SNS | 10-26-24

Join us online for the 14th Annual SNS Halloween Reading, Open Mic
& Costume Party!

Featuring:
Traci Kato-Kiriyama & Louise Moises

Theme: Halloween
(scroll down for writing prompt)

Hosted By: Hollie Hardy

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Saturday, October 26, 2024
6:00pm Pacific Time
(8:00pm Central time)

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Online Event
Free Admission

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Sign Up in Advance to Get on the Open Mic List

The theme is optional | Time limit is not optional
Please plan ahead and keep your reading to 3 MINUTES MAX
Scroll down for monthly writing prompt

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Join Event on Zoom

Meeting ID: 899 9133 5791

Passcode: 505916

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Author Bios

traci kato-kiriyama (they+she) is an award-winning multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary artist, recognized for their work as a writer, performer, theatre deviser, cultural producer, and community organizer. kato-kiriyama is the author of the mixed-genre collection Navigating With(out) Instruments from Writ Large Press (2021). Their recognition & support includes the Art Matters Foundation; the CA State Senate Breaking Silence Award; ONE Archives Pride Publics; and the NEFA National Theatre Project for TALES OF CLAMOR and PULLproject Ensemble. tkk has performed at hundreds of venues and their writing, commentary and work appears in numerous media and print publications (including NPR; PBS; Elle.com; Entropy; Chaparral Canyon Press; Tia Chucha Press; Bamboo Ridge Press; Heyday Books; Temple UP).

Learn more and buy a book at https://www.traciakemi.com/

Louise Moises is an award-winning poet from the San Francisco Bay Area, an antiquarian bookseller, puppeteer, and performance artist. Her first chapbook, Peace Is a Pelican, is newly available from Finishing Line Press and on Amazon. The poems in this collection are based on life experiences and the poet’s interaction with nature. The titular poem “Peace Is…” was a grand prize-winner in the Dancing Poetry Contest, from Artist Embassy International. She’s been featured at Benicia First Tuesdays, Sacred Grounds, Riverside Poets and Voices of Lincoln, and her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including High Shelf Press, California Quarterly, Wingless Dreamer, Carquinez Review, The Write Launch, Tiny Seed, and elsewhere. Louise writes poems about backroad adventures while traveling solo in her RV, crisscrossing the country with her cat, to visit far-flung family and friends.  

Pick up Peace is a Pelican here:
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/peace-is-a-pelican-by-louise-moises/

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Write with Friends! Register for The Write-In!

LET’S WORK ON THE THEME TOGETHER!

Join me the week before SNS, on SUNDAY afternoon, October 20, for the monthly Write-In, a generative online workshop with Hollie Hardy.

Write-In Details/ Sign Up

October Writing Prompt

For the 14th Annual Saturday Night Special Halloween Open Mic, we’re taking up the classic theme.

Tell us a scary story; sing us a spooky song; write us a ghost poem about your pumpkin spice latte. Anything Halloween or Halloween adjacent is on theme.

SOME IDEAS TO GET YOU STARTED:

• Think: evil, demons, zombies, vampires, sirens, witches, werewolves, ghosts, predators, clowns, the circus, the horsemen of the apocalypse, blood-thirsty or benign creatures, Bigfoot, fairies, mutants, psychopaths, politicians, parents, screaming children, bullies, bosses, exes, oppressors, societal cruelties, false fears, monsters in masquerade, the misunderstood…

• Think: pumpkins, scarecrows, cemeteries, black cats, bats, harvest moons, apple cider, candy, hay rides, trick-or-treat

• What costumes have you dressed up in? What costume parties have you attended?

• What defines a monster? What monsters have you known? What monsters have you been? Were they real or imagined?

• What is grotesque? Unthinkable?

• What are you afraid of? How is that fear literalized?

• Think: things in the woods, under the bed, outside the window, inside the house, in the past, in your dreams.

• Think: pool drains, sharks, heights, blood, poison, ants, failure, the sun, disfigurement, dying alone

• Think: fire, flood, earthquakes, war, death, prejudice, injustice, grief, silence

• Have you ever seen a ghost? An apparition? Experienced the supernatural? Or know someone who has? What happened?

• In what ways are legacies, generational pain, memories, photos, even DNA kinds of ghosts?

• Consider: palimpsest as ghost, the way a city builds on the bones of the past.

• Think: haunted house, graveyard, poltergeist, possession, exorcism, bumps in the night

• Whom have you lost? What would you say to their ghost?

• What’s your best, craziest, strangest, or scariest Halloween story? Make a poem or flash story of it (3 minutes or less!)

Or something else! As ever, please feel free to follow whatever inspiration takes you! As ever, the theme is optional—an invitation, not a requirement; feel free to interpret loosely or ignore.

Below are some of my favorite Halloween poems and short stories on our theme to inspire you.

INSPIRATION

Poems

Jane Goodall and Bruce Springsteen Contemplate their Childlessness by John Dudek
All Souls by Michael Collier
Windigo by Louise Erdrich
Bildungsroman by Sam Sax
Ghost by Cynthia Huntington
Field of Skulls by Mary Karr
Monster in the Lake by Martín Espada
Monster by Jason Irwin
The Witch Has Told You a Story by Ava Leavell Haymon
Halloween in the Anthropocene, 2015 by Craig Santos Perez
Strange Are the Products by George Oppen
Halloween by Lindsay Turner

Short Fiction

The Hitman short short fiction by T. C. Boyle
Pumpkins flash fiction by Francine Prose
The Anatomy of Desire flash fiction by John L’Heureux

Bonus

It’s Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers! McSweeney’s Essay by Collin Nissan

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Want more writing prompts?

Join Praxis Poetry: Weekly Prompts for Poets!

Poetry Near & Afar

Poetry Near & Afar is a bimonthly online reading series hosted by the Oceanside Library of New York on the first and third Mondays of each month at 6pm Central / 7pm Eastern. Each reading features a poet from the NY area and one from "afar." Plus an open mic (one poem limit).

Featuring:

Hollie Hardy
&
Emily-Sue Sloane
+
Open Mic

Hosted by:
Tony Iovino

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Monday, October 21, 2024
6pm Central/ 7pm Eastern

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Zoom Info
Meeting ID: 857 8444 3637

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Free Event

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Hollie Hardy is a writer, educator, and author of the newly released Lions Like Us (Red Light Lit Press) and How to Take a Bullet: And Other Survival Poems (Punk Hostage Press) winner of the Annual Poetry Center Book Award at San Francisco State University. She holds an MFA in Poetry from SFSU, teaches private writing workshops online, and hosts the long-running monthly reading series Saturday Night Special: A Virtual Open Mic. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and published in numerous anthologies and literary journals including Bay Area Generations, Cobalt Poets, Colossus, The Common, Dispatches from Quarantine, Eleven Eleven, Fourteen Hills, Migozine, Milvia Street Journal, Mixed Bag of Tricks, Parthenon West Review, Passionfruit Review, sPARKLE & bLINK, Transfer, and elsewhere. She lives in Austin, TX.

Emily-Sue Sloane is an award-winning Long Island poet who writes to capture moments of wonder, worry, and human connection. She is the author of the full-length poetry collection We Are Beach Glass (2022) and the chapbook Disconnects and Other Broken Threads (The Poetry Box, 2024). Her poetry has appeared in numerous print and online journals and anthologies, including Poetry X Hunger, To Be Completely Honest Anthology, Best of Long Island Poetry 2024 Anthology, Bards Annual, Wild Roof Journal, and Closed Eye Open. Her poem “Musical Musing” is featured in a choral piece of the same name by composer Joan Johnson Drewes, and her poem “Shots Fired at Heckscher Park” was part of WNYC’s Morning Edition celebration for this year’s National Poetry Month. Additionally, Sloane and her wife, singer-songwriter Linda Sussman, present an original poetry and music program called “Crossroads of Verse” at venues across Long Island. Learn more at: EmilySueSloane.com

Lone Star Zine Fest

Lone Star Zine Fest

Come find me at the 8th Annual Lone Star Zine Fest on Saturday, Oct. 19 with Heidi Kasa! We’ll be selling books and zines and schmoozing with local creatives in Austin, TX.

