First Press Reading Series, 2019-2020
The “First Press Reading Series” for the 2019 – 2020 school year is set. Check out the lineup of events below:
September 30: Douglas Manuel
November 11: Lory Bedikian听 听 听 听 听 听
February 24: Richard Garcia听 听 听 听 听
April 27: Lynne Thompson
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Monday, September 30 :: Douglas Manuel
Douglas Manuel was born in Anderson, Indiana. He received a BA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University and a MFA from Butler University where he was the Managing Editor of Booth a Journal. He is currently a Middleton and Dornsife Fellow at the University of Southern California where he is pursuing a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing. He has served as the Poetry Editor for Gold Line Press as well as one of the Managing Editors of Ricochet Editions. His poems are featured on the Poetry Foundation鈥檚 website and have appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry Northwest, The Los Angeles Review, Superstition Review, RHINO, North American Review, The Chattahoochee Review, New Orleans Review, Crab Creek Review, and elsewhere. His first full-length collection of poems, Testify (Red Hen Press, 2017), won the 2017 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award for poetry. Manuel鈥檚 poems explore identity, race, and masculinity. Grounded in autobiography, his first book tracks a speaker struggling between worlds. In an interview with Sofia Bosch, Manuel remarks, 鈥淚 think the two biggest catalysts of听Testify听would be my mom鈥檚 death when I was 8 and my father鈥檚 long prison sentence. I was raised by my auntie 鈥� so, I was always kind of straddling those two worlds. I was always told when I was in the black space 鈥� I wasn鈥檛 black enough and then when I was at school, suddenly, I was too black鈥擨 always felt out of place.鈥�
Poems:
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Monday, November 11 :: Lory Bedikian
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听Lory Bedikian received her BA from UCLA with an emphasis in Creative Writing and Poetry. During her time at UCLA, she was twice nominated for the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Prize in Poetry. She earned her MFA in Poetry from the University of Oregon, where she received the听Dan Kimble First Year Teaching Award for Poetry. Her manuscript has been selected several times as a finalist in both the听Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition听and in the听Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award Competition. She has received grants from the听Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial fund听and from听AFFMA: Arpa Film Foundation for Music & Art. Her poems have been published in the听Connecticut Review,听Portland Review,听Poetry International,听Poet Lore and Heliotrope听among other journals and have been included in听Blue Arc West: An Anthology of California Poets.听Poets & Writers chose her work as a finalist for the听2010 California Writers Exchange Award. Bedikian’s听The Book of Lamenting听won the 2010 Philip Levine Prize in Poetry.听She currently teaches poetry workshops in Los Angeles.
Poems:
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Monday, February 24 :: Richard Garcia
Poet and writer Richard Garcia was born in San Francisco and started writing in his teenage years. Since then, he has authored various books of poetry, including听The Flying Garcias听(1991), Rancho Notorious听(2001),听The Persistence of Objects听(2006), Chickenhead听(2009), The Other Odyssey (2012), The Chair (2015)鈥攃hosen by Poetry Magazine editor Don Share as the best book of the year鈥攁nd Porridge (2016), winner of the Press 53 Prize. Praised by Nobel Prize Winner Octavio Paz for his 鈥渆motion鈥erbal economy [and] tone,” Garcia鈥檚 recent work with prose poems has also received accolades. The recipient of many prizes and awards, including a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Cohen Award from听Ploughshares, a Pushcart Prize, and the听Georgetown Review听Poetry Prize, Garcia鈥檚 poems have also appeared in听Crazyhorse,听Best American Poetry听and various anthologies. A former instructor at the College of Charleston, Garcia has also taught creative writing in the Antioch University Los Angeles MFA Program.
Poems:
Monday, April 27 :: Lynne Thompson
The recipient of a Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles in 2015,听Lynne Thompson听is the author of three poetry chapbooks as well as three full-length collections,听Fretwork鈥攚inner of the Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize鈥�Start With A Small听Guitar,听and听Beg No Pardon, winner of the Perugia Press Book Award and the Great Lakes Colleges New Writers Award.听A Pushcart Prize nominee, Thompson鈥檚 work has appeared in the听North American Review, Prairie Schooner, Pleiades, Colorado Review, and Ecotone, as well as the anthologies,听Coiled Serpent, Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles,听and听Resisting Arrest: Songs to Stretch the Sky. She is Reviews & Essays Editor for the literary journal听Spillway and Chair of the Board of Trustees at Scripps College.
Poems: