Triple-A Reading Series

Saturday, January 25 from 2-4 PM

Creator's Showcase - local artist events

The Triple-A Reading Series (Authors At Artisan) is a collaboration between Artisan Gallery and Midway Journal. This community event features one local community author, one MFA/PhD Creative Writing student from Binghamton University, and one featured author from greater Upstate New York (or New York City). Join us for an hour of reading and the second hour for questions and book signing.

This free event is funded in part by Poets & Writers.

Local Author: Dante Di Stefano is the author of four poetry collections including, most recently, the book-length poem, Midwhistle (University of Wisconsin Press, 2023). His writing has appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry 2018, Prairie Schooner, The Sewanee Review, The Writer’s Chronicle, and elsewhere. He holds a PhD in English Literature from Binghamton University. His poetry has won numerous awards, including the Auburn Witness Poetry Prize, the Manchester Poetry Prize (UK), the Red Hen Press Poetry Award, the Thayer Fellowship in the Arts, among others. He co-edited the anthology Misrepresented People (NYQ Books, 2018) and lives in Endwell, NY with his wife and two children.

MFA/PhD author: Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Springfield, MA, María Luisa Arroyo Cruzado earned degrees in German. She writes poetry and nonfiction prose that code-switch between American English, Puerto Rican Spanish, German, and Farsi, the cultural languages of her experiences. Her collections include Thought Here Would Cure Me of There (2024), Resistencia: Resilience (2023), and Destierro Means More than Exile (2018). Her honors include being named Poet Laureate of Springfield, MA (2014-2016) and receiving an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Smith College (2024). A Clark Diversity Fellow, she is  joyfully pursuing a PhD in Comparative Literature at Binghamton University.

Featured author: Kim Chinquee‘s eighth book Pipette was published with Ravenna Press. She has three books forthcoming in 2025 with MadHat Press and Baobab Press. She’s Senior Editor of New World Writing Quarterly, Associate Editor of Midwest Review, Chief Editor of ELJ (Elm Leaves Journal), and co-coordinator of SUNY-Buffalo State University’s writing major. She’s the recipient of three Pushcart Prizes, is a competitive triathlete, and lives with her two dogs in Tonawanda, NY.

Aurora Connett Author Reading

Saturday, November 16 at 1PM

Creator's Showcase - local artist events

The Horse With Blue Eyes is a realistic fiction novella by Aurora Connett (age 12) about nature, love of horses, friendship, and sibling relationships. At this free, all-ages event, Aurora will do a live reading and sign books, available for purchase at the gallery.

Aurora Connett is an aspiring writer who loves books and horses. When she is not writing and reading, she enjoys playing the piano and soccer. She also loves hanging out with friends, traveling, drawing and listening to music. She currently lives in upstate New York with her family and a dog.

Daniel Hege
Meet the Maestro

Wednesday, November 13, 2024, 1:30pm
Wednesday, January 29, 2025, 1:30pm
Wednesday, March 26, 2025, 1:30pm

Creator's Showcase - local artist events

Join us at Artisan Gallery for an informal talk with the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra’s Maestro Daniel Hege, widely recognized as one of America’s finest conductors. He has earned critical acclaim for his fresh interpretations of the standard repertoire and for his commitment to creative programming.

This event is free and open to the public.

Merrill Oliver Douglas and Suzanne Cleary Poetry Reading

Saturday, November 9 from 2-3PM

Creator's Showcase - local artist events

Join us for a free Creator’s Showcase event on Saturday, November 9 from 2-3PM, a poetry reading from writers Merrill Oliver Douglas and Suzanne Cleary.

Merrill Oliver Douglas’s first full length collection, Persephone Heads For the Gate, won the 2022 Gerald Cable Book Award from Silverfish Review Press. She is also the author of the poetry chapbook “Parking Meters into Mermaids” (Finishing Line Press, 2020). Her work has appeared in Baltimore Review, Barrow Street, Tar River Poetry, Stone Canoe, Little Patuxent Review and Whale Road Review, among other literary journals. Merrill is a member of the Grapevine Poets, a group of Binghamton-area poets who regularly workshop together, and the Boiler House Poets Collective, which meets each fall for a one-week group residency at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA).

