Past Programs | Directions to Casa Libre

Edge 41: a Reading Series of Emerging and Younger Writers

Curator: Melissa Buckheit Melissa Buckheit's Bio

A note from the curator: I have often wanted to listen to authors who are in the same place in their career as myself--emerging, published in journals, with a chapbook and/or a first full-length book, still growing but full of passion, new ideas, and an edge. But there is often infrequent opportunity for this; in fact, I have often felt disappointed in the lack, that such an open community might often be circumscribed in its literary programming.  Additionally, featuring emerging writers engages other young as well as established writers, to support, frequent and attend Casa Libre and other writing events. This cycle creates the foundation for a writing community which self-generates, remains true, open, and allows many voices the opportunity for visibility and being heard. I want Tucson to be an artistic community which includes and features many voices and peoples. Literature is the province of communication, but also reflectivity, the reflection and representation of all our narratives and of new narratives and ideas, voices which are challenging and also challenge us.

w/Sam Ace, Sama Alshaibi, and Mark Lee

Wednesday, February 15, 2012
7:30 p.m.
Suggested Donation: $5

Come to Edge: A Reading Series of Emerging and Younger Writers. Edge is a series of local and national writers and cross-genre artists, emphasizing diversity of narrative, identity and literary source. Its purpose is to create community, visibility and voice for emerging and younger writers. Broadsheets of the authors' work will accompany each reading. Books and journals will be available for purchase and signing by the authors. Refreshments will be available after the reading.

Readers:

Samuel Ace has published widely in periodicals and journals, including Ploughshares, Eoagh, Nimrod, The Prose Poem, an International Journal, and the Kenyon Review. He is a poet, photographer and educator, the author of three collections of poetry: Normal Sex (Firebrand Books), Home in three days. Don’t wash., a multimedia project of poetry, video and photography (Hard Press), and most recently Stealth, co-authored with Maureen Seaton (Chax Press). He is a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts grant, two-time finalist for a Lambda Literary Award in Poetry, winner of the Astraea Lesbian Writer’s Fund Prize in Poetry, The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction and the Firecracker Alternative Book Award in Poetry. He lives in Tucson, AZ and Truth or Consequences, NM.

Sama Alshaibi is an artist born in Basra, Iraq to an Iraqi father and
Palestinian mother and now a naturalized US citizen. Alshaibi's works in photography, video art and sculpture to evoke the language of suffering, displacement and loss. Her auto-ethnographic approach is informed by her own history of living in war and the double negation to her familial homelands. Alshaibi is interested in the spectrum of control and domination, whether its the body’s relationship to land and national identity, or the experience between humans competing for resources and power. Her work is rooted in the anxieties of the human experience. Alshaibi’s work has been exhibited at arts institutions and galleries in over twenty countries, including Impressions Gallery (UK), Exit Art (NYC), Mole Vanvitelliana (Italy), Darat Al-Funun (Jordan), The Bronx Museum (NYC) and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Denver). She is represented by Selma Feriani Gallery (London) and Lawrie-Shabibi Gallery (Dubai). In addition to exhibitions, her 25 time-based works (video art/films) have screened in numerous film festivals internationally including the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece, CinemaEast Film Festival (NYC), DOKUFEST (Kosovo) and Les Instants Video festival (France). Alshaibi is an Assistant Professor of Photography/Video Art at University of Arizona.

Mark Lee is a poet from Tucson, Arizona. After a 5 year career in the computer field he decided to explore his love of writing at the University of Arizona. He intended to pursue non-fiction writing but after his first poetry class he changed his emphasis. He counts himself fortunate to have studied under Jon Anderson and Steve Orlen. Mark was a runner up in the 2006 Federica and John Hearst Undergraduate Contest for Lyrical Poetry. Since then he has worked as a resident bicycle mechanic at the Olympic Training Center,  taught English as a foreign language at the Suzhou University of Science and Technology in China, and currently works as a bicycle mechanic in Tucson.

 

 

 

Next Edge Reading will be held March 21, 2012.

Past Edge Readings:

Jan 2012

Nov 2011

Oct 2011

Sept 2011

July 2011

June 2011

May 2011

April 2011

March 2011

February 2011

January 2011

 

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