BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//The Notebooks Collective - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://thenotebookscollective.com X-WR-CALDESC:Events for The Notebooks Collective REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20240310T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20241103T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20250309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20251102T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20260308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20261101T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20270314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20271107T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250601T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250601T170000 DTSTAMP:20260504T033031 CREATED:20250402T165448Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250402T165452Z UID:1293-1748790000-1748797200@thenotebookscollective.com SUMMARY:Rumination As Route DESCRIPTION:Crafting Non-linear Personal Narratives with Poet José Angel Araguz \n\n\n\nTraditional storytelling often follows a linear path\, moving steadily from beginning to end. But what happens when we embrace digression\, repetition\, and reflection as essential tools of narrative? In this generative\, discussion-based class\, we will explore how rumination can shape and propel personal narratives\, creating compelling essays that mirror the rhythms of thought itself. Through short readings\, interactive exercises\, and guided writing prompts\, participants will experiment with ways to craft essays that spiral\, double back\, and expand outward—discovering meaning through movement rather than destination. \n\n\n\nThis class is ideal for writers at all levels interested in exploring experimental forms of nonfiction\, deepening their engagement with voice\, and crafting essays that follow the mind’s natural wanderings. \n\n\n\n\n\n Get Tickets\n Get Tickets on Eventbrite\n \n\n \n \n\n\n\nAbout José Angel Araguz\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJosé Angel Araguz\, Ph.D. (he/him/él) is the author most recently of the lyric memoir Ruin & Want (Sundress Publications) as well as the poetry collections Rotura (Black Lawrence Press) and La esperanza espera (Valparaiso Ediciones). His poetry and prose have appeared in Prairie Schooner\, Poetry International\, The Acentos Review\, and Oxidant | Engine among other places. He is an Assistant Professor at Suffolk University where he serves as Editor-in-Chief of Salamander and is also a faculty member of the Solstice Low-Residency MFA Program at Lasell University. He blogs and reviews books at The Influence. URL:https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/rumination-as-route/ CATEGORIES:Workshop/Class ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thenotebookscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/non-linear-personal-narratives.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250617T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250617T210000 DTSTAMP:20260504T033031 CREATED:20250423T175246Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250423T175257Z UID:1298-1750188600-1750194000@thenotebookscollective.com SUMMARY:In Conversation: Jennifer Funk & Megan Pinto DESCRIPTION:Two poets interested in affairs of the heart and the abiding loneliness at the center of the human experience. Two poets who overlapped at Warren Wilson’s MFA program yet who have different styles of writing. \n\n\n\nExpect them to talk about maintaining a creative practice alongside life’s many competing demands (both in school and after it)\, what a first book changes and does not change\, and the importance of literary/poetry friendships. \n\n\n\n\n\n Get Tickets\n Get Tickets on Eventbrite\n \n\n \n \n\n\n\nAbout Jennifer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCalifornia born but in possession of a New England disposition\, Jennifer Funk is always trying to prove her sunniness is not a joke nor her attachment to doing things the hard way a performance. She is a graduate of Bennington College and of Warren Wilson’s MFA Program for Writers\, and she has received support from the Bread Loaf’s Writers’ Conference as well as The Frost Place. Her work has been spotted in many of those “something something Review\,” and her debut collection of poetry\, Fantasy of Loving the Fantasy\, was published by Bull City Press in June 2023. Jennifer works as a School Adjustment Counselor in Concord\, MA\, and she lives with her husband in what had been her grandparent’s house. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbout Megan\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMegan Pinto is the author of Saints of Little Faith\, her debut collection\, just out from Four Way Books. Her poems can be found in the Los Angeles Review of Books\, Poets.org\, Ploughshares\, The Slowdown podcast and elsewhere. She has won the Anne Halley Prize from the Massachusetts Review and an Amy Award from Poets & Writers\, as well as scholarships and fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference\, the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing\, the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference and Storyknife. Megan lives in Brooklyn and holds an MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson College. URL:https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/in-conversation-jennifer-funk-megan-pinto/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thenotebookscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/june.