International Day of Poetry at Maple Street Book Shop

Maple Street Books will host an event called “International Poetry Day” at 6 p.m. on Friday, December 16, at their storefront (7529 Maple Street), which will feature Zoe Blair-Schlagenhauf, Jo Gehringer, and Laura Theobald.  The event shouldn’t be confused with World Poetry Day, which takes place annually on March 21.

The event features a group of writers who have come together to provide a night of poetry with proceeds going to Mariposas Sin Fronteras, a Tuscon-based group that seeks to end the systemic violence and abuse of LGBTQ people held in prison and immigration detention. There will be a raffle with books from readers.

Zoë Blair-Schlagenhauf studies art and design at Loyola University New Orleans. She hails from the small town of Coventry, Connecticut.

Jo Gehringer is from Omaha and lives in New Orleans. They are the author of two self-published chapbooks, Anonymous/American (2015) and Screaming at Birds (2016). Their work has appeared in MICRO//MACRO, The Soul Stoned, and New Bile, and is forthcoming from Xavier Review and Spy Kids Review.

Laura Theobald’s full length poetry collection is What My Hair Says About You from the Montreal-based small press publisher Metatron (2016). Her chapbooks are Edna Poems (Lame House, 2016), The Best Thing Ever (Boost House, 2015), and eraser poems (H-NGM-N, 2014). Her recent poems have appeared in Sink Review, Hobart, Pinwheel, Witch Craft Magazine, The Atlas Review, Everyday Genius, and the Black Warrior Review, among others.