A reading.
Writers Brian Beatty, Paula Cisewski, Shannon Gibney, Carla Hagen, Alison Morse and Teresa Ortiz whip up delicious, low-cost poetry and prose in response to The Austerity Cookbook, an exhibit of emerging visual artists from around the country, curated by he Soap Factory.
Writer bios:
Brian Beatty's jokes, poems and stories have appeared in numerous print and online publications. The August 2009 issue of METRO magazine featured Brian as one of the funniest people in the Twin Cities, based on his stand-up comedy, which he sometimes performs wearing a bear suit.
Paula Cisewski's second poetry collection, Ghost Fargo, was selected by Franz Wright for the 2008 Nightboat Poetry Prize and will appear in the spring of 2010. She is a 2009 SASE/Jerome fellow and the author of Upon Arrival (Black Ocean, 2006) and of three chapbooks.
Shannon Gibney’s poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous publications. Gibney was awarded a 2005 Bush Artist Fellowship and the 2002 Hurston/Wright Award in fiction. Currently, she is at work on a novel that chronicles the journeys of 19th century African Americans who colonized Liberia. She teaches writing, African American topics, and journalism at Minneapolis Community & Technical College.
Carla Hagen is an award-winning Minnesota writer and a graduate of the Hamline MFA program whose work has appeared in printed and on-line anthologies. Her first novel, Hand Me Down My Walking Cane, is set in the Minnesota-Canadian borderlands where she grew up.
Teresa Ortiz is a Mexican-Minnesotan writer, poet, activist and educator. A member of the Twin Cities spoken word artist collective, Palabristas, Teresa has performed in many venues in the Twin Cities. Her poetry is included in two chapbooks: “Under What Bandera, Poems from Minnesota and Califas” and “Outside the Lines: Palabristas Latin@ Word Slingers.” Teresa is also the author of a book of testimonials of indigenous women: “Never Again a World Without Us: Voices of Maya Women from Chiapas, Mexico.”
Alison Morse’s poetry and prose have been published in numerous print and on-line journals. Her short short story, “The Apartment,” was a 2009 mnartist.org miniStories competition winner. She is currently spit-polishing a novel, The Beethoven Frieze, about animators during Yugoslavia’s collapse. She runs TalkingImageConnection.