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250622T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250622T170000 DTSTAMP:20260504T033031 CREATED:20250423T182312Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250423T182618Z UID:1301-1750608000-1750611600@thenotebookscollective.com SUMMARY:Book Celebration: Incidental Pollen by Ellen Austin-Li DESCRIPTION:Join us for a celebration of the launch of Incidental Pollen\, the debut full-length collection from Ellen Austin-Li. She will be joined by her friend and mentor\, poet Pauletta Hansel. Expect some poems and some conversation around the making of this beautiful new collection. \n\n\n\nINCIDENTAL POLLENRUNNER-UP FOR THE 2023 ARTHUR SMITH POETRY PRIZE\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIncidental pollen refers to pollen that collects on bees as they forage for nectar—like the cumulative life experiences we cannot help but carry. The hive serves as a thematic thread in this collection that explores the space between past and present\, shame and redemption\, grief and resilience. Poetic forms lend meaning—like the villanelle that captures the grief-driven magical thinking of the speaker. Are recurring red fox sightings visitations from her deceased father and nephew? Trauma and loss appear in these tonally rich and imagistic poems\, but the arc ultimately centers on the search for belonging\, the attempt to recreate home. \n\n\n\n\n\n Get Tickets\n Get Tickets on Eventbrite\n \n\n \n \n\n\n\nAbout Ellen\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEllen Austin-Li’s first full-length collection\, Incidental Pollen—a 2023 Trio Award finalist\, a 2024 Wisconsin Poetry Series semi-finalist\, and runner-up for the Arthur Smith Poetry Prize—is forthcoming from Madville Publishing. Finishing Line Press published her two chapbooks\, Firefly (2019) and Lockdown: Scenes From Early in the Pandemic (2021). Her work appears in Artemis\, Thimble Literary\, The Maine Review\, Salamander\, Lily Poetry Review\, Rust & Moth\, and many other places. She’s a Best of the Net nominee and holds an MFA in poetry from the Solstice Low-Residency Program. Ellen co-founded the monthly reading series\, “Poetry Night at Sitwell’s\,” in Cincinnati\, where she lives. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbout Pauletta\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPauletta Hansel’s ten poetry collections include Will There Also Be Singing? (Shadelandhouse Modern Press\, 2024); Heartbreak Tree (Madville Publications\, 2022)\, which won the Poetry Society of Virginia’s 2023 North American Book Award; and Palindrome (Dos Madres Press\, 2017) winner of Berea College’s Weatherford Award in Poetry. Her writing has been featured in Oxford American\, Rattle\, Appalachian Journal\, Still: The Journal\, Verse Daily and Poetry Daily\, among others. Pauletta was Cincinnati’s first poet laureate\, and the 2022 Writer in Residence for the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. URL:https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/book-celebration-incidental-pollen-by-ellen-austin-li/ CATEGORIES:Readings ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thenotebookscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/june-book.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250722T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250722T210000 DTSTAMP:20260504T033031 CREATED:20250603T155433Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250603T155436Z UID:1312-1753212600-1753218000@thenotebookscollective.com SUMMARY:In Conversation: Brandel France de Bravo & Marcela Sulak DESCRIPTION:A long-time friendship across continents. Both with roots in Washington\, D.C. and with a deep attention to the world. Join us for an In Conversation to discuss their new work and relationship with writing. \n\n\n\nMarcela says\, “What excites me about speaking to Brandel about Locomotion Cathedral is her mindful examination of the role of the I (as eye\, as conductor and mediator\, as ego\, as interlocutor) not only within a poem\, but also in the world. This attention makes a great poem! but it also feels like a necessary step in understanding our place in the natural world.” \n\n\n\nBrandel adds\, “I love talking to her about poetry because she reads voraciously\, and as a literature professor has the uncanny ability to read something of mine and recommend ten poets whose work could inform or enrich my own. Like me\, she has lived in many countries\, speaks several languages\, and has translated poetry. Our work shares an international perspective\, humor\, a willingness to incorporate prose in our poetry (we both have published many lyric essays)\, and a fascination with fairy tales and nursery rhymes.” \n\n\n\n\n\n Get Tickets\n Get Tickets on Eventbrite\n \n\n \n \n\n\n\nAbout Brandel France de Bravo\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBrandel France de Bravo’s third collection of poems\, Locomotive Cathedral\, was selected in the Backwaters Press contest\, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press (March 2025). She is the author of two previous poetry books: Provenance\, and the chapbook Mother\, Loose. Her poems and essays have appeared in Best American Poetry\, 32 Poems\, Barrow Street\, the Cincinnati Review\, The Georgia Review\, Seneca Review\, Southern Humanities Review and elsewhere. She is co-author of the parenting book\, Trees Make the Best Mobiles\, Simple Ways to Raise Your Child in a Complex World\, and editor of the bilingual anthology\, Mexican Poetry Today: 20/20 Voices. \n\n\n\nAbout Marcela Sulak\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMarcela Sulak is the author of five poetry collections\, most recently\, The Fault\, the National Jewish Book Awards finalist\, City of Sky Papers\, and the lyric memoir Mouth Full of Seeds (2020). She’s co-edited the Rose-Metal Press title Family Resemblance: An Anthology and Exploration of 8 Hybrid Literary Genres. A translator from the Czech\, French\, and Hebrew\, Sulak’s work has been recognized by PEN and the NEA fellowship. Sulak is managing editor of The Ilanot Review\, and she directs the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Bar-Ilan University. URL:https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/in-conversation-brandel-france-de-bravo-marcela-sulak/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thenotebookscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/july.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250727T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250727T180000 DTSTAMP:20260504T033031 CREATED:20250603T161044Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250603T161046Z UID:1323-1753632000-1753639200@thenotebookscollective.com SUMMARY:Write Two: The Prose Poem as Diptych Memoir DESCRIPTION:This is a class in dualities: two forms\, two poems. (In two hours!) \n\n\n\nThe two forms: We’ll explore the prose poem (a hybrid of prose and poetry) and the prose poem as memoir (a lyric rendering of a narrative or moment from your life). \n\n\n\nThe two poems: Taking inspiration from the diptych in art (a pair of paintings hinged together)\, we’ll discover how to bind poems by form and subject (call and response\, before and after\, shifts in perspective\, and other ways) and be mindful of how tightly or loosely poems depend on each other for meaning and impact. \n\n\n\nThis two-hour generative workshop is for writers of any level and genre who want to explore the prose poem form\, break away from linear storytelling\, and start thinking about intertextuality—the key to eventually building a series of poems or even a book-length project. Also\, once you write a diptych\, how (and where) can you submit it for publication? \n\n\n\nThis generative workshop will include lecture\, readings\, and generative writing prompts. \n\n\n\nCome ready to write and play! \n\n\n\n\n\n Get Tickets\n Get Tickets on Eventbrite\n \n\n \n \n\n\n\nAbout Cynthia Marie Hoffman\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCynthia Marie Hoffman is the author of two collections of prose poetry: Exploding Head (Feb 2024) and Call Me When You Want to Talk about the Tombstones\, as well as two previous collections of lineated poetry. Her poems and prose have appeared in The Sun\, Electric Literature\, TIME\, The Believer\, and elsewhere. Recipient of fellowships from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing\, Civitella Ranieri Foundation\, and the Wisconsin Arts Board\, Cynthia lives in Madison\, WI. \n\n\n\nwww.cynthiamariehoffman.com URL:https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/write-two-the-prose-poem-as-diptych-memoir/ CATEGORIES:Workshop/Class ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thenotebookscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/write-two.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250819T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250819T210000 DTSTAMP:20260504T033031 CREATED:20250709T222550Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250713T220702Z UID:1330-1755631800-1755637200@thenotebookscollective.com SUMMARY:In Conversation: Valerie Smith & Monica Lee Weatherly DESCRIPTION:We welcome Valerie Smith & Monica Lee Weatherly to The Notebooks Collective in August. We are thrilled to have these two poet-educators join us to talk about working in community\, sharing cultural histories\, and the importance of place. \n\n\n\nValerie writes\, “I am thrilled to be In Conversation with the community of writers and teachers because it underscores how we learn better together and write better together. Monica and I share cultural histories. I recognize a deep connection to family in her collection\, It Felt Like Mississippi. It is wonderful to share with others how our individual journeys influence our poems.” \n\n\n\nMonica adds\, “I am looking forward to being in conversation with Valerie because her work resonates with my love for the role of ‘place’ in poetry.  Her book\, Back to Alabama\, is not just about a geographical place\, but an emotional and spiritual space that a landscape can transport a reader to.  Valerie has a way of using her voice and memory to give a place identity.  She takes small moments and makes them matter.  We have shared creative spaces before\, in a poetry reading and workshop\, and each time\, I’ve come away with a renewed admiration for her.” \n\n\n\n\n\n Get Tickets\n Get Tickets on Eventbrite\n \n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\nValerie A. Smith\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nValerie A. Smith is the author of Back to Alabama\, a deep\, transformative examination of the Black American narrative\, from Sundress Publications. She is the 2024 Solstice MFA Spotlight Poet and a 2024 ETSU Emerging Writer. Her poems appear in Ekstasis\, South Carolina Review\, Aunt Chloe\, Weber\, Obsidian\, Dogwood\, Solstice\, Oyster River Pages\, and Wayne Literary Review. She has a PhD from Georgia State University and a MA from Kennesaw State University where she teaches English. Above all\, she values spending quality time with her family. \n\n\n\nMonica Lee Weatherly\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMonica Lee Weatherly is a poet\, writer\, and Professor of English at Georgia State University (Perimeter College). She is the 2023 winner of Georgia Author of the Year for her chapbook of poetry\, It Felt Like Mississippi\, a 2023 Key West Literary Seminar Fellowship recipient\, and the 2021 winner of the Willie Morris Prize for Southern Poetry. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals\, including Tulane Review\, Plainsongs Magazine\, Nzuri Journal\, Merge Literary Magazine\, Obsidian\, South Florida Poetry Journal\, and Auburn Avenue. Her writing often focuses on the culture and experiences of people of color in the American South. URL:https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/in-conversation-valerie-smith-monica-lee-weatherly/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thenotebookscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/aug.