CAFE MUSE LITERARY SERIES

The Word Works in cooperation with The Village of Friendship Heights presents monthly literary programs at 7:00 pm that open with Michael Davis on classical guitar. In February 2007, the program moved to Monday nights. Open readings follow the featured readers. Sign up begins at 7:00pm. This event is free to the public.

Friendship Heights Village Center is a five-minute walk from the Friendship Heights Metro Rail Stop at 4433 South Park Avenue, Chevy Chase, Maryland. For further information call: 301 656-2797.

Programs in 2008
Past Programs

PROGRAMS IN 2008:

Michael Davis will open most programs starting at 7:00 pm with classical guitar music. Greg McBride and Katherine Young are the co-directors. Thanks to The Village of Friendship Heights which makes these programs possible.

January 7---Poets Kurt Olsson and Gretchen Primack

KURT S. OLSSON's first book of poetry, What Kills What Kills Us, won the Gerald Cable Book Award (Silverfish Review Press, 2007). His work has appeared in Threepenny Review, Poetry, Field, and many other journals.

GRETCHEN PRIMACK's chapbook, The Slow Creaking of Planets came out from Finishing Line Press in 2007. Her poems have appeared in The Paris Review, Prairie Schooner, FIELD, Best New Poets 2006, and elsewhere. Her full-length manuscript, Fiery Cake, has been shortlisted for several prizes. She lives in Hurley, NY, teaches at SUNY-Ulster, Bard College, and two prisons through the Bard Prison Initiative, and serves on the board of Catskill Animal Sanctuary.

February 4---Poets Margo Berdeshevsky and Stanley Plumly

MARGO BERDESHEVSKY's first collection of poetry, But A Passage In Wilderness, was published by The Sheep Meadow Press in 2007. She has been a recipient of the Robert H. Winner Award from the Poetry Society of America (selected by Marie Ponsot,) four Pushcart Prize nominations, the Chelsea Poetry Award, and Kalliope's Sue Daniel Elkind Award. Her work is published in Agni, The Kenyon Review, New Letters, The Southern Review, and many others. Recent exhibitions of her "visual poems" were in Paris and in Hawaii. Her "Tsunami Notebook" was made following a journey to Sumatra in spring 2005, to work in a survivors' clinic in Aceh. She currently lives in Paris, France.

STANLY PLUMLY's ninth collection of poetry, Old Heart (W.W. Norton, 2007), was nominated for the National Book Award. He has received numerous awards, including the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award and a 2002 Academy Award in Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. He is currently a Distinguished University Professor and Professor of English at the University of Maryland. Posthumous Keats: A Personal Biography will appear in April 2008 (W.W. Norton).

March 3---Poets Mary Ann Larkin and Bruce MacKinnon

MARY ANN LARKIN is the author of five chapbooks of poetry, the most recent being Gods & Flesh (Plan B Press, 2007). Her poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including America in Poetry and Ireland in Poetry (both Harry N. Abrams). She lives in Washington, DC.

BRUCE MACKINNON�s collection of poems, Mystery Schools, won The Washington Writers� Publishing House Prize in Poetry for 2007. He has also been awarded the Richard Soref Scholarship in Poetry for the 2005 Bread Loaf Writers� Conference, an Individual Artist Award in Poetry from the Maryland State Arts Council, The Academy of American Poets Prize, and the Richard Hugo Prize from Poetry Northwest. His poems have appeared in many literary magazines and journals, including Salmagundi, Boulevard, and The Sewanee Review. He teaches creative writing at George Washington University.

April 7---Poets Anne Becker and Heddy Reid

ANNE BECKER is the author of a chapbook, The Good Body (Finishing Line Press, 2007), and of The Transmutation Notebooks: Poems in the Voices of Charles and Emma Darwin (Forest Woods Media). Her poems, reviews, and interviews have appeared in Antioch Review, Southern Poetry Review, Gargoyle Magazine, Washington Review, Washington Jewish Week and others. She has developed a special poetry workshop, Writing the Body, for those who have experienced life-threatening and chronic illness, either as patients or caregivers. She is currently Poet Laureate of Takoma Park, MD, and teaches at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD, and in the Poets-in-the-Schools program. Her website is bodywriting.org.