Lone Star Zine Fest is a free, fun, all-ages event featuring zine creators, collectives, distributors, retailers, libraries, and small presses sharing their amazing work and showcasing the diversity of expression made possible by independent- and self-publishing. The Fest is organized by Austin Zine Friends, a small group of zine-loving volunteers who are passionate about creating space for zine creators and zine fans to come together.

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Saturday, October 19, 2024
12pm to 6pm Central

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Blue Genie Art Bazaar
6100 Airport Blvd.
Austin, TX

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Free Event

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We are at Table #58
Listed on the venue map as:

Heidi Kasa & Hollie Hardy

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SNS | 9-28-24

Join us online for an evening of literary performance and open mic reading

Featuring: Amanda Gunn & G. Macias Gusman

Theme: Smoking, Drinking & Screwing
(scroll down for writing prompt)

Hosted By: Hollie Hardy

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Saturday, September 28, 2024
6:00pm Pacific Time
(8:00pm Central time)

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Online Event
Free Admission

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Sign Up in Advance to Get on the Open Mic List

The theme is optional | Time limit is not optional
Please plan ahead and keep your reading to 3 MINUTES MAX
Scroll down for monthly writing prompt

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Join Event on Zoom

Meeting ID: 827 6585 3595

Passcode: 883132

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Author Bios

Amanda Gunn is a poet, teacher, and PhD candidate in English at Harvard. Raised in Connecticut, she worked as a medical copyeditor for 13 years before earning an MFA in poetry from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars. She is a recipient of the Auburn Witness Poetry Prize as well as a Pushcart Prize and has received fellowships from the Wallace Stegner Program at Stanford, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. Her debut collection, Things I Didn’t Do With This Body, was released in 2023 from Copper Canyon Press.

G. Macias Gusman is a Midwest/West Coast Poet published in such silky rags as the Borfski Press, the Crazy Child Scribbler, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, Last Call Chinaski!, 16th & Mission, Naked Bulb Anthology, and Alien Buddha Press, as well as a ton of online things, and a napkin he once left for a bartender, who was way too hot for his own good. G. wants you to know that his favorite things in life are PBR, weed, cats, and staring out the window writing love poems at four in the morning, while drinking coffee. He sings Ramones songs in the shower and knows that: there’s never gonna be enough Dope-to-Toke for going to work to be a good idea. His first full-length collection of poetry Neversent was released last month from Naked Bulb Press. Order it here.

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Write with Friends! Register for The Write-In!

LET’S WORK ON THE THEME TOGETHER!

Join me the week before SNS, on Saturday afternoon, September 21, for the monthly Write-In, a generative online workshop with Hollie Hardy.

Write-In Details/ Sign Up

September Writing Prompt: Smoking, Drinking, & Screwing

This month’s theme was inspired by the 1994 Chronicle Books anthology by the same title: Drinking, Smoking & Screwing: Great Writers on Good Times, edited by Sara Nickles, and containing poetry and fiction by famous writers ranging from Charles Bukowski to Erica Jong, Tom Robbins, Anaïs Nin, Henry Miller, Mark Twain, Vladimir Nabokov, Sam Shepard and many more.

Your challenge this month is to write a poem (or 3-minute prose piece, scene, monologue, song, etc) inspired by the classic vices—sex, smokes, drinks, drugs, etc.

SOME IDEAS:

• Write about enjoying, not enjoying, indulging or quitting a vice

• Write about how your relationship to “the good times” has changed over time

• Write a how-to poem about one of these topics

• Write a sexy or unsexy poem, a love or desire poem

• Write about the morning after

• Write about being “drunk” on something other than alcohol

• Write about the joys or consequences of drinking, smoking, or sex, ode or elegy

• Write about the myths of writers and their vices

• Write about how drinking, smoking, or screwing inform the heart, mind, or body

As ever, the theme is optional—an invitation, not a requirement; feel free to interpret loosely or ignore. Below are some poems on our theme to inspire you.

FOR INSPIRATION

Fear of Flying (Zipless Fuck excerpt) by Erica Jong

Sonnet XI by Pablo Neruda

Be Drunk! (on Poetry) by Charles Baudelaire

Are You Drinking by Charles Bukowski

Deer Hit by Jon Loomis

When Man Enters Woman by Anne Sexton

How to Smoke a Cigar by Hollie Hardy

The Best Cigarette by Billy Collins

No Smoking Please by Gary Soto

Smoking by Ronald Wallace

Smoking Notes by Sandra McPherson

You Were Perfectly Fine fiction by Dorothy Parker

NOTE: The SNS writing prompts will eventually be integrated into my subscription service, Praxis Poetry: Weekly Prompts for Poets. Learn more and sign up for weekly prompts!

Lansing Poetry Club Reading & Open Mic

The Copper Chimney Lounge Poetry Series is curated by the Lansing Poetry Club, an organization working to engage the local community with poetry and the literary arts.
Join us for a Sunday reading and book signing of Hollie Hardy’s second poetry collection, Lions Like Us, plus an open mic.

Featuring:
Hollie Hardy
Jo Gram

Hosted by:
Ruelaine Stokes, Poet Laureate of Lansing, MI

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Sunday, September 8, 2024
4pm

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University United Methodist Church
1120 S. Harrison Rd
East Lansing, MI

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Free Event

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Hollie Hardy is a writer, educator, and author of the newly released Lions Like Us (Red Light Lit Press) and How to Take a Bullet: And Other Survival Poems (Punk Hostage Press) winner of the Annual Poetry Center Book Award at San Francisco State University. She holds an MFA in Poetry from SFSU, teaches private writing workshops online, and hosts the long-running monthly reading series Saturday Night Special: A Virtual Open Mic. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and published in numerous anthologies and literary journals including Bay Area Generations, Cobalt Poets, Colossus, The Common, Dispatches from Quarantine, Eleven Eleven, Fourteen Hills, Migozine, Milvia Street Journal, Mixed Bag of Tricks, Parthenon West Review, Passionfruit Review, sPARKLE & bLINK, Transfer, and elsewhere. She lives in Austin, TX.

Jo Marie Gram is a rapidly emerging poet on the Lansing poetry scene. Formerly a teacher at Western Michigan University and an analyst for the State of Michigan, Gram is a pillar of the Lansing-area writing community and a longtime supporter of the arts.

Red Light Lit: Chicago

Join us for an evening of poetry, stories, and live music, exploring themes of love, sex, and relationships in celebration of Hollie Hardy’s newly released poetry collection, Lions Like Us published by Red Light Lit Press.

Featuring:

Hollie Hardy
Ada Genavia
Loria Mendoza
Nick Jaina

Music:

The Moon & The Man

Hosted By: Jennifer Lewis

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Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024
8pm

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Room 13 in The Old Chicago Inn
3222 N Sheffield Ave.
Chicago, IL

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$10
Tickets at the Door

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Author Bios

Hollie Hardy is a poet, educator, and award-winning author of Lions Like Us (Red Light Lit Press, 2024) and How to Take a Bullet, And Other Survival Poems (Punk Hostage Press, 2014). She holds an MFA in Poetry from SFSU and teaches private poetry workshops online. She is the founder of Praxis Poetry and host of the long-running monthly reading series Saturday Night Special, a Virtual Open Mic. Publications include The Common, Fourteen Hills, Colossus, Eleven Eleven, MiGoZine, Poetry Superhighway, sPARKLE & bLink, Parthenon West Review, and other journals. She lives in Austin, TX.

  
Ada Genavia is a writer living in Alameda, CA. A literary nomad with a day job, she enjoys writing prose, flash fiction and creative nonfiction. Ada has been previously featured with Red Light Lit and published in sPARKLE + bLINK. She is the daughter of Filipino immigrants.

