The fort gondo poetry series presents innovative local and national poets who have recently published a book or chapbook. The inaugural reading for the series will takeplace Friday, November 11, 2011 at 7 PM, with poets Chris Martin, Ted Mathys and Mary Austin Speaker. Books by the poets will be available at the reading for purchase and signing. Future readings will be announced as theyʼre confirmed. The series is free and open to the public.
Mary Austin Speaker
The series is sponsored in part by All Along Press, who will have limited-edition, hand-printed letterpress broadsides available at each reading — uniquely designed for each poet — as well as a bound anthology at the seasonʼs end.
The Broadsides are available for purchase here.
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ABOUT THE POETS
Chris Martin is the author of American Music (Copper Canyon 2007) and Becoming Weather (Coffee House 2011). He was the editor of Puppyflowers and is the editor of Futurepost, a response blog for Futurepoem books. After stops in San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Brooklyn, he currently lives in the oldest freestanding house in Iowa City with his wife, the poet Mary Austin Speaker.
Ted Mathys is the author of The Spoils (2009) and Forge (2005), both from Coffee House Press. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and his poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, BOMB, Fence, Conjunctions, Jubilat, and elsewhere. Originally from Ohio, he now lives in St. Louis and works in environmental advocacy.
Mary Austin Speaker is the author of the chapbooks, In the End There Were Thousands of Cowboys, Abandoning the Firmament (Menagerie Editions 2009 and 2010), and The Bridge (Push Press 2011). New work has recently appeared in Boog City Reader, Bright Pink Mosquito, Pleiades, Big Bell, 20012, La Fovea, Highchair, New Orleans Review and is forthcoming in Mrs. Maybe. She teaches writing and works as a freelance book designer in Iowa City, where she lives with her husband, Chris Martin.
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ABOUT THE CURATORS AND SPONSORS
Jessica Baran is the Assistant Director of White Flag Projects and a freelance art writer for the Riverfront Times. She is the author of the poetry collection collection Remains to Be Used (Apostrophe, 2010), as well as the chapbook Late and Soon, Getting and Spending (All Along Press, 2011).
Jennifer Kronovet is currently a writer-in-residence at Washington University St. Louis. She is the author of the poetry collection Awayward (BOA Editions, 2009), which was selected by Jean Valentine for the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in the Colorado Review, Fence, Open City, The Nation, Ploughshares, A Public Space, and elsewhere. She is the co-founder and co-editor of Circumference: Poetry in Translation.
fort gondo compound for the arts is a community arts form founded in 2002. For more information please visit www.fortgondo.com.
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