IRIS APPELQUIST, STEPH FRENCH, CRISTA SIGLIN & LESLEY WHEELER

Saturday, April 22nd, 7pm, KCAI Crossroads Gallery: 
Center for Contemporary Practice (1819 Grand Blvd. KCMO) 
FREE!

Iris APPELQUIST is a native of Kansas City, Missouri. Her endeavor to carve out a niche for herself has been rewarded with publication of two full-length volumes of poetry, Blunt Trauma (Co-authored by Jason Ryberg, 2009, Spartan Press, KCMO), BRIAR (2012, Spartan Press, KCMO), and WHERE WE WERE WE WERE THERE (Spartan Press, 2015)  -- not to mention appearing to read and discuss poetry on her local NPR affiliate, in the local Kansas City Star, and several independent online and print magazines and journals. NICE FEELINGS, is a small collection that details the mystifying process of personal growth through the confessional style and surrealist conjecture.

Steph FRENCH resides in Kansas City. She’s a graduate of Drake University and holds a BA in English and psychology. Her first book, DELUGE was recently published by Spartan Press as part of Prospero’s Pop Poetry series.

Crista SIGLIN grew up in Iowa, and moved to KCMO in 2011. She graduated with a BFA in Painting and Creative Writing from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2015. She has shown her visual work in various Kansas City galleries and at the LUMA Westbau Museum in Zürich, Switzerland. Crista’s poetry has been published in Sprung  Formal; KCAI’s Compendium; Not Sorry Zine; Retrograde Craft; Desolate Country: We the Poets, United, Against Trump; Finding Zen in Cow Town; and Prospero's 20th Anniversary Anthology. Siglin released her first book of poetry, Fleeting, Sacred with Spartan Press in 2015. Her practice—paralleled in both visual and written works—is an exploration of the body and the mind’s relationship to environment, trauma, time, and phantasmagoria.

Lesley WHEELER is a writer and artist in Lawrence, Kansas. Her photo-essay "A Little Hell of Its Own" won the 2013 Bone Bouquet Experimental Prose Contest, and other work has appeared in Omniverse, Forklift, Ohio, and ILK. She studied at the Pratt Institute, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and currently at KU. You can find her at home with her dogs.

CYRUS CONSOLE-SOICAN, ROBERT FERNANDEZ, MARY HICKMAN & SIMONE SAVANNAH

Saturday, March 18th, 7pm, KCAI Crossroads Gallery: 
Center for Contemporary Practice (1819 Grand Blvd. KCMO) 
FREE!

Cyrus CONSOLE-SOICAN is from Topeka, Kansas. He is the author of the acclaimed books of poetry, Brief Under Water and The Odicy, and, most recently, the memoir Romanian Notebook. He teaches at the Kansas City Art Institute.

Robert FERNANDEZ is the author of the poetry collections We Are Pharaoh (Canarium, 2011), Pink Reef (Canarium, 2013), and Scarecrow (Wesleyan, 2016). He holds an MFA in poetry from Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His poems have appeared in Boston Review, The New Republic, Poetry, Conjunctions, A Public Space, and elsewhere. He was selected by Robyn Schiff as a New American Poet by the Poetry Society of America, and received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. He is co-translator of Azure: Poems and Selections from the “Livre” (Wesleyan, 2015).

Mary HICKMAN was born in Nampa, Idaho, in 1979, and grew up in China and Taiwan. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow. Hickman is the author of Rayfish (Omnidawn Publishing, 2017), which won the James Laughlin award from the Academy of American Poets, and This Is the Homeland (Ahsahta Press, 2015). A visiting professor at Nebraska Wesleyan University, she also teaches in the University of Iowa International Writing Program’s Between the Lines exchange program.

Simone SAVANNAH is from Columbus, Ohio and studies Creative Writing at The University of Kansas. Her poems are forthcoming and have appeared in Big Lucks, Powder Keg, Apogee, GlitterMOB, The Fem, The Pierian, Blackberry: A Magazine & Voicemail Poems. When she’s not writing, she’s fucking and lifting. You can find her on Instagram at PerfectVerse22

PAUL HANSON CLARK, ROBERT LONG FOREMAN & KYLE MCCORD

Saturday, February 18th, 7pm, KCAI Crossroads Gallery: 
Center for Contemporary Practice (1819 Grand Blvd. KCMO) 
FREE!

Paul Hanson CLARK is a poet who lives in Lincoln, Nebraska. His work has recently been featured in local music zine as well as the self-published chapbooks i want more life, fucker and fireball in the please mine. He has a Soundcloud page that he likes to think of as an audiozine called MERRILYMERRILY MERRILY MERRILY where he posts audio recordings of all sorts made by himself, friends, and strangers. Paul also makes drawings and has collaborated with numerous people on a variety of creative and social projects.

Robert Long FOREMAN has won a Pushcart Prize and the hearts of his wife and children. His first book, Among Other Things, is available. He lives in Kansas City.

