2010 Readings

January 30, 2010 — Cat Rambo (fiction)

Cat Rambo’s work has appeared in such places as Asimov’s, Weird Tales, and Strange Horizons. Her collection, Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight, appeared in 2009, following her collaboration with Jeff VanderMeer, The Surgeon’s Tales and Other Stories, in 2007. She is the managing editor of the online publication, Fantasy Magazine. Laird Barron said of her work: “Cat Rambo possesses a rare and enviable eye for the sweet intersection of melancholy and bliss, of darkness and light. Crisp, deft, and remarkably nuanced, these tales are exquisite in their richness and beauty. Rambo has, in one stroke, established herself as a formidable presence among contemporary fantasists.”

February 26, 2010 — Rebecca Meredith (poet, Redmond’s first poet laureate)

Rebecca Meredith is a poet, writer, and psychotherapist, as well as a RASP cofounder, who served as its coordinator and president for years. Her work has been published in numerous literary magazines and anthologies, and performed in such venues as the Burning Word Poetry Festival, the Seattle Moon Viewing Festival, Redmond’s Arts in the Park, and on KUOW’s The Beat. Her chapbook, Intergenerational Delta Blues, was published by Pudding House Press. She is a fellow of the Jack Straw Writers’ Program, an alumna of Hedgebrook Women Writers’ Colony, and was recently appointed the first poet laureate of the City of Redmond. Read about Rebecca’s appointment in the Redmond Reporter.

March 26, 2010 — Jared Leising (poet)

Jared Leising is the author of a chapbook, The Widows and Orphans of Winesburg, Ohio, and his poems have appeared in various Washington publications, such as Pontoon, Crab Creek Review, StringTown, as well as on Metro Buses and local radio. He has worked as a writer-in-residence for Ballard and Nathan Hale High Schools, been a nominee for Seattle Poet Populist, and before moving to Seattle, he received his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Houston. Currently, he teaches English at Cascadia Community College, serves on the board of directors at 826 Seattle, and is the curator for the 2010 Jack Straw Writers Program.

April 30, 2010 — Martha Silano (poet)

Martha Silano is the author of two poetry collections, What the Truth Tastes Like and Blue Positive. Her poems have appeared widely in such places as Paris Review, AGNI, TriQuarterly, and American Poetry Review, and in more than a dozen anthologies, including American Poetry: The Next Generation and Starting Today: 100 Poems for Obama’s First 100 Days. Martha has been a fellow at the Millay Colony for the Arts, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the University of Arizona Poetry Center, and she was the 2004 Margery Davis Boyden Writing Resident. Martha teaches at Bellevue College, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize seven times. Martha has a website, and a blog.

May 28, 2010 — Gerri Russell (novelist)

Gerri Russell has done it all when it comes to writing; she’s worked as a broadcast journalist, newspaper reporter, magazine columnist, technical writer and editor, and instructional designer, which all finally led her to follow her heart’s desire of being a romance novelist. A two-time recipient of the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart award, and winner of the American Title II competition sponsored by Dorchester Publishing and Romantic Times BOOKreviews Magazine, she resides in Bellevue, Washington with her husband and three children.

June 25, 2010 — Jack Straw Writers: Denise Calvetti Michaels and Louise Spiegler (poet, novelist)

Denise Calvetti Michaels was awarded the Crosscurrents Prize for Poetry by the Washington Community College Humanities Association for her prose poem “Notes on New Orleans.” Her work is in anthologies such as In Praise of Farmland (Whit Press), Mute Note Earthward (Washington Poets Association), Between Sleeps (En Theos Press), and Beyond Forgetting (Kent State University Press). Polenta, a memoir, is included in The Milk of Almonds: Italian American Woman on Food and Culture (Feminist Press, 2002). Denise teaches psychology at Cascadia Community College where she also coordinates community service projects. She earned an MA in human development from Pacific Oaks College and received the Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award, along with her colleagues, for their work to address institutional racism.

Louise Spiegler writes fiction for young adults though she knows the future may bring change (travel brochures? blues epics? get-well cards?). Her first novel, The Amethyst Road, was published by Clarion in 2005. Set in an alternative Pacific Northwest, it was a finalist for the Andre Norton Award (Hugo-Nebula Awards Program). Her next novel, The Jewel and the Key, will be published by Clarion in 2011, should the stars align properly and revisions progress well. It is set both in modern-day Seattle and Seattle of 1917, as America enters World War I and the Pacific Northwest is convulsed by free speech and workers’ rights battles. The Jack Straw program is providing support and encouragement for her new novel, The Lares, set in Ancient Rome. She teaches history and English at Cascadia Community College, and lives in Seattle with her husband and two sons.

