My friend and Brooklyn Reading Works co-conspirator Michele Madigan Somerville is launching her new book of poetry, Black Irish (from Plain View Press) at KGB, probably the coolest literary bar in New York City.
I am so psyched. I am intimately acquainted with Somerville's new book and I love it. I am so thrilled that it is finally available for all to see.
TONIGHT: Saturday, November 7, 2009 from 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM make it your business to catch these two poets as they send their brand new books out into the world. Come listen and celebrate at KGB: 85 East 4th Street in Manhattan.
Brooklyn poet Michele Madigan Somerville is the author of the book-length poem WISEGAL (Ten Pell Books 2001) and Black Irish,
her first collection of verse, forthcoming this fall (2009) from
Plainview Press. Her work has appeared in many literary journals. Her
essay “Born Again Catholic in Brooklyn” recently appeared in the New
York Times online Happy Days series. Somerville’s poems have has won a
number of poetry awards: an Honorable Mention in Dublin’s Ireland’s
Eason Books Poetry Competition in 2003, first place in the W.B. Yeats
Society poetry competition in 2000, a MacArthur scholarship for poetry
at Brooklyn College in 1987, and the Louise B. Goodman Award for
Women-Centered writing at Brooklyn College. She has run reading series
at The Old Stone House in Park Slope, Ceol Bar in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
and Cornelia Street Café in Manhattan, and has given many public
performances of her work. Somerville recently completed two collections
of verse: Glamourous Life, and Stations of Light, and is currently
working on two books of prose: a novel, SUCKER PUNCH and a memoir (yet
untitled) about being Catholic. She worked for 14 years s a teacher in
New York City elementary and high schools, and as a lecturer in
creative and expository writing at CUNY and SUNY, Purchase. She posts
her verse on Fresh Poetry: www.michelemadigansomerville.com.
Nava Renek is author of SPIRITLAND (Spuyten Duyvil 2002)and NO
PERFECT WORDS (2009). She is also the editor of WRECKAGE OF REASON:
XXPERIMENTAL PROSE BY CONTEMPORARY WOMEN WRITERS. Her short stories
and essays have appeared in a number of literary magazines and
websites. She is currently program coordinator of the Women’s Center
at Brooklyn College.