A November Evening at Mo Java

If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll consider attending this reading at Mo Java. I’ve posted the press release from Rex Walton below. Thanks, Rex, this should be great fun!

an evening at mo java

A November Evening at Mo Java

Come to Mo Java Coffee on November 5th, 7pm!

Tonight, we have music, plus three fantastic writers from the Lincoln and Omaha areas:

Jim Pipher

Our songwriter for November is Jim Pipher, a very busy musician around Nebraska!!

A versatile bass and guitar player, Jim Pipher has been performing in Nebraska and throughout the Midwest for more than 40 years, in bands covering musical styles from the jazz standards of the 1930s to 1970s country rock, Motown/Stax soul to traditional gospel and bluegrass.

Jim has two solo recordings: THE LAST TALL TREE and TORMENTED GENIUS. Jim’s original songs take listeners to places of stark beauty, creating a musical portrait of Great Plains life that is unparalleled in contemporary recordings.

Jim is perhaps most in his element on stage and can be seen performing regularly with The Fab-Tones (rock, soul, R & B), The Lightning Bugs (a Mills brothers inspired jazz trio specializing in “Moonbeam Swing”), The Toasted Ponies (award winning traditional and contemporary bluegrass) and The Melody Wranglers (old school country that would make Hank Williams proud).

 

our three writers are:

Karen Gettert Shoemaker

Karen Gettert Shoemaker is a writer, teacher and business owner living in Lincoln NE. Her first collection of short fiction, Night Sounds and Other Stories, was published in the United States by Dufour Editions in 2002 and republished in the United Kingdom by Parthian Books in 2006. Her novel, The Meaning of Names, will be published in 2014 by Red Hen Press.
Her fiction and poetry have appeared in the London Independent, Prairie Schooner, South Dakota Review, Fugue, Foliage, West Wind Review, Kalliope, Arachne, The Nebraska Review, and has been anthologized in A Different Plain: Contemporary Nebraska Fiction Writers; Nebraska Presence: An Anthology of Poetry; and Times of Sorrow, Times of Grace.; An Untidy Season.

She is currently a writing mentor with the University of Nebraska’s MFA in Writing Program. She has taught literature and writing at the University of Nebraska, both Lincoln and Omaha campuses, and has conducted writing workshops through Hastings College, Chadron State College and the Nebraska Humanities Council.

She received her Ph.D. in Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska Lincoln in 1997.

laura M wiseman

Laura Madeline Wiseman

Laura Madeline Wiseman is the author of the full-length poetry collections Drink (BlazeVOX Books, 2015), Wake (Aldrich Press, 2015),American Galactic (Martian Lit, 2014),Some Fatal Effects of Curiosity and Disobedience (Lavender Ink, 2014),Queen of the Platform (Anaphora Literary Press, 2013), and Sprung(San Francisco Bay Press, 2012). Her dime novel is The Bottle Opener (Red Dashboard, 2014). She is also the author of two letterpress books, nine chapbooks, and the collaborative books The Hunger of the Cheeky Sisters: Ten Tales (Les Femmes Folles Books, 2015) with artist Lauren Rinaldi and Intimates and Fools (Les Femmes Folles Books, 2014) with artist Sally Deskins. She is the editor of Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2013).

She has a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in English and a M.A. from the University of Arizona in women’s studies. Currently, she teaches poetry in Writing in the Schools and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Nebraska.

Britny Cordera Doane

Britny Cordera Doane is the youngest author to have a book published in the history of the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Her poetry has been featured in UNO’s 13th Floor literary magazine, the Mythic Poetry Series by Silver Birch Press, the Women for Women international publication: Forget Me Not, and most recently in both the Fall 2014 and May 2015 Pinyon Reviews. Her maiden voyage, Wingmakers, was published by Pinyon Publishing in February 2015. Known locally as the Old Market Poet, she is often set up with her typewriter, in Omaha’s Old Market district, sharing her work with others.