Kyle MCCORD is the author of five books of poetry including National Poetry Series Finalist Magpies in the Valley of Oleanders (Trio House 2016). His work has been featured in AGNI, Boston Review, Crazyhorse, Harvard Review, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly and elsewhere. He serves as executive editor Gold Wake Press and lives in Des Moines, Iowa where he teaches at Drake University.

SCOTT BEAR DON'T WALK & LEWIS FREEDMAN

Saturday, November 12th, 7pm, KCAI Crossroads Gallery: 
Center for Contemporary Practice (1819 Grand Blvd. KCMO) 
FREE!

Scott BEAR DON'T WALK is a member of the Apsáalooke and Bitterroot Salish tribes. He has an MFA in creative writing from New York University. He lives and writes in Lawrence Kansas.

Lewis FREEDMAN is most recently the author of Residual Synonyms for the Name of God (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2016). He is also the author of Hold the Blue Orb, Baby and Solitude: The Complete Games, both experiments on the form of the book, as well as several chapbooks. His poems have appeared in many periodicals including Jubilat, Epiphany, Catch-Up, Try, P-Queue, and 6x6. He recently moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma to teach at Oklahoma State University

JOE AGUILAR, TROY JAMES WEAVER & CANDICE WUEHLE

Saturday, September 24th, 7pm, KCAI Crossroads Gallery: Center for Contemporary Practice (1819 Grand Blvd. KCMO) FREE!

Joe AGUILAR is the author of Half Out Where (Caketrain). 

His recent work is in Sprung Formal, The Threepenny Review, and Tin House. 

Troy James WEAVER is the author of Witchita Stories, Visions, and Marigold. His work has appeared in Hobart, The Nervous Breakdown, Vol.1 Brooklyn, Atticus Review, Everyday Genius, Entropy, Funhouse Magazine, Heavy Feather Review, and many other places. In June, his newest work, Marigold, was featured on Dennis Cooper's list of favorites for 2016 so far. He lives in Wichita, Kansas with his wife and two dogs.

Candice WUEHLE is the author of curse words: a guide in 19 steps for aspiring transmographs (Dancing Girl Press, 2014) and EARTH*AIR*FIRE*WATER*ÆTHER (Grey Books Press, 2015). Some of her poems can found in The Volta, The Colorado Review, and Tarpaulin Sky. She lives in Lawrence, Kansas with her partner Andrew and their rabbit, William. 

SERENA CHOPRA, SUEYEUN JULIETTE LEE & JOSHUA WARE

Saturday, APRIL 30th, 7pm, Irving Amphitheater (4402 Oak St. KCMO 64111) FREE!

Serena CHOPRA is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Denver. She is the author of two full-length books of poems, This Human (Coconut 2013) and Ic (Horse Less, forthcoming in summer 2016), as well as two chapbooks, Penumbra (Flying Guillotine Press 2011) and Livid Season (Free Poetry 2012). She is a 2016-2017 Fulbright Scholar, performing research and service in Bangalore, India at a queer women's support organization. She is also a professional dancer serving as a five year company member of Evolving Doors Dance, as well as a visual artist, having been a 2011-2013 resident artist at the RedLine Gallery. She currently teaches in the MFA program at Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School. She lives and works in Denver.

Sueyeun Juliette LEE grew up three miles from the CIA. A former Pew Fellow in the Arts for Literature, her books includeThat Gorgeous Feeling (Coconut), Underground National (Factory School), and Solar Maximum (Futurepoem) as well as numerous chapbooks. She founded Corollary Press, a chapbook series dedicated to innovative multi­ethnic writing, and writes reviews for The Constant Critic, a project of Fence Books. Her critical essays explore Asian American contemporary poetics as well as the imaginations of spaces and time. She has held arts residencies in poetry, dance, and video art in Hafnarborg (Iceland), Kunstnarhuset Messen (Norway), and UCross Foundation (Wyoming). She currently works at a women's shelter in Denver. You can find her at silentbroadcast.com

Joshua WARE is a poet and collage artist who was born in Cleveland, OH. He is the author of the recently published Unwanted Invention / Vargtimmen, as well as Homage to Homage to Homage to Creeley. He currently lives in Denver, CO.

PHIL ESTES, JIM MCCRARY & ZOPHIA MCDOUGAL

Saturday, March 5th, 7pm, Irving Amphitheater (4402 Oak St. KCMO 64111) FREE!

 Phil ESTES is the author of High Life (Horse Less Press 2016) and the chapbooks Slowjams (Living Arts 2016), Children of Reagan (Rabbit Catastrophe 2012), and Gem City/Fountain City (Rabbit Catastrophe 2009). His work has appeared in Action Yes!, Diagram, Lungfull, West Wind Review, and others. He lives in Shreveport, LA.

 Jim MCCRARY's latest book is This Here. It is as close to memoir as he will do. Could be true or correct. Or not. 

Zophia MCDOUGAL is a human. Born, ironically, in Deadwood, South Dakota, and raised in Columbia, Missouri. Zophia is an ex-athlete gone artist and a writer who does not mind sir, ma'am, he, she, or they because she'd rather let people decide that for themselves. Zophia is Zophia according to Zophia. Zophia is inspired to write the paces of the world. Sentence structure is the water to Zophia's toy gun, which is actually a whistle blown for everyone to hear in order to be reminded that they all are existing!

