“Readings at 20” presents Gillian Conoley and Eric Lorberer, Wednesday, March 2 Mercury 20 Art Gallery (475 25th Street) is proud to bring some of the most prominent poets in the Bay Area to Oakland. The next reading in the series, on Wednesday, March 2, will begin at 7:30 p.m., and will feature Gillian Conoley and Eric Lorberer. A $5 fee at the door will cover refreshments and payment for the readers. Come hear good words and look at good art. Doors open at 7:00.
Gillian Conoley’s most recent collection is THE PLOT GENIE with Omnidawn Publishing (fall 2009). The author of six collections of poetry, her work has appeared in over 20 national and international anthologies, including W.W. Norton’s American Hybrid, Counterpath’s Postmodern Lyricisms, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, Nuova Poesia Americana, and Best American Poetry. She has received the Jerome J. Shestack Award from The American Poetry Review, several Pushcart Prizes, an Academy of American Poets Prize, and a Fund for Poetry Award. Editor and founder of Volt magazine, she teaches in the Program for Writers and Poets at Sonoma State University. She claims to have finally finished translating Henri Michaux’s Four Hundred Men on the Cross.
Eric Lorberer holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has published poems in numerous literary magazines ranging from American Poetry Review to VOLT, and his essays and reviews have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and anthologies. He has received a SASE/Jerome Fellowship for his poetry, and an essay version of his talk “The Ashbery Bridge” was named a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2008. As the editor of Rain Taxi Review of Books, he is responsible for the voice and style that has brought the magazine widespread acclaim. Lorberer also is the director of the Twin Cities Book Festival, has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, and speaks at conferences and literary festivals around the country as an advocate for independent publishing and literary culture.