Release Party for New great weather for MEDIA Anthology

Bird & Beckett and great weather for MEDIA present an inspiring evening of cutting edge poets and prose writers from across the Bay Area and the U.S.  They come together to celebrate the release of great weather’s new anthology, Birds Fall Silent in the Mechanical Sea, which features work by intense wordsmiths – including those you’ll hear tonight – along with an interview with musician and artist Walter Steding. Come prepared for revelations, epiphanies, and a few broad smiles.

This evening features writers from across the US and beyond, including Neeli Cherkovski (SF), Joan Gelfand (SF), Matthew Hupert (NYC), Deborah Kennedy (San Jose), Mira Martin-Parker (SF), Richard Loranger (Oakland), and SB Stokes (Oakland).

Hosted by great weather editor Jane Ormerod (from NY and UK).

Based in New York City, great weather for MEDIA publishes established and emerging writers from across the United States and beyond.

Please stop by, get yourself dangerously verbiaged up, and pick up a copy of Birds Fall Silent in the Mechanical Sea to call your very own.

Release party for new great weather for MEDIA Anthology

Birds Fall Silent in the Mechanical Sea

a reading by

Neeli Cherkovski
Joan Gelfand
Matthew Hupert
Deborah Kennedy
Mira Martin-Parker
Richard Loranger
and SB Stokes

plus a brief open mic

hosted by Jane Ormerod

PERFORMER BIOS

Neeli Cherkovski was born in Los Angeles. He is the author of numerous books of poetry, including Animal (1996), Leaning Against Time (2005), From the Canyon Outward (2009), and The Crow and I (2015). He is the co-editor of Anthology of L.A. Poets (with Charles Bukowski) and Cross-Strokes: Poetry between Los Angeles and San Francisco (with Bill Mohr). In addition, Neeli has written biographies of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Charles Bukowski, as well as the critical memoir Whitman’s Wild Children. His papers are held at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Neeli received the 2017 Jack Mueller Poetry Prize awarded at the Jack Mueller Festival in Fruita, Colorado. He has lived in San Francisco since 1974.

Joan Gelfand is the author of You Can Be a Winning Writer: The 4 C’s of Successful Authors (Mango Press), three volumes of poetry, and an award-winning chapbook of short fiction. Joan’s novel set in a Silicon Valley startup is forthcoming from Mastodon  /  C&R Press. Recipient of numerous awards and honors, Joan’s work appears in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Prairie Schooner, Toronto Review, Marsh Hawk Review, Kalliope, Rattle, Levure littéraire, and many other journals.

Matthew Hupert is a writer and multi-media artist. He is the founder of the NeuroNautic Institute and its associated poetry workshop and of NeuroNautic Press which just released his latest collection, Secular Pantheism. He is the author of Ism is a Retrovirus (Three Rooms Press) and several chapbooks, and his writing has appeared in numerous publications including Midstream Magazine, Maintenant, and Sonnets: 150 Contemporary Sonnets. When not writing, Matthew can be found cooking for his family. He lives in New York City.

Deborah Kennedy is an author and artist whose recent book, Nature Speaks: Art and Poetry for the Earth, combines illustrations and poetry focusing on the ecological themes of our time. The book’s honors include the 2016 Eric Hoffer Poetry Book Award and a 2017 Silver Nautilus Poetry Book Award. Her writing has appeared in First Literary Review-East and Canary: A Literary Journal of the Environmental Crisis. Deborah lives in San Jose and teaches college classes and poetry workshops. She often hikes in an urban riparian corridor where she spots osprey, hawks, and herons. In the evening she watches for moonbows, earthshine, and other modern miracles.

 Mira Martin-Parker earned an MFA in creative writing at San Francisco State University. Her work has appeared in various publications, including Istanbul Literary Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Mythium, and Zyzzyva.

Richard Loranger is a multi-genre writer, performer, musician, visual artist, and all-around squeaky wheel, currently residing in Oakland, CA. He is the founder of Poetea, a monthly literary conversation group. His publications include the books Sudden Windows, Poems for Teeth, The Orange Book, nine chapbooks, and work in over 100 magazines and journals. He curates the reading series Babar in Exile, and the queer talk and reading series #we. You can find more about his work and scandals at www.richardloranger.com.

S B Stokes writes, draws, designs, and produces in the hills behind a lake in Oakland, California. His publications include a full-length poetry collection called A History of Broken Love Things (Punk Hostage Press, 2014), a chapbook entitled DARK ENTRIES (Gorilla Press  / The Pedestrian Press, 2014), and a self-published chapbook called Let’s Call This Nothing (2018). S  B is one of the founding producers of Beast Crawl, an annual literary festival in Oakland which features over thirty readings and is 100% free.

Jane Ormerod is the author of the full-length poetry collections Welcome to the Museum of Cattle and Recreational Vehicles on Fire (both from Three Rooms Press), and the chapbook 11 Films (Modern Metrics/EXOT Books). Her work also appears in publications including Maintenant, Flapperhouse, Marsh Hawk Press Review, Post (BLANK), Sensitive Skin, and Paris Lit Up. Born on the south coast of England, Jane now lives in New York City and performs extensively across the United States and beyond. She is a founding editor of great weather for MEDIA.