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250916T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250916T210000 DTSTAMP:20260504T033031 CREATED:20250809T212412Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250809T214328Z UID:1349-1758051000-1758056400@thenotebookscollective.com SUMMARY:In Conversation: Taylor Byas & jason b. crawford DESCRIPTION:We welcome Taylor Byas & jason b. crawford to The Notebooks Collective in September. We are thrilled to have these two brilliant poets join us to talk about craft\, friendship\, using poetry as a means to reckon with oppression and more. When asked why they want to be in conversation\, they said:Sometimes your writing friends and your “real-life” friends are two separate groups\, but with us\, we know each other deeply both on and off the page. Our friendship has spanned multiple years\, and throughout that time\, we have been privy to the evolutions of each other’s creative projects\, often playing a huge editorial role in those projects’ developments. In our new projects\, we both attempt to re-narrativize our existence and write an alternative Black subjectivity that has more agency than our current lived realities. One of us writes across time\, imagining a future world that is safe for Black queer bodies. One of us looks squarely into the faces of past artists and this current socio political environment in which women are constantly surveilled from all angles. But both of us are equally concerned with using poetry as a means to reckon with oppression\, reimagine life’s possibilities\, and access joy in a landscape that aims to produce only grief and misery. \n\n\n\n\n\n Get Tickets\n Get Tickets on Eventbrite\n \n\n \n \n\n\n\nTaylor Byas\n\n\n\n\nDr. Taylor Byas\, Ph.D. (she/her) is a Black Chicago native who lives in Cincinnati\, Ohio\, where she is a Features Editor for The Rumpus\, an Editorial Board Member for Beloit Poetry Journal\, and an Editorial Advisor for Jackleg Press. She is the author of two chapbooks\, her debut full-length\, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times\, from Soft Skull Press\, which won the 2023 Maya Angelou Book Award\, the 2023 Chicago Review of Books Award in Poetry\, and the 2024 Ohio Book Award for Poetry\, and Resting Bitch Face\, forthcoming in August 2025. She is also a co-editor of The Southern Poetry Anthology\, Vol X: Alabama from Texas Review Press\, and of Poemhood: Our Black Revival\, a YA anthology on Black folklore from HarperCollins. \n\n\n\n\njason b. crawford\n\n\n\n\njason b. crawford (They/He) born in Washington DC and raised in Lansing\, MI\, is the author of Year of the Unicorn Kidz. Their second collection\, YEET! is the winner of the Omnidawn 12st/2nd Book Prize and will be published Fall 2025. They have been published in POETRY Magazine\, Academy of American Poets\, Cincinnati Review\, Beloit Poetry Journal\, RHINO Poetry\, among others. The are a 2023 Emerging Writers Fellow for Lambda Literary and hold their MFA in Poetry from The New School. URL:https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/in-conversation-taylor-byas-jason-b-crawford/ CATEGORIES:Readings ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thenotebookscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2025-September-FB.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251021T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251021T210000 DTSTAMP:20260504T033031 CREATED:20250809T222042Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250812T091608Z UID:1358-1761075000-1761080400@thenotebookscollective.com SUMMARY:In Conversation: Iain Haley Pollock & Nathan McClain DESCRIPTION:We welcome Iain Haley Pollock & Nathan McClain to The Notebooks Collective in October. We are thrilled to have these two brilliant poets join us to talk about craft\, creativity\, new work and more. Iain will be reading from his newest collection\, All the Possible Bodies. \n\n\n\n\n\n Get Tickets\n Get Tickets on Eventbrite\n \n\n \n \n\n\n\nIain Haley Pollock\n\n\n\n\nIain Haley Pollock is the author of three poetry collections\, Spit Back a Boy (2011)\, Ghost\, Like a Place\, and the forthcoming All the Possible Bodies (Alice James\, September 2025).  He has received several honors for his work including the Cave Canem Poetry Prize\, the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America\, a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Poetry\, the Bim Ramke Prize for Poetry\, and a nomination for an NAACP Image Award.  His poems have appeared in many literary outlets\, including African American Review\, American Academy of Poets Poem-a-Day\, American Poetry Review\, The Kenyon Review\, The New York Times Magazine\, PoetrySociety.org and The Progressive. Outside of publishing poems\, Pollock has performed his work widely\, from the Dodge Poetry Festival to libraries and art centers; he curated the Rye Poetry Path\, a public poetry installation in Rye\, NY; he serves on the editorial board at Slapering Hol Press and on the board of Tiger Bark Press; and he edits the literary journal Inkwell. Pollock directs the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Manhattanville University in Purchase\, NY and lives in the Lower Hudson Valley. \n\n\n\n\n\nNathan is a poet\, editor\, and educator living in Amherst\, Massachusetts. He is the author of Scale (Four Way Books\, 2017) and Previously Owned (Four Way Books\, 2022)\, and his poems and prose have recently appeared\, or are forthcoming\, in Poetry Northwest\, Green Mountains Review\, Poem-a-Day\, The Common\, The Critical Flame\, and upstreet\, among others.  He is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and African American Literary Arts at Hampshire College\, and serves as Poetry Editor of The Massachusetts Review. URL:https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/in-conversation-iain-haley-pollock-nathan-mcclain/ CATEGORIES:Readings ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thenotebookscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2025-October-FB.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251111T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251111T210000 DTSTAMP:20260504T033031 CREATED:20250810T235409Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251209T185336Z UID:1363-1762889400-1762894800@thenotebookscollective.com SUMMARY:In Conversation: Nicole Callihan & Zoë Ryder White DESCRIPTION:Longtime poetry collaborators\, Zoë Ryder White and Nicole Callihan will read from their collaborative works and discuss their process. The two began collaborating in 1999 and have two published chapbooks–A Study in Spring\, winner of the Baltic Writing Residency Prize (2015) and Elsewhere\, winner of the Sixth Finch Chapbook Prize (2020)–as well as many other works in progress.About collaborating with Zoë\, Nicole says\, “There is no one I can write with like I write with Zoë. When we’re in the heat of a project\, it’s absolutely electric\, and I find myself checking my phone a thousand times a day to see if she’s written back. It’s like the highest form of conversation through verse and image\, sound and confession\, music and magic.” \n\n\n\nZoë [adds]… “Writing with Nicole is like a return to the primordial soup. A sort of willful stepping away from the conscious mind together\, while at the same time (lightly!) holding the reins of the runaway world\, in all its biology and industry. I think we share a similar sense of deep curiosity and delight in the word’s weirdness. Whether it’s a poem or a letter (with a real stamp!) or a text\, When N. writes\, I always want to write back.” \n\n\n\n\n\n Get Tickets\n Get Tickets on Eventbrite\n \n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWinner of the 2023 Tenth Gate Prize and a 2023 Alma Award\, Nicole Callihan has two recent poetry collections: chigger ridge (The Word Works 2024) and SLIP (Saturnalia 2025). Other books include This Strange Garment (Terrapin 2023) and the 2019 novella\, The Couples\, as well as the chapbooks The Deeply Flawed Human\, Downtown\, A Study in Spring\, and ELSEWHERE (the latter two in collaboration with Zoë Ryder White). Nicole also co-edited the Braving the Body anthology published by Harbor Editions in March 2024. Find out more at www.nicolecallihan.com.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nZoë Ryder White’s poems have appeared in Tupelo Quarterly\, Iterant\, Plume\, and Threepenny Review\, among others. Her most recent chapbook\, Via Post\, was a finalist for Tupelo Press’ Snowbound Chapbook award and won the Sixth Finch chapbook contest in 2022. Her chapbook\, HYPERSPACE\, was the editors’ choice pick for the Verse Tomaž Šalamun Prize in 2020 and is available from Factory Hollow Press. She co-authored A Study in Spring\, with Nicole Callihan. Another collaboration with Nicole\, Elsewhere\, won the Sixth Finch chapbook competition in 2019. A former elementary school teacher\, she edits books for educators about the craft of teaching.   URL:https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/in-conversation-nicole-callihan-zoe-ryder-white/ CATEGORIES:Readings ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thenotebookscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/nov-1.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260120T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260120T210000 DTSTAMP:20260504T033031 CREATED:20251216T183803Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251216T183803Z UID:1413-1768937400-1768942800@thenotebookscollective.com SUMMARY:In Conversation: M. Soledad Caballero & Catharina Coenen DESCRIPTION:We welcome M. Soledad Caballero and Catherina Coenen to The Notebooks Collective to read from their new books. In addition\, there will be a lively conversation about the thematic connections in their books including illness and the body as well as the commitment to female lineages\, in particular around ideas of memory and storytelling. More specifically they will discuss the choice of genre for each of them\, poetry and creative non-fiction respectively\, and what drove them to explore and write in these genres. Because they came to creative writing later in their professional lives\, they also hope to discuss what creative writing offers to the writing in their fields of literary studies and biology\, and the ways interdisciplinary writing and thinking intersect with creative writing. \n\n\n\n\n\n Get Tickets\n Get Tickets on Eventbrite\n \n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\nM. Soledad Caballero\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nM. Soledad Caballero is a Macondo\, CantoMundo\, and StoryKnife fellow\, winner of Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts’ 2019 Joy Harjo poetry prize and the 2020 SWWIM’s SWWIM-For-the-Fun-of-It contest. She’s been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net prizes. Her poems have appeared in the Missouri Review\, the Iron Horse Literary Review\, Ninth Letter\, and other venues. Her essays have been published in The Hopkins Review\, Cagibi\, and elsewhere. I Was a Bell (2021) won Red Hen Press’s 2019 Benjamin Saltman poetry prize\, was the 2022 International Association of Autoethnography and Narrative Inquiry book of the year\, and was a 2022 International Latino Book Award winner. Her second collection\, Flight Plan\, was published by Red Hen September 2025. She teaches at Allegheny College. She’s an avid tv watcher and a terrible birder. \n\n\n\nPhoto by Carly Masiroff.Web: msoledacaballero.comInstagram: m.soledadcaballero \n\n\n\nCatharina Coenen\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCatharina Coenen came to the United States from Germany as a Fulbright Scholar to attend graduate school. She now teaches biology at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. Her essays have appeared in The Threepenny Review\, The American Scholar\, The Christian Science Monitor\, Best of the Net\, and other literary magazines. Catharina is the recipient of the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing\, the Flash Nonfiction Prize awarded by The Forge\, the Appalachian Review’s Denny Plattner Creative Nonfiction Prize\, a Creative Nonfiction Foundation Science as Story Fellowship\, and Residencies at Hedgebrook and at Millay Arts. Her first book\, “Unexploded Ordnance”\, explores how the experiences of her mother\, grandmother\, and aunt during the bombings of World War II in Germany shaped her life and reverberate in the present. \n\n\n\nPhoto by Lydia Eckstein. Web: www.catharinacoenen.comInstagram: catharinacoenenBluesky: catharinacoenen.bsky.social URL:https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/in-conversation-m-soledad-caballero-catharina-coenen/ CATEGORIES:Readings ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thenotebookscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/january.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260224T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260224T210000 DTSTAMP:20260504T033031 CREATED:20251216T183815Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251216T183815Z UID:1418-1771961400-1771966800@thenotebookscollective.com SUMMARY:In Conversation: Traci Brimhall & Marianne Kunkel DESCRIPTION:Frederico Garcia Lorca said “a poet must be a professor of the five senses and must open doors among them.” And what better to way to be a teacher of the senses than by looking at food as a source of inspiration? Marianne and Traci have both baked lines full of flavor and memory into their poems and plan to talk about how food and poems can both influence and have symbiotic overlap. From meals that are portals to personal history\, to the ingredients both food and poems need to make something memorable\, Traci and Marianne will discuss when they started connecting the two creative processes—cooking and writing—and how it has shaped their work. They will also talk about issues around food insecurity and in what ways art can directly address social issues like food access. \n\n\n\n\n\n Get Tickets\n Get Tickets on Eventbrite\n \n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\nTraci Brimhall is a professor of creative writing at Kansas State University. She is the author of five collections of poetry\, including Love Prodigal (Copper Canyon\, 2024). Her poems have appeared in publications such as The New Yorker\, The Nation\, Orion\, The New Republic\, Poetry\, The New York Times Magazine\, and Best American Poetry. She’s received fellowships from National Endowment for the Arts\, the National Park Service\, the Academy of American Poets\, and Purdue Library’s Special Collections to study the lost poem drafts of Amelia Earhart. She’s the currently the poet-in-residence at the Guggenheim museum and poet laureate for the State of Kansas. \n\n\n\nMarianne Kunkel is the author of Hillary\, Made Up (Stephen F. Austin State University Press) and The Laughing Game (Finishing Line Press)\, two anthologies\, and many poems\, including one in Best American Poetry 2025. She is an associate professor of English at Johnson County Community College and co-editor of Kansas City Review. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Florida and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln\, where she was managing editor of Prairie Schooner and the African Poetry Book Fund. URL:https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/in-conversation-traci-brimhall-marianne-kunkel/ CATEGORIES:Readings ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thenotebookscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/february.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260324T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260324T210000 DTSTAMP:20260504T033031 CREATED:20251216T183824Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260311T145026Z UID:1427-1774380600-1774386000@thenotebookscollective.com SUMMARY:In Conversation: Lisa Allen & Melissa Fite Johnson DESCRIPTION:Two poets who have crossed paths in readings and at conferences and have found that they are writing about something that shows up differently for each of them — maternal estrangement. This conversation will cover how our work evolves as we age and how writing such a viscerally personal experience can also be universal. \n\n\n\nLisa writes: “We both write about maternal estrangement–and though our lived experiences are different\, that burning desire of what brings us to the page feels very familiar.” And Melissa adds\, “…so many of them poems now in [Lisa’s] beautiful book\, spoke to a subject I was only just starting to write about\, a subject that feels like it’s all I write about now: maternal estrangement. When Lisa asked if I would pair with her for this conversation\, I couldn’t say yes quickly enough. We have so much to say. “ \n\n\n\n\n\n Get Tickets\n Get Tickets on Eventbrite\n \n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\nLisa Allen\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLisa Allen (she/her) is the author of It’s What I’ve Got Left (Lily Poetry Press). Her work can be found in Pinch\, December Magazine\, Anti-Heroin Chic\, Bear Review and MER\, among others. She has received multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations and was a 2022 Best of the Net finalist for her poem “Prolapse: Etymology\,” published by South 85 Journal. Lisa holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction and an MFA in Poetry\, both from the Solstice Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program at Lasell University\, where she was a Michael Steinberg fellow. With Poet Rebecca Connors\, she co-founded and co-directs the online creative space The Notebooks Collective. \n\n\n\nPhoto credit: Kelly Sime Photography \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nMelissa Fite Johnson\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMelissa Fite Johnson is the author of three full-length collections\, most recently Midlife Abecedarian (Riot in Your Throat\, 2024). Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares\, Pleiades\, HAD\, Whale Road Review\, SWWIM\, and elsewhere. Melissa\, a high school English teacher\, is a poetry editor for The Weight\, a journal for high school students\, and Porcupine Lit\, a journal for and by teachers. She and her husband live with their dogs in Lawrence\, KS\, where she co-hosts the Volta reading series at the Replay Lounge. URL:https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/in-conversation-lisa-allen-melissa-fite-johnson/ CATEGORIES:Readings ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thenotebookscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/March-FB.