CAFE MUSE LITERARY SERIES

The Word Works in cooperation with The Village of Friendship Heights presents monthly literary programs at 7:00 pm that open with Michael Davis on classical guitar. In February 2007, the program moved to Monday nights. Open readings follow the featured readers. Sign up begins at 7:00pm. This event is free to the public.

Friendship Heights Village Center is a five-minute walk from the Friendship Heights Metro Rail Stop at 4433 South Park Avenue, Chevy Chase, Maryland. For further information call: 301 656-2797.


PROGRAMS IN 2010:

Michael Davis will open most programs starting at 7:00 pm with classical guitar music. Adele Steiner became the host in August 2008 and Laura Golberg joined her as co-host in March 2009. Thanks to The Village of Friendship Heights which makes these programs possible.

01/4/10---Poets Katherine Young & Greg McBride

GREG MCBRIDE is the author of the chapbook, Back of the Envelope (Copperdome Press 2009)  and winner the 2008 Boulevard Emerging Poet prize. His work appears widely, in Arts and Letters, Connecticut Review, Gettysburg Review, New York Quarterly, River Styx, Salmagundi, and Southern Poetry Review. A former host of Cafe Muse, he lives in Silver Spring, MD where he edits The Innisfree Poetry Journal.

KATHERINE E. YOUNG is the author of Van Gogh in Moscow (Pudding House Press 2008) and Gentling the Bones (Finishing Line Press 2007.) Her poetry appears in Prairie Schooner, The Iowa Review, The Massachusetts Review, Shenandoah, Poetry Daily and numerous other publications. A former host of Café Muse, she teaches poetry and composition at the University of MD where she is completing her MFA.

02/1/10---Poets Greg Pardlo & Ed Skoog

GREG PARDLO's first book, Totem, won the American Poetry Review/ Honickman Prize in 2007. His poems, reviews and translations have appeared in American Poetry Review, Callaloo, Harvard Review, Ploughshares, on National Public Radio and elsewhere. A finalist for the Essence Magazine Literary Award in poetry, he is recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and a translation grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He has received other fellowships from the New York Times, the MacDowell Colony, the Lotos Club Foundation and Cave Canem. Pardlo is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at George Washington University and divides his time between Brooklyn and Washington, D.C. See what the GW News has to say about Greg Pardlo and read some of his poems.

ED SKOOG is the author of Mister Skylight, (Copper Canyon Press, 2009). His poems appear in numerous publications including The Paris Review, The New Republic, Ploughshares, Poetry, and American Poetry Review. He currently lives in Fairfax VA, where he is the 2009-10 Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in-Washington at George Washington University. Visit Ed Skoog's website for more info.

03/1/10---Poets Ned Balbo & Kristi Maxwell

NED BALBO is the author of Lives of the Sleepers (U. of Notre Dame Press), winner of the Ernest Sandeen Prize, and a ForeWord Book of the Year Award, Galileo’s Banquet (WWPH, 1998) which was awarded the Towson University Prize, and the chapbook Something Must Happen (Finishing Line Press, 2009) His work appears in Antioch Review, Shenandoah, River Styx, and numerous other publications. He teaches at Loyola University Maryland

KRISTI MAXWELL is the author of Realm Sixty-four (Ahsahta Press, 2008) Elsewhere & Wise (Dancing Girl Press, 2008), and Hush Sessions (Saturnalia Books, 2009). Her poems appear widely in Denver Quarterly, Phoebe, Tarpaulin Sky, and other journals She is currently a PhD candidate in English & Comparative Lit at the University of Cincinnati, where she completed a graduate certificate in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

04/5/10---Poets Jason Gray & Yermiyahu Ahron Taub

JASON GRAY is the author of Photographing Eden (Ohio UP, 2008), winner of the Hollis Summers Prize, and two chapbooks, How to Paint the Savior Dead (Kent State UP, 2007) and Adam & Eve Go to the Zoo (Dream Horse, 2003). His poems and reviews have appeared in Poetry, The American Poetry Review, The Southern Review, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere, and his work has been awarded a grant from the Maryland State Council for the Arts and a Tennessee Williams Scholarship from the Sewanee Writers' Conference. He currently co-edits the online journal Unsplendid .

