Literary Partners Program presents: COOKING WITH THE MUSE AND THE POETRY OF FOOD

Join award-winning poet, artist, and scholar Stephen Massimilla and professional chef and graduate culinary nutrition instructor Myra Kornfeld for a very happy hour all about what poets—from Homer to Rumi to Neruda to Wendell Berry to Elizabeth Alexander to Massimilla and Kornfeld themselves—can teach you about eating well and wisely and getting plenty of satisfaction. “There is no happiness like mine,” exclaims Mark Strand, “I have been eating poetry.”

The gorgeous new book from Tupelo Press, COOKING WITH THE MUSE: A Sumptuous Gathering of Seasonal Recipes, Culinary Poetry, and Literary Fare (Tupelo Press, On Sale April 1, 2016, hardcopy original, $34.95), comprises a complete cookbook, a wide-ranging anthology of culinary poems, and the equivalent of a complete book of new food poems and poetic prose pieces by the authors; it also contains enlightening essays, lore, and notes on the poetry of food. It has been praised by chefs and such poets as Jane Hirshfield, Naomi Shihab Nye, Molly Peacock, and Ellen Bass, who says, “I have fallen in love with Cooking with the Muse. … I don’t know when a cookbook has been such a good read! I want to give this book to every poet and cook I know.”

Cooking with the Muse and the Poetry of Food will take place on Saturday, April 9th at 3pm at Poet’s House, 10 River Terrace, NYC, 10282. The event is free and open to the public. A scrumptious selection of organic hors d’oeuvres, desserts, and wine will be served.

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ABOUT STEPHEN MASSIMILLA
Stephen Massimilla is a poet, scholar, professor, and painter. His latest poetry book, The Plague Doctor in His Hull-Shaped Hat, was a selection of the Stephen F. Austin University Press prize competition. He received the Bordighera Poetry Prize Forty Floors from Yesterday (CUNY); the Grolier Poetry Prize for Later on Aiaia; a Salmon Run National Poetry Book Award runner-up citation for Almost a Second Thought, selected by X.J. Kennedy; a Van Rensselaer Award, selected by Kenneth Koch; several Pushcart Prize nominations; and other awards. He has recent poems in AGNI, American Literary Review, Barrow Street, Chelsea, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, The Literary Review, Poet Lore, Provincetown Arts, Quarterly West, RHINO Poetry, The Southern Review, Tampa Review, and Verse Daily; and his work has appeared in hundreds of other journals and anthologies. Massimilla holds an MFA and a PhD from Columbia University. He teaches literature, food ethics, and writing at Columbia University and the New School. For more information: www.stephenmassimilla.com

ABOUT MYRA KORNFELD
Myra Kornfeld is a chef, educator, and the author of three previous cookbooks, The Healthy Hedonist, the Healthy Hedonist Holidays, and The Voluptuous Vegan. Myra teaches traditional cooking techniques, improvisational cooking, and cooking for people with food allergies in the graduate nutrition program at the Maryland University of Integrative Health. She teaches traditional food workshops and ethnic cooking classes at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City. She specializes in team-building events and cooking parties at “Myra’s Kitchen.” Myra trained at the Natural Gourmet Institute and completed a professional pastry program at the Institute of Culinary Education. She is a veteran teacher; magazine contributor; restaurant menu consultant; and the recipe coordinator, editor, and video newsletter columnist for myfoodmyhealth.com. Her website is www.myrakornfeld.com

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