.Poet Bios 2011
Curators
Nathaniel A. Siegel is a GAY poet in the tradition of homoSEXual writers, thinkers, and doers throughOUT time immemorial. His chapbook Tony is published by Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs (http://yoyolabs.com/). With poet and friend Regie Cabico he founded the COME HEAR ! lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer poets reading series to bring LGBTQ poets to the public’s attention in LGBTQ performance spaces including: The Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation in SOHO (http://www.leslielohman.org/), The Rainbow Book Fair Poet’s Salon at The Center and at The CUNY Graduate Center in NYC (http://rainbowbookfair.org/).
Regie Cabico is a poet who has performed his work in England, Canada and throughout the United States. He is on the spoken word faculty at Banff Arts Center and recently performed his solo play the bird that looks like 2 mustaches kissing at Contact Theatre in Manchester, England. He lives in Washington, DC.
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Poets
Joel Allegretti (www.joelallegretti.com) is the author of two full-length volumes from The Poet’s Press: The Plague Psalms (2000) and Father Silicon, selected by the Kansas City Star as one of 100 Noteworthy Books of 2006, a list that included novels by Cormac McCarthy and Thomas Pynchon. In 2010 Poets Wear Prada released his third collection, Thrum, a chapbook of poems and poetic essays about musical instruments. Allegretti’s work has appeared in The New York Quarterly, Margie, Rattapallax, Slipstream, Voices in Italian Americana , Sentence: a Journal of Prose Poetics, Confrontation, Xcp Cross-Cultural Poetics and many other national journals.
Austin Alexis has been published in Barrow Street , The Journal (Ohio State University Press), The Pedestal Magazine, Lips, Six Sentences and other journals. He has work in several anthologies, including Chopin with Cherries (Moonrise Press) and Off the Cuffs: Poetry by and about the Police (Soft Skull Press). His chapbooks are Lovers and Drag Queens and For Lincoln & Other Poems, both from Poets Wear Prada and available from pwpbooks and from Amazon.com. For Lincoln was named a “Pick of the Month” by Small Press Review. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee, received a Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference Scholarship and is currently working on both fiction and a full-length poetry collection.
Betsy Andrews is the author of New Jersey , winner of the 2007 Brittingham Prize ( University of Wisconsin Press ). She is also author of the chapbooks, She-Devil (Sardines Press, 2004) and In Trouble (Boog, 2005), and the artist’s book, Supercollider, a collaboration with artist Peter Fox.
Arianne Benford is a Poet, Producer and Visual Artist, whose work is rooted in text and its creative applications for social change. She seeks to create an ongoing discourse between the public and the private, the forgotten and the canonized, sensual and the everyday. A proud native of Chicago, IL, since 2008 Arianne has worked as a producer with WOW CafeTheater (the oldest anarchist run women and trans theater in the country), www.wowcafe.org and Rivers Of Honey (a cabaret theater for women and trans artists of color) riversofhoney@gmail.com. She is also a member of the Urbana Poetry National Team, Spoken Word Poetry Almanac Project (SWAP), and was recently honored by the Fresh Fruit Festival for her poetry. Arianne is an established poet and essayist on the LGBT performance circuit and is currently she is completing work on her first collection of writing, portrait of a rebellious landscape/ a mix-tape. ariannebenford.com
Jeffery Berg received an MFA from New York University. His work has recently appeared in Harpur Palate, MiPOesias, Ozone Park Journal, Gay & Lesbian Review, Inertia Magazine, Burner Magazine, and Softblow. He lives in New York and edits poetry for Mary—A Literary Quarterly and the online journal Clementine.
Tamiko Beyer is a poet, writer, and educator based in New York City. She is the author bough breaks (Meritage Press), and her poems have appeared in DIAGRAM, Anti-, The Gay and Lesbian Review, and elsewhere. She is the poetry editor, Drunken Boat, and leads creative writing workshop for at-risk youth and other community groups. She is a founding member of Agent 409: a queer writing collective in New York City. Find her online at wonderinghome.com.
