Scroll down for dates. #VelvetRodeo #Poetry #KellyMcQuain
WHAT’S NEXT?
PHILADELPHIA: Feb. 2, 2015. Monday, 6:30. Monday Poets at the Free Library of Philadelphia. 1901 Ben Franklin Parkway. Kelly McQuain reads new poems. Hosted by Lamont Dixon. http://www.freelibrary.org/libserv/monpoets.htm
NEWLY SCHEDULED:
Wed., Feb. 25, 2015 – 7:00-9:00 pm – Fergie’s Pub, Philadelphia. Moonstone Reading with Kasey Jeuds, Kelly McQuain & Eizabeth Scanlon.
Tues., May 19, 2015 – Kelly McQuain reads at Green Line Cafe in West Philadelphia. Hosted by Leonard Gontarek.
ARCHIVE OF PAST EVENTS:
Nov. 9th, 2014 at 5 pm. JUBILANT THICKET: CEBULA, SUZOR, McQUAIN. Head House Books, 19 S. 2nd Street in Philadelphia. Join the Jubilant Thicket Reading Series this Sunday for a rare chance to hear two stellar out-of-town poets, Travis Cebula and Sarah Suzor, and one local yokel (me). Travis has published many collections and spends his summers in Paris! Sarah’s won the Hudson Prize and publishes in amazing journals! Collectively, the two are connected to Naropa, the Left Bank Writers Retreat, Black Lawrence Press, Highway 101 Press, and so much more! I’m so happy to be reading with them. Come and help me give them a warm Philly welcome, and special thanks to Anne-Adele Wright for hosting the series and inviting us.
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THE VELVET RODEO BOOK TOUR–SPRING & SUMMER, 2014
PHILADELPHIA: May 13, 2014. Tuesday, 7 pm. PAINTED BRIDE QUARTERLY Featured Reading at Black Sheep Pub, 247 S. 17th St., Philadelphia. Also featuring poet Teresa Leo, author of Bloom in Reverse. More details are at https://www.facebook.com/events/1435092913406142/.
NEW ORLEANS: May, 2014.
BLOOD JET POETRY SERIES. May 14, 2014. B.J.’s Lounge, 4301 Burgundy St., New Orleans, Louisiana 70117. 8 pm. Hugh Behm-Steinberg, Chris Champagne & Kelly McQuain. Join Kelly at this on-going series of prose and poetry writers. Details at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1433288363593744/?notif_t=plan_user_invited
SAINTS AND SINNERS LITERARY FESTIVAL. Right in the heart of the French Quarter! This is the nation’s liveliest GLBTQ and friends literary event. There are literary parties, panels and readings, with Violet Quill writers Andrew Holleran, Edmund White and Felice Picano serving as three of the esteemed guests this year. The conference starts on Thursday and lasts throughout the weekend. http://sasfest.org/
- Saturday, May 17. 2:30 PM. SLIPPING INTO COSTUME: TELLING OTHER PEOPLE’S STORIES THROUGH POETRY. Whether from newspaper headlines, media coverage, or something witnessed personally, other people’s stories can provoke as strong a desire to respond creatively as can the details of our own lives. However, writing another’s story also raises questions of responsibility, appropriation, and strategy. This panel will consider questions of voice, persona, research, accuracy, and the challenges and great freedoms to be found in writing outside the self. Panelists: Sally Bellerose, Jeff Mann, Brad Richard, and Kay Murphy. Moderator: Kelly McQuain. Hotel Monteleone, Royal Salon B
- Saturday, May 17, 4 PM. SAINTS AND SINNERS READING SERIES: WRITERS READ. Festival authors debut their latest works in our annual reading series. Expect to be entertained, engaged and thrilled by the written word read out loud by authors Dale Chase, Mary Griggs, William Holden, David Holly, Thomas Keith, Kelly McQuain, and Jerry Rabushka. Sponsored by The John Burton Harter Charitable Trust.Hotel Monteleone, Cabildo Room
- Sunday, May 18. 2:30 PM. WRITING ALONE, GROWING TOGETHER, CREATING YOUR OWN WRITING COMMUNITY. Facing and filling the blank page (or Word document) can be the loneliest of pursuits. Writers, editors, and readers are your allies in the solitary pursuit that is the writer’s life. Writing communities, such as our Festival’s gathering, as well as writers groups, offer benefits that include encouragement, critique, networking opportunities, and perhaps most crucially, a resource to help maintain sanity in good and bad times! Join Jameson Currier, who has shaped a unique community as a writer and as publisher of Chelsea Station, for a conversation on how to find your compatriots, create online and offline literary groups, and maintain mutually beneficial connections. He is joined by contributors to the recent anthologies With: New Gay Fiction and Between: New Gay Poetry. Panelists: Jeff Mann, Kelly McQuain, David Pratt, Shawn Syms, and William Sterling Walker. Moderator: Jameson Currier. Hotel Monteleone, Royal Salon C,D
PHILADELPHIA: June 5. Thursday, 7 pm. Big Blue Marble Bookstore in Mt. Airy. Big Blue Marble Reading: JOAN LARKIN, KELLY MCQUAIN, BRIAN TEARE, VIET DINH. June 5, 2014. Thursday, 7:00 pm. Join writers from BLOOM Literary Journal as they celebrate June as Gay Pride Month. Readers include fiction writer Viet Dinh and poets Joan Larkin, Brian Teare and Kelly McQuain. Big Blue Marble Bookstore, 551 Carpenter lane, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19119. (Mt. Airy neighborhood) https://www.facebook.com/events/252657468255098/?context=create&ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming&source=49#
PHILADELPHIA: June 11. Wednesday, 7 pm. MOONSTONE READING SERIES. Fergie’s Pub. Reading with Teresa Leo. Open mic to follow, hosted by Charles Carr.
PHILADELPHIA: June 20. Friday, 5-7 pm. Kelly will co-host the POETDELPHIA literary salon. Details TBA.
ABOUT VELVET RODEO
VELVET RODEO is the recent winner of the Bloom Chapbook Prize, judged by poet C. Dale Young, who wrote of it: “‘The tongue I try to master / is a sticky one, forked and full of tricks,’ is the opening of a poem in Velvet Rodeo, and it becomes a point of return for the collection. These poems understand that to tell the truth, one must lie, play tricks, and even dare to say the unbelievable. Careful and exacting, these poems exact a price from a reader. They linger with you long after you have finished reading them.” Order for only $8 at: http://bloomliteraryjournal.org/shop/velvet-rodeo/
If you’d like a sneak peak at one of the poems in the collection, here’s one that appeared in Bloom: http://bloomliteraryjournal.org/read/poetry/kelly-mcquain/
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Kelly McQuain 