December 10, 2011

Improved Lighting Reading Series

presents

An Evening with Birds, LLC

poetry readings by

Justin Marks

Emily Pettit

Sampson Starkweather

Paige Taggart

Chris Tonelli

plus music by

Zack Wait

Saturday, December 10, 7pm

Nightbird Books

205 West Dickson Street

Fayetteville, Arkansas

FREE!

Improved Lighting Reading Series hosts monthly readings, mostly poetry and mostly Saturdays, with occasional musical acts, at Nightbird Books.  Free admission.  Authors books available for purchase through the bookstore.  Curated by Roger Barrett, Kaveh Bassiri, and Matthew Henriksen.  Visit us at improvedlighting.blogspot.com.  Contact improvedlighting@gmail.com.

Justin Marks’ first full-length book is A Million in Prizes (New Issues, 2009). He is also the author of several chapbooks, the most recent being On Happier Lawns (Poor Claudia, 2011). A founding editor of Birds, LLC, he lives in Queens, NY with his wife and their twin son and daughter. 

Emily Pettit is the author of two chapbooks How (Octopus Books) and What Happened to Limbo (Pilot Books). GOAT IN THE SNOW (Birds LLC) is her first full-length book. She is an editor for notnostrums and Factory Hollow Press and jubilat. She teaches poetry at Flying Object.

Sampson Starkweather is the author of Self Help Poems, The Heart is Green from So Much Waiting, City of Moths and The Photograph. He played professional soccer in New Zealand and was an editor of physics and chemistry books, currently he is the Publications Coordinator at the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center, you can read recent work here. He lives in Brooklyn, NY and he be a Bird. 

Paige Taggart was born and lived in Northern California for 25 years, she’s been living in Brooklyn the past 5 years. Her chapbook DIGITAL MACRAMÉ was released by Poor Claudia (Feb 2011), and Polaroid Parade from Greying Ghost Press (July 2011). The Ice Poems are forthcoming with DoubleCross Press. She was a 2009 recipient of the New York Foundation of the Art's grant. Be on the lookout for her poems forthcoming in Jubilat, Sentence, No Dear and Spinning Jenny. Check out her jewelry wares: mactaggartjewelry.blogspot.com

Chris Tonelli is one of the founding editors of Birds, LLC, an independent poetry press. He also founded and curates the So and So Series and edits the So and So Magazine. He is the author of four chapbooks, most recently No Theater (Brave Men Press) and For People Who Like Gravity and Other People (Rope-A-Dope Press), and his first full-length collection is The Trees Around. New work can be found in the upcoming issues of The Laurel Review and Fou. He teaches at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where he lives with his wife Allison and their son Miles. 

Zack Wait sings and plays guitar in Fayetteville rock bands Fauxnz, Egyptr, and Wthr Wpns. He’ll be performing a small selection of new and old covers; Trrrsm Singers accompanying.

November 12, 2011

Improved Lighting Reading Series

presents

poetry readings by

Chris Martin

Mary Austin Speaker

& four poets from Bloof Books,  Shanna Compton, Peter Davis, Sandra Simonds & Maureen Thorson

plus music by

Brian Abel

Saturday, November 12, 7:30 pm

Nightbird Books (in the BHK Kafe)

205 West Dickson Street

Fayetteville, Arkansas

FREE!

We no longer operate on hipster time, so expect the reading to start exactly at 7:30.

Improved Lighting Reading Series hosts monthly readings, mostly poetry and mostly Saturdays, with occasional musical acts, at Nightbird Books in the BHK Kafe.  Free admission.  Full coffee/wine/beer bar and food available in the café and authors’ books available for purchase through the bookstore.  Curated by Roger Barrett, Kaveh Bassiri, and Matthew Henriksen.  Visit us at improvedlighting.blogspot.com.  Contact improvedlighting@gmail.com.

Shanna Compton’s books include Down Spooky(Winnow, 2005), For Girls & Others (Bloof, 2008), andGamers (Soft Skull, 2004), and the chapbooks Rare Vagrants (Dusie, 2010), Scurrilous Toy (Dusie, 2007), and others. Her poems and essays have appeared in Best American Poetry, Verse, McSweeney’s, The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel, the Poetry Foundation’s website, and elsewhere. She is currently at work on a new poetry collection called The Blank Verge, forthcoming from Bloof Books in Spring 2012, with excerpts appearing in the Awl, Court Green, Women's Studies Quarterly, Eoagh, and other journals. She lives on the internet at shannacompton.com.

