Literary Partners Program: Finishing Line Press Poetry Chapbook Reading

Please join Finishing Line Press for a reading, celebrating poets and their chapbooks.

Reception to follow.

Readers include:

Rose Auslander
Mark Belair
Elizabeth Coleman
Sherri Felt Dratfield
Vivian Eyre
Kim Farrar
Margaret Barbour Gilbert
Michael J. Grabell
Anita Pulier
Alison Carb Sussman

Poets’ Bios:

Rose Auslander lives with her husband and daughters in Brooklyn. She is Poetry Editor of Folded Word Press, Editor of unFold magazine, and co-editor of the Twitter anthology, On A Narrow Windowsill; she has read her poems on NPR; her poem “For You Mothers” received a Pushcart nomination and her “Oh My” received a Best of the Net nomination. Her Finishing Line Press chapbook is Folding Water, and another is upcoming: The Dolphin in the Gowanus. For updates, follow Rose’s blog: http://roseauslander.wordpress.com

Mark Belair’s poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Harvard Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Poetry East. His books include the collection While We’re Waiting (Aldrich Press, 2013) and two chapbook collections: Night Watch (Finishing Line Press, 2013) and Walk With Me (Parallel Press of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, 2012).

Elizabeth J. Coleman’s poetry collection Proof will be published by Spuyten Duyvil Press in 2014. She is the author of Let My Ears Be Open (Finishing Line Press, 2013) and The Saint of Lost Things (Word Temple Press, 2009), two chapbooks of poems. In 2012, Proof was a finalist for the University of Wisconsin Press’ Brittingham and Pollak prizes. Elizabeth’s poetry has been published in the journals Connecticut Review, Raintown Review, 32 Poems, Per Contra, Blueline, and Peregrine, among others, and her poems appear in The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry, and in the forthcoming Poetry in Medicine Anthology to be released by Persea Books. Her poetry criticism has been featured in Poetry Miscellany. A 2012 recipient of an MFA in Poetry at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, Elizabeth is also an attorney.

Sherri Felt Dratfield is the author of two poetry chapbooks – The City, which was nominated for a 2013 Pushcart Prize, and the recently released Water Vigils. Her poem Time Pieces Repaired won a Margaret Reid award for traditional poetry. She has made her living as a union actor, theatrical producer and, most recently, an attorney specializing in intellectual property and First Amendment law. She lives with her husband, Simon, and her two wheaten terriers in the West Village. Her collections are available on amazon.com and finishinglinepress.com.

Vivian Eyre’s poems have appeared in many literary journals, including Asheville Poetry Review, FRiGG, Permafrost, Quiddity, Sanskrit and Spoon River Poetry Review. In 2013, her poetry chapbook, To the Sound, was published by Finishing Line Press. The Bellingham Review nominated Vivian for the anthology, Best New Poets 2013. She was a finalist for the Dorothy Daniels Award, and a semi-finalist for Calyx’s Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize. A leadership coach, Vivian has taught at Cornell University-ILR School, Harvard’s Workplace Center and MIT. She lives in Southold, New York.

Kim Farrar is a poet and essayist. She was nominated for a 2012 Pushcart Prize. Her chapbook, The Familiar, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2011. She received a third place 2010 Allen Ginsberg Award. Her poetry has been published most recently in Alaska Quarterly Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, and Rhino. She works as an adjunct professor at LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York. She lives in Astoria, New York with her husband and daughter.

Margaret Barbour Gilbert is an award-winning writer who lives in New York City. Her poems have been widely published in numerous journals, most recently in Hotel America and online by Akashic books.”Eating oatmeal” from My Grandmother’s Engagement Ring is included in the Everyman Library anthology Conversation Pieces: Poems That talk to Other Poems (Alfred Knopf Publishers, 2007.)

Michael J. Grabell’s first poetry chapbook, Macho Man, won the Finishing Line Press prize and was nominated for a Pushcart. His poems have appeared in the Best American Poetry anthology, Best New Poets 2009, Southwest Review, Columbia Poetry Review, Rattle, and Tampa Review. He has won a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg prize and was runner-up in the River Styx International Poetry Contest. Grabell is an investigative reporter for ProPublica, where he has produced stories for the New York Times, NPR, and Time magazine. He is also the author of Money Well Spent?, a narrative history of President Obama’s stimulus package and his efforts to revive the economy from the Great Recession.

Anita S. Pulier graduated from New York University and New York Law School and practiced law in New York and New Jersey for many years. She recently served as U.S. representative to the United Nations for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and is currently a director of the Jane Addams Peace Association. Her poems have been published both online and in print in Linnet’s Wings, Askew, Riverbabble, and other journals. Finishing Line Press published her two chapbooks Perfect Diet and The Lovely Mundane.

Alison Carb Sussman is a poet and former freelance journalist. Her poems have appeared in several anthologies as well as in numerous journals. One of her poems was part of an art installation shown at The Battery’s “Gardens of Remembrance” in Manhattan in August 2011. Two of her poems won Amelia Awards. Her poetry has been published in The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts, Eclipse, Slipstream, and elsewhere. She has written book reviews for The New York Times, and has been a contributing editor to the Gale reference book, Contemporary Black Biography. She also has been an editorial researcher for magazines, including Vogue and Vanity Fair, and a copy editor for scientific and medical journals.

This event is made possible in part through the Poets House Literary Partners Program