HEDDY REID’s chapbook, A Far Cry, was published in 2007 by Finishing Line Press. Her poems have appeared in, among others, The Washingtonian, Antietam Review, The Southern Review, and Passager. Her work also appears in several anthologies. She has taught workshops in DC and New York and is a member of the Poetry Board of the Folger Shakespeare Library.

May 5--Poets Dan Kaplan and Bryan Penberthy

DAN KAPLAN is the author of Bill�s Formal Complaint (The National Poetry Review Press, 2008) and the bilingual chapbook SKIN (Red Hydra Press, 2005), a collaboration between Cuban and American book artists. His work has appeared in Denver Quarterly, Barrow Street, Meridian, West Branch, Quarterly West, the Norton Anthology Flash Fiction Forward, and elsewhere. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

BRYAN PENBERTHY's debut collection of poetry, Lucktown, won the National Poetry Review Book Prize and was published in 2007. He was the recipient of an AWP Intro Award for his work, which has appeared in journals including Crazyhorse, New Orleans Review, Bat City Review, and Poetry International, as well as online via Blackbird, Verse Daily, and Poetry Daily. He lives in Charleston, SC, where he works for a non-profit organization. For more information, visit losttimepoetry.com.

June 2---Poets Christopher Conlon and Erica Dawson

CHRISTOPHER CONLON is the author of three books of poems, the most recent of which is Mary Falls: Requiem for Mrs. Surratt (The Word Works, 2007), which focuses on the Lincoln assassination. He has also written a collection of stories, Thundershowers at Dusk, and his novel, Midnight on Mourn Street, is scheduled for publication in 2008. He teaches at the Nora School in Silver Spring, where he also hosts a popular quarterly reading series. Visit his website at christopherconlon.com.

ERICA DAWSON won the 2006 Anthony Hecht Prize for her first book, Big-Eyed Afraid (Waywiser Press, 2006). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Blackbird, Sewanee Theological Review, Southwest Review, and Virginia Quarterly Review, and the next edition of Best American Poetry. With degrees from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and Ohio State University, she is pursuing her PhD at University of Cincinnati as the Elliston Fellow in Poetry.

July 7---Poet Grace Cavalieri and Prartho Sereno

GRACE CAVALIERI is author of is the author of fifteen collections of poetry including Anna Nicole: Poems by Grace Cavalieri. Her plays include off-Broadway productions. She's also written texts and lyrics performed for opera, television and film. Her 21st play "Quilting the Sun" was presented at the Smithsonian Institution, and receives its world premiere at Centre Stage, S.C. Grace teaches poetry workshops throughout the country at numerous colleges. She produced and hosted "The Poet and the Poem," weekly, on WPFW-FM (1977-1997) presenting 2,000 poets to the nation. She now presents this series to public radio from the Library of Congress via NPR satellite.

PRARTHO SERENO�s collection, Call from Paris, was winner of the 2007 Word Works Washington Prize. She is also author/illustrator of a book of illuminated poems, Causing a Stir: The Secret Lives and Loves of Kitchen Utensils (Mansarovar Press, 2007). Her other publications include the chapbook, Garden Sutra (Finishing Line Press, 2005); a song/ poetry CD, Salt (Mystic Mandala, 2005); and a book of essays, Everyday Miracles (Kensington, 1998). She received a Marin Arts Council Individual Artist Grant in poetry in 2003 and has taught as a Poet in the Schools in the San Francisco Bay Area for nine years.

August 4---Family Pictures: Poems and Photographs Celebrating Our Loved Ones anthology reading with contributing poets and editor Kwame Alexander

KWAME ALEXANDER is a poet, publisher, and award-winning producer of literary programs. He has written for television and the stage and authored ten books, including the best-selling Do The Write Thing: 7 Steps to Publishing Success; Dancing Naked on the Floor: poems and essays; Tough Love: The Life and Death of Tupac Shakur; and most recently, a young adult title, Crush: Love Poems.

