Edge 17: 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 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. |
Stephanie Balzer, Rafael Otto,
& Orlando White
Thursday, September 24, 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:
Stephanie Balzer is executive director of VOICES Community Stories Past and Present, Inc., a Tucson nonprofit that mentors youth in the documentary arts and publishes their work. Prior to moving to Tucson, Stephanie reported for The Business Journal in Phoenix. She holds a master’s degree in creative writing from The University of Arizona and is the 2009 recipient of the Mary Ann Campau Memorial Fellowship through The University of Arizona Poetry Center. The Campau fellowship honors "talented writers who strengthen and inspire our literary landscape." Her poems have appeared in Mid-American Review, Chelsea, Cannibal, and CUE: A Journal of Prose Poetry. CUE Editions published her chapbook of prose poems, faster, faster. Her second chapbook, Revenant, is forthcoming from Kore Press.
Rafael Otto writes fiction (long, short and flash), poetry, spoken word, and lyrics. An observer of people and their place in the world, he began studying social environments at the University of Wisconsin and majored in Sociology. He has gone on to examine the importance of story within culture at the Intercultural Communication Institute, and has studied writing in numerous contexts. As a musician and percussionist he has performed music from Brazil, Cuba and West Africa, in addition to writing original arrangements and songs for several groups and dance companies. He is currently living in Tucson, editing a novel, and writing short stories and prose poems.
Orlando White is originally from Tólikan, Arizona. He is Diné (Navajo) of the Naaneesht’ézhi Tábaahí (Zuni Water’s Edge Clan) and born for the Naakai Diné’e (Mexican Clan). He holds a BFA in creative writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts and an MFA from Brown University. His poems have appeared in Bombay Gin, Oregon Literary Review, Ploughshares, Salt Hill Journal, Talking Stick Native Arts Quarterly and They Are Flying Planes, and are forthcoming in The Kenyon Review and Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics. He has taught at Brown University, the Institute of American Indian Arts, The Art Center Design College, and has been a visiting writer at Colgate University and Naropa University’s summer writing program. Currently he is teaching at Diné College. He now lives in Tsaile, Arizona. Bone Light (Red Hen Press, 2009) is his first book.
Next Edge Reading will be held on Wednesday, October 21, 2009.
Past Edge Readings:
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