Loria Mendoza is a queer Chicanx writer, curator, and performance artist from Austin, Texas. Their book, Life’s Too Short (Fourteen Hills Press) won the Michael Rubin Book Award and their debut book of poetry, The Body Can Tolerate is forthcoming in 2025. They are the curator and host of Red Light Lit Austin, Director of Events for the South Austin Art Project, COO of the Austin Arts Foundation, and a big time believer in the healing power of art, community, storytelling, and love.

Nick Jaina is an author and musician living in Oakland, California. His 2015 memoir Get It While You Can was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. His work has appeared in McSweeney's, Atlantic Monthly, Wilderness House Review, Somnambulist, Oregon Journal of the Humanities, and many other places. His newest book SPEKTRUM is out now. He has composed music scores for feature films, such as the indie comedy All Sorts and the forest fire documentary Elemental. He also co-founded a ballet collective in New York City, in which he was the musical composer and worked with dancers from Juilliard and New York City Ballet and performed works at the Baryshnikov Center and BAM Center for the Arts. Thus far, Nick has recorded (at least) 16 studio albums.

 
The Moon & The Man is a fun, funky, sultry, indie pop band comprised of Luna Malbroux and Will Clemens—an Alien from the planet Funk, and a Deity of Groove—you have to guess which one is which. Based in the Midwest, The Moon & The Man’s monthly shows are a staple in Chicago and Cincinnati. With tunes reminiscent of the golden age of soul and grooves that call forth a new future, The Moon & The Man cross genres, time, and space to enter an atmosphere of groovy, soulful vibes.

Red Light Lit: Ferryville, WI

Join us in Driftless Wisconsin for a special book release party in celebration of Lions Like Us, the latest poetry collection by Hollie Hardy.

Hosted by Red Light Lit, this event will feature a blend of live music, storytelling, and poetry. Known for their regional shows, Red Light Lit will bring together a talented troupe of writers to explore themes of love, relationships, sexuality, and gender. Each reading will be accompanied by a live musical score composed by Nick Jaina, adding an extra layer of depth to the experience.

The evening will also include live musical performances by the Chicago-based duo, The Moon & The Man.

Featuring:

Hollie Hardy
Tanis O’Connor
Loria Mendoza
Jenifer Lewis
Nick Jaina

Music:

The Moon & The Man

Hosted By: Jennifer Lewis

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Friday, Sept. 6, 2024
6:30pm Doors
7pm Show

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ændre arthouse
58879 State Highway 171
Ferryville, WI

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$15

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Author Bios

Hollie Hardy is a poet, educator, and award-winning author of Lions Like Us (Red Light Lit Press, 2024) and How to Take a Bullet, And Other Survival Poems (Punk Hostage Press, 2014). She holds an MFA in Poetry from SFSU and teaches private poetry workshops online. She is the founder of Praxis Poetry and host of the long-running monthly reading series Saturday Night Special, a Virtual Open Mic. Publications include The Common, Fourteen Hills, Colossus, Eleven Eleven, MiGoZine, Poetry Superhighway, sPARKLE & bLink, Parthenon West Review, and other journals. She lives in Austin, TX.

  
Jennifer Lewis is a writer, editor, and publisher of Red Light Lit. Her debut short story collection, The New Low (Black Lawrence Press), was an SPD Bestseller. She is the winner of the Nomadic Press Bindle Award and The Los Angeles Review Flash Fiction Award. Her fiction has appeared in publications such as Cosmonauts Avenue, Midnight Breakfast, The Los Angeles Press, and CRAFT, among others. Additionally, her most recent nonfiction work has been featured in The Rumpus, Alta Journal, and Joshua Tree Voice. She received her MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University. Jennifer teaches at The Writing Salon in San Francisco.

Loria Mendoza is a queer Chicanx writer, curator, and performance artist from Austin, Texas. Their book, Life’s Too Short (Fourteen Hills Press) won the Michael Rubin Book Award and their debut book of poetry, The Body Can Tolerate is forthcoming in 2025. They are the curator and host of Red Light Lit Austin, Director of Events for the South Austin Art Project, COO of the Austin Arts Foundation, and a big time believer in the healing power of art, community, storytelling, and love.
 

Nick Jaina is an author and musician living in Oakland, California. His 2015 memoir Get It While You Can was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. His work has appeared in McSweeney's, Atlantic Monthly, Wilderness House Review, Somnambulist, Oregon Journal of the Humanities, and many other places. His newest book SPEKTRUM is out now. He has composed music scores for feature films, such as the indie comedy All Sorts and the forest fire documentary Elemental. He also co-founded a ballet collective in New York City, in which he was the musical composer and worked with dancers from Juilliard and New York City Ballet and performed works at the Baryshnikov Center and BAM Center for the Arts. Thus far, Nick has recorded (at least) 16 studio albums.

 
The Moon & The Man is a fun, funky, sultry, indie pop band comprised of Luna Malbroux and Will Clemens—an Alien from the planet Funk, and a Deity of Groove—you have to guess which one is which. Based in the Midwest, The Moon & The Man’s monthly shows are a staple in Chicago and Cincinnati. With tunes reminiscent of the golden age of soul and grooves that call forth a new future, The Moon & The Man cross genres, time, and space to enter an atmosphere of groovy, soulful vibes.

SNS | 8-31-24

Join us online for an evening of literary performance and open mic reading

Featuring: Natasha Dennerstein & Armin Tolentino

Theme: Insomnia
(scroll down for writing prompt)

Hosted By: Hollie Hardy

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Saturday, August 31, 2024
6:00pm Pacific Time
(8:00pm Central time)

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Online Event
Free Admission

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Sign Up in Advance to Get on the Open Mic List

The theme is optional | Time limit is not optional
Please plan ahead and keep your reading to 3 MINUTES MAX
Scroll down for monthly writing prompt

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Join Event on Zoom

Meeting ID: 840 1543 8755

Passcode: 508391

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Author Bios

Natasha Dennerstein was born in Melbourne, Australia. She has an MFA from San Francisco State University, and her poetry has published in many journals internationally, including The North American Review and Spoon River Poetry Review. Her collections Anatomize (2015), Triptych Caliform (2016) and her novella-in-verse About a Girl (2017) were published by Norfolk Press in San Francisco. Her trans chapbook Seahorse (2017) was published by Nomadic Press in Oakland and is now available through Black Lawrence Press. Broken: A Life of Aileen Wuornos in 33 poems was published in 2021 by Be About It Press. Her latest book, Apps Poetica was recently released from The Los Angeles Press. She lives in Alameda, California, where she is a freelance editor.

Armin Tolentino is the author of the collection We Meant to Bring It Home Alive (Alternating Current Press), winner of the 2018 Electric Book Award. He served as poet laureate for Clark County, WA from 2021-2023. He is a phenomenal clapper, a passable ukulele player, and a bumbling, but enthusiastic, fisherman. More info at: armintolentino.com.

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Write with Friends! Register for The Write-In!

LET’S WORK ON THE THEME TOGETHER!

Join me the week before SNS, on Saturday afternoon, August 24, for the monthly Write-In, a generative online workshop with Hollie Hardy.

Write-In Details/ Sign Up

August Writing Prompt: Insomnia

This month’s theme was inspired by the line, “What keeps you awake at night?” from Laura Newbern’s poem “Black Forest”(see below), but I couldn’t resist the concision of “Insomnia.”

I’m not a good sleeper. I stay up late, defiantly resisting rest like a child refusing a nap. When I do finally sleep, I often toss and turn and wake up every hour of the night, whereas my partner falls asleep the moment his eyes close and rarely wakes before morning.

Nighttime is like another country. Full of sounds and sometimes snacks, strange thoughts elbowing in. What keeps you awake at night?

Your challenge this month is to write a poem (or 3-minute prose piece, scene, monologue, song, etc) inspired by insomnia, or late nights, or being up past your bedtime.

SOME IDEAS:

• What do you do when you’re not sleeping (but should be)? What thoughts, songs, snacks, pains, politics, worries, to-do lists, bedroom gymnastics, books, shows, chores, drinks, doom scrolling, Instagram posting, etc. fill your nights?