ROBERTA BEARY's The Unworn Necklace won first prize in the Snapshot Press Book Award and was named a Williams Carlos Williams Award Finalist by the Poetry Society of America. Her work has appeared in anthologies and journals of the short poem in the United States, Japan, Europe and Canada; on calendars;and on bottles of cold tea sold in Japan. Her poems have been awarded many international prizes, including the Grand Prize Trip to Japan in the Kusamakura Contest for her poem thunder/the roses shift/into shadow. Currently an editor with Red Moon Press, she is a longtime member of towpath, poets of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

MARITZA RIVERA COHEN has been writing poetry in both English and Spanish for nearly 40 years. She is the author of About You, has been published in literary magazines, anthologies and online publications, and has been sharing her work in poetry venues in the DC, MD, and VA area for the past ten years.

DEANA NIKAIDO is the author of Vibrating With Silence, a book of poetry published by Writers Lair Books and is a graduate of Art Center College of Design with a degree in Illustration. She has read her poetry at Martha's Vineyard-Bunches of Grapes Bookstore, Visionary Art Museum: Rumi Festival featured guest Coleman Barks, and the Caribbean Literary Festival in Antigua 2006. Her work has appeared in several journals and anthologies such as Beltway Poetry Journal, Fledgling Rag, and Urbancode Magazine.

September 15---Poets Sandra Beasley and Susan Settlemyre Williams

SANDRA BEASLEY won the 2007 New Issues Poetry Prize for her book Theories of Falling, selected by Marie Howe. Her poems have appeared in Slate, 32 Poems, Blackbird, Best New Poets, Online Writing: The Best of the First Ten Years, and the Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel (Second Story). She is an editor for The American Scholar in Washington, DC.

SUSAN SETTLEMYRE WILLIAMS is the author of Ashes in Midair, the 2007 Poetry Book Contest Winner from Many Mountains Moving. The selecting judge was Yusef Komunyakaa. She also has a chapbook, Possession, from Finishing Line Press. Her poetry has appeared in Mississippi Review, Shenandoah, and Sycamore Review. Her poem �Lighter� won the 2006 Diner Poetry Contest and was selected for Best New Poets 2006. She holds an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and a JD from the University of Richmond and is book review editor and associate literary editor of Blackbird.

October 6---Poets Barbara Goldberg and Kathy Mangan

BARBARA GOLDBERG is the author of four books of poetry, most recently The Royal Baker�s Daughter, which won the 2008 Felix Pollak Poetry Prize (University of Wisconsin Press ). She is the co-editor of two anthologies of contemporary Israeli poetry, including After the First Rain: Israeli Poems of War and Peace. Her work appears in such magazines as the Gettysburg Review, Poetry, and The Paris Review. Among her honors are two fellowships in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as awards in fiction, feature writing and speechwriting. Currently, she is a senior speechwriter at AARP and lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

KATHY MANGAN�s first book, Above the Tree Line was published by Carnegie Mellon University Press. Her work has earned a Pushcart Prize and appeared in such journals as Georgia Review, Gettysburg Review, Shenandoah, and Southern Review. She is a Professor of English at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland.

November 17---TBA

December 1---Poets Rick Barot and Martin Galvin

RICK BAROT's Want was published by Sarabande in 2008. His previous book, The Darker Fall, was chosen by Stanley Plumly for the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry (Sarabande Books, 2002). His poems and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including New England Review, The New Republic, Poetry, and Virginia Quarterly Review. His work has also appeared in many anthologies, including The New Young American Poets, Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation, and Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and Stanford University. He lives in Tacoma, Washington, and teaches both in the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and at Pacific Lutheran University.