Suzanne Cleary is the recipient of the 2024 Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award. Her winning manuscript, The Odds, will be published in 2025. Her books include: Beauty Mark, Crude Angel, Keeping Time, and Trick Pear. Her previous awards include a Pushcart Prize, the John Ciardi Prize, and the Cecil Hemley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America and publication credits include: PBSNewshour.org, PoetryDaily, Best American Poetry, The Atlantic, Southern Review, and Poetry London. Suzanne is currently Core Faculty in Converse University’s MFA in Creative Writing.

Triple-A Reading Series

Saturday, October 19 from 2-4 PM

Creator's Showcase - local artist events

The Triple-A Reading Series (Authors At Artisan) is a brand new collaboration between Artisan Gallery and Midway Journal. This community event features one local community author, one MFA/PhD Creative Writing student from Binghamton University, and one featured author from greater Upstate New York (or New York City). Join us for an hour of reading and the second hour for questions and book signing.

This free event is funded in part by Poets & Writers.

Featured Reader:

Pedro Ponce is the author of The Devil and the Dairy Princess: Stories (Indiana University Press), winner of the Don Belton Fiction Prize. His work has been recognized with a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and with residencies at Ragdale, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He is the 2024 winner of The Tom La Farge Award for Innovative Writing, Teaching and Publishing. He teaches writing and literary studies at St. Lawrence University.

BU MFA/PhD Reader:

Suzanne Richardson earned her M.F.A. in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the University of New Mexico. She currently lives in Binghamton, New York where she’s a Ph.D. student in creative writing at SUNY Binghamton. She is working on a memoir, Throw it Up, and a full poetry collection, The Want Monster which was recently named a finalist for the Saturnalia Press Book Awards. She is the current nonfiction editor for Harpur Palate. Her nonfiction has appeared in New Ohio Review, New Haven Review, Rejection Lit, and No Contact Magazine. Her poetry has appeared in Bomb Magazine, Gulf Coast, Poet Lore, and DIALOGIST. Her fiction has appeared in Southern Humanities Review, Front Porch, and High Desert Journal.

Local Reader:

Samantha Terrell is an American poet, author, and workshop facilitator. Her poems have been widely anthologized in publications such as: 100 Subtexts, Dissident Voice, Door=Jar, Green Ink Poetry, Eunoia Review, In Parentheses, Misfit Magazine, Poetry Quarterly, and others. Terrell has been a Forward Prize nominee (2024), a Pushcart Prize nominee (2023), and was shortlisted for the Anita McAndrews Poets for Human Rights Award (2021). Terrell and her family reside in Upstate New York.

Author Reading with Pamela Gay

Thursday, September 19 at 6:30PM

Creator's Showcase - local artist events

On Thursday, September 19, join author Pamela Gay for a reading of her short story titled “It’s What I Want”, a Rod Serling-esque tale that brings mannequins to life. Photos that inspired the story are part of this month’s Art Path exhibition: Reflections On Boscov’s Paris Mannequins.

Pamela shares how the experience of seeing “these mannequins, made in Paris, appeared in Boscov’s department store in upstate New York…” and imagining their feelings of displacement inspired her writing.

Listen to the short story and view the photographs on display in the Art Path Gallery. Copies of the story will be available at the gallery throughout the month of September.

pamela-gay.com

Artist Talk  with Ellen M. Blalock

Saturday, August 17 at 1PM

Creator's Showcase - local artist events

Meet artist Ellen M. Blalock and learn about her exhibition Home to Home: A Refugee’s Journey, a record of the difficulties to survive through hard times and of living between two cultures.

Photographer Ellen M. Blalock has been documenting the life of Salat Ali for the last six years. In 2018, she was invited to travel with him to his birth place, Dagahaley Refugee Camp in Dadaab, Kenya, to document his very personal journey to reunite with his mother, siblings, and other family members after being away for 13 years. It is a celebration of the family’s love and commitment to one another.