YERMIYAHU AHRON TAUB is the author of What Stillness Illuminated (Parlor Press, 2008) and The Insatiable Psalm (Wind River Press 2005.) His work appears in The Adirondack Review, Prairie Schooner and other journals, and he was honored by the Museum of Jewish Heritage as one of the New York’s Best Emerging Artists. He lives in Washington DC, where he is a Senior Cataloging Specialist at the Judaica section of the Library of Congress.

05/3/10---Poets David Dodd Lee & Leslie Wheeler

DAVID DODD LEE is the author of Downsides of Fish Culture (New Issues 1997), Arrow Pointing North (Four Way Books, 2002), and Abrupt Rural, (New Issues 2004) and he has three new books forthcoming in 2010, The Nervous Filaments, (Four Way Books), Orphan, Indiana (Univ. of Akron Press) and Sky Booths in the Breath Somewhere: The Ashbery Erasure Poems (BlaxeVox). His poems appear widely in Field, Prairie Schooner, and other journals.

LESLEY WHEELER is the author of five books including Heterotopia, winner of the 2009 Barrow Street Poetry Prize, Heathen (C & R 2009) Voicing American Poetry (Cornell 2008) and The Poetics of Enclosure, (Tennessee 2002) and co-editor of Letters to the World: Poems from the Wom-Po Listserv (Red Hen 2008). She lives in Lexington, Virginia where she is Professor of English at Washington and Lee University.

06/7/10---Poets Mark Bibbins & Jehanne Dubrow

MARK BIBBINS is the author of The Dance of No Hard Feelings (Copper Canyon Press, 2009), and the Lambda Award-winning Sky Lounge. He was the founding Poetry Editor of Lit, and his poems have appeared in Boston Review, The Paris Review, Poetry, Tin House, and in numerous anthologies, including Best American Poetry. He teaches in the graduate writing programs at The New School and Columbia University.

JEHANNE DUBROW is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Stateside (Northwestern University Press 2010). Her work has appeared in Poetry, New England Review, Ploughshares, Shenandoah, and Prairie Schooner. She is an assistant professor in literature and creative writing at Washington College, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

07/19/10---Myra Sklarew & Ethelbert Miller

08/2/10---Poets Henry Israeli & Patricia Davis

HENRY ISRAELI is the author of Child of Nature, (New Directions: 2010) Praying to the Black Cat, (Del Sol: 2010), New Messiahs (Four Way Books: 2002) and in translation, Fresco: the Selected Poetry of Luljeta Lleshanaku (New Directions: 2002). He has been awarded fellowship grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and Canada Council on the Arts. His poetry and translations have appeared in numerous journals, including American Poetry Review, The Iowa Review, and Verse.) He lives outside of Philadelphia, where he is the founding Editor of Saturnalia Books (www.saturnaliabooks.com)

PATRICIA DAVIS is the author of the play Alternative Methods and co-author with Dianna Ortiz of The Blindfold’s Eyes: My Journey from Torture to Truth (Orbis, 2002.) Her poems and articles have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including the Nation, Potomac Review, and Cabin Fever. She worked for many years for the Guatemala Human Rights Commission and most recently as a Poet in the Schools in Arlington, VA.

09/20/10---Dave and Janet Northrup [Chautauqua Readers]

10/4/10---Poets Idra Novey & Luis Alberto Ambroggio

IDRA NOVEY is the author of The Next Country, winner of the Kinereth Gensler Award (Alice James Books 2009) and translator of Paulo Henriques Britto’s The Clean Shirt of It (BOA Editions 2007) which won a PEN Translation Fund Award. Her poems have appeared in Slate, The Paris Review, A Public Space and numerous other publications.. She teaches in the School of the Arts at Columbia University and serves as Deputy Director for Columbia’s Center for Literary Translation.

LUIS ALBERTO AMBROGGIO

11/1/10---Poets Erika Meitner & Joshua Poteat

ERIKA MEITNER is the author of Ideal Cities, winner of the 2009 National Poetry Series (Harper Perennial, 2010), Inventory at the All-Night Drugstore (Anhinga, 2003), and the forthcoming Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls (Anhinga, 2011) Her poems appear widely in American Poetry Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The New Republic and other publications. She is an assistant professor of English at Virginia Tech, where she teaches in the MFA program.

JOSHUA POTEAT is the author of Illustrating the Machine that Makes the World, (University of Georgia Press 2009) Ornithologies, winner of the 2004 Anhinga Poetry Prize, (Anhinga 2006) and the National Chapbook Award winner, Meditations. He has received numerous fellowships, including The Millay Colony and the VA Commission for the Arts, His work appears widely in Columbia, Ninth Letter, Virginia Quarterly Review, and other publications.

12/6/10---Poet Catie Rosemurgy & Greg Williaimson

CATIE ROSEMURGY is the author of The Stranger Manual (Graywolf 2010) and My Favorite Apocalypse (Graywolf 2001) She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Rona Jaffe Award. Her work appears widely, in Boston Review, Gettysburg Review, Gulf Coast, on Poetry Daily, and in numerous other publications. She lives in Philadelphia and teaches at The College of New Jersey.

GREG WILLIAMSON

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PAST PROGRAMS

Strathmore Hall Arts Center 1999-2002:

1999

01/12/99---Poet Reuben Jackson

2/10/99---Storyteller Elloise Schoettler

3/10/99---Poets Nathalie Anderson and Andrea Collins

4/14/99---Poets Barri Armitage and Terence Winch

5/12/99---Poets Barbara Goldberg and Stanley Plumley

6/9/99---Poet Karren Alenier and Novelist David Fenza

07/14/99---Storyteller Elloise Schoettler

8/11/99---Performance poet Kenny Carroll

9/8/99---Poets Vladimir Levchev and Henry Taylor

10/13/99---Storyteller Elloise Schoettler

11/10/99---Performance poet Sylvana Straw

12/8/99---Poets Mel Belin and Ron Wray

2000

01/12/00---Celebration of Winners:  A Retrospective Of The Washington Prize (With poets: Barbara Goldberg, Elaine Magarrell, Brandon Johnson, Martha Sanchez-Lowery,and Richard Peabody. With editors Karren Alenier, Hilary Tham and Miles Moore.

2/09/00---Poet David Gewanter

3/8/00---Poet Miles Moore

4/12/00---Storyteller Elloise Schoettler

5/10/00---Musica Viva Program with poet Lori Tsang, pianist Carl Banner, artist Marilyn Banner

6/14/00---Performance poets Silvana Straw and Brian Gilmore

7/12/00---Ascension Series and Ethelbert Miller present poets Rebecca Villarreal and Eva Day 8/9/00--Mariposa Series and Maritza Rivera present poets Forestine Bynum, David Daumit and Ryan McAllister

09/13/00---Poets Peter Blair & Brandon Johnson

10/11/00---Performance artist Kwelismith & poet Robert Sargent

11/15/00---Poet Hilary Tham

12/13/00---Storyteller Elloise Schoettler

2001

01/10/01---Performance poet D.J. Renegade

02/14/01---Open Mike Competiton on Love

03/14/01---Poets Barbara DeCesare and Barrett Warner

04/11/01---Poets Myra Sklarew and Anne Harding Woodworth

05/09/01---Poets Hiram Larew and Michael Wurster

06/13/01---Minimus Productions with fiction by Terence Mulligan and poetry of Miles David Moore celebrating the recording Fatslug Unbound. With poets Miles David Moore, Mel Belin, and Judith McCombs.

07/11/01---Poets Grace Cavalieri and Kim Roberts

08/8/01---Best of Galaxy Hut with poets Cynthia Hoffman, Erich Hintze, and Brandon Johnson

10/10/01---Poets Mark McMorris and Terence Winch

11/14/01---Editors of Potomac Review presented winners of the 2001 Potomac Review poetry contest: Judith McCombs, Kathy Michaels, Thom Stuart

12/12/01---Poets Doris Brody and Patricia Garfinkel

2002

01/9/02---Poets Michael Glaser and Steve Scafidi

02/13/02---Poets Anne Marie Macari and Belle Waring

03/13/02---Novelist Sarah Blake and poet Joshua Weiner

04/10/02---Poets Elizabeth Arnold and John Haines

05/08/02---Poets Michael Collier and Richard McCann

06/12/02---Open Mike Poetry Competition subject: cuisine

07/10/02---Crow's Eye ViewÑWord Works Publication Celebration

08/14/02---Poets of Tupelo Press: Jeffrey Levine, Nancy Naomi Carlson, Jennifer Michael Hecht, and Margaret Szumowski

9/11/02---A Night of RemembranceÑreadings from the new anthology edited by William Heyen September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond

10/9/02---Poets Jean Nordhaus and Linda Pastan

11/13/02---Poets Jean Donnelly and Rod Smith

Friendship Heights Village Center:

2003

01/16/03---Poets Julianna Baggott & Michael Gushue

02/20/03---Poet Andrea Hollander Budy

03/20/03---Minimus journal publication reading: poets Barbara Alfaro & Patricia Gray

04/17/03---Novelist Donna Hemans & poet Ross Taylor

05/15/03---Poets Christopher Conlon & Hilary Tham

06/19/03---Poets Grace Schulman & Maria Terrone

07/17/03---Poets Greg Donavan & John Hoppenthaler

08/21/03---Kenny Carroll hosts a Writer's Corp Slamwith poet Isaac Colon

10/1/03---Publication reading from Proposing on the Brooklyn Bridge with poetsBett Notter, Ellen Sazzman, Michele Wolf

11/20/03---Poets James Hopkins & Suzanne Rhodenbaugh

12/18/03---Potomac Review presents poets Nancy Allinson,P. Michael Mastrofrancesco, Joanna Robin

2004

01/15/04---Poets Rick Barott & David Gewanter

02/19/04---Poet James Hoch & novelist Howard Norman

03/18/04---Poets Kelly Cherry & Cornelius Eady

04/15/04---Poets Stephen Corey & Jim Peterson

05/20/04---Poets Richard Blanco & Terese Svoboda

06/17/04---Poets Gray Jacobik & Ron Mohring

07/15/04---Jacklyn Potter hosts a ublication reading of Cabin Fever: Poets at Joaquin Miller's Cabin with W. Perry Epes, Brian Gilmore, Anne Harding Woodworth

08/19/04---Poets Rick Cannon & Sean Enright

09/16/04---Poets Christopher Conlon & Miles David Moore

10/21/04---Poets C.M. Mayo & Elizabeth Rees

11/18/04---Poets Jody Bolz & Gary Stein

12/16/04---Rick Peabody presents a Gargoyle publication reading with poets Rose Solari & Alan Spears.

2005

01/20/05---Novelist Benita Kane Jaro & Rod Jellema

02/17/05---Poets Lavonne Adams & Judith McCombs

03/17/05---Poets Kelly Cherry & Cornelius Eady

04/21/05---Translation readings with poets Luis Alberto Ambroggio & Semezdin Mehmedinovic

05/19/05---Poets Mark Cox & Myra Sklarew

06/16/05---Publication reading by Deborah Ager & 32 Poems magazine

07/21/05---Poets Naomi Ayala & James Deahl

08/18/05---Poets Grace Cavalieri & Darcy Chargo

09/15/05---Poets Lia Purpura & Jonathan Vaile

10/20/05---Poet Rosemary Klein & fiction writer Leslie Pietrzyk

11/17/05---Poet Nan Fry & fiction writer Ron Tanner

12/15/05---Publication reading by Robert Giron & Gival Press with poets PiotrGwiazda, Kim Roberts, J.D. Smith

2006

01/19/06---Poet Donna Denize & Playwright Sean O'Leary

02/16/06---Poets David McAleavey & Rose Solari

03/16/06---Poets Ann Knox & Hailey Leithauser

04/20/06---Translation reading Dilara Hashem/Carolyne Wright and Roberto Severino/Judy Neri

05/18/06---Poets Vladimir Levchev & Alicia Ostriker

06/15/06---WWPH reading with Moira Egan & Dean Smith and celebrating Tin Mines & Concubines by Hilary Tham

07/20/06---Jazz poet Cliff Bernier with performance artist Verneice Turner and poets Yoko Danno with James Hopkins

08/17/06---Passager magazine reading with poets Shirley Brewer and Norma Chapman

09/21/06---Poets Nathalie Anderson & Nick Johnson

10/19/06---Poets Jennifer Gresham & Richard Lyons

11/16/06---Poets Brandon Johnson & Diane Lockward

12/14/06---Tributes to Robert Sargent led by poet Grace Cavalieri & to Jacklyn Potter led by poet Anne Becker

2007

01/18/07---Poets Jody Bolz & Jean Nordhaus

02/5/07---Poets Moira Egan & Dwaine Rieves

03/5/07---Poet E. Lousie Beach & novelist Frank S. Joseph

04/9/07---Poets Jason Gray and John Surowiecki

05/7/07---Poets Elizabeth Hadaway & David Hamilton

06/4/07---Poets Bruce Bennett and Joshua Weiner

07/2/07---Poets Barbara Lefcowitz & Terence Winch

08/6/07---Publication Reading—COMMON WEALTH: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania with poets Barbara DeCesare, Joanne Growney, Marjorie Maddox, and Jerry Wemple

09/17/07---Poet and translator Judith Hemschemeyer

10/1/07---Poet Pamela Harrison and playwright Juanita Rockwell

11/5/07---Poet Sarah Browning & Writer Richard McCann

12/3/07---Echoes poetry anthology reading with poets Steve M. Buter and Susan Levy

2008

01/07/08---Poets Kurt Olsson & Gretchen Primack

02/04/08---Poets Margo Berdeshevsky and Stanley Plumly

03/03/08---Poets Mary Ann Larkin and Bruce MacKinnon

04/07/08---Poets Anne Becker and Heddy Reid

05/05/08--Poets Dan Kaplan and Bryan Penberthy

06/02/08---Poets Christopher Conlon and Erica Dawson

07/07/08---Poet Grace Cavalieri and Prartho Sereno

08/04/08---Family Pictures: Poems and Photographs Celebrating Our Loved Ones anthology reading with contributing poets and editor Kwame Alexander

09/15/08---Poets Sandra Beasley and Susan Settlemyre Williams

10/06/08---Poets Barbara Goldberg and Kathy Mangan

11/17/08---Poets Karren L. Alenier and Kevin Prufer

12/01/08---Poets Rick Barot and Martin Galvin

2009

01/5/09---Poets Kathi Wolfe & Brian Bodeur

02/2/09---Poets Brandel France de Bravo & Wendell Hawken

03/2/09---Poets Joshua Poteat & Cecily Parks

04/6/09---Poets Rosemary Winslow & Barbara Crooker

05/4/09---Poets Judy Neri & Anne Harding Woodworth

06/1/09---Poets Wayne Miller & Eric Pankey

07/6/09---Sculptor Mark Behme & Poet JoAnne Growney

08/3/09---Poets Lavonne J. Adams & Yvette Neisser Moreno

09/21/09---Poets Deborah Ager & Deborah Bogen

10/5/09---Poets Kathy Fagan & Angie Estes

11/2/09---Poets Judith Robinson & Michael Wurster

12/7/09---Poet Kathi Morrison-Taylor & Kara Candito

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For more information about other Word Works programs and general DC literary events, see Beltway News Events Calendar.

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