Poetry Reading at B.J.’s

B.J.’s will host a poetry reading on Saturday, December 3, at 7 p.m. at 4301 Burgundy.

Earlier this year, the New Orleans Public Library presented a poetry workshop and reading with Dr. Peter Cooley, Louisiana Poet Laureate, at the Alvar Branch library. Now, community partners Shawn Jackson and Lee Grue are pleased to present a reunion reading of the workshop’s participants.

Reading will be Lauren Burgess, Tiana Nobile, Bobby Jay, Ben Aleshire, Stacey Balkun, Esme Franklin, Kai Mills and Henry Goldkamp.

This event is free and open to the public, and books will be for sale.

Lauren Burgess is a senior at the University of New Orleans, where she studies Creative Writing and Anthropology, though she began as a physics major. Her background in science is now an integral part of her poetry. She is the recipient of the Ryan Chighizola Memorial award, and her work has been featured in Ellipsis, UNO’s literary magazine, of which she is now the editor.

Stacey Balkun (MFA Fresno State, 2014) is the author of Jackalope-Girl Learns to Speak & Lost City Museum. A Finalist for the Center for Women Writer’s 2016 Rita Dove Award, her work has appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Muzzle, Bayou, and others. A 2015 Hambidge Fellow, Stacey served as Artist-in-Residence at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2013. She is the Chapbook Series Editor for Sundress Publications and teaches poetry online at The Poetry Barn.

Benjamin Aleshire makes his living as a poet-for-hire, where strangers commission him to compose poems on a manual typewriter. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Boston Review, Barrow Street, and others. He received a Creation Grant from the VT Arts Council, and the Chighizola Prize from UNO. In 2016 he was a finalist for the Iowa Review Award, and attended the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference on scholarship. He serves as assistant poetry editor for the Green Mountains Review, and is the founding editor of Honeybee Press.