A J Bialo lives in her hometown of Syracuse New York with her partner and their nine cats and two dogs. Her poetry has been published in online journals including Poetry Magazine and Little Brown Poetry. Her recent in print publications include The Reflection Tree, a full length book of poetry, Memoires from Lawrence, a compilation of historical short stories and epic poems, and The Book of Ruth, her first historical mystery. She is currently working on her second novel and a second full length book of poetry. Check out A J on Facebook—you can find the direct Facebook link on the Bialo Publications, Inc. website -www.bialopublications.com
Cheryl B.‘s work appears in dozens of print and online publications, including; Ping Pong, Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution and BLOOM, among many others. Cheryl holds an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from The New School and is the co-curator/co-host of Sideshow: The Queer Literary Carnival, serious literature for ridiculous times. Her website is cherylb.com and she blogs at wtfcancerdiaries.com.
Guillermo Filice Castro‘s work appears in The Bellevue Literary Review, Brooklyn Rail, Court Green, Quarterly West, and many more. He’s the author of a chapbook, Cry me a Lorca. A native of Argentina, he has just become a U.S. citizen.
Sarah Chinn’s poetry has been published in Carlito’s and Cutthroat. She also teaches American literature at Hunter College, is the author of two scholarly books, and is the Executive Director of CLAGS, the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Sean Patrick Conlon A rock singer, performance poet, and literary critic, Sean Patrick Conlon is a dedicated student of the page and a firm believer in the power of spoken word. He is currently working on a series of poems about celebrity and death. http://www.thevanishingman.com.
CAConrad is the author of The Book of Frank (Wave Books, 2010), Deviant Propulsion (Soft Skull Press, 2006), Advanced Elvis Course: A Queer Elvis Journey (Soft Skull Press, 2009), and a collaboration with poet Frank Sherlock titled The City Real & Imagined (Factory School Books, 2009). He is the son of white trash asphyxiation whose childhood included selling cut flowers along the highway for his mother and helping her shoplift. You can see his books and films at http://CAConrad.blogspot.com
Steven Cordova‘s first-full length collection, Long Distance, was released by Bilingual Review Press in 2010, and he has a story story forthcoming in Ambientes: New Queer Latino Fiction ( University of Wisconsin Press ) and an essay in The Other Latino (University of Arizona Press).
Leopoldine Core was born and raised in the East Village. She studied writing at Hunter College. Her work has appeared in Open City and is forthcoming from Agriculture Reader.
Seren Divine is a queer feminist, educator, published writer, producer, performance & visual artist, and award winning poet. She has toured and competed across the country, with over ten years of involvement in the National Poetry Slams & more than 25 years in the Performing Arts as a whole. Seren earns a living as a Professional Performance Poet, leading Performance & Writing Workshops up and down the east coast. She is an contributing member of NYCs historic WOW Café Theater, a trans inclusive women’s theater collective in the East Village.
Sarah Dowling is the author of Security Posture. Her work has appeared in journals such as Action, Yes!, Cue, EOAGH, How2, and West Coast Line. Sarah is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Pennsylvania , and is international editor at Jacket2.
Jameson Fitzpatrick is an editorial assistant at Barrow Street magazine and a poetry editor for LambdaLiterary.org. He lives in New York
Davidson Garrett is a native of Shreveport, Louisiana. He trained for the theater at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and graduated from The City College of New York. He is a member of Screen Actor’s Guild, AFTRA, and Actor’s Equity. Davidson’s poetry, prose, and articles have been published in The New York Times, The Episcopal New Yorker, Xavier Review ( New Orleans ), Sensations Magazine, Third Wednesday, Big City Lit, and the website of The Beat Museum in San Francisco . In 2006, he published his first collection of poetry and prose: King Lear of the Taxi (Advent Purple Press). Poetry from that collection was used as the text for a short film produced by Flashgun Films of Great Britain. The film is titled Taxi Driver. Davidson is the narrator for the film which was screened at London ’s Portobello Film Festival in 2008. Davidson has been a NYC taxi driver for over 30 years, to help subsidize his art. www.adventpurplepress.com
Stephanie Gray‘s first book Heart Stoner Bingo was published by Straw Gate Books in 2007. Her work has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, 2ndAvenuePoetry, Boog City Reader, and The Recluse. She’s read her work at the Projections, Segue, Zinc, Frequency, and Poetry Project Friday series. Her super 8 films, have screened internationally, including at the Ann Arbor, Oberhausen, and Viennale fests. Her queer-themed films are often about pop cultural figures such as dyke heroines Joan of Arc and Kristy McNichol and have screened at queer film fests such as Frameline, Outfest, and Mix NYC.
