Poets James Richardson & Kelli Stevens Kane Light Up Son of a Pony

Three Rooms Press 
and Cornelia Street Cafe

present

SON OF A PONY Poetry Reading Series

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2011, 6 pm

Featured poet: James Richardson

Spotlight poet: Kelli Stevens Kane

PLUS NYC's Sensational Open POETRY Mike

Hosted by Kat Georges

JAMES RICHARDSON is the recipient of the 2011 Jackson Poetry Prize.   His most recent books are By the Numbers:  Poems and Aphorisms, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, Interglacial:  New and Selected Poems and Aphorisms, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Vectors:  Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays.  He teaches at Princeton University and his is regularly published in New Yorker.

KELLI STEVENS KANE's first poetry manuscript, Hallelujah Science, was selected as a finalist for the 2011 Four Way Books Levis Poetry Prize. She's a Cave Canem Fellow; a Flight School Fellow; and an alum of the Callaloo, VONA, and Hurston/Wright poetry workshops. She's also the recipient of a merit based scholarship to a playwrighting workshop at the Norman Mailer Center, and the author of an oral history manuscript about Pittsburgh's Hill District. 

The featured reading follows the renowned Son of a Pony open reading at the cafe, hosted and curated by Kat Georges. Doors open at 5:45 p.m.;  open reading begins at 6 p.m. Admission is $7, which includes a free drink.  

Cornelia Street Cafe is at 29 Cornelia Street, between W. 4th Street & Bleecker, just around the corner from the W. 4th Street subway station. Phone: 212-989-9319. www.corneliastreetcafe.com

Poet's Winter Getaway at Cape May

Karen walks into her shadow. Cape May 2008.

Last weekend, Cape May, New Jersey was THE place to be for all up and coming poets. And the trio of Three Rooms Press poets who attended -- Jackie Sheeler, Karen Hildebrand and Kathi Georges -- made the most of a beautiful thing. Writing poetry in the mornings, workshops in the afternoons, dancing at night. It was all there.

One real highlight was a wonderful workshop with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Stephen Dunn. His comments were dead-on in most cases, and he didn't pull any punches (gulp!). He let you know how to make a piece better through application of precise poetic techniques that most teachers and critics tend to be much more general about.

With Cornelia Street Cafe's Angelo Verga in attendance, along with former Manhattanite (now Philadelphia poetry prof) Lisa Grunberger, and the man with the world's cleanest bathroom, Greg Moglia, New York was well represented. The open reading (10-midnight) was a blast both nights. So nice to attend an open reading where most of the material is really great! Sharing the dance floor with the New Yorker's new favorite poet James Richardson was a treat--you should see his moves on Wild Cherry's 1976 hit "Play that Funky Music." Whew! Tore it up!

Below are a few pix. For more photos, plus more information on the phenomenal Stephen Dunn, see Karen's blog.

Can anybody say, "Road trip?!" JS is world's greatest driver.

Guess who's from New York? From left: Lisa, Greg, Angelo, Karen and Jackie.

All he needs is a little soup. Can't anyone give him a little soup?

Workshopping with phenomenal poet James Richardson.

Sunrise? Sunset? Either way, it's a nice place to be.