Join us for a reading by poet Melissa Balmain, followed by an open mic. This is the 18th event of our 100th Anniversary Year Celebration.
The event will be held via Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/79174572720
If you already have Zoom installed on your smartphone or computer, you can simply use the meeting ID 791 7457 2720 and then click on Join Meeting and wait to be admitted by the host.
Melissa Balmain edits Light, the country's longest-running journal of humorous poetry (founded in 1992 by John Mella, and now entirely online). She also teaches in the English Department at the University of Rochester.
Her poems have appeared in The American Bystander, Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry, The Hopkins Review, Measure, The New Criterion, Poetry Daily, The Washington Post, and many anthologies.
Her prose has been in The New Yorker, The New York Times, McSweeney’s, and elsewhere. Her non-fiction book, Just Us: Adventures and Travels of a Mother and Daughter is a delightful account of a kayaking trip in British Columbia with her mom.
Melissa's poetry collection Walking in on People was chosen by X.J. Kennedy for the Able Muse Book Award, and it's been described by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins as "an infectious, often hilarious blend of the sweet and the lethal, the charming and the acidic." Her next book, The Witch Demands a Retraction: Fairy-tale Reboots for Adults, is due out next year from Humorist Books.
Our readings are FREE and open to the public.
Melissa's reading is funded in part by Poets & Writers with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.