• What are the shapes, shadows, sounds, smells, textures, images of your house or neighborhood at night? Does it feel different in shadows? What can you see and hear from your window?

• Depending on the safety of your environment, perhaps take a night walk. If outside doesn’t feel safe, walk around your home like a stranger in the dark, noticing things newly.

• In what ways is dreaming and waking blurred in the small hours? Perhaps let some of the dream into to the poem, and some of the dailiness that came before.

• What is the feeling of insomnia? What is the cure?

• Think of a time when you couldn’t sleep or stayed up super late. What kept you up? What was on your mind? Something worth poeming about?

As ever, the theme is optional—an invitation, not a requirement; feel free to interpret loosely or ignore. Below are some poems on our theme to inspire you.

FOR INSPIRATION

Black Forest by Laura Newbern

On Insomnia by Fran Lock

“At night, she’d turn into a beastwoman” by Rosa Chávez (translated by Gabriela Ramirez-Chavez

Full-Length Portrait of the Moon by Alice Oswald

Insomnia by Rynn Williams

Insomnia & So On by Malachi Black

Insomnia by Susan Hahn

Insomnia by Jon Loomis

Insomnia by Dana Gioia

Tonight Insomnia by Edward Kleinschmidt

The Soundscape of Life Is Charred by Tiny Bonfires by Max Ritvo

How To Cure Insomnia by Hollie Hardy

NOTE: The SNS writing prompts will soon be integrated into my subscription service, Praxis Poetry: Weekly Prompts for Poets. Learn more and sign up for weekly prompts!

Red Light Lit Austin presents: Lions Like Us Book Launch Party

Join me for a love-drenched evening of poetry and stories, live music and delicious wine in celebration of my newly released poetry collection, Lions Like Us published by Red Light Lit Press.

Featuring:

Kim Denning
Shy-Zahir Moses
Heidi Kasa
Dale Bridges
C. Prudence Arceneaux
Stephanie Yue Duhem
Bianca Alyssa Pérez
S.C. Says
Hollie Hardy

Live Music:

Brandix

Hosted by: Hollie Hardy

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Sunday, August 18, 2024
6pm

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Vintage Bookstore & Wine Bar
1101 E 11th St
Austin, TX

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Free Event

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Author Bios

C. Prudence Arceneaux, a native Texan, teaches English and Creative Writing at Austin Community College, in Austin, TX. Her work has appeared in various journals, including The Academy of American Poets’ Poem- A- Day, Limestone, New Texas, Hazmat Review, Texas Observer, Whiskey Island Magazine, African Voices and Inkwell. She is the author of two chapbooks of poetry-- DIRT (awarded the 2018 Jean Pedrick Prize) and LIBERTY. Her debut full length collection PROPRIOCEPTION is out 2025 from Texas Review Press.

Andre Bradford, a.k.a. S.C. Says, is an Austin based slam poet who has been performing since 2013. He's toured and featured at venues and universities across the country, and his work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Write About Now, The Edge radio, The Culture Trip, and Blavity. He is a two time Austin Poetry Slam Champion, the 2022 Texas Grand Slam Champion, and is the author of the poetry collection Golden Brown Skin. He also once popped a bag of popcorn without burning a single kernel, which is arguably one of his greatest achievements.

Dale Bridges is a fiction writer, essayist, and painter. His work has appeared in more than thirty publications, including The Rumpus, The Masters Review, and Barrelhouse Magazine. For several years, he was the arts-and-entertainment editor at the Boulder Weekly, where he won journalism awards for his feature writing and cultural criticism. He has published a book of short stories Justice, Inc. (Monkey Puzzle Press) and a novel called The Mean Reds (SFA Press). He currently lives in Austin and works at the library.

Kim Denning is a Latina poet, consultant, former professor, and recovering high school teacher. She practices curanderismo in the footsteps of her ancestral abuelas and likes to play the guitar very loudly. Her poetry has been published in various online and print publications and she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for her poem, Borderland Suburbia. Her poetry has been featured in Last Stanza Poetry Journal, FERAL, OpenDoor Magazine, Pareidolia Literary, VIPF’s 2021 Boundless Anthology, Adanna Literary Journal: Women in Politics; and Essential Voices: A COVID-19 Anthology. Although she often writes about love and heartache, she proudly murdered romance by winning Versification Zine’s 2021 Kill Cupid Contest.

Stephanie Yue Duhem is an Austin-based writer and educator, with an MA in Higher Education Administration and an MFA in Creative Writing. She was a 2020 Best of the Net nominee and a 2021 and 2023 Pushcart nominee. Learn more: syduhem.wordpress.com

Hollie Hardy is a writer, educator, and author of the newly released Lions Like Us (Red Light Lit Press) and How to Take a Bullet: And Other Survival Poems (Punk Hostage Press) winner of the Annual Poetry Center Book Award at San Francisco State University. She holds an MFA in Poetry from SFSU, teaches private writing workshops online, founded Praxis Poetry: Weekly Prompts for Poets, and hosts the long-running monthly reading series Saturday Night Special: A Virtual Open Mic. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and published in numerous anthologies and literary journals. She lives in Austin, TX. Learn more at: holliehardy.com Follow her on Instagram at @hollie.hardy

Heidi Kasa is the author of Split (Monday Night Press, 2022), and her writing has appeared in Barrelhouse, Ruminate, and The Racket, among others. She won the 2024 Plaza Prose Poetry Prize and the 2023 Poetry Super Highway Poetry Prize. Kasa’s flash fiction collection The Beginners won the 2023 Digging Press Chapbook Contest, and is forthcoming in 2025. She works as an editor and creates handmade artist books. See more at www.heidikasa.com.

Shy-Zahir Moses is a poet & lover from Dallas, working on their way to make it out of Texas. They are a Watering Hole Writing Workshop Fellow, and their work has been supported by the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice, A Gathering Together Journal, and Callaloo. Shy's work meditates on queerness, family, black southern spirituality and religion, and the contemplation of God, the Ancestors, and the divine.

Bianca Alyssa Pérez (she/her) is a Latina poet, educator, and editor born and raised in Mission, Texas – a small southern town bordering Mexico. She holds her MFA in Poetry from Texas State University, where she also teaches and coordinates the MFA in Creative Writing program. She was the 2022-2023 Clark House Writer-In-Residence in Smithville, TX. Her chapbook, Gemini Gospel, is published with Host Publications. She is also the co-host of the horror podcast, Basement Girls, with writer, Steph Grossman. Find more chisme at her website: biancaalyssaperez.com. website: biancaalyssaperez.com

Brandix sprouts and grows along the Texas-Mexico border, nourishing her roots with an abundance of influences reflected in her music, art, and creative style. Around Austin, she transmutes her music setlist to include genres like Nu-Metal, Mariachi, and Neo-Soul. Her original art and music is experimental and genre-bending. Healing, and inner/outer exploration are huge influential themes for her art and music as well as the biology of planet Earth. Brandix is accompanied by fellow Virgo friend Meredith Galaif on guitar.

Alienated Majesty Books

Author Event:
Multi-Genre Reading, Q&A, Book Signing

Join us for a lively literary evening, as Austin's Alienated Majesty Books hosts a reading and conversation between writers across multiple genres.

Austin-based poet Hollie Hardy will read from her new poetry collection, Lions Like Us, recently released on Red Light Lit Press. Fiction writer Emily Jon Tobias will read from her recently published debut story collection, MONARCH (Black Lawrence Press). Local author and podcaster Scott Semegran will host and read a teaser from his latest novel, The Codger and the Sparrow (TCU Press).

Book signing and refreshments to follow Q&A.

