March 17: Figures of Speech Reading Series (come one, come all!)

Once upon a time, I ran a monthly reading series at Barnes & Noble. Then my book and baby were born -- and leaving the house in the evening became a blurry, yester-year fantasy. Starting in 2010, the fabulous Steve Williams and M generously agreed to adopt the reading series. I suppose that makes me the birth mother with visiting privileges. Lucky me!

With new hosts, a new home and a new open mic woven in, the series still offers the same friendly, inspiring spirit of community and features poets you won't ever want to miss.

Join us on St. Patrick's Day at 7:00 for an evening of poetic paradise with John Morrison and Scot Siegel -- and a green surprise or two.

Figures of Speech Reading Series (Previously Poetry for the People Reading Series)
Wednesday, March 17
7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
100th Monkey Studio
110 SE 16th Avenue
Portland, OR

Hosted by Steve Williams and M

JOHN MORRISON

John Morrison earned his MFA from the University of Alabama and received the 2003 C. Hamilton Bailey Poetry Fellowship from Literary Arts. His book, Heaven of the Moment, won the 2006 Rhea & Seymour Gorsline Poetry Competition and was a finalist for the 2008 Oregon Book Award in poetry. His poems have appeared in numerous national literary journals, including the Cimarron Review, Poetry East, Southern Poetry Review, and Poet Lore. He has taught poetry at the University of Alabama and Washington State University, Vancouver, and is a Writer-in-Residence for Literary Arts' Writers in the Schools program in Portland, Oregon.

SCOT SIEGEL

Scot Siegel, a native of Northern California, lives in Lake Oswego with his wife and two daughters. He works as an urban planning consultant and serves on the board of the Friends of William Stafford. Siegel is the author of three volumes of poetry, Some Weather (Plain View Press 2008), the chapbook Untitled Country (Pudding House Publications 2009), and a second chapbook, Skeleton Says, forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. He has received awards and commendations from Aesthetica Magazine (UK), Nimrod International (Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, semi-finalist) and the Oregon State Poetry Association (OSPA). In celebration of Oregon's Sesquicentennial, Poetry Northwest and the Oregon State Library selected Some Weather as one of 150 Outstanding Oregon Poetry Books, one for each year of statehood. Siegel was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2009.