Monday, April 12, 2021

Wendy Stewart

Wendy Stewart is a Canadian who lives in Vestal, New York with her family and teaches first-year college writing, from home for this past year. She’s published poems, creative nonfiction, essays, humor, and artwork in Our Voices, ragazine.cc, San Pedro River Review, and The Afterlife of Discarded Objects, a digital collective story-telling project and book. She thinks people are the best and misses them.

Nicole Santalucia

Nicole Santalucia is the author of The Book of Dirt (NYQ Books), Spoiled Meat (Headmistress Press), and Because I Did Not Die (Bordighera Press). She is a recipient of the Charlotte Mew Chapbook Prize and the Edna St. Vincent Millay Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in publications such as The Best American Poetry, The Cincinnati Review, The Rumpus, Columbia Journal, TINGE Magazine, as well as other places. She teaches at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.

Mike Foldes

Michael Foldes (b 1946) is an American poet, publisher, author and businessman. Born in Baltimore, MD, he grew up in Endwell, and later graduated from The Ohio State University in anthropology. From 2004 to 2019, Foldes published Ragazine.cc, a free, global, online magazine of art, information and entertainment. His books include: “Sleeping Dogs: A true story of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping,” (Split Oak Press, Ithaca, NY, 2012); and, “Sandy: Chronicles of a Superstorm,” a  volume of poetry and images in collaboration with artist Christie Devereaux. His poetry collection “Some Stuff” is available as a Kindle edition on Amazon.

Joshua Lindebaum

Joshua Lindenbaum’s work has appeared in Poetica Magazine, Drunk Monkeys, Breadcrumbs, Yes Poetry, The Bangalore Review, Five:2:One, 3Elements Review, Typishly, and elsewhere. He was just awarded a PhD in English and creative writing at Binghamton University during the pandemic. The pen has been his companion for quite some time, but it’s still waiting for him “to put a ring on it.” It will even blast Beyoncé songs from time to time from a large boombox while standing outside his window at unusual times during the evening. His favorite animal is the ostrich.

Monday, April 19, 2021

Joanne Corey

Joanne Corey re-discovered her childhood love of writing poetry in her fifties. Her local poetry community includes the Binghamton Poetry Project, Broome County Arts Council, Grapevine Group, and Sappho’s Circle. With the Boiler House Poets Collective, she has completed an (almost) annual residency week at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams since 2015.

Rindi Tas

Rindi Tas is a multimedia creative artist and world traveler/adventurist. Her educational background includes an AAS in Liberal Arts from Delhi State University and a BA in Theatre – Acting and Directing from Binghamton University. Although she revels in her wanderlust she finally planted roots of her own and currently makes her home in Syracuse, NY. A native of Fishs Eddy, NY, USA and a citizen of the world. ” I love the creative process and to be present and involved when a new work creation emerges, develops and evolves.” She continues to explore the essence of love light in this wonderful world of ours.

Kohloa

Z. A. Kohloa is a Native New Yorker who comes to the Broome County area often to visit her brother. Kohloa has been writing and performing her work for over twenty years. She writes in many genres, but is a poet first. Kohloa is also a spoken word artist, painter, photographer, designer and freelance reporter. Her mantra is, “Being creative to me, is like breathing. Without it, there would be no air.”

Monday, April 26, 2021

Jessica Dubey

Poet Jessica Dubey is a lifelong resident of the Triple Cities Area of upstate New York. She is a member of the Boiler House Poets Collective which convenes annually for a poetry residency at The Studios of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. She was a 2018 nominee for a Best of the Net Award and was Kissing Dynamite’s September 2019 featured poet. Her work has appeared in numerous journals including Oxidant | Engine, Barren Magazine, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, The American Journal of Poetry, IthacaLit, and many others. Her first chapbook, For Dear Life, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press.

Burt Myers

Burt Myers has won scholarships to the Sewanee Writers Conference and West Chester Poetry Conference, and has had over 40 poems published in journals such as The Southern Review, The Hopkins Review, and Barrow Street. In 2020, he won the NY Encounter poetry contest and read at the event in Manhattan.

Jerry Mirskin

Jerry Mirskin has worked as a herdsman on a dairy farm, as a carpenter, and as a New York State Poet-in-the-Schools. He is a Professor at Ithaca College and teaches select classes at Cornell University. His poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, and he has presented his work and given workshops at universities, colleges, public libraries, art centers, and on public television and radio. Jerry won the Arts & Letters Prime Poetry Prize for a selection of his poetry, and the Mammoth Books Prize for Poetry for a full-length collection. An essay, “The Hard Part Is Knowing What To Say: The Poetry Of Jerry Mirskin,” written by the poet Howard Nelson about Jerry’s writing, was featured in  The Hollins Critic.  

J. Barrett Wolf

Barrett Wolf has been writing for over forty years. He’s been published in Black Bear Review, Portland Review of the Arts, Long Island Sounds, Rubber Side Down, PPA Literary Review, Writing Outside the Lines, Passing, and was featured on the Connecticut Touring Poetry Roster. His poem “Main Street” can be seen at the Vestal Museum in their “Empty the Inkpots: The History of American Typewriters” exhibit until May 31st. His first volume, “Stark Raving Calm,” was published by Boone’s Dock Press. He travels to Scotland annually to confab with poets on Arran Island. He lives in Binghamton, NY, where he is the Poet in Residence at the Bundy Museum of History and Art. He also holds the Bronze Medal of Valor from the San Francisco Police Department.

Monday, May 3, 2021

Robert Ruane

“I am a 59-year-old freelance writer with three self-published books. I have been writing poetry for over 30 years. I took many creative writing courses and have facilitated writing groups. I have also been a member of several writing and poetry groups since the 1990s.”