Featuring:

Hollie Hardy
Emily Jon Tobias

Hosted by: Scott Semegran

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Thursday, August 15, 2024
6pm

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Alienated Majesty Books
613 W. 29th ST
Austin, TX

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Free Event

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AUTHOR BIOS

Hollie Hardy is a writer, educator, and author of the newly released Lions Like Us (Red Light Lit Press) and How to Take a Bullet: And Other Survival Poems (Punk Hostage Press) winner of the Annual Poetry Center Book Award at San Francisco State University. She holds an MFA in Poetry from SFSU, teaches private writing workshops online, and hosts the long-running monthly reading series Saturday Night Special: A Virtual Open Mic. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and published in numerous anthologies and literary journals including Bay Area Generations, Cobalt Poets, Colossus, The Common, Dispatches from Quarantine, Eleven Eleven, Fourteen Hills, Migozine, Milvia Street Journal, Mixed Bag of Tricks, Parthenon West Review, Passionfruit Review, sPARKLE & bLINK, Transfer, and elsewhere. She lives in Austin, TX. Learn more at: holliehardy.com

Emily Jon Tobias is an American author and poet. She is an award-winning writer whose work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, along with other honorable mentions, and has been featured in literary journals such as Santa Clara Review, Talking River Review, Flying South Literary Journal, Furrow Literary Journal, The Opiate Magazine, The Ocotillo Review, Jerry Jazz Musician, Typehouse Literary Magazine, Tahoma Literary Review, Big Muddy, Spoon Knife, Peauxdunque Review, and elsewhere. Midwestern-raised, she now lives and writes on the coast of Southern California and holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Pacific University Oregon. MONARCH: Stories (Black Lawrence Press, 2024) is her debut collection.

Scott Semegran is an award-winning writer of nine books. BlueInk Review described him best as “a gifted writer, with a wry sense of humor.” His latest novel, The Codger and the Sparrow (Paperback from TCU Press, Audiobook from Vibrance Press), is a comical yet moving story about a 65-year-old widower’s unlikely friendship with a 16-year-old troublemaker. His eight previous books include The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island, which was the first-place winner for Middle-Grade/Young Adult fiction in the 2021 Writer’s Digest Book Awards, and To Squeeze a Prairie Dog, which was the winner of the 2020 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Gold Medal for Humor. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife. They have four kids, two cats, and a dog. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in English. Scott Semegran is co-host of the web series Austin Liti Limits along with fellow writer Larry Brill.

Smushed Blueberries

Smushed Blueberries: Stories, Poems & Other Juice is an open mic reading series held at Epoch Coffee's Village location in North Austin on the last Sunday of the month. This welcoming and intimate event is a safe space for writers to share their stories, poems, plays, satires, and diary entries, or simply sit and listen.

Featuring:
Hollie Hardy

Hosted by: Meg Jerit

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Sunday, July 28, 2024
5pm

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Epoch Coffee Village
2700 W Anderson Ln #409
Austin, TX

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Free Event

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Hollie Hardy is a writer, educator, and author of the newly released Lions Like Us (Red Light Lit Press) and How to Take a Bullet: And Other Survival Poems (Punk Hostage Press) winner of the Annual Poetry Center Book Award at San Francisco State University. She holds an MFA in Poetry from SFSU, teaches private writing workshops online, and hosts the long-running monthly reading series Saturday Night Special: A Virtual Open Mic. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and published in numerous anthologies and literary journals including Bay Area Generations, Cobalt Poets, Colossus, The Common, Dispatches from Quarantine, Eleven Eleven, Fourteen Hills, Migozine, Milvia Street Journal, Mixed Bag of Tricks, Parthenon West Review, Passionfruit Review, sPARKLE & bLINK, Transfer, and elsewhere. She lives in Austin, TX.

SNS | 7-27-24

Join us online for an evening of literary performance and open mic reading

Featuring: Dale Bridges & Theory

Theme: The Movies
(scroll down for writing prompt)

Hosted By: Hollie Hardy

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Saturday July 27, 2024
6:00pm Pacific Time
(8:00pm Central time)

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Online Event
Free Admission

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Sign Up in Advance to Get on the Open Mic List

The theme is optional | Time limit is not optional
Please plan ahead and keep your reading to 3 MINUTES MAX
Scroll down for monthly writing prompt

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Join Event on Zoom

Meeting ID: 821 7948 2345

Passcode: 568249

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Author Bios

Dale Bridges is a fiction writer, essayist, and painter. His work has appeared in more than thirty publications, including The Rumpus, The Masters Review, and Barrelhouse Magazine. For several years, he was the arts-and-entertainment editor at the Boulder Weekly, where he won journalism awards for his feature writing and cultural criticism. He has published a book of short stories Justice, Inc. (Monkey Puzzle Press) and a novel called The Mean Reds (SFA Press). He currently lives in Austin and works at the library.

Billy Song aka Theory is a poet and writer from New York City. He has a Bachelors in Film Making and an MFA in Fiction from the University of San Francisco, and is publishing his first novel. With Liz Cahill, he is the co-founder and creative director of Decentered Arts, a San Francisco non-profit organization dedicated to building an interconnected community for artists of all mediums. Theory is a resident and volunteer at The Center SF and works as a senior video editor for Vox.

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Write with Friends! Register for The Write-In!

LET’S WORK ON THE THEME TOGETHER!

Join me the week before SNS, on Saturday afternoon, July 22, for the monthly Write-In, a generative online workshop with Hollie Hardy.

Write-In Details/ Sign Up

July Writing Prompt: The Movies

In the last 100 years, perhaps no other artistic medium has provided more fodder for poetry than the cinema. Movies have become central to the poetic imagination, whether the poet celebrates the movies or reacts against celluloid saturation. ~Poetry Foundation

Your challenge this month is to write a poem (or 3-minute prose piece, scene, monologue, song, etc) inspired by cinema.

SOME IDEAS:

• Write about the movies in general, a specific movie or actor, a movie genre, a memorable movie-going experience, a Netflix-and-chill session on the couch, an old drive-in, Hollywood, Blockbuster Video, the Oscars, etc.

• Or your writing might borrow some famous movie lines.

• Or borrow the techniques of film, giving your poem or story a cinematic eye, describing the world as a camera might see it, focused on image.

• Or go see a movie or watch one at home, but do it like a writer. Take notes, make observations, when it's done (or pause anytime) write a poem, story, scene, or monologue.

As ever, the theme is optional—an invitation, not a requirement; feel free to interpret loosely or ignore. Below are some poems about movies, some funny, some serious, to inspire you.

FOR INSPIRATION

"Ode to Patrick Swayze" by Tishani Doshi

"Sean Penn Anti-Ode" by Dean Young

"Anna May Wong Has Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Sally Wen Mao

"The James Bond Movie" by May Swenson

"Video Blues" by Mary Jo Salter

"Scary Movies" by Kim Addonizio

"Everything's a Fake" by Fanny Howe

"Ave Maria" by Frank O'Hara

"Charlie Chaplin Impersonates a Poet" by Cornelius Eady

"The Last Movie," by Rachel Hadas

NOTE: The SNS writing prompts will soon be integrated into my new subscription service, Praxis Poetry: Weekly Prompts for Poets

Red Light Lit: Seattle

Join us for an evening of poetry, stories, and live music, exploring themes of love, sex, and relationships in celebration of Hollie Hardy’s newly released poetry collection, Lions Like Us published by Red Light Lit Press.

Featuring:

Hollie Hardy
Amber Flame
Josh Mohr
Nick Jaina

Music:

Mary Simich

Hosted By: Jennifer Lewis

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Saturday, July 20, 2024
7pm

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Base Camp Studios 2
1901 3rd Ave.
Seattle, WA

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$20

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Author Bios

Hollie Hardy is a poet, educator, and award-winning author of Lions Like Us (Red Light Lit Press, 2024) and How to Take a Bullet, And Other Survival Poems (Punk Hostage Press, 2014). She holds an MFA in Poetry from SFSU and teaches private poetry workshops online. She is the founder of Praxis Poetry and host of the long-running monthly reading series Saturday Night Special, a Virtual Open Mic. Publications include The Common, Fourteen Hills, Colossus, Eleven Eleven, MiGoZine, Poetry Superhighway, sPARKLE & bLink, Parthenon West Review, and other journals. She lives in Austin, TX.