Peter Davis writes, draws, and makes music in Muncie, Indiana, with his sweet kids and sweet wife. His first book of poetry is Hitler’s Mustache (2007), and he edited Poet’s Bookshelf: Contemporary Poets on Books That Shaped Their Art (2005) and coedited Poet’s Bookshelf II (2008) with Tom Koontz, all from Barnwood Press. His poems have appeared in Best American Poetry series and recent work may be found in Lamination Colony, Everyday Genius, Jacket, No Tell Motel, and elsewhere. He teaches English at Ball State University. More, including his music project, Short Hand, at artisnecessary.com. His third poetry collection, Tina, is forthcoming from Bloof Books.

Chris Martin is the author of Becoming Weather (Coffee House 2011) and American Music (Copper Canyon 2007).  He is also the author of several chapbooks, including How to Write a Mistake-ist Poem (Brave Men 2011) and the forthcoming Enough (Ugly Duckling 2012).  He is an editor at Futurepoem books and curates the response blog Futurepost from the oldest house in Iowa City.

Sandra Simonds grew up in Los Angeles, California. She earned a B.A. in Psychology and Creative Writing at U.C.L.A and an M.F.A. from the University of Montana, where she received a poetry fellowship. In 2010, she earned a PhD in Literature with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Florida State University. Her second full-length collection of poems, Mother was a Tragic Girl, will be published by Cleveland State University Poetry Center in 2012. She is the author of Warsaw Bikini (Bloof Books, 2008), which was a finalist for numerous prizes including the National Poetry Series; she is also the author of several chapbooks including Used White Wife (Grey Book Press, 2009), and The Humble Travelogues of Mr. Ian Worthington, Written from Land & Sea (Cy Gist, 2006). Her poems have been published in many  journals such asPoetry, the Believer, the Colorado Review, Fence, theColumbia Poetry Review, Barrow Street, Volt, the New Orleans Review, and Lana Turner. Her Creative Nonfiction has been published in Post Road and other literary journals. She currently lives in Tallahassee, Florida and is an Assistant Professor of English at Thomas University in beautiful, rural Southern Georgia.

Mary Austin Speaker is the author of the chapbooks The Bridge (Push Press), In the End There Were Thousands of Cowboys, and Abandoning the Firmament (Menagerie Editions). New work will appear in Mrs. Maybe and Boog City Reader, and has recently appeared in Pleiades, Big Bell, Boston Review, 20012, Iowa Review, New Orleans Review and elsewhere. She teaches writing and works as a freelance book designer in Iowa City, IA, where she lives with her husband, poet Chris Martin.

Maureen Thorson is a poet, publisher, and book designer living in Washington, D.C. She is the author of the new book Applies to Oranges (Ugly Duckling, 2010), and a number of chapbooks, including Twenty Questions for the Drunken Sailor (2009), Mayport (2006), which won the Poetry Society of America's National Chapbook Fellowship, and Novelty Act (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2004). Her poems can be found in many anthologies and journals, including the forthcoming Yale Anthology of Younger American Poets, Exquisite Corpse, Hotel Amerika, LIT, The Hat, and6×6. Maureen is the publisher and editor of Big Game Books, a small press dedicated to emerging poets. She is also the co-curator of the In Your Ear reading series at the DC Arts Center and the founder of NaPoWriMo, an annual project in which poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April.

October 22, 2011

Improved Lighting Reading Series

presents

poetry readings by

Amanda Auchter

Sandy Longhorn

Tony Presley

Mark Spitzer

& music by

Real Live Tigers

Saturday, October 22, 7:30 pm

Nightbird Books (in the BHK Kafe)

205 West Dickson Street

Fayetteville, Arkansas

FREE!

PLEASE NOTE OUR EARLIER START TIME!

Improved Lighting Reading Series hosts monthly readings, mostly poetry and mostly Saturdays, with occasional musical acts, at Nightbird Books in the BHK Kafe.  Free admission.  Full coffee/wine/beer bar and food available in the café and authors’ books available for purchase through the bookstore.  Curated by Roger Barrett, Kaveh Bassiri, and Matthew Henriksen.  Contact improvedlighting@gmail.com.

Amanda Auchter is the founding editor of Pebble Lake Review and the author of The Glass Crib, winner of the 2010 Zone 3 Press First Book Award judged by Rigoberto González.  Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Columbia Poetry Review, Crab Orchard Review, Indiana Review, Rattle, Poetry Daily, and others. She holds an MFA from Bennington College and teaches creative writing and literature at Lone Star College, where she serves as Co-Chair of the Faculty Creative Writing Committee.

Sandy Longhorn is the author of Blood Almanac (Anhinga Press, 2006). New poems are forthcoming or have appeared recently in Lake Effect, New Madrid, Redivider, Spillway, and elsewhere. She lives in Little Rock, is an Arkansas Arts Council fellow, and blogs at http://sandylonghorn.blogspot.com.

Tony Presley has written, performed, and recorded music as Real Live Tigers since 2005.  His new record Spirit Animal was recorded in Fayetteville, Arkansas with a full band.  Real Live Tigers have played hundred of shows across the US and Europe, and the music has grown and alternated from folk to soul, from country to post punk.  Tony’s fiction and poetry have appeared in zines you will not find, and the Art Amiss Chapbook that you might already have.  Right now, Tony is working on a novel(s), new music, and one day plans to cover Paul Simon’s Graceland in its entirety.  Tony lives in Austin, Portland, and Fayetteville depending on the weather.

Mark Spitzer is a professor of creative writing in the Department of Writing at the University of Central Arkansas. Spitzer’s memoirs include His poetry collections include Age of the Demon Tools (Ahadada Books) and The Pigs Drink from Infinity (Spuyten Duyvil). Memoirs include After the Orange Glow (Monkey Puzzle Press) and Writer in Residence (UNO Press). He has translated books by Jean Genet (The Genet Translations, Polemic Press), Louis-Ferdinand Céline (The Church, Green Integer), Arthur Rimbaud (From Absinthe to Abyssinia, Creative Arts), Georges Bataille (The Collected Poems of Georges Bataille, Dufour Editions; Divine Filth, Creation Books) and Blaise Cendrars (Films without Images, Green Integer). Spitzer’s novels include Chum (Zoland Books), CHODE! (Six Gallery Press), and Bottom Feeder (Creative Arts). He has also published the following nonfiction collections: Season of the Gar (U of AR Press), Riding the Unitand Proze Attack (both by Six Gallery Press). Spitzer has been featured on Animal Planet’s River Monsters as an expert on the alligator gar is the Editor in Chief of UCA’s cutting-edge literary annual, the Toad Suck Review.

September 10, 2011

Improved Lighting Reading Series

presents

poetry readings by

C. Violet Eaton

Whit Griffin

Katie Nichol

Sabine Schmidt

& music by

The Rhubarbs

Saturday, September 10, 8pm

Nightbird Books (in the BHK Kafe)

205 West Dickson Street

Fayetteville, Arkansas

Improved Lighting Reading Series hosts monthly readings, mostly poetry and mostly Saturdays, with occasional musical acts, at Nightbird Books in the BHK Kafe.  Free admission.  Full coffee/wine/beer bar and food available in the café and authors’ books available for purchase through the bookstore.  Curated by Roger Barrett, Kaveh Bassiri, and Matthew Henriksen.  Contact improvedlighting@gmail.com.

C. Violet Eaton holds an MA from the Poetics Program at the University of Buffalo and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In addition to writing poetry, he releases small editions of “hill drone” recordings under the name Dowser.  He moved to Fayetteville in August and is currently teaching at University of Arkansas—Fort Smith.

Whit Griffin studied at Bennington College and Brooklyn College, respectively, and was a former intern for the Jargon Society. He is the author of Pentateuch: The First Five Books (Skysill Press, 2010). Chaplets include Wanhope (Longhouse, 2008), Fugitive Cant (Country Valley, 2010) and Cathedral Ring (Longhouse, 2011). Recent poems have appeared in Sixth Finch, Cannibal, Jellyroll, The Equalizer, With + Stand, H_NGM_N, Poetry Salzburg Review, and Forklift, Ohio. He currently resides in western Tennessee.

Katie Nichol grew up in central Minnesota. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and is currently a third year student in the University of Arkansas MFA program. She is the recipient of the University of Arkansas Lily Peter Prize and has been published by Spout Press.

The Rhubarbs is the musical project of Sam King and Katy Henriksen. They cover swoon-worthy songs on guitar and voice.

Sabine Schmidt is the literary director for Art Amiss and translates Bertolt Brecht.

August 6, 2011

Readings by Shannon Jonas, Mary Angelino, and Brett Harrington

 Shannon Jonas
Photo: Candice Sisemore

Mary Angelino
Photo: Candice Sisemore

 Co-curators Kaveh Bassiri and Roger Barrett
Photo: Candice Sisemore

Co-curator Matthew Henriksen
Photo: Candice Sisemore


More photos coming.