Facades Everywhere

On Thursday, April 4, 2018, The Bindery will become a truth machine. Three writers, Devi S. Laskar, Claudia H. Long,Crystal Jo Reiss, and a surprise poet/novelist, will ferry readers across borders, around the world, and through time. In an era of despotism, misrepresentations, fake news and “fake news,” forced migrations, and missing time, facades fall away and bare the truth. Come find your truth with writers who don’t flinch when questions become inquisitions, maps are revised, and skies fall onto pages that will not turn anyone away.

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Devi S. Laskar is a native of Chapel Hill, N.C. She holds an MFA from Columbia University in New York. A former newspaper reporter, she is now a poet, photographer and artist. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Atlanta Review, Fairy Tale Review, Tin House and The Raleigh Review, which nominated her for Best New Poets 2016. She is an alumna of both TheOpEdProject and VONA/Voices, and poetry workshops at the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley. Finishing Line Press published the first of two poetry chapbooks, “Gas & Food, No Lodging” in March 2017 and has nominated her for a Pushcart Prize—and will publish Anastasia Maps in December. She now lives in California.

Claudia H. Long is the author of three books about the Spanish Inquisition in Mexico: Josefina’s Sin, The Duel for Consuelo, and just out, Chains of Silver. Her books have been described as “riveting”, “beautifully researched and lyrically written,” “spell-binding” and “very, very sexy.” She grew up in Mexico City, and makes her home in the East Bay, with her husband, nearby grown children, perfect grandson, and anywhere from three to five dogs, depending on who’s home. When she isn’t writing she practices law, mediating ugly business disputes and employment discrimination cases.

Crystal Jo Reiss began her writing career with the publication of her first poem, The Girl Who Pricked Her Finger, in The Louisville Review’s anthology of children’s poetry. Years later, while working on her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Columbia University, she wrestled with narrative and drafted her first novel. Later, she attended The Squaw Valley Writer’s Conference, and spent a summer at The Edward Albee Foundation and Dorland Mountain Arts Colony. Between assisting a renowned physical anthropologist, serving as a transcription editor for a law firm that represented members of the Cosa Nostra, teaching college-level composition, and working on spreadsheets for nurse practitioners, she wrote for a variety of publications, including a trade magazine focused on post-production houses in the advertising industry. She has since cofounded an editorial and design business, and is celebrating the publication of her novel, Jane is Everywhere. She lives with her husband and son in Oakland, California.