 
Amber Flame is an interdisciplinary artist whose work garnered residencies with Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, and more. Her first poetry collection, Ordinary Cruelty, was published through Write Bloody Press. Flame is a recipient of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture's CityArtist grant and served as Hugo House's 2017-2019 Writer-in-Residence for Poetry. Amber Flame is a queer Black dandy in Tacoma, Washington, who falls hard for a jumpsuit and some fresh kicks.

 
Joshua Mohr is the author of the memoirs Model Citizen (2021) and Sirens, as well as five novels including Damascus, which The New York Times called “Beat-poet cool." He's also written Fight Song and Some Things that Meant the World to Me, one of O Magazine's Top 10 reads of 2009 and a San Francisco Chronicle best-seller, as well as Termite Parade, an Editors' Choice in The New York Times. His novel All This Life won the Northern California Book Award. He is the founder of Decant Editorial.

 
Jennifer Lewis is a writer, editor, and publisher of Red Light Lit. Her debut short story collection, The New Low (Black Lawrence Press), was an SPD Bestseller. She is the winner of the Nomadic Press Bindle Award and The Los Angeles Review Flash Fiction Award. Her fiction has appeared in publications such as Cosmonauts Avenue, Midnight Breakfast, The Los Angeles Press, and CRAFT, among others. Additionally, her most recent nonfiction work has been featured in The Rumpus, Alta Journal, and Joshua Tree Voice. She received her MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University. Jennifer teaches at The Writing Salon in San Francisco.
 

Nick Jaina is an author and musician living in Oakland, California. His 2015 memoir Get It While You Can was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. His work has appeared in McSweeney's, Atlantic Monthly, Wilderness House Review, Somnambulist, Oregon Journal of the Humanities, and many other places. His newest book SPEKTRUM is out now. He has composed music scores for feature films, such as the indie comedy All Sorts and the forest fire documentary Elemental. He also co-founded a ballet collective in New York City, in which he was the musical composer and worked with dancers from Juilliard and New York City Ballet and performed works at the Baryshnikov Center and BAM Center for the Arts. Thus far, Nick has recorded (at least) 16 studio albums.

 
Mary Simich effortlessly infuses a timeless soul into her music. Renowned for her haunting ballads and dusty voice reminiscent of mid-century artists, Mary captivates audiences with her original compositions on the acoustic guitar. Her album, How Does Time Begin, released under Khanabilism/Ernest Jenning Records, is available across all major streaming platforms.

Red Light Lit: Portland

Bring a chair!!
Join us for an evening of al fresco poetry and live music, exploring themes of love and relationships in celebration of Hollie Hardy’s newly released poetry collection, Lions Like Us published by Red Light Lit Press.

Featuring:

Hollie Hardy
Jessie Carver
Justin Rigamonti
Jennifer Lewis
Charity Yoro
Armin Tolentino

Live Music:

Nick Jaina
Mary Simich

Hosted By: Jennifer Lewis

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Friday, July 19, 2024
7pm

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Grover’s Curiosity Shop
1410 SE Clinton St.
Portland, OR

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Free Event

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Author Bios

Hollie Hardy is a writer, educator, and author of Lions Like Us (Red Light Lit Press) and How to Take a Bullet: And Other Survival Poems (Punk Hostage Press) winner of the Annual Poetry Center Book Award at San Francisco State University. She holds an MFA in Poetry from San Francisco State University and teaches private writing workshops online. She is the founder of Praxis Poetry: Weekly Prompts for Poets, and host of Saturday Night Special: A Virtual Open Mic. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and published in numerous anthologies and literary journals. She lives in Austin, TX. Learn more at: holliehardy.com

Charity E. Yoro (she/her) is a steward of words and other beings. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Rumpus, poets.org, Tupelo Quarterly, and elsewhere, and has been supported by Regional Arts & Culture Council and Sustainable Arts Foundation. Born, raised, and educated on the east side of O‘ahu, she currently lives west of the Willamette with her wild, loving family.

Jessie Carver is a queer writer and editor who lives in Portland, Oregon, but grew up on a farm in the borderlands of New Mexico. Jessie’s short stories and poems have appeared in various literary journals and the anthology Love Is the Drug & Other Dark Poems, and she co-authored the nonfiction book Rethinking Paper & Ink: The Sustainable Publishing Revolution. She won the 2024 Phyllis Grant Zellmer Prize for Fiction. You can find her online at jessiecarver.com.

Justin Rigamonti teaches English at Portland Community College and serves as the Program Coordinator for the Carolyn Moore Writing Residency. His poems have been recently published or are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Radar, New Ohio Review, Thrush, and Smartish Pace, and his poem “The Secret” is forthcoming in the anthology Poetry of Grief, Gratitude, and Reverence from Wisdom Publications.

Armin Tolentino is the author of the collection We Meant to Bring It Home Alive (Alternating Current Press) and served as poet laureate for Clark County, WA from 2021-2023. He is a phenomenal clapper, a passable ukulele player, and a bumbling, but enthusiastic, fisherman. More info at www.armintolentino.com.

Jennifer Lewis is a writer, editor, and publisher of Red Light Lit. Her debut short story collection, The New Low (Black Lawrence Press), was an SPD Bestseller. She is the winner of the Nomadic Press Bindle Award and The Los Angeles Review Flash Fiction Award. She received her MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University and her writing is widely published in magazines and journals. Jennifer teaches at The Writing Salon in San Francisco and is a staff writer for Alta Journal.

Nick Jaina is an author and musician living in Oakland, California. His latest book SPEKTRUM was released in 2022 by Modern Mythographer press. His 2015 memoir Get It While You Can was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. His work has appeared in McSweeney's, Atlantic Monthly, Somnambulist, and many other places. He has composed music scores for feature films and a documentary and he co-founded a ballet collective in New York City.

Mary Simich is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, with a dusty voice reminiscent of a reincarnated mid-century artist. Listen on Bandcamp

SNS | 6-29-24

Join us online for an evening of literary performance and open mic reading

Featuring: Susana Praver-Pérez & Isra Cheema

Theme: Throwback
(scroll down for writing prompt)

Hosted By: Hollie Hardy

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Saturday June 29, 2024
6:00pm Pacific Time
(8:00pm Central time)

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Online Event
Free Admission

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Sign Up in Advance to Get on the Open Mic List

The theme is optional | Time limit is not optional
Please plan ahead and keep your reading to 3 MINUTES MAX
Scroll down for monthly writing prompt

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Join Event on Zoom

Meeting ID: 861 9795 9446

Passcode: 609721

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Author Bios

Isra Cheema (she/they) is a queer, Pakistani, spiritual Muslim witch, and poet from the heart of Oklahoma. She holds an MFA from Texas State University and is the Poetry Editor of Porter House Review. She has work forthcoming or published in Ghost City Press, Thin Air Magazine, Gigantic Sequins, and elsewhere. She lives somewhere in between Austin and San Marcos with her two cats, AJ and Rosy. IG: @tiramisruu

Susana Praver-Pérez is a Pushcart-nominated, bilingual poet and visual artist. A former Physician Assistant and Associate Medical Director at La Clinica de la Raza in Oakland, California, Susana left medicine in 2021 after four decades of community service, to pursue her passion for poetry and art on a full-time basis. Susana studied Creative Writing at Berkeley City College, Naropa Institute, U.C. Berkeley’s “Poetry for the People,” and at countless community-based classes. She is an alumna of both Macondo and Las Dos Brujas Writers’ Workshops. Her first full-length book of poetry Hurricanes, Love Affairs, and Other Disasters received the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature (2022). Her second full-length collection Return Against the Flow, published by Black Lawrence Press in 2024, was chosen by both Ms. Magazine and NYU’s Latinx Project as their top 30+ poetry picks for the year. Susana divides her time between Oakland, California and San Juan, Puerto Rico and writes through the lens formed in the liminal space between languages, cultures, and geographies.
website: susanapraverperez.com FB: @susana.praverperez IG: @la.doctora.susana

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Write with Friends! Register for The Write-In!