Artist Talk  with  JEN PEPPER

Saturday, July 20 at 1 PM

Creator's Showcase - local artist events

Join us on Saturday, July 20 at 1PM for an artist talk with J E N P E P P E R, who will share about her work process, artist residencies, and new concepts in textile design.

J E N P E P P E R is a Canadian born artist who works in mixed media. Her work is included at the Pierogi Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. A solo installation was mounted in the Everson Museum of Art and was reviewed in Sculpture magazine. She has participated in many artist residencies all over the world as well as the recipient of several grant awards. She was a professor of studio art at Cazenovia College and most recently a visiting professor and gallery director at Pratt Munson in Utica, NY. Her work can be seen at www.jenpepper.com
Creator's Showcase - local artist events

Creative Aging Talk

Thursday, July 11, 2024, 6-7 PM

Join Creative Aging Specialist Christina Muscatello from the Memory Maker Project to learn how the arts play a vital role in maintaining and improving brain health. Sponsored by the Broome County Arts Council.

Reading & Book Signing

Amy Hogan

Friday, May 10th at 6:30PM
Creator's Showcase - local artist events

Join us for a magical book launch! The Ultimate Wizarding World History of Magic offers an in-depth look at historical magical events from the Harry Potter series and beyond. Compiled by the staff of the popular Harry Potter fansite MuggleNet.com, the book offers historical context to canon events, research, commentary, and analysis. One of the co-authors of the book, Amy Hogan, is a Broome County native and will be on hand for a reading and Q&A about the book. The event will offer discussions, activities, and more!

Amy Hogan is one of four authors of The Ultimate Wizarding World History of Magic, a book focused on the events that have shaped both magical and real world history. This is the second book in the Unofficial Reference series that Amy has co-written. For the past ten years, Amy has been a staff member at MuggleNet.com, where she oversees video content as the Creative Media Manager. She is also a host and producer of SpeakBeasty: A Fantastic Beasts Podcast.

Reading & Book Signing

Melissa A. Priblo Chapman

Saturday, May 18th at 2PM
Creator's Showcase - local artist events

Melissa A. Priblo Chapman, author of Distant Skies will be at Artisan Gallery for a book reading and signing on Saturday, May 18th starting at 2PM.

Part American road trip, part coming-of-age adventure, and part uncommon love story, Distant Skies is a remarkable memoir that explores the evolution of the human-animal relationship, along with the raw beauty of a life lived outdoors.

Melissa was 23 years old when she climbed aboard a horse and rode away from everything, heading west. With no mobile phone or support team, Chapman quickly learned that the reality of a cross-country horseback journey was quite different from the fantasy. Her solo adventure would immediately test her mental, physical, and emotional resources as she and her four-legged companions were forced to adapt to the dangers and loneliness of a trek that would span over 2,600 miles, from New York State to California.

Melissa Chapman is an author living in the Southern Tier. She is a freelance writer who has had work published in magazines including The Western Horse, Good Dog!, and Doggone. Her story “Gypsy, Cross-Country Dog” appears in the book Traveler’s Tales: A Dog’s World alongside the work of such renowned authors as John Steinbeck and Gary Paulson. Chapman has been a speaker to over 100 organizations in regard to her solo cross-country trip and is a member of the Long Riders Guild, a worldwide league of equestrian adventurers. Chapman is a married mother of four and lives in Upstate New York. She rides every day and continues to share life with her horses and dogs.

Artist Talk

Warner Varno

Thursday, February 22nd at 6PM
Creator's Showcase - local artist events

Meet artist Warner Varno and learn more about the work in her current exhibition, artist process, and presencing during this free event.

Presencing is a mindfulness and artmaking practice that Warner Varno has developed through the mark-making process, creating a space for quiet contemplation, creative risk-taking, and deep listening. She feels that it can also be a strategy to attend to feelings of “overwhelm” and to address change, lending to improved state of mental, emotional, physical, and relational health. It is also a physical and spiritual practice toward building compassion and empathy for ourselves and the living world, toward progressive change.