If, like me, you’re a fan of the Gist Street Reading Series and uncertain how you’ll endure these lonely months when it’s on hiatus, take a look at this announcement:
On January 11th from 7pm-9pm, Union Project will host their monthly reader/writer series UPWords. The evening will highlight esteemed fiction author Sherrie Flick and acclaimed poet Nancy Krygowski.
UPwords, hosted and coordinated by fiction writer Damian Dressick, will be held in the Union Project’s Atrium and is free to the public. The Union Project located at 801 N. Negley Ave. is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing community space to connect, create, and celebrate. Damian teaches creative writing and literature at Robert Morris University, he is also the 2007 winner of Harriette Arnow Award for short fiction.
Sherrie Flick is an award- winning fiction writer whose work has been included in two anthologies from Norton: New Sudden Fiction and Flash Fiction Forward. Nancy Krygowski is a poet and an adult literacy instructor; her first book of poems Velocity won the 2006 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press. Sherrie Flick and Nancy Krygowski are both Assistant Artistic Directors, and co-founders of the Gist Street Reading Series.
UPWords is a free monthly reader writer series that is held at the Union Project the second Friday of every month. More information about the Union Project, and upcoming events can be found at www.unionproject.org.
For more Gist Street joy, please check out the new Gist Street Reading Series Pod-snack. These short monthly podcasts are recordings from past readings — a single poem for example, or a short story, each read by the author. New pod-snacks will be published on the first Friday of each month. The first was Richard Jackson; tomorrow we’ll have Pam Painter reading her story "The New Year." Lovely.
I went to Upwords in December. It was well worth the effort! I enjoyed Ellen Smith’s reading. She coupled some alcholic drinks with yoga postures and had a yogi performing the posture while she read the accompanying poem. Great stuff.
Pod snacks sound cool. Anyone listened to one yet?