SCOTT ABELS, DENNIS ETZEL JR & LAURA MADELINE WISEMAN

Saturday, January 30th, 7pm, Irving Amphitheater (4402 Oak St. KCMO 64111) FREE!

Scott ABELS is the author of New City (BlazeVOX, 2015) and Rambo Goes to Idaho (BlazeVOX, 2011) as well as the chapbooks A STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH (Beard of Bees Press, 2015) and Nebraska Fantastic (Beard of Bees Press, 2012). He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Boise State University. After many years living and teaching in Mexico and Hawai'i, he now lives on the family homestead near Stanton, Nebraska, where he edits the online poetry journal Country Music. He is also a new member of the English faculty at Northeast Community College. http://scottabels.blogspot.com/

Dennis ETZEL JR. lives with Carrie and the boys in Topeka, Kansas where he teaches English at Washburn University. He has an MFA from The University of Kansas, and an MA and Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies from Kansas State University. He has two chapbooks, The Sum of Two Mothers (ELJ Publications 2013) and My Graphic Novel (Kattywompus Press 2015). His full-length poetic memoir My Secret Wars of 1984 (BlazeVOX 2015) was a Kansas City Star Best Poetry Book of 2015. His work has appeared in Denver Quarterly, Indiana Review, BlazeVOX, Fact-Simile, 1913: a journal of poetic forms, 3:AM, Tarpaulin Sky, DIAGRAM, and others. He is a TALK Scholar for the Kansas Humanities Council and leads poetry workshops in various Kansas spaces. Please feel free to connect with him at www.dennisetzeljr.com.

Laura Madeline WISEMAN is the author of over twenty books and chapbooks and the editor of Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence (Hyacinth Girl Press). Her recent books are Drink (BlazeVOX Books), Wake (Aldrich Press), Some Fatal Effects of Curiosity and Disobedience (Lavender Ink), and the collaborative book The Hunger of the Cheeky Sisters (Les Femmes Folles) with artist Lauren Rinaldi. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Margie, Mid-American Review, The Iowa Review, Calyx, Ploughshares, and Feminist Studies. Currently, she teaches English and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. www.lauramadelinewiseman.com

CODY-ROSE CLEVIDENCE, C. VIOLET EATON, TOD MARSHALL & SARA NICHOLSON

Saturday, November 14th, 7pm, Irving Amphitheater (4402 Oak St. KCMO 64111) FREE!

Cody-Rose CLEVIDENCE's first book, BEAST FEAST was published by Ahsahta in 2014. They live in the Arkansas Ozarks w their dog, Pearl.

C. Violet EATON is a poet living in West Fork, Arkansas. He is the author of Some Habits (Omnidawn 2015), and the former editor of Bestoned, a journal of verse. After a longish stint in the used-and-rare-book world, he is currently working toward a PhD in vernacular American literature and folklore.

Tod MARSHALL's first collection of poetry, Dare Say, was the 2002 winner of the University of Georgia’s Contemporary Poetry Series. He has also published a collection of his interviews with contemporary poets, Range of the Possible (EWU Press, 2002), and an accompanying anthology of the interviewed poets’ work, Range of Voices (2005). These volumes include interviews with and poems by Robert Hass, Li-Young Lee, Robert Wrigley, Donald Revell, Brenda Hillman, Dorianne Laux, Kim Addonizio, Ed Hirsch, Dave Smith, and others. His second collection of poetry, The Tangled Line, was published by Canarium Books (2009). His most recent collection, Bugle, was published by Canarium in 2014 and won the 2015 Washington State Book Award. He lives in Spokane, Washington, and teaches at Gonzaga University.

Sara NICHOLSON is the author of The Living Method (The Song Cave, 2014). She lives in Arkansas.

ROBERT GANO, MICHAEL SIKKEMA & JEN TYNES

Saturday, October 10th, 7pm, Irving Amphitheater (4402 Oak St. KCMO 64111) FREE!

Robert Gano is a Kansas City poet who engages the ridiculous and the absurd, the strange of the mundane. He was published in Sprung Formal Ex. Current. Onward and has been the featured reader at Blue Monday at Uptown Arts Bar.

Michael Sikkema has worked in factories, YMCA camps, and landscaping. He is the author of three books of poetry, most recently May Apple Deep from Trembling Pillow Press. He is also the author of several chapbooks and collaborative chapbooks, most recently Time Missing, an exploration of alien abduction and pioneer captivity narratives, available from Grey Book Press. He enjoys correspondence at michael.sikkema@gmail.com.

Jen Tynes is the founding editor of Horse Less Press. She is the author of three full-length books of poetry--Trick Rider (Trembling Pillow Press), Heron/Girlfriend (Coconut Books), and The End Of Rude Handles (Red Morning Press), and the author or co-author of eight chapbooks. Her fourth book of poetry, Hunter Monies, is forthcoming from Black Radish Books in early 2016. She teaches writing and lives in Grand Rapids.