LET’S WORK ON THE THEME TOGETHER!

Join me the week before SNS, on Saturday afternoon, June 22, for the monthly Write-In, a generative online workshop with Hollie Hardy.

Write-In Details/ Sign Up

June Writing Prompt: Throwback

This month’s theme is inspired by the social media trend Throwback Thursday (#tbt) in which people post old photos and share memories for nostalgia or humor, and reflect on the past.

Throwback refers to an atavistic return to previous times—an older way of doing something, the fashion or art or technology of an earlier era, a regression or look backward

Write a poem (or short prose piece) inspired by this month’s theme.

SOME IDEAS:

• Get out the box of old photos, or scroll through your social media feed, or go through pics on your phone (the AI generated “for you” and “remember when” albums are always full of surprises) Let one or more of these photos trigger a memory or story to pull you onto the page. Or start a poem composed of photo captions.

• A poem in snapshots; fragments of memories

• Describe a throw back version of you—when you had different hair and clothes, hobbies, goals, beliefs,  attitudes, friends 

• Write about an earlier time in your life (or in the life of your kids, parents, grandparents) or another era in history

• Reflect on the retro details of you childhood, your 20s, 30s, the 1970s, the family vacation, the Roman Empire 

• Respond to a throwback meme—I get them all the time for 80s stuff, often they are checklists of things that “you are old if you remember”—rotary phones, corduroy pants, old Atari games, VCRs, Cabbage Patch Dolls, Red Rover, crimped hair, passing notes, roller skating, side ponytails, latch key kids, JC penny’s catalogs, boom boxes (the music of your youth). What are the hallmarks of your youth or another time period that feels totally different from now? Let some of those details into your writing.

• Write about your old neighborhood before you moved or it changed (or you did) 

As ever, the theme is optional—an invitation, not a requirement; feel free to interpret loosely or ignore. The following sample poems offer a variety of different topics and techniques to inspire you. Enjoy!

FOR INSPIRATION

Throwback Night, Midway Skating Rink by Brittany Rogers

Equestrian Monuments (A Litany) by Luis Chaves (translated by Julia Guez and Samantha Zighelboim

Back Then by Trish Crapo

Hip Hop Analogies by Tara Betts

The Throwback by Paul Muldoon

Olympic Drive by Kyle Dargan

Acknowledgments by Danez Smith

The Bad Old Days by Kenneth Rexroth

Balance by Dorianne Laux

Bad Hair Day by Jeffrey McDaniel (short prose)

Charles Bukowski, Family Guy (memoir, essay)

NOTE: The SNS writing prompts will soon be integrated into my new subscription service, Praxis Poetry: Weekly Prompts for Poets

Red Light Lit Austin: Dark Waters

Plunge into a world of love and intrigue, where shadows conceal the heart’s secrets and only the brave survive the depths!

FEATURING:

Poetry
Hollie Hardy
Diego de Stefano
Shannon Percell
Lala Daniel

Burlesque
Coneja

Comedy
Angelina Martin

Music
Brandix

Live Drawing
Holly Cerna

Hosted By: Loria Mendoza

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Friday, June 28, 2024
10pm

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Dark Horse
1209 E. Cesar Chavez St.
Austin, TX

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$15 Suggested Donation
No one turned away

Red Light Lit: Wonder Valley

Join us in the desert for a red hot evening of poetry, stories, and live music, exploring themes of love, sex, and relationships in celebration of Hollie Hardy’s newly released poetry collection, Lions Like Us published by Red Light Lit Press.

Featuring:

Kevin Bone
Hollie Hardy
Shawanda Gatson
Natasha Dennerstein
Joanna Szachowska
Susan Rukeyser
Anna Tyson
Dan Thomas
DW

Live Music:

Landroid
Matt Stevenson

Hosted By: Jennifer Lewis

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Saturday, June 15, 2024
7pm

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The Palms in Wonder Valley
83131 Amboy Rd
Twentynine Palms, CA

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$10 at the Door

Red Light Lit: LA

Beyond Baroque presents: Red Light Lit with Hollie Hardy

Join us for an evening of poetry exploring themes of love, sex, and relationships in celebration of Hollie Hardy’s newly released poetry collection, Lions Like Us published by Red Light Lit Press.

Featuring:

Jeffrey Bryant
Dennis Cruz
Natasia Dennerstein
Rich Ferguson
Hollie Hardy
Traci Kato-Kiriyama
Rick Lupert
K.R. Morrison
Linda Ravenswood
Dig Wayne

Hosted By: Jennifer Lewis

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Friday, June 14, 2024
8pm

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Beyond Baroque
681 N. Venice Blvd.
Venice, CA

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Free Event

Book tour donations welcome!!

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Author Bios

Jeffrey Bryant is a Pushcart-nominated queer poet/writer who lives in Los Angeles.  His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, Poetic Diversity, the New Verse News, Poetrysuperhighway.com, Synchroniciti Magazine and Quill and Echo. His work has also appeared in the anthologies The Coiled Serpent from Tia Chucha Press; the 2020 Altadena Literary Review from Shabda Press; Shadowplay Literary Journal from the University of Arkansas and Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts from Mystic Boxing Commission Press.

Dennis Cruz is a vital poet who inhabits the voice of the perpetual outsider and the purely American dissident. He has been writing, performing and publishing his work for over 30 years. His latest collection of Poetry THE BEAST IS WE is out now via Punk Hostage Press.

Natasha Dennerstein was born in Melbourne, Australia. She has an MFA from San Francisco State University. Natasha has had poetry published in many journals internationally, including The North American Review and Spoon River Poetry Review. Her collections Anatomize (2015), Triptych Caliform (2016) and her novella-in-verse About a Girl (2017) were published by Norfolk Press in San Francisco. Her trans chapbook Seahorse (2017) was published by Nomadic Press in Oakland and is now available through Black Lawrence Press. Broken: A Life of Aileen Wuornos in 33 poems was published in 2021 by Be About It Press. She lives in Alameda, California, where she is a freelance editor. She was a 2018 Fellow of the Lambda Literary Writer’s Retreat and writer-in-residence there in fiction in 2023. Forthcoming in 2024 is Apps Poetica from The LA Press

L.A. poet/spoken-word performer Rich Ferguson has shared the stage with Patti Smith, Wanda Coleman, Moby, and other esteemed poets and musicians.  He is a featured performer in the film, What About Me? featuring Michael Stipe, Michael Franti, k.d. lang, and others. His poetry and award-winning spoken-word music videos have appeared in numerous anthologies and festivals. He is the author of the novel New Jersey Me (Rare Bird Books), and two poetry collections 8th & Agony (Punk Hostage Press), and Everything is Radiant Between the Hates (Moon Tide Press). Most recently, Ferguson is the lead editor of an anthology of CA poets entitled Beat Not Beat (Moon Tide Press).

Hollie Hardy is a writer, educator, and author of the newly released Lions Like Us (Red Light Lit Press) and How to Take a Bullet: And Other Survival Poems (Punk Hostage Press) winner of the Annual Poetry Center Book Award at San Francisco State University. She holds an MFA in Poetry from SFSU, teaches private writing workshops online, and hosts the long-running monthly reading series Saturday Night Special: A Virtual Open Mic. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and published in numerous anthologies and literary journals including Bay Area Generations, Cobalt Poets, Colossus, The Common, Dispatches from Quarantine, Eleven Eleven, Fourteen Hills, Migozine, Milvia Street Journal, Mixed Bag of Tricks, Parthenon West Review, Passionfruit Review, sPARKLE & bLINK, Transfer, and elsewhere. She lives in Austin, TX. Learn more at: holliehardy.com

traci kato-kiriyama (they+she) is an award-winning multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary artist, recognized for their work as a writer, performer, theatre deviser, cultural producer, and community organizer. Their recognition & support includes the Art Matters Foundation; the CA State Senate Breaking Silence Award; ONE Archives Pride Publics; and the NEFA National Theatre Project for TALES OF CLAMOR and PULLproject Ensemble. tkk’s writing, commentary and work appears in numerous media and print publications (including NPR; PBS; Elle.com; Entropy; Chaparral Canyon Press; Tia Chucha Press; Bamboo Ridge Press; Heyday Books; Temple UP).