MARTIN GALVIN's third chapbook, Circling Out, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2007. His book Wild Card was selected by Howard Nemerov for the Columbia Award (1989). He has won numerous prizes for individual poems in national competitions. His poems have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Poetry, and The New Republic, among many others. In 2007 he was awarded a writer's residency at Yaddo.

PAST PROGRAMS

Strathmore Hall Arts Center 1999-2002:

1999

01/12/99---Poet Reuben Jackson

2/10/99---Storyteller Elloise Schoettler

3/10/99---Poets Nathalie Anderson and Andrea Collins

4/14/99---Poets Barri Armitage and Terence Winch

5/12/99---Poets Barbara Goldberg and Stanley Plumley

6/9/99---Poet Karren Alenier and Novelist David Fenza

07/14/99---Storyteller Elloise Schoettler

8/11/99---Performance poet Kenny Carroll

9/8/99---Poets Vladimir Levchev and Henry Taylor

10/13/99---Storyteller Elloise Schoettler

11/10/99---Performance poet Sylvana Straw

12/8/99---Poets Mel Belin and Ron Wray

2000

01/12/00---Celebration of Winners: A Retrospective Of The Washington Prize (With poets: Barbara Goldberg, Elaine Magarrell, Brandon Johnson, Martha Sanchez-Lowery,and Richard Peabody. With editors Karren Alenier, Hilary Tham and Miles Moore.

2/09/00---Poet David Gewanter

3/8/00---Poet Miles Moore

4/12/00---Storyteller Elloise Schoettler

5/10/00---Musica Viva Program with poet Lori Tsang, pianist Carl Banner, artist Marilyn Banner

6/14/00---Performance poets Silvana Straw and Brian Gilmore

7/12/00---Ascension Series and Ethelbert Miller present poets Rebecca Villarreal and Eva Day 8/9/00--Mariposa Series and Maritza Rivera present poets Forestine Bynum, David Daumit and Ryan McAllister

09/13/00---Poets Peter Blair & Brandon Johnson

10/11/00---Performance artist Kwelismith & poet Robert Sargent

11/15/00---Poet Hilary Tham

12/13/00---Storyteller Elloise Schoettler

2001

01/10/01---Performance poet D.J. Renegade

02/14/01---Open Mike Competiton on Love

03/14/01---Poets Barbara DeCesare and Barrett Warner

04/11/01---Poets Myra Sklarew and Anne Harding Woodworth

05/09/01---Poets Hiram Larew and Michael Wurster

06/13/01---Minimus Productions with fiction by Terence Mulligan and poetry of Miles David Moore celebrating the recording Fatslug Unbound. With poets Miles David Moore, Mel Belin, and Judith McCombs.

07/11/01---Poets Grace Cavalieri and Kim Roberts

08/8/01---Best of Galaxy Hut with poets Cynthia Hoffman, Erich Hintze, and Brandon Johnson

10/10/01---Poets Mark McMorris and Terence Winch

11/14/01---Editors of Potomac Review presented winners of the 2001 Potomac Review poetry contest: Judith McCombs, Kathy Michaels, Thom Stuart

12/12/01---Poets Doris Brody and Patricia Garfinkel

2002

01/9/02---Poets Michael Glaser and Steve Scafidi

02/13/02---Poets Anne Marie Macari and Belle Waring

03/13/02---Novelist Sarah Blake and poet Joshua Weiner

04/10/02---Poets Elizabeth Arnold and John Haines

05/08/02---Poets Michael Collier and Richard McCann

06/12/02---Open Mike Poetry Competition�subject: cuisine

07/10/02---Crow's Eye View�Word Works Publication Celebration

08/14/02---Poets of Tupelo Press: Jeffrey Levine, Nancy Naomi Carlson, Jennifer Michael Hecht, and Margaret Szumowski

9/11/02---A Night of Remembrance�readings from the new anthology edited by William Heyen September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond

10/9/02---Poets Jean Nordhaus and Linda Pastan

11/13/02---Poets Jean Donnelly and Rod Smith

Friendship Heights Village Center:

2003

01/16/03---Poets Julianna Baggott & Michael Gushue

02/20/03---Poet Andrea Hollander Budy

03/20/03---Minimus journal publication reading: poets Barbara Alfaro & Patricia Gray

04/17/03---Novelist Donna Hemans & poet Ross Taylor

05/15/03---Poets Christopher Conlon & Hilary Tham

06/19/03---Poets Grace Schulman & Maria Terrone

07/17/03---Poets Greg Donavan & John Hoppenthaler

08/21/03---Kenny Carroll hosts a Writer's Corp Slamwith poet Isaac Colon

10/1/03---Publication reading from Proposing on the Brooklyn Bridge with poetsBett Notter, Ellen Sazzman, Michele Wolf

11/20/03---Poets James Hopkins & Suzanne Rhodenbaugh

12/18/03---Potomac Review presents poets Nancy Allinson,P. Michael Mastrofrancesco, Joanna Robin

2004

01/15/04---Poets Rick Barott & David Gewanter

02/19/04---Poet James Hoch & novelist Howard Norman

03/18/04---Poets Kelly Cherry & Cornelius Eady

04/15/04---Poets Stephen Corey & Jim Peterson

05/20/04---Poets Richard Blanco & Terese Svoboda

06/17/04---Poets Gray Jacobik & Ron Mohring

07/15/04---Jacklyn Potter hosts a ublication reading of Cabin Fever: Poets at Joaquin Miller's Cabin with W. Perry Epes, Brian Gilmore, Anne Harding Woodworth

08/19/04---Poets Rick Cannon & Sean Enright

09/16/04---Poets Christopher Conlon & Miles David Moore

10/21/04---Poets C.M. Mayo & Elizabeth Rees

11/18/04---Poets Jody Bolz & Gary Stein

12/16/04---Rick Peabody presents a Gargoyle publication reading with poets Rose Solari & Alan Spears.

2005

01/20/05---Novelist Benita Kane Jaro & Rod Jellema

02/17/05---Poets Lavonne Adams & Judith McCombs

03/17/05---Poets Kelly Cherry & Cornelius Eady

04/21/05---Translation readings with poets Luis Alberto Ambroggio & Semezdin Mehmedinovic

05/19/05---Poets Mark Cox & Myra Sklarew

06/16/05---Publication reading by Deborah Ager & 32 Poems magazine

07/21/05---Poets Naomi Ayala & James Deahl

08/18/05---Poets Grace Cavalieri & Darcy Chargo

09/15/05---Poets Lia Purpura & Jonathan Vaile

10/20/05---Poet Rosemary Klein & fiction writer Leslie Pietrzyk

11/17/05---Poet Nan Fry & fiction writer Ron Tanner

12/15/05---Publication reading by Robert Giron & Gival Press with poets PiotrGwiazda, Kim Roberts, J.D. Smith

2006

01/19/06---Poet Donna Denize & Playwright Sean O'Leary

02/16/06---Poets David McAleavey & Rose Solari

03/16/06---Poets Ann Knox & Hailey Leithauser

04/20/06---Translation reading Dilara Hashem/Carolyne Wright and Roberto Severino/Judy Neri

05/18/06---Poets Vladimir Levchev & Alicia Ostriker

06/15/06---WWPH reading with Moira Egan & Dean Smith and celebrating Tin Mines & Concubines by Hilary Tham

07/20/06---Jazz poet Cliff Bernier with performance artist Verneice Turner and poets Yoko Danno with James Hopkins

08/17/06---Passager magazine reading with poets Shirley Brewer and Norma Chapman

09/21/06---Poets Nathalie Anderson & Nick Johnson

10/19/06---Poets Jennifer Gresham & Richard Lyons

11/16/06---Poets Brandon Johnson & Diane Lockward

12/14/06---Tributes to Robert Sargent led by poet Grace Cavalieri & to Jacklyn Potter led by poet Anne Becker

For more information about other Word Works programs and general DC literary events, see Beltway News Events Calendar.

2007