Tanika LaDawn Harbor (Sankofa) is a Genderqueer, Two-Spirited, Performance Artist/Actor/Writer/Poet/Drag King performer who uses Art to Heal, Transform, Question, and Entertain. She is a proud Detroit native who moved to NYC to pursue her MFA in Acting, and has made Brooklyn her second home. Tanika’s work is infused with notions of race, gender, sexuality, spirituality and growing up urban. Tanika has been seen in NYC performances that include, FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF, AUGUST IN APRIL and a preview of her one womyn show, entitled, MAKE ME WANNA’ HOLLA.‘ Tanika is currently writing a choreopoem entitled, Passing Strange, which chronicles the lives of several masculine identified womyn of color. www.tanikaharbor.com
Scott Hightower has published three collections of poetry. He has taught Poetry, Non-fiction, and the Art of Translation at NYU, Drew, F.I.T., Fordham, and Poets House. He reviews for “Fogged Clarity” and is a contributing editor to “The Journal.” A native of central Texas, he lives in New York City and sojourns in Spain.
Joanna Hoffman has been on three DC/Baltimore National Poetry Slam teams. In 2006, her team performed on finals stage and ranked 4th in the nation. In 2007, she was the DC/Baltimore Grand Slam Champion and the Individual World Poetry Slam representative for Baltimore. Since relocating to New York for grad school, she has joined the Spoken World Almanac Project, featured at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and recently represented NYC Urbana at the 2011 Women of the World Poetry Slam. She has been published in Spindle and as part of the recent GildChild Press anthology, Women’s Work.
Walter Holland, Ph.D., is the author of three books of poetry Circuit (Chelsea Station Editions, 2010), Transatlantic (Painted Leaf Press, 2001), A Journal of the Plague Years: Poems 1979-1992 (Magic City Press, 1992) as well as a novel, The March (Chelsea Station Editions, 2011). His short stories have been published in Art and Understanding, Harrington Gay Men’s Fiction Quarterly, and Rebel Yell. Some of his poetry credits include: Antioch Review, Art and Understanding, Barrow Street , Chiron Review, The Cream City Review, Found Object, Pegasus, Phoebe, and Poets for Life: 76 Poets Respond to AIDS. He lives in New York City.
Natalie E. Illum is a poet and federal employee. Her work is included in Word Warriors: 35 women of the Spoken Word Revolution, among others. Once upon a time she hated poetry slams, now she competes in them. Storytelling scares her, but so do safety nets. She trusts Acrobats, Jack Daniels and Joni Mitchell.
Saeed Jones: His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in publications like Jubilat, West Branch, The Collagist and Line Break. His chapbook of poems When the Only Light is Fire is forthcoming from Sibling Rivalry Press. His blog For Southern Boys Who Consider Poetry is dedicated to emerging queer poets of color.
erica kaufman is the author of censory impulse (Factory School 2009) and is now working on INSTANT CLASSIC.
Zoe Contros Kearl is a Texan poet, now writing, living, and studying in New York City .
Michael Klein‘s new book of poems is then, we were still living and his first book of poems, 1990 won a Lambda Book Award. He teaches writing in the MFA Program at Goddard College in Port Townsend, Washington and his poems appear in the current issues of Fence and Bloom. Michael’s book “then, we were still living” was just nominated for a Lambda Literary Award.
Jee Leong Koh is the author of three books of poems, Payday Loans, Equal to the Earth, and the just released Seven Studies for a Self Portrait, published by Bench Press http://www.benchpresspoetry.com.Born and raised in Singapore, he lives in New York City, and blogs at Song of a Reformed Headhunter http://jeeleong.blogspot.com,
Bill Kushner‘s newest book, WALKING AFTER MIDNIGHT, will appear in time for his 80th birthday in May!