 

Connect Gallery presents Laura Madeline Wiseman, Sally Deskins and Cat Dixon

I’m reading today in Omaha. I hope to see you there! Here’s the details.

connect reading image

Omaha, Nebraska, Wednesday, April 22, 2014 ― The Connect Gallery is pleased to hold a poetry reading to celebrate National Poetry Month. Some of Deskins’ work will be on display for this event. Coffee and finger foods will be available for this lunch time reading.

WHEN: Tuesday, April 22

TIME: 12:00PM TO 1:00PM

WHERE: Connect Gallery, 39th & Leavenworth, Omaha, Nebraska

Poet Laura Madeline Wiseman and artist Sally Deskins collaborated in Intimates & Fools. Coupling body art and poetry, Intimates and Fools intimates the complicating pairing of the female form and cultural notions of beauty while playfully seeking to bare and bear such burdens of their weight. Body art and illustrations by Sally Deskins. Laura Madeline Wiseman’s poetry explores notions of the bra and its place near the hearts of women, while contemplating literary and pop cultural allusions and illusions of such intimate apparel. Sally Deskins’ body art and illustrations make vivid and bright the female form while calling into question the cultural narratives on such various shapes we hold dear, be they natural, consumer, or whimsy.

Intimates & Fools, poetry by Laura Madeline Wiseman with art by Sally Deskins, Les Femmes Folles Books, ISBN: 978-0-615-94749-5, 38 pages, Les Femmes Folles Books, January 2014, price: $14

IntimatesFools

Information about Cat Dixon’s book Too Heavy to Carry: People expect that their lives move in majestic sweeps, but that’s only because memory and legend work that way. Reality works in the small moments of our experience. Too Heavy to Carry explores those moments by focusing in close. This collection aims to name the evils that women live through: loneliness, betrayal, inadequacy, and loss. Dixon captures not just the glimpse of hope, but shows the agony and obstacles one must endure before she crawls out of the bottom of the well. This is a must for survivors of any variety-divorce, depression, domestic violence, abandonment/neglect and other painful experiences.

Too Heavy to Carry, poetry by Cat Dixon, ISBN: 978-1622880560, 88 pages, Stephen F. Austin Press, February 2014, price: $16

AUTHOR BIOS

LAURA MADELINE WISEMAN is the author of Queen of the Platform (Anaphora Literary Press, 2013), Sprung (San Francisco Bay Press, 2012), and the collaborative book Intimates and Fools (Les Femmes Folles Books, 2014) with artist Sally Deskins, as well as two letterpress books, and eight chapbooks, including Spindrift (Dancing Girl Press, 2014). She is the editor of Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2013). Her book, American Galactic, is forthcoming from Martin Lit Books. Wiseman has a doctorate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She has received an Academy of American Poets Award, the Wurlitzer Foundation Fellowship, and her work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Margie, and Feminist Studies. Currently, she is a writer-in-residence at the Prairie Center of the Arts in Illinois. www.lauramadelinewiseman.com

SALLY DESKINS is an artist and writer, focusing on women and feminist writers and artists, heavily inspired by artist Wanda Ewing. Her art has been exhibited in galleries in Omaha, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago; and has been published in publications such asCertain Circuits, Weave Magazine, Her Kind: A blog by VIDA Women in Literary Arts, Vagina, CLAP and Whitefish Review. She has curated various solo and group exhibitions, readings and performances centered on women’s perspective and the body. Her writing has been published internationally. She edits the online journal Les Femmes Folles, and has published three anthologies of art and writing. sallydeskins.tumblr.com

CAT DIXON teaches creative writing at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. She is the secretary of The Backwaters Press. Her work has appeared in Sugar House Review, Midwest Quarterly Review, Coe Review,Eclectica among others. Her full length poetry book Too Heavy to Carry was just released from Stephen F. Austin University Press. Her website is www.catdix.com.