Tag: iowa

Strange Cage 9

  • Filed under Reading

  • November 3, 2012

Strange Cage returns for a very special poetry event rewarding the rebirth of Fair Grounds, Iowa City’s premiere cafe, which now has a liquor license. FULL BAR//WINE//AWESOME BEER//CHEAP BEER//FREE POETRY//OBEY//
Friday, November 30, 2012. 8:00pm
Fair Grounds Coffeehouse, 345 S. Dubuque Street, Iowa City, Iowa 52240
https://www.facebook.com/events/486445751400393/

BE ADVISED:
ROBYN SCHIFF. Mentor, poet, and undefeated-in-smiling City of Literature staple, she is the author of the poetry collections Revolver (2008) and Worth (2002), both published by the University of Iowa Press, Kuhl House Poets series. Her work has been represented in several anthologies, including Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century (Sarabande, 2006), Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections (Iowa, 2007), and Transatlantic Verse (Duration, 2005). She was a featured poet at the 2007 Poetry Society of America Festival of New American Poets, and was recognized with an award from the Greenwall Fund by the Academy of American Poets in 2002. Robyn was a 2008 fellow at the Brown Foundation Fellows Residence Program at the Dora Maar House in Menerbes, France, where she began work on her third book, a long poem that takes the myth and metaphor of the vampire as its starting point. She coedits The Canary and Canarium Books and is the Director of Undergraduate Writing at the University of Iowa.

RYAN COLLINS. He is the author of a chapbook, Complicated Weather (Rock Town Press) & an e-chapbook, Handshake Trouble (Gold Wake Press). Some of his recent work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Spittoon, Leveler, Knock, Ping Pong, H_NGM_N, Jellyfish, Diagram & Handsome. He lives in the Illinois Quad Cities & teaches in the Iowa Quad Cities. He can be reached at ryanrichardcollins@gmail.com.

GRANT SOUDERS. Grant lives in a pig shed where he lives with mice that never pay rent on time. His chainsaw is his closest friend and he’s allergic to tree nuts. Please don’t poison him.

JARED HARVEY IS BORING. http://jaredjosephharvey.tumblr.com/

BRYN LOV will be graduating from the undergraduate creative writing track this spring. she owes the entirety of her poetic verbage to friend and mentor Robyn Schiff. She loves shoes.

KARL McCOMAS-REICHL. One of the editors of Strange Cage whose first poetry chapbook, Everything is Loose, has just been released by Rabbit Catastrophe Press (http://rabbitcatastrophe.blogspot.com/), Karl is a jazz musician and a cotton candy machine of thought currently residing in Kansas City.

ALYSE B. Alyse is an undergraduate creative writing major with a netflix-based social life, and a Roseanne-based sense of humor. She also co-writes Seitanic Verses, a vegan cooking blog. http://twogirlsonefoodblog.blogspot.com/

MICHAEL O’HARA. Michael is in the undergraduate creative writing track for poetry and is putting the finishing touches on his first chapbook, “the histories of wind.” it’s about a little boy with the head of a wading bird, so yes, it’s autobiographical.http://michael-ohara.tumblr.com/

hosted by Russell Jaffe // strangecage.org // strangecage@gmail.com

Strange Cage 8

  • Filed under Reading

  • July 13, 2012

STRANGE CAGE 8 – OCTOBER 1. 8:00PM
The Englert Theatre, 221 E Washington St, Iowa City, Iowa 52240

A little over a year ago, Strange Cage was created to showcase the fountain of poetry blood from the vein split that is Iowa City. On October 1, we present our biggest, brightest, beefiest, bloodlustiest, boldest, best reading yet.
From the historic Englert Theatre downtown, Strange Cage brings to you a FREE evening of dangerous and beautiful poetry from:

-JOYELLE McSWEENEY. The legendary and influential Joyelle McSweeney needs no introduction. What. So. Ever. But here’s one anyway: She is the author of Nylund, the Sarcographer (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2007), as well as Flet, The Red Bird, and The Commandrine and Other Poems, and Percussion Grenade, all published by Fence Books. With her husband Johannes Göransson, she publishes Action Books and Action, Yes, a press and web-quarterly dedicated to international writing and hybrid forms and showcasing the absolute best in contemporary writing and emerging writers. Usually teaching at the University of Notre Dame, she’s currently a visiting professor at the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop. A frequent Montevidayo blogger, Joyelle’s Necropastoral ear to the ground has made her a critically important poet of today and tomorrow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyelle_McSweeney

-TJ DEMA. Tjawangwa Dema, also credited as TJ Dema, is a Botswana based performance poet, writer, columnist and voice over artist. She’s currently living in Iowa City as part of the International Writing Program and has performed at events around the country and at local top reading spots like Prairie Lights and at Anthology here in town. A former radio presenter, independent event emcee, model, catwalk instructor, entrepreneur, she runs an arts and performance management boutique that works with artists, ad agencies and funders to craft new ways of approaching the business of art. She is chaiperson of The Writers Association of Botswana (WABO) for which she was Publicity Secretary (2005/07) as well as being a founding member (alumni) of the acclaimed Exoduslivepoetry! collective (ELP), who have coordinated Botswana’s sole annual poetry festival between 2004 and 2009. She has performed in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Denmark, France, and India, and we’re honored to have her right in Iowa City at the Englert. http://www.facebook.com/pages/TJ-DEMA-POETRYSPOKEN-WORD/256405985772

-LESLEY WHEELER. One of the three founders of Strange Cage, Lesley graduated the Writer’s Workshop in May of this year and took to the road, where she and her husband Karl McComas Reichl camped, wrote, and adventured. This will be her Iowa City homecoming by way of her new home in Kansas City, MO by way of everywhere, American Highway, USA. strangecage.org

-DANIELA OLSZWESKA. The author of four collections of poetry– cloudfang : : cakedirt (Horse Less Press, 2012), Citizen J (Artifice Books, forthcoming), True Confessions of An Escapee From The Capra Facility For Wayward Girls (Spittoon, forthcoming), and (with Carol Guess) How To Feel Confident With Your Special Talents (Black Lawrence Press, forthcoming)–Daniela teaches at Oakton Community College and received her MFA from the University of Alabama. She sits on Switchback Books’ Board of Directors and serves as Associate Poetry Editor of H_NGM_N and Another Chicago Magazine. Daniela was born in Wroclaw, Poland and she but she self-identifies as a Chicagoan.

-SKYLAR ALEXANDER. Skylar Alexander is the public relations coordinator of “earthwords undergraduate literary review” and the former assistant director of the Young Emerging Writers internship program at the Midwest Writing Center in Davenport. She has been published in “Ink”, “earthwords”, and “The Atlas”. She studies English, Linguistics, and Entrepreneurial Management at the University of Iowa.

-BRIONY GYLGAYTON. Briony is working on her MFA in Poetry at the Iowa Writers Workshop. Her chapbook, LOUDER WALLS, a collection of poetry about psychological disorders according to the DSM-IV, was awarded the Elliot Gilbert Memorial Prize, and selections from the manuscript won the California-wide Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize and the Pamela Maus Contest for Creative Writing. Her current poetry explores the
connections between American folktales and survival-horror video games. www.BrionyGylgayton.com

-FATIMA ESPIRITU. Fatima is a 2nd year student in the Poetry program at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her style can be
described as Nerdcore meets Your Best Friend’s Awkward Voice Messages. She writes mostly about a rabbit named Baedo, the Internet, and the relationship between metaphors & embodiment. Current favorite craft tools = templates, internal rhyme, and yelling about socialization. F’s publishing & published history are less thrilling than this extended video of an exquisite dog’s exquisite joy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgrZ5Dtsi-E

-LILLIAN BROWNING.

BEER AND WINE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHA$E!