Sam LaRoche is a New York City poet. Although originally from Connecticut where her writing began, New York has been her creative haven. Her poetry is not only her story but a shared experience of the human condition. She seeks for Universal truth and to inspire through her words. She has performed all through out New England , New York and Philadelphia . She looks forward to continuing her work through spoken word poetry, and seeks to break into a more professional writing career that will utilize her unique mind. Sam LaRoche uses the accompaniment of instruments to add ambiance to her pieces and to reach a wider range of listeners. She believes that poetry is a divine gift that she will carry throughout her life.
Rickey Laurentiis was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. The recipient of fellowships from the Cave Canem Foundation and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, his poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in several literary journals, including Indiana Review, jubilat and Knockout Literary Magazine. In 2009, two of his poems were named first- and third-runner up in the International Reginald Shepherd Memorial Prize, selected by Carl Phillips, and he has been nominated for a 2010 Pushcart Prize. He studies in New York .
Gregory Laynor is a poet working on a PhD at the University of Washington in Seattle . He previously studied & taught at Temple University in Philadelphia. His reading of Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans appears on UbuWeb & he does a blog at academicpoetry.com.
Joseph O. Legaspi is the author of Imago (CavanKerry Press), winner of a Global Filipino Literary Award. He lives in Queens , NY and works at Columbia University. A graduate of New York University’s Creative Writing Program, his poems appeared and/or are forthcoming in American Life in Poetry, From the Fishouse, World Literature Today, PEN International, Smartish Pace, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Gay & Lesbian Review, and the anthologies Language for a New Century (W.W. Norton) and Tilting the Continent (New Rivers Press). A recipient of a poetry fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, he co-founded Kundiman (www.kundiman.org), a non-profit organization serving Asian American poets. Visit him at www.josepholegaspi.com.
Timothy Liu is the author of eight books of poems, most recently Bending the Mind Around the Dream’s Blown Fuse. He lives in Manhattan .
David Messineo is the Publisher and Poetry Editor of Sensations Magazine (www.sensationsmag.com), a “GLBT-friendly” magazine celebrating 25 years of independent publishing in 2011.
Eileen Myles’s Inferno (a poet’s novel) came out last fall from orbooks.com (http://www.orbooks.com). Alison Bechdel described inferno as “this shimmering document”. John Ashbery called it “Zippingly melancholy” and John Waters calls Eileen “…damn smart!” She writes for Bookforum, Artforum, Parkett, The Believer and Vice and publishes her poems in slews of journals etc. and in Best American Poetry for instance 2010.
Laura Neuman is a poet and prose writer originally from the San Francisco bay area. She currently lives in Philadelphia, where she’s been collaborating and performing with dance companies such as the Workshop for Potential Movement and members of Green Chair Dance. Laura holds an M.F.A. from Bard College and is currently studying poetry in the masters program, while teaching creative writing to undergraduates, at Temple University. Ze is working on a book of poems that explores the ways that choreographers use language to generate and transmit their choreography. Splitleaves Press will release a chapbook of hir poems next fall. More information about some of her dance collaborations can be found at www.potentiallymoving.org.
Angelo Nikolopoulos is a recent graduate of NYU’s creative writing program and the recipient of the 2011 “Discovery”/ Boston Review Prize. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The AWL, Boxcar Poetry Review, Boston Review, Gay and Lesbian Review, Los Angeles Review, Meridian , and elsewhere. He hosts The White Swallow, a queerish reading series in Manhattan ‘s West Village .
James Pergola studied poetry at NYU. He has degrees in Graphic Arts and Pastry Arts. His poems have appeared online and have recently been performed for the poet/actor collaborative emotive fruition. James currently lives and works in New York City.
Tim Peterson (Trace) is the author of Since I Moved In (Chax Press) and Violet Speech ( 2nd Avenue Poetry). Peterson edits EOAGH: A Journal of the Arts and curates a number of reading and event series in NY including Quips and Cranks (with Vincent Katz) at the School of Visual Arts and TENDENCIES: Poetics & Practice, a talks series on queer poetics, process, and pedagogy at CUNY Graduate Center.
