Cutting Edge Writers Reading for new great weather for MEDIA Anthology

The Beat Museum and great weather for MEDIA present a visionary evening of cutting edge poets and prose writers from across the U.S. They come together to celebrate the release of great weather’s new anthology, Before Passing, which features work by intense wordsmiths – including those you’ll hear tonight – along with an interview with the legendary Anne Waldman. Come prepared for something that you won’t expect.

This evening features writers from across the US and beyond, including Deborah Steinberg (SF), Wil Gibson (Arcata, CA), Kit Kennedy (SF), Richard Loranger (Oakland), Sara Mithra (Fremont, CA), Elizabeth Rosner (Berkeley), Ken Saffran (SF), and Joan Gelfand (SF). Hosted by great weather editor Jane Ormerod (NY/London). There will be a brief open mic to start the evening.

Please stop by, get yourself dangerously verbiaged up, and pick up a copy of Before Passing to call your very own.


RELEASE PARTY for Before Passing

a reading by
Deborah Steinberg
Wil Gibson
Kit Kennedy
Richard Loranger
Sara Mithra
Elizabeth Rosner
Ken Saffran
and Joan Gelfand

hosted by great weather for MEDIA editor Jane Ormerod


PERFORMER BIOS

Deborah Steinberg’s writing has been published in Necessary Fiction, The Red Line, Monkeybicycle, Shelf Life, The Café Irreal, Blood and Thunder, and other journals. She is the fiction editor of the online journal Rivet: The Journal of Writing That Risks and a founding editor of Red Bridge Press. Deborah lives in San Francisco, where she facilitates writing workshops with a focus on healing, serves on the board of the literary reading series Bay Area Generations, and sings in the a cappella group Conspiracy of Venus.

Wil Gibson was born from a good idea and a bottle of bourbon and raised in some of the poorest communities northern Illinois and eastern Arkansas have to offer. He is a proud, mistake-prone father of four.

Kit Kennedy lives in San Francisco and is Bay Times Poet in Residence and Poet in Residence at AWE Gallery. She has five published poetry collections and an equal number of boots, two of which are red.

Richard Loranger is a writer, performer, visual artist, and all around squeaky wheel, currently residing in Oakland, CA. He is the author of Poems for Teeth, as well as The Orange Book and nine chapbooks, including Hello Poems and the recent 6 Questions (Exot Books). Recent work can be found in the online journals London Grip New Poetry (www.londongrip.co.uk) and The Marsh Hawk Review (www.marshhawkpress.org) and in the just released anthology I Let Go of the Stars in My Hand (great weather for MEDIA). You can find more about his work and scandals at https://www.richardloranger.com.

Sara Mithra performs work that fragments the line between desire and cruelty, the erotic drive to manifest and the destructive drive to expurgate. Her character-driven pieces tell stories urgent with queering the margins. When she emotes, people listen. Then they get uncomfortable. Welcome to the odditory.

Elizabeth Rosner is an award-winning poet, essayist, and novelist. Her third novel Electric City was published by Counterpoint in 2014, alongside her newest poetry collection, Gravity, (Atelier26 Books). Her first novel, The Speed of Light, won literary prizes in the US and Europe (including Hadassah's Ribalow Prize and being short-listed for the prestigious Prix Femina), was translated into nine languages and is currently in development as a feature film to be directed by actress Gillian Anderson. Her second novel, Blue Nude, was named one of the SF Chronicle's favorite novels of the year.

Joan Gelfand’s poetry, fiction and reviews are in national and international publications. A member of the National Book Critics Circle, Joan is also Poetry Editor for the “J”, and Development Chair of the Women’s National Book Association, and blogs regularly for the Huffington Post. Joan’s debut novel, Fear to Shred, set in a Silicon Valley startup, is due out with Incanto Press in January 2015. Her newest collection of poetry is The Long Blue Room (Benicia Literary Arts, 2014). Website

Ken Saffran has had poems published in the Amsterdam Quarterly,) Ambush, San Francisco Peace and Hope, and gape-seed (Uphook Press). He lives in San Francisco because he can't afford it.

Jane Ormerod is the author of Welcome to the Museum of Cattle (Three Rooms Press, 2012), Recreational Vehicles on Fire (Three Rooms Press, 2009), the chapbook 11 Films (Modern Metrics/EXOT Books, 2008), and the spoken word CD Nashville Invades Manhattan. Jane’s work also appears in numerous US and international anthologies and journals including Have a Nice NYC (Three Rooms Press, 2012), Maintenant, AND / OR, Marsh Hawk Press Review, The Nervous Breakdown, Ambush Review, and Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts. 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 at great weather for MEDIA. Website