Past Programs | Directions to Casa Libre

Edge: a Reading Series of Emerging and Younger Writers

Curator: Melissa Buckheit

A note from the curator: I have often wanted to listen to authors who are in the same place in their careers as myself, emerging, published in journals or with a chapbook, but without a major book, still growing but full of passion, new ideas, and an edge. But there has been little opportunity for this; in fact I have often felt disappointed in the lack, that such an otherwise open community might often be so circumscribed in its 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.

Natalie Gardetto & Jane Levin
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
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:

Natalie Emiko Gardetto was born in Tempe, Arizona. After high school she moved to Tucson, Arizona to pursue her college education at The University of Arizona. After switching her major a few times she began taking writing classes at Pima Community College as well. It was there that she fell in love with poetry all over again and found what she had been looking for. In March of 2006, she was awarded as a runner up in the Frederica and John Hearst Undergraduate Contest for Lyrical and Popullist Poetry. She took multiple workshops with teacher and friend Melissa Buckheit and continued her Creative Writing degree with an emphasis in Poetry. After being close to graduation, Natalie moved to Los Angeles, California to work in the fashion industry. Almost two years later she came to the end of her green grass tunnel and decided to come back to the desert and finish school. She is now working on finishing her degree in Poetry.

Jane Levin is a poet whose work appears in over two dozen publications, including the anthologies Trail Guide, Drash: Northwest Mosaic, County Lines,Illness & Grace/Terror & Transformation and the forthcoming Best Lesbian Poetry 2008. Her chapbook Legacy (Moonflower Press) was released in April 2008. In her review of Legacy, Cherry Pie Press publisher Rebecca Ellis writes, “her poems are brief...in the way Emily Dickinson's poems are brief. Spare, finely edged, and the resonance afterwards is huge. Understated and overpowering…lines here will draw you in, and the small poems will enlarge you. They invite close attention and give it back.” Legacy was a finalist in the Writer’s Circle of Durham Region Chapbook Contest.

Jane is the recipient of a Jerome Foundation/Intermedia Arts Poetry Mentorship and a Howard B. Brin Jewish Arts Endowment grant. She received second prize in the 2008 League of Minnesota Poets’ contest and first prize in the 2008 St. Paul JCC poetry contest. Jane and her partner live in Minneapolis. They have escaped Minnesota winters by volunteering – on organic farms in New Zealand and cooking for displaced residents in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward. This is the second winter they are volunteering at Catalina State Park.

Next Edge Reading will be held in April.

Past Edge Readings:

February 2009

January 2009

December 2008

November 2008

October 2008

September 2008

July 2008

June 2008

May 2008

April 2008

March 2008

February 2008