Joshua Grosse

“My name is Joshua Grosse, and I am a junior at Binghamton University studying English, Creative Writing, and Education. After taking a poetry class last semester, I found a love for the form and have written a lot of poems in my free time since. Outside of writing I love to make art, read, listen to music, watch movies, hike, and spend time with family, my girlfriend, and my friends, who always support my creative endeavors.. I hope to continue writing for many years to come, and I am very excited for this opportunity.”

Merrill Douglas

Merrill Douglas is the author of the poetry chapbook Parking Meters into Mermaids (2020, Finishing Line Press). Her work has also appeared in Baltimore Review, Barrow Street, Tar River Poetry, Stone Canoe, Cimarron Review, Paterson Literary Review and Comstock Review, among other journals. She earned a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MA in English from Binghamton University. She lives in Vestal, where she runs a freelance writing business.

Joshua Lewis

Joshua Lewis graduated from Binghamton University with his PhD in 2012, and he has taught at various colleges and universities, such as SUNY Broome Community, Hartwick College, and SUNY Oneonta.  He has had his poetry published in literary magazines, such as the Paterson Literary Review and the Edison Literary Review.  He has also set up poetry workshops and classes in the local area at venues, such as the Broome County Arts Council.  He wants to thank his family and friends for their continued love and support.

Monday, May 10, 2021

Craig Czury

Craig Czury is from the Wilkes-Barre area of Pennsylvania and the author of over 20 books of poetry, including Postcards & Ancient Texts (a 40-year collection of napkin poems), Fifteen Stones (prose poems from Italy, Chile, Lithuania, and the spaces between), and Thumb Notes Almanac: Hitchhiking The Marcellus Shale (docu-poems from his observation and interviews while hitchhiking rural roads in the heart of NE PA.’s “fracking” region).  A 2021 Fulbright Scholar to Chile, Craig was awarded Laureate of the 2011 Ditët e Naimit International Albanian Poetry Festival, and the following year he received the prestigous F. Lammot Belin Scholarship for Artists. Craig toured the Balkans in 2018, giving poetry readings in Albania, Macedonia, and Kosovo through P.E.N. Albania, of which he was awarded Honorary Membership. In 2019, Craig was honored with the Alexander the Great Gold Medal for Letters & Arts through UNESCO/Piraeus on Salimina Island in Greece; and the Dafne Lifetime Achievement Award in Aulla, Italy. He is currently under lockdown in Scranton. Craigczury.com

Neil Silberblatt

Neil Silberblatt is the founder / director of Voices of Poetry. Since 2012, he has curated and presented more than 400 poetry events at various venues in MA, CT, NY & NJ, including Provincetown Art Association & Museum; The Rubin Museum of Art, McNally Jackson Books and Jefferson Market Library in NYC; The Mount / Edith Wharton’s home in Lenox, MA; and Chesterwood in Stockbridge, MA. Those events have featured acclaimed poets – including former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky & Pulitzer Prize winner Frank Bidart – as well as those who have not (yet) published a word.

Neil is also the host / administrator of the Voice of Poetry group page on Facebook, which (at last count) has more than 9,300 members around the globe, including several Poets Laureate (of the U.S., various states & cities / towns) and lovers of the written, spoken (& occasionally sung) word.

Neil’s poems have appeared in numerous print & online literary journals and anthologies, including Plume Poetry Journal, Mom Egg Review, Lily Poetry Review, Tiferet Journal, American Journal of Poetry, and Tikkun Daily. His poem, Burnt Offering, was selected by Mass. Poetry as their ‘Poem of the Moment’. His work has also been selected for various anthologies, including Collateral Damage (Pirene’s Fountain); and Culinary Poems (Glass Lyre Press). He is the author of several poetry collections: So Far, So Good and Present Tense. His most recent poetry collection – Past Imperfect (Nixes Mate Books, 2018) – was nominated for the Mass. Book Award in Poetry. He has been nominated several times for a Pushcart Prize and, in his spare time, battles Stage IV metastatic colon cancer.

Richard Bernstein

Born in New York City and raised in northern New Jersey, Richard Bernstein spent the bulk of his childhood in an apple and peach orchard overlooking the Manhattan skyline. After receiving a B.A. in English from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1980, where he worked with Gerald Stern, Len Roberts, and other Lehigh Valley poets, he spent six years odd-jobbing his way around the United States. Eventually, he made his way to central New York and completed his M.A. in English at Binghamton University where he was fortunate enough to be a student in Ruth Stone’s poetry workshop. An 11-time recipient of the Bright Hill Press New York State High School Poetry Teacher of the Year Award, as well as the recipient of many other awards, grants, and distinctions for teaching and writing, Bernstein is currently in his 35th year as a high school English teacher in Norwich, New York. He is also employed as an adjunct instructor of English at (SUNY) Morrisville State College. His most recent chapbook, To the Occupant of Apartment 6X, was released by Finishing Line Press in 2015. Six poems in the book had previously appeared in The Georgia Review. Stephen Corey, the long-time editor of The Georgia Review, writes, “…Bernstein is a rare romantic cynic with an expansive metaphorical imagination, one that sweeps you up and pulls you into his quietly extravagant takes on life…”

Bernstein’s poems have also appeared in San Diego Poetry Press, Arcade, Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor, Alternatives to Surrender, an anthology of poems dealing with cancer, loss, and recovery, and many other journals and anthologies. He has read and performed his work at universities, poetry festivals, libraries, galleries, bars, and many other venues, including in competition at the National Poetry Slam.