Rick Lupert is the recipient of the 2017 Ted Slade Award, the 2014 recipient of the Beyond Baroque Distinguished service award for service to poetry in Southern California, and a 3-time Pushcart and one time Best of the Net nominee. He created Poetry Super Highway the daily haiku site Haikuniverse and hosted the weekly Cobalt Cafe reading for almost 21 years. (Which lives on as a Zoom series.) He’s authored 28 collections of poetry (most recently It’s Spritz O’Clock Somewhere). He writes a weekly Jewish poetry column for JewishJournal.com and created the daily web comic Cat and Banana with Brendan Constantine.

K.R. Morrison is a Bay Area poet, drummer, and teen educator who since the pandemic, splits her time between San Francisco and a place she calls Mermaid Town, in Southern California. Morrison is a two-time Pushcart nominee and has featured for several curations and podcasts for her first collection of poetry, Cauldrons, published by PaperPress Books. Morrison seeks to cocreate with other artists and educators to construct fresh new communities that liberate families and their youth from old toxic forms of patriarchy. These days she engages this through writing workshops, teen life coaching, and divine feminine cultivation within the juvenile hall injustice system, in Southern California. Morrison’s poetry can be found in several publications, and in 9 anthologies in 2023. She plans to release a new collection soon titled, “From her Wrist.”"

 Linda Ravenswood BFA MA, PhD, is a poet and performance artist from Los Angeles. Her accolades include an Oxford Prize in Poetry (2022) and the Edwin Markham Prize in Poetry (2023). She is the founding editor of The Los Angeles Press, est. 2018, and the co-founder of the Poet Laureate program in Glendale, California. Her recent collections include Cantadora—letters from California (Eyewear London/The Black Spring Press Group, 2023), The Stan Poems (Pedestrian Press, 2022), Tlacuilx—Tongues in Quarantine (HINCHAS Press, 2021), and XLA Poets (HINCHAS Press, 2020). Find her at thelosangelespress.com

Los Angeles poet Dig Wayne teaches Method Acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in West Hollywood. Originally from Ohio, Dig has lived, worked, and practiced his art in New York City and London. He has published two books of poetry, Hip Pockets and Bongo Skin. His recent collection, One Fell Swoop was published by innateDIVINITYbooks. His poetry has been featured in the literary journals, High Shelf Press XXIX, Juke Joint, Ligeia Magazine, Askew Poetry, Spillway Poetry, Abramlin Press and more recently, the Anthology of Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts.

Book Soup

Red Light Lit and Book Soup present

New works — an evening reading, Q&A, and book signing

Featuring:

Hollie Hardy (Lions Like Us)

Emily Jon Tobias (MONARCH: Stories)

Arthur Kayzakian (The Book of Redacted Paintings)

Jennifer Lewis (The New Low)

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Thursday, June 13, 2024
7pm

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Book Soup
8818 Sunset Blvd
West Hollywood, CA

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Free Event

Red Light Lit: SF

Red Light Lit presents: Lions Like Us

Join us for an evening of poetry, storytelling, and live music exploring themes of love, sex, and relationships in celebration of Hollie Hardy’s newly released poetry collection, published by Red Light Lit Press.

Featuring:

Peter Bullen
Liz Cahill
Miah Jeffra
Loria Mendoza
Christine No
Kelechi Ubozoh
Matthew Zapruder
Hollie Hardy

Live Music:

Sass N Harmony

Hosted By: Jennifer Lewis

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Sunday, June 9, 2024
7pm

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Make-Out Room
3225 22nd ST.
San Francisco, CA

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Tickets $15 at the door

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Author Bios

Hollie Hardy is a writer, educator, and author of the newly released Lions Like Us (Red Light Lit Press) and How to Take a Bullet: And Other Survival Poems (Punk Hostage Press) winner of the Annual Poetry Center Book Award at San Francisco State University. She holds an MFA in Poetry from SFSU, teaches private writing workshops online, and hosts the long-running monthly reading series Saturday Night Special: A Virtual Open Mic. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and published in numerous anthologies and literary journals including Bay Area Generations, Cobalt Poets, Colossus, The Common, Dispatches from Quarantine, Eleven Eleven, Fourteen Hills, Migozine, Milvia Street Journal, Mixed Bag of Tricks, Parthenon West Review, Passionfruit Review, sPARKLE & bLINK, Transfer, and elsewhere. She lives in Austin, TX. Learn more at: holliehardy.com

Matthew Zapruder is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently I Love Hearing Your Dreams, forthcoming from Scribner in September 2024, as well as two books of prose: Why Poetry (Ecco, 2017) and Story of a Poem (Unnamed, 2023). He is editor at large at Wave Books, where he edits contemporary poetry, prose, and translations. From 2016-7 he held the annually rotating position of Editor of the Poetry Column for the New York Times Magazine, and was the Editor of Best American Poetry 2022. He teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing at Saint Mary’s College of California.

Peter Thomas Bullen cuts hair by day and writes by night. He could use more sleep. His book Wallflower was described by Joshua Mohr this way: \This strange bullet of a book reads like a lovely mash-up of John Barth and Gary Lutz. Bullen has a keen eye for bringing the pathos of our age to light./ His many live readings for the Quiet Lightning series can be found on YouTube. His work has appeared in Los Angeles Review of Books and sPARKLE & bLINK, among other places. 

Liz Cahill is a poet, producer and curator based in the Mission. Her writing explores the impacts of late stage capitalism, income inequality and waste, while trying to find beauty in the garbage age. She’s the co-founder of Decentered Arts, a non-profit building resilient community through art of all mediums. She’s the co-host of Decentered at The Center weekly open mic and co-founder of the Poolside Poets reading series. Her writing can be found on her instagram @liz.cahll  

Miah Jeffra is author of four books—most recently The Violence Almanac (finalist for several awards, including the Grace Paley and Robert C Jones Book Prizes) and the novel American Gospel, finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award—and is co-editor of the anthology Home is Where You Queer Your Heart. Work can be seen in StoryQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, The North American Review, Barrelhouse, DIAGRAM, storySouth and many others. Miah is co-founder of Whiting Award-winning queer and trans literary collaborative, Foglifter Press, and teaches writing and decolonial studies at Sonoma State University.

 Loria Mendoza is a queer Chicanx writer, curator, and performance artist from Austin, Texas. Their book, Life’s Too Short (Fourteen Hills Press) won the Michael Rubin Book Award and their debut book of poetry, The Body Can Tolerate is forthcoming in 2025. They are the curator and host of Red Light Lit Austin, Director of Events for the South Austin Art Project, COO of the Austin Arts Foundation, and a big time believer in the healing power of art, community, storytelling, and love. Follow them @textualseduction.  

Christine No is a Korean American poet, filmmaker, and daughter of immigrants. She is a Sundance Alum, VONA Fellow, two-time Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Nominee. She has served as Assistant Features Editor for the Rumpus, as Fellow, then as a Program Coordinator for VONA. Currently, Christine is board member with Quiet Lightning, a Bay Area literary nonprofit and works as the Advocacy Program Manager at ARTogether, an organization committed to using art and storytelling to build and empower newcomer immigrant and refugee communities; and to promote healing, cultural humility, and intercommunity connection.

Kelechi Ubozoh is a Nigerian-American writer and mental health advocate. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, she was the first undergraduate published in The New York Times. Her book with LD Green, We’ve Been Too Patient, elevates marginalized voices of lived experience who have endured psychiatric mistreatment. Her work is featured in Argot Magazine, Multiplicity, Essential Truths, sParkle & bLINK, Trauma, Tresses, & Truth, and When We Exhale. She co-hosts the Bay Area reading series MoonDrop Productions with Cassandra Dallett and has received a Pushcart Prize nomination. Learn more at kelechiubozoh.com.