Poetry at the Point invites local and regional poets, both established and up-and-coming, for monthly readings on the 4th Tuesday of the month. Traditionally held at Focal Point in Maplewood, the 2020-2021 readings were offered as live-streamed events. Starting in March 2022, readings will be held in-person at Focal Point as well as live-streamed.
Enjoy the livestream via the links below, or on Saint Louis Poetry Center’s Facebook page.
Perugia Press and Saint Louis Poetry Center present acclaimed poets Melody S. Gee, Carolina Hotchandani and Catherine Anderson for a Perugia Press Showcase reading.
Despite massive changes in the publishing industry over the last couple of decades, the small press has remained critical as a home for poetry. This month’s reading will feature three established poets who’ve all shared a common home, Perugia Press. After the poets read their work, they will join in conversation about not only artistic craft but the process of taking a poem, joining it with other poems, and seeing it all the way through to becoming a book.
Melody S. Gee
Melody S. Gee’s first book of poetry, Each Crumbling House, was published by Perugia Press in 2010. Her other books are Dead in the Daylight (Cooper Dillon Books, 2016) and The Convert’s Heart is Good to Eat (Driftwood Press, 2022). Melody’s work has received support from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, and Kundiman. A former English professor, Melody now works in communications and marketing, and lives with her family in St. Louis, Missouri. Her collection of memoir essays is forthcoming from the University of Iowa Press.
Carolina Hotchandani
Carolina Hotchandani is a Latinx/South Asian poet born in Brazil and raised in various parts of the United States. Her debut poetry collection The Book Eaters won the 2023 Perugia Press Prize and was released in September 2023. Hotchandani holds degrees from Brown, Texas State, and Northwestern universities. Her honors include scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Rona Jaffe Foundation, Community of Writers, Tin House Writers’ Workshop, and Napa Valley Writers’ Conference. Her poetry has appeared in AGNI, Alaska Quarterly Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Blackbird, Cincinnati Review, Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner, and other journals. She is a Goodrich Assistant Professor of English in Omaha, Nebraska, where she lives with her husband and daughter.
Catherine Anderson
Catherine Anderson’s most recent book is a memoir, My Brother Speaks in Dreams: Of Family, Beauty & Belonging (Wishing Up Press). She has published four collections of poetry, including, Everyone I Love Immortal (Woodley Press), Woman with a Gambling Mania (Mayapple Press), The Work of Hands (Perugia Press) and In the Mother Tongue (Alice James Books). She has received awards in poetry from the Massachusetts Artist’ Foundation (many years ago), and more recently, the I-70 Review and the Crab Orchard Review. She lives in Kansas City where she works with new immigrants and refugees.