Vittoria repetto identifies herself as the hardest working guinea butch dyke poet on NYC’s lower east side. Vittoria repetto has been published in Mudfish, Voices in Italian Americana, Rattle, Lips, The Paterson Literary Review, Italian Americana, Unsettling American: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry, Identity Lessons: Learning American Style, The Milk of Almonds: Italian American Women Writers on Food & Culture, and Harrington Lesbian Fiction Quarterly among others. She has a chapbook entitled Head For the Van Wyck that contains a poem that her current publisher refused to print for fear of being sued by Camille Paglia. Since its release in Fall 2006 Vittoria repetto’s first poetry book Not Just A Personal Ad has won accolades; in a Lambda Book Report column, poet and reviewer Rigoberto Gonzalez wrote “Poems of intense sensibility and gorgeous imagery are a rarity these days; but this book of verse by a distinctly working class, distinctly lesbian, and distinctly Italian American voice is a must for all readers of good poetry.” Vittoria repetto is the vice president of the Italian American Writers Association and she has been hosting the Women’s/Trans’ Poetry Jam at Bluestockings Bookstore since its opening in 1999. Her blog is http://vittoriarepetto.wordpress.com/.
Jason Roush is the author of three books of poems: After Hours, Breezeway, and Crosstown, all published by Orchard House Press. He teaches at Emerson College and New England Institute of Art in Boston. Currently, he’s completing his fourth collection of poetry, titled Dispossession.
Moonshine Shorey still loves you, even after all you’ve done. He knows its not your fault, you just were not raised right. Also, your band sorta sucks.
Lolan Buhain Sevilla is a cultural worker who roots her art in community, study and practice. She has been published in Maganda Magazine, Cheers to Muses: Contemporary Works by Asian American Women (Asian American Women Artists Association, 2007) and is the author of Translating New Brown (Pinayjive Press, 2005), a collection of poetry and short stories, and co-editor of Walang Hiya … Literature Taking Risks Toward Liberatory Practice (Carayan Press, 2010).
Richard Taysons books are The World Underneath, The Apprentice of Fever, and Look Up for Yes. He teaches poetry workshops at New School University and is a Chancellors Fellow in the Ph.D. program at the Graduate Center where he is completing a dissertation concerning William Blake’s influence on American pop culture.
Ocean Vuong, born in Saigon, Vietnam, Ocean Vuong is the author of Burnings (Sibling Rivalry Press 2010) and is currently an undergraduate at Brooklyn College, CUNY. His poems have received an Academy of American Poets Prize, the Beatrice Dubin Rose Award, the Connecticut Poetry Society’s Al Savard Award, as well as four Pushcart Prize nominations. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Richard Marx Weinraub Related to the Marx Brothers through his mother—Richard Marx Weinraub was born in New York City in 1949; he was a Professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico from 1987 through 2010. A book of his poetry entitled Wonder Bread Hill was published in 2002 by the University of Puerto Rico Press. His poetry has appeared in many journals including The Paris Review, Asheville Poetry Review, South Carolina Review, Green Mountains Review, North American Review, Slate, and River Styx. A chapbook of his poetry entitled Heavenly Bodies was published in 2008 by Poets Wear Prada Press, and a poem from it was nominated for a 2009 Pushcart Prize.
Bakar Wilson is a fellow of Cave Canem and has performed his work at the Bowery Poetry Club, The Studio Museum of Harlem, and the Flea Theater. His poems have appeared in the Vanderbilt Review and The Brooklyn Rail, among others. A native of Tennessee , he teaches English and Creative Writing for the City University of New York.
LeNair Xavier gained notoriety in the underground as an adult entertainer under the stage name. “Tré Xavier”. But not for his being a sex object as much as his being an intellectual object. One that he has and still displays with his blog “Tré’s X-Ray Vision”, now renamed, “L’s X-Ray Vision”. His displays of intellect and honesty about the porn industry has led to writing gigs for various porn studios, a printed opinion in The Advocate, and eventually his much-needed exit from studio-based porn in September of 2009. Settling well into his post-porn life is why the name, “Tré Xavier” has been put to rest, and his legal 1st name, LeNair is now how he wants to be known. Bringing his talent above ground, and more accessible to all.
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