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260414T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260414T210000 DTSTAMP:20260504T033031 CREATED:20260110T172948Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260110T174030Z UID:1453-1776195000-1776200400@thenotebookscollective.com SUMMARY:In Conversation: Gabrielle Calvocoressi & Sasha Waters DESCRIPTION:Gabrielle Calvocoressi and Sasha Waters: A Handsome Life\n\n\n\nIn this conversation poet Gabrielle Calvocoressi and filmmaker Sasha Waters will discuss Sasha’s American Masters documentary about Mary Oliver (forthcoming Spring 2026) as a means of entering into the good deep work of figuring what one might mean by “a handsome life”: a phrase that Oliver coined and that seems as profound and good a way to live as any. We’ll talk poems and process\, story and mystery. More than anything it will be a chance to think about the vessel of making and the friends (living and dead) that we make along the way. \n\n\n\n\n\n Get Tickets\n Get Tickets on Eventbrite\n \n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\nGabrielle Calvocoressi\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGabrielle Calvocoressi is the author of The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart\, Apocalyptic Swing (a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize)\, and Rocket Fantastic\, winner of the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. Calvocoressi is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including a Stegner Fellowship and Jones Lectureship from Stanford University; a Rona Jaffe Woman Writer’s Award; a Lannan Foundation residency in Marfa\, TX; the Bernard F. Conners Prize from The Paris Review; and a residency from the Civitella di Ranieri Foundation\, among others. Calvocoressi’s poems have been published or are forthcoming in numerous magazines and journals including The Baffler\, The New York Times\, POETRY\, Boston Review\, Kenyon Review\, Tin House\, and The New Yorker. Calvocoressi is an Editor at Large at Los Angeles Review of Books\, and Poetry Editor at Southern Cultures. Works in progress include a non-fiction book entitled\, The Year I Didn’t Kill Myself and a novel\, The Alderman of the Graveyard. Calvocoressi was the Beatrice Shepherd Blane Fellow at the Harvard-Radcliffe Institute for 2022 – 2023. Calvocoressi teaches at UNC Chapel Hill and lives in Old East Durham\, NC\, where joy\, compassion\, and social justice are at the center of their personal and poetic practice. Their new collection of poetry\, The New Economy\, is a finalist for the 2025 National Book Award in Poetry. \n\n\n\nSasha Waters\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSasha Water‘s latest film\, Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World\, is the first documentary portrait of the beloved American poet. The film shares never-before-seen personal photos\, notebooks and correspondence from her archive\, as well as readings by Helena Bonham Carter\, Steve Buscemi\, Stephen Colbert\, Lucy Dacus\, Josh Hamilton\, John Waters\, Jesse Welles\, and Oprah Winfrey\, and interviews with former U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón\, writer and MacArthur Fellow Jason Reynolds\, Mary’s old friend Maria Shriver\, and many more. Saved by the Beauty of the World can be seen at film festivals and on the PBS series American Masters in 2026. \n\n\n\nShe has received support from the Catapult Film Fund\, Field of Vision\, the Film/Video Studio at the Wexner\, the Denver Film Society\, the NEA\, the NEH\, the Jerome Foundation\, and more. Her first film Whipped – a portrait of three dominatrixes in 1990s NYC – was funded in part by Sub Pop Records\, selected for the first-ever Sundance Producers conference\, and aired nationally on the Sundance Channel. Her next film\, Razing Appalachia\, was the first-ever feature documentary about the devastations wrought by mountaintop strip mining and aired nationally on Independent Lens. She has been a Fellow in residence at MacDowell\, Yaddo\, Millay Arts\, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts; was awarded a 2019-20 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship\, and was the 2016 recipient of the Helen Hill Award from the Orphan Film Symposium. \n\n\n\nA professor of Film and Art Foundation at VCUarts in Richmond\, Sasha is included in Edited By: Women Film Editors\, a survey of women who “invented\, developed\, fine-tuned and revolutionized the art of film editing\,” and in the FemEx Film Archive\, an ongoing collective archive of interviews with feminist experimental filmmakers. URL:https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/in-conversation-gabrielle-calvocoressi-sasha-waters/ CATEGORIES:Readings ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thenotebookscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/april.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260512T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260512T210000 DTSTAMP:20260504T033031 CREATED:20260405T185200Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260405T190750Z UID:1491-1778614200-1778619600@thenotebookscollective.com SUMMARY:In Conversation: Katherine D. Oldmixon Garza & Octavio Quintanilla DESCRIPTION:We are excited to bring together two poets and artists from Texas\, Katherine D. Oldmixon Garza and Octavio Quintanilla. Octavio’s Book of Wounded Sparrows and Katherine’s Life Afterlife / A Book of the Hours have shared themes of grief\, loss\, and mourning. Katherine writes about the two books as singing together\, or rather\, “By sing\, I might mean keen\, not as a wild wailing but sometimes as a wild ceremony\, sometimes as a ceremony in the wild.” We can then add an additional dimension: their multiple languages and modalities used to produce their work. Octavio adds\, “I am interested to see how our work converges and diverges in terms of how we write grief\, joy\, closure.” \n\n\n\n\n\n Get Tickets\n Get Tickets on Eventbrite\n \n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\nKatherine Durham Oldmixon Garza\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKatherine Durham Oldmixon Garza\,Ph.D.\, M.F.A.\, is the author of Life Afterlife / A Book of the Hours (3: A Taos Press\, 2024) and the chapbook Water Signs (Finishing Lines Press\, 2009). She directs the Poetry at Round Top Festival held annually in Round Top\, Texas. Now professor emerita at Huston-Tillotson University where she taught literature and creative writing and chaired the English department\, Katherine is a full-time writer\, ecological gardener\, and visual artist at home in Austin\, TX. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOctavio Quintanilla\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOctavio Quintanilla is the 2025 Texas Poet Laureate and the author of the poetry collections\, If I Go Missing (Slough Press\, 2014) and The Book of Wounded Sparrows (Texas Review Press\, 2024)\, which was longlisted for the National Book Award\, a finalist for the Juan Felipe Herrera Best Poetry Book Award\, and a 2026 Finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Most recently\, he published Las Horas Imposibles / The Impossible Hours\, winner of the 2024 Ambroggio Prize of the Academy of American Poets and winner of the Burdine C. Johnson Award for Best Book of Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letter (University of Arizona Press\, 2025). \n\n\n\nOctavio is the founder and director of the literature & arts festival\, VersoFrontera\, publisher of Alabrava Press\, and former Poet Laureate of San Antonio\, TX. His Frontextos (visual poems) have been published and exhibited widely. He teaches Literature and Creative Writing at Our Lady of the Lake University and was recently inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters. IG: @writeroctavioquintanilla   URL:https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/in-conversation-katherine-d-oldmixon-garza-octavio-quintanilla/ CATEGORIES:Readings ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thenotebookscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/may-rev.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260609T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260609T210000 DTSTAMP:20260504T033031 CREATED:20260422T164530Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260422T172024Z UID:1509-1781033400-1781038800@thenotebookscollective.com SUMMARY:In Conversation: Keith S. Wilson & Callie Siskel DESCRIPTION:We are excited to host Keith S. Wilson & Callie Siskel in conversation about their recent books: Keith’s Games for Children and Callie’s Two Minds. Books that center absence and reimaginings. \n\n\n\n\n\n Get Tickets\n Get Tickets on Eventbrite\n \n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\nKeith S. Wilson\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKeith S. Wilson is a poet\, game designer\, and multimedia artist living in Chicago. He is an Affrilachian Poet and a Cave Canem fellow. A recipient of an NEA Fellowship\, an Elizabeth George Foundation Grant\, and an Illinois Arts Council Agency Award\, Keith has received both a Kenyon Review Fellowship and a Stegner Fellowship. Additionally\, he has received fellowships or grants from Bread Loaf\, Tin House\, the MacDowell Colony\, Vermont Studio Center\, UCross\, the Millay Colony\, and James Merrill House\, among others. Wilson was a Gregory Djanikian Scholar\, and his poetry has won the Rumi Prize and been anthologized in Best New Poets and Best of the Net. His book\, Fieldnotes on Ordinary Love (Copper Canyon)\, was recognized by the New York Times as a best new book of poetry. His second book\, Games for Children (Milkweed Editions) was a winner of the National Poetry Series. \n\n\n\nCallie Siskel\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCallie Siskel is the author of Two Minds (W. W. Norton\, 2024)\, and Arctic Revival\, selected by Elizabeth Alexander for a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. Her poetry appears in The Paris Review\, The Atlantic\, and the New York Review of Books. She lives in Los Angeles\, where she is a Dornsife Fellow in General Education at the University of Southern California and a poetry editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books. URL:https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/in-conversation-keith-s-wilson-callie-siskel/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thenotebookscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/june.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260624T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260624T210000 DTSTAMP:20260504T033031 CREATED:20260422T162044Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260502T152548Z UID:1501-1782329400-1782334800@thenotebookscollective.com SUMMARY:A Notebooks Reading for Abortion Access DESCRIPTION:In Honor & Memory of Jennifer Martelli\n\n\n\nOn June 24\, on the 4-year anniversary of the Supreme Court Dobbs v Jackson decision\, we will gather to honor late poet Jennifer Martelli in a reading to support abortion access. Jennifer was a fierce advocate for women’s rights and in particular\, the right to have an abortion. It feels like it’s even more important today\, on this anniversary\, when the State decided that women no longer had bodily autonomy\, to come together to stand in our anger\, our determination\, and our will to keep fighting for rights for everyone. \n\n\n\nThe Supreme Court’s decision to all but remove access to abortions and other medical care puts people in preventable life-or-death situations. The Eastern Mass Abortion Fund\, operating in the state that Jennifer called home\, makes abortion accessible to anyone who needs one. And since the Dobbs decision\, the need for the Fund’s services have quadrupled. \n\n\n\nThe reading is free to attend. All are invited to celebrate Jenn and her life. We only ask that if you are able\, you make a contribution to the Eastern Massachusetts Abortion Fund. We hope to raise $1000 for abortion access — please help us reach our goal! \n\n\n\n\nDonate Now\n\n\n\n\n Get Tickets\n Get Tickets on Eventbrite URL:https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/a-notebