The Fox Chase Review at this link: 
Poet Steve Delia has been crumpling balls of paper into the trash can for 30 years now. His chapbooks are Revisited, Revised, Retyped and 1622 Church Street, Zoo Poetry. You can read the poetry of Steve Delia in The Fox Chase Review at this link: 
Alice Wootson grew up in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She attended Cheyney University which is located outside of Philadelphia. She remained in the area after graduating with a BS Degree in Elementary Education. She earned a Masters Degree in Education and a Principal’s Certification from Cheyney University as well. Alice earned a Reading Specialist Certification from the University of Pennsylvania. You can read the poetry and fiction of Alice Wootson in The Fox Chase Review at these links: 
Marty Esworthy is a leading advocate for sound poetry and meta-verse. Esworthy is a Megaera-award-winning poet, editor emeritus, Steel Point Quarterly, and renowned poetry impresario, is director of the Almost Uptown Poetry Cartel. He’s been published in numerous regional and national publications, including Haggard & Halloo, text_TOWER, Literary Chaos, Fledging Rag, House Taken Over, logodaedalus, Syzygy, The International Digest of World poetry, and the Miserere Review. Recent Esworthy tomes include hard reality, Pacobooks, 2004, and The Object Stares Back, Uh-Oh!, T&T Press, 2009.Twenty-Six Javanese Proverbs was awarded the 2006 R.E.Foundation Award for Outstanding Poetry from Iris G. Press in 2006. You can read the poetry of Marty Esworthy in The Fox Chase Review at this link: 
Noah Cutler is a retired real estate lawyer living in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. He enjoys writing essays and novels, as well as writing and performing his poetry. You can read the fiction of Noah Cutler in The Fox Chase Review at these links: 
Lisa Sewell is the author of three books of poems: The Way Out (Alice James Books, 1998), Name Withheld (Four Way Books, 2006), Long Corridor (2009 Seven Kitchens Press). She is also co-editor, with Claudia Rankine, of American Poets in the 21st Century: The New Poetics (Wesleyan, 2007). She has received grants and awards from the Leeway Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Recent work has appeared in American Letters and Commentary, Denver Quarterly, New Letters, Tampa Review, Laurel Review, The Journal and Colorado Review. She lives in Philadelphia and teaches in the English department at Villanova University
Dave Worrell studied literature and philosophy at Union College in beautiful Schenectady, New York. His poems have appeared in US 1 Worksheets, Mad Poets Review and Wild River Review. He has performed poems at Chris’ Jazz Café in Philadelphia and Cafe Improv in Princeton. His latest collection is We Who Were Bound. You can read the poetry of Dave Worrell in The Fox Chase Review at this link: 
Tamara Oakman, a graduate of Temple University, has completed her Master’s thesis in English—a book entitled, Snatched—at Arcadia University; won awards in poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and drama. She has been published by Many Mountains Moving, Philadelphia Stories, Mad Poets Review, and other journals. She is executive editor of Apiary Magazine. You can read the poetry of Tamara Oakman in The Fox Chase Review a this link: 
Christine O’Leary-Rockey is a poet, philosopher and a professor and with a tendency to lose things and incur student loans for frivolous subjects. Greatly influenced by W.B. Yeats, e.e. cummings and mystics such as Julian of Norwich, St. Francis of Assisi and Shel Silverstein, she has failed to come to terms with any real religious identity and is open to suggestions…. She’s been published in a variety of state and local publications, including The Fledgling Rag, The Experimental Forest, Steel Pointe Quarterly, Harrisburg Magazine, and Megaera. Christine is a member of Harrisburg’s infamous (almost) Uptown Poetry Cartel and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in November 2007 by Iris G. Press. You can read the poetry of Christine O’Leary Rockey in The Fox Chase Review at this link: 
Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon, PhD (Cultural Anthropology), M.A. (Anthropology), MFA (Theater), Graduate Certificate)Women’s Studies, B.A. (Journalism); is an Associate Professor in the Theater Department at Temple. Along with Eugene Martin (Film), William Witherspoon is a recent recipient of the Provost’s Seed Grant for Interdisciplinary Work ($50, 000.);the 2003 Provost’s Arts Commission Grant recipient; a 2001 Independence Foundation Theater Communications Group Grant, the 2000 winner of the PEW Charitable Trust $50,000 fellowship in scriptwriting, and the 1999, winner of the DaimlerChrysler “Spirit of the Word” National Poetry Competition (Seattle) at the Unity’99 Conference, Kimmika Williams has also been the recipient of a host of awards and honors, including: the DaimlerChrysler Regional Poetry Contest (Philadelphia), the 1996, Lila Wallace Creative Arts Fellowship with the American Antiquarian Society and a two-time returning playwright with the Minneapolis Playwrights’ Center and Pew Charitable Trusts Playwrights Exchange.
Paul Siegell is the author of 
A 2010 nominee for a Pushcart Prize, Jack Veasey is a Philadelphia native who has been living in Hummelstown, PA for over 20 years. He is the author of ten published collections of poetry, most recently “The Sonnets” and “5-7-5” (both from Small Hours Press, 2007). He is a member of Harrisburg’s Almost uptown Poetry Cartel. His poems have also appeared in many periodicals and a number of anthologies. You can read the poetry of Jack Veasey in The Fox Chase Review at this link: 
Ryan Eckes lives in South Philadelphia. He’s the author of 
Diane Sahms-Guarnieri is a Philadelphia Poet. Her first release, Images of Being, received critical acclaim. Her second collection, Night Sweat, is awaiting a release date. Her poetry has appeared in a number of small and electronic press magazines. In May of 2013 Diane was awarded a grant for poetry by the AE Ventures Foundation. She is the Poetry Editor of The Fox Chase Review. 
g emil reutter is the author of ten collections of poetry and prose. His work has been published widely in the small and electronic press. He founded the Fox Chase Review and Reading Series in 2007. 
Frank Sherlock is the author of Over Here, The City Real & Imagined collaboration with CA Conrad) and Ready-to-Eat Individual, (a collaboration with Brett Evans.) Sherlock is also the author of Neighbor Ballads, a public poetry installation project with Erik Ruin that celebrates South Philadelphia’s immigrant communities. You can read the poetry of Frank Sherlock in The Fox Chase Review at this link: 
We are pleased to announce Poets on the Porch returns in 2013 with 17 poets reading on the porch of Ryerss Museum and Library. This event wil be held on July 13th. Our flyer can be viewed at this link: 