Learn more about the Jack Straw program.

July 30, 2010 — Brenda Cooper (fiction)

Brenda Cooper has published fiction in Analog, Asimov’s, Nature, Daybreak, Strange Horizons, and in multiple other magazines and anthologies. She is the author of the Endeavor award winner for 2008: The Silver Ship and the Sea, and of the sequels, Reading the Wind and Wings of Creation. She coauthored Building Harlequin’s Moon with Larry Niven. Her next book, Mayan December, is coming soon from Prime Books. By day, Brenda is the City of Kirkland’s CIO, and at night and in early morning hours, she’s a futurist and writer. Learn more about Brenda at her blog.

August 27, 2010 — Harold Gross (fiction)

Harold Gross, under his own name and as Gordon Gross (with Eve Gordon), has published fiction in Fantasy and Science Fiction, Analog, Aeon Speculative Fiction, Electric Velocipede, and several anthologies — even a cookbook. Among his awards are the Phobos Short Fiction Award, and an honorable mention from the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (16th Edition). Writing has been the one, long, umbrella career shading all of his other endeavors, including technical writing, systems analyst, and professional actor. Currently, Harold is working on several new short pieces and a novel or two that are, at present, kicking his butt.

September 24, 2010 — Jack Straw Writers:
Katherine Grace Bond, Amber Flame, and Marjorie Manwaring (poets)

Katherine Grace Bond has written or contributed to more than 20 books, including the bestselling Legend of the Valentine (Zonderkidz) and Peculiar Pilgrims: Stories from Left Hand of God, edited by Linda Wendling (Hourglass Books). Katherine has 140 additional publishing credits include short fiction, poetry, essays, and articles (and even a comic strip!). Her work has appeared in Arabesques, Beyond Magazine, and Margin: An Online Journal of Magical Realism. Katherine has focused on teen writers since the early 90s, believing that creative communities save lives. To this end, she teaches teens at Bellevue College in Bellevue, Washington, and at several other schools. She is also the creator of Teen Write, an acting/writing camp modeled on the Hero’s Journey, which holds quarterly overnights and a four-day event in August. She is at work on a Young Adult novel. Find Katherine at www.KatherineGraceBond.com.

Amber Flame is an award-winning artist, activist, and educator who performs extensively in Seattle. Whether exploring rhythmic and harmonic structures as a framework for spoken word or blending voice in song, she tests genre and medium boundaries. Amber’s newest one-woman play, entitled “Hands Above The Covers: Hairy Palms & Other Nightmares of a Church Kid,” is debuting in late June with funding through the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs. She is also currently at work recording a new album of original music with her band, Last of the RedHot Mamas, as well as writing her first novel under the auspices of Jack Straw Artist Support and Writers Programs. She is the big brain behind A Flame Production, a visionary, collective project, as well as a member of Sankofa, an African-American women’s choir.

Marjorie Manwaring lives in Seattle, where she is a freelance writer and an editor for the online poetry and art journal the DMQ Review (www.dmqreview.com). Her work has been published in a variety of journals, and her chapbook Magic Word was published in 2007. Marjorie is a Pushcart Prize nominee, a 2010 Jack Straw Writer, and she has been awarded writing residencies through the Whiteley Center at Friday Harbor on San Juan Island and Artsmith on Orcas Island. You can read more of her work at www.mmanwaring.com.

Learn more about the Jack Straw program.

October 29, 2010 — Matt Briggs (fiction)

Matt Briggs is the author five works of fiction including the novel Shoot the Buffalo, which was awarded an American Book Award in 2006. A new novel, The Strong Man, will be released this fall by The Publication Studio. Recent work has appeared in The Chicago Review, TRNSFR, The Golden Handcuffs Review, and Opium Magazine. He can be found at mattbriggs.wordpress.com.

November 26, 2010

[no reading scheduled because of the Thanksgiving holiday]

December 3, 2010 — Island-Style Holiday Celebration and Island-Style Slam Contest 

RASP is having an island-style holiday celebration and you’re our guests. An evening holiday celebration with a party snack potluck . . . and an Island-Style Slam poetry contest! An Island Style Slam presents three words (or six, or nine, depending on the host) for a nominal “price” that goes into the prize kitty. As fast as competitors can, they write a poem that contains all three/six/nine words and conforms to any poetic form. Or participants can join together in teams to share creation of the poems. The Slam has been a regular feature at RASP since our beginnings, and it’s always a rewarding experience, in the sense of being fun, or—for winners—a few dollars more than you started with.

December 31, 2010

[no reading scheduled]