Snakebird Community Poetry Chapbook Celebration Reading

Celebration reading of the latest volume of SNAKEBIRD, a community chapbook featuring the work of writers in the Big Bend region of Florida. Poets featured in the anthology will read their work. $5.00 Suggested Donation at the door. You can also buy the chapbook online to support Anhinga Press and bring it to the reading to be signed by all the poets! http://www.anhingapress.org/…/snakebird-2021-a-big-bend…
Come for the poetry and stay for the music after!
Poets Reading
Michelle Acker
Marina Brown
Cynie  Cory
Linda Marie Cossa
Niki Costantino
Samiri Hernandez Hiraldo
Rev. David C.  Killeen
Lydia Malone
Jane Terrell
Paula Walborsky
Josephine Yu

All Contributor Bios
Michelle Acker is a Florida-based poet with an MFA from Hollins University. Her work has been published or is forthcoming from Flock, Scoundrel Time, The Florida Review, FreezeRay, and elsewhere, and in the anthology Rewilding: Poems for the Environment by Flexible Press. Her website is michelleackerwriter.com. “Brush Pile” was previously displayed in downtown Tallahassee and distributed to local businesses by the Council on Culture & Arts.

JG Annino’s creative works have appeared in the The Birmingham (AL) Arts Journal, MoSt Poetry Center (CA), Milkweed Editions and National Geographic. She Sang Promise is a Library of Congress National Book Festival selection and Florida Book Awards gold medalist. Connect with this former Tallahassee Democrat staffer at Bookseedstudio https://bookseedstudio.wordpress.com.

Sandy Beck is an educator, writer, and wildlife advocate. As the St. Francis Wildlife Association’s education director, Sandy has devoted her life to caring for injured and orphaned wildlife and teaching our community how to live in harmony with our wild neighbors.

Dawn Betts-Green is a queer hillbilly from the wilds of Alabama with too many degrees, including a PhD in Library & Information Studies. Her poem “Eulogy for Gomer” was included in Bible Belt Queers, and she is currently a Visiting Lecturer, bookseller, and crafter. She can be found on Etsy at The Library Gnome

MARINA BROWN is the author of two novels that won gold medals from the Florida Authors and Publishers Association and another, The Orphan of Pitigliano, that won a gold medal and was selected the 2020 Book of the Year from the Florida Writers Association’s Royal Palm Literary Awards. Her debut poetry volume, The Leaf Does Not Believe It Will Fall, received A FAPA Silver Medal in 2019. Brown writes for the Tallahassee Democrat, Tallahassee Magazine, and other periodicals. She is a former ballet dancer, a painter, and a cellist. Brown’s first book of short stories, When Women Danced With Trees, will appear in Fall 2021.

Cynie Cory is the author of Here on Rue Morgue Avenue (Hysterical Books), American Girl (New Issues Prize), and a chapbook, Self-Portrait as Fiskadoro’s Lover after the End of the World (Finishing Line Press). She is currently a Visiting Teaching Faculty at Florida State University.

Linda Marie Cossa holds an MFA in painting and women’s studies from University of South Florida, a BFA from University of Hawaii, and has been published in the Texas Observer and Hawaii Review. She was nominated by the editor of Blue Hole for a Pushcart Prize.

Nicolette Costantino is a writer, college professor, surfer, and yogi living in Tallahassee, Florida. Her writing has appeared in Elephant Journal, Yoga International, and Apalachee Review. She was a 2019 Midtown Reader Story Slam winner.

Owen Goodwyne practices law and writes in Tallahassee, Florida. His poems appear in The Southern Anthology, Zone 3 of Austin Peay State University, and the National Poetry Competition Anthology. His short stories appear in the Southwest Review, Columbia University Journal, Ontario Review, South Dakota Review, Rio Grande Review, and Crucible.

Barbara Hamby has published seven books of poems, most recently Holoholo (2021). Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, The New Yorker, Poetry, Southern Review, and many other magazines.

Liesel Hamilton is pursuing a PhD at Florida State University. She is the author of Wild South Carolina (Hub City Press) and has been published in Catapult, The Normal School, and Audubon, among other publications. She has received fellowships from George Mason University and the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center. “Drifting” was previously broadcast on WFSU and published in Fall Lines: a literary convergence.

Julie Hauserman is a longtime Florida writer living in Tallahassee who now works for Earthjustice. She is founder and past editor of the state news site, The Florida Phoenix and a former national commentator on National Public Radio. She was a reporter for the St. Petersburg (now Tampa Bay) Times, the Tallahassee Democrat, the Stuart News, and other newspapers. Her work has appeared in the Apalachee Review, the Book of the Everglades, the Wild Heart of Florida, and Between Two Rivers. Her book Drawn to the Deep won a 2019 National Outdoor Book Award for biography.

Samiri Hernández Hiraldo, a finalist for the Paz Prize for Poetry, is the author of poems in English and Spanish in several journals and of four collections. She coordinates poetry events and is a member of poetry groups worldwide. She has a Ph.D. in anthropology and teaches at FAMU. “Feet Apparitions” originally appeared in The Five Legs of the Cat from Saddle Road Press.

Jennifer Schomburg Kanke, originally from Columbus, Ohio, lives in Tallahassee, Florida, where she edits confidential documents for the government. Her work has recently appeared in New Ohio Review, Nimrod, and Salamander. Her chapbook, Fine, Considering, about her experiences undergoing chemotherapy for ovarian cancer, is available from Rinky Dink Press. She serves on the board of directors for Anhinga Press.

David C. Killeen is an Episcopal priest and poet who lives in Tallahassee. From 2010-2021, he served as the rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Tallahassee. Currently, he is a PhD student in Creative Writing at FSU. He looks forward to hearing from you at dkilleen@fsu.edu.

David Kirby teaches at Florida State University. His collection The House on Boulevard St.: New and Selected Poems was a finalist for both the National Book Award and Canada’s Griffin Poetry Prize. His latest books are a poetry collection, Help Me, Information, and a textbook modestly entitled The Knowledge: Where Poems Come From and How to Write Them.

Steve Lapinsky’s work has appeared in journals such as West Branch, Mid-American Review and The Gettysburg Review. He received his MA in poetry from the University of Texas at Austin and his MFA in poetry from Florida State University. He is an instructor at Florida A&M University.

Lydia E. Malone has been writing poetry on and off since the second grade. She’s always strongly identified as a writer throughout her varied careers in technical theatre, hospitality, museums and archives, and now grant management. Her newest foray beyond the pen is designing cross stitch patterns of Florida’s historic architecture.

Jane Terrell graduated from the FSU Creative Writing Program. In 2019, she won the Yellow Jacket Press Florida Poet’s Chapbook Contest for Heartbroke and Lucky. She is currently writing a memoir about the year she spent traveling around the world after the death of her husband.

Paula Walborsky has lived in Tallahassee since 1963. She is a retired family law attorney. This micro-essay and others are her regular posts on Facebook. She is married to Kent Putnam.

Evan T. Wilson is a queer, transgender poet and writer whose works range from creative non-fiction to poetry and multi-media design. He infuses his experiences of racism, homophobia, and his struggle with identity to help bring awareness to these sensitive topics.

Josephine Yu is the author of Prayer Book of the Anxious (Elixir Press, 2016), winner of the Judge’s Prize of the 15th Annual Elixir Press Poetry Awards. She teaches at Keiser University and volunteers with Big Bend Hospice. “Narcissist Revises Tidal Theory” first appeared in Ploughshares (Winter 2013-2014) and then Prayer Book of the Anxious (Elixir Press, 2016).