Celebrate the publication of our latest anthology, The Other Side of Violet at one of our favorite venues, Beyond Baroque.
Featuring contributors and special guests Emmitt Conklin, Alexis Rhone Fancher, CLS Ferguson, Rich Ferguson, Christian Georgescu, Tanya Ko Hong, Doug Knott, Julian Mithra, Al Ortolani, and Tina Yang.
Hosted by Jane Ormerod.
$10 General Admission, $6 Students/Seniors, Beyond Baroque members free
The Other Side of Violet is an exhilarating collection of contemporary poetry and short fiction by established and emerging writers from across the United States and beyond. The anthology also contains interviews with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Paul Harding and award-winning poet and novelist Tim Z. Hernandez.
Submissions for our next anthology open October 15 2017
Emmitt Conklin works as a bookseller in Venice, California. His work has been published in Lotus-eater, Straylight Literary Journal, Burningword Literary Journal, and Transfer Magazine.
Alexis Rhone Fancher is the author of How I Lost My Virginity to Michael Cohen and other heart stab poems (2014), State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies (2015), and Enter Here (2017). She is published in Best American Poetry 2016, Hobart, Public Pool, Slipstream, Poetry East, and elsewhere. Her photographs are published worldwide. Alexis is poetry editor of Cultural Weekly where she also publishes a monthly photo essay, “The Poet’s Eye,” about her on-going love affair with Los Angeles.
CLS Ferguson, PhD speaks, signs, acts, publishes, sings, performs, writes, paints, teaches and rarely relaxes. Her collection Soup Stories is out on Portage Press. She and her husband, Rich are raising their daughter, Evelyn and their Bernese Mountain Border Collie Mutt, Sadie in Alhambra, CA.
Pushcart-nominated poet Rich Ferguson has shared the stage with Patti Smith, Wanda Coleman, Moby, and other esteemed poets and musicians. He is also a featured performer in the film, What About Me? featuring Michael Stipe, Michael Franti, k.d. lang, and others. His poetry and spoken-word music videos have been widely anthologized, and he was also a winner in Opium Magazine’s Literary Death Match, LA. His poetry collection, 8th & Agony is out on Punk Hostage Press, and his debut novel, New Jersey Me, has been released by Rare Bird Books.
Christian Georgescu is a writer, performer, visual artist from New York City working on a multi-platform cross-genre production HOUSE of ME. A kaleidoscopic blend of metaphysics, poetry, theater and pop-culture, Christian's work explores issues of a larger identity, an expanded self while juxtaposing the human condition with The Human Experience.
Korean American poet Tanya Ko Hong has been published in Rattle, Beloit Poetry Journal, Two Hawks Quarterly, Portside, Cultural Weekly, and elsewhere. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University in Los Angeles and is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Mother to Myself (Prunsasang Press, 2015). Tanya is an ongoing advocate of bilingual poetry, promoting the work of immigrant poets. She lives Palos Verdes, California.
Doug Knott has been writing and performing poetry in SoCal for many years. He is the author of the collection Small Dogs Bark Cartoons, plus various chapbooks, and is included in the Outlaw Poetry Bible. Doug was a member of the seminal touring poetry performance troupe “The Carma Bums,” that won the revived TV “Gong Show” with an act called “Slobs in Suits.” Since 2013, he has been president of the board of trustees of Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Foundation.
Julian Mithra, primarily a performance artist, hovers between genre and gender, border-mongering and mongreling. Resisting essentialisms, they roll out monologues, collage black & white zines, clip poem videos, and rubber stamp imprints. They hold an MA in Folklore from UC Berkeley. Their work has been, or will be featured, in Gendertrash Café, Milvia Street, Storm Cellar, Whirlwind, Anxy, Chroma, Sharkpack Review, and enough / enough.
Al Ortolani's poetry and reviews have appeared in journals such as Rattle, Prairie Schooner, and Tar River Poetry. His collection, Paper Birds Don’t Fly, was released in 2016 from New York Quarterly Books. Ghost Sign, a collaborative work, was released in 2017 from Spartan Press in Kansas City. It was named a 2017 Kansas Notable Book. His poems been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and he has been featured on theWriter's Almanac by Garrison Keillor. Waving Mustard in Surrender, a 2015 NYQ publication, was a finalist for the Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, awarded by Binghamton University. Ortolani serves on the Board of the Little Balkans Press and Woodley Press. He has also been a member of the Board of Directors of the Writers Place in Kansas City. Ortolani recently retired after 43 years of teaching English to high school students. You can also find his poetry in the great weather for MEDIA anthology, I Let Go of the Stars in My Hand.
Tina Yang's poetry can be found in great weather for MEDIA's first ever anthology, It's Animal but Merciful.