Open Mic following the Featured Readers — feel free to share one poem, one page.
Free and you’re welcome to just walk but if you get tickets on Eventbrite, it would help us know how many people will attend https://www.eventbrite.com/e/diversecasey-poetry-nights-tickets-321426253577
Casey Community Center, 1 mile north of Shady Grove Metro on 355.
810 S Frederick Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 20877
Alan King is a Caribbean-American poet, whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from Trinidad & Tobago in the early ’70s. He’s a father, husband & author of Crooked Smiling Light (chapbook, Plan B Press, 2021), Point Blank (Silver Birch Press, 2016) & Drift (Aquarius Press, 2012). King’s poetry caught the attention of U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, who said: “Alan King is one of my favorite up-and-coming poets of his generation. His poems are not pop & flash, rather more like a slow dance with someone you’re going to love forever.” He lives with his family in Bowie, MD.
Gregory Luce is the author of Signs of Small Grace (Pudding House Publications), Drinking Weather (Finishing Line Press), Memory and Desire (Sweatshoppe Publications), Tile (Finishing Line) & Riffs & Improvisations (Kelsay Press). His poems have appeared in numerous print and online journals, and in several anthologies, including Written in Arlington (Paycock Press) & This Is What America Looks Like. (Washington Writers Publishing House). In 2014 he was awarded the Larry Neal Award for adult poetry by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Retired from the National Geographic Society, he lives in Arlington, VA, and works as a volunteer writing tutor/mentor for 826DC.
Indran Amirthanayagam produced a “world record” in 2020 publishing three poetry collections written in three different languages. He writes in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese & Haitian Creole. He has published twenty two poetry books, including Isleño (R.I.L. Editores), Blue Window (translated by Jennifer Rathbun) (Diálogos Books), Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant (BroadstoneBooks.com), The Migrant States, Coconuts on Mars, The Elephants of Reckoning (winner 1994 Paterson Poetry Prize), Uncivil War & The Splintered Face: Tsunami Poems. In music, he recorded Rankont Dout. He edits the Beltway Poetry Quarterly; writes a blog; co-directs Poets & Writers Studio International, writes a weekly poem for Haiti en Marche& El Acento; has received fellowships from the Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, The US/Mexico Fund for Culture, the Macdowell Colony. He is a 2021 Emergent Seed grant winner. His poem “Free Bird” has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Hosts The Poetry Channel. New books, including Powèt nan po la (Poet of the Port ) & Origami: Selected Poems of Manuel Ulacia will be published in 2022. Indran publishes poetry books with Sara Cahill Marron at Beltway Editions.
Kelly Bradley is an artist, poet, songwriter & senior product manager in the Washington, DC area where she writes stories & creates apps based on data. Her first collection of poetry, love, loss and the enormity of it all published by FootHills Publishing, addresses themes of grief, joy, love, heartbreak & perseverance. Connect with Kelly via Instagram.
Naomi Thiers grew up in California & Pittsburgh, but her chosen home is Washington-DC/Northern Virginia. She is author of four poetry collections: Only The Raw Hands Are Heaven (WWPH), In Yolo County, She Was a Cathedral (Finishing Line Press) & Made of Air (Kelsay Books). Her poems, book reviews & essays have been published in Virginia Quarterly Review, Poet Lore, Colorado Review & others. Her latest book Made of Air is available at www.kelsaybooks.com or directly from her at this PayPal link (Cost $14, with all profit made going to CASA MD for their DC-area work with local asylum seekers/immigrants if you order
Sara Cahill Marron won’t be able to make it so we will look forward to hearing her another time.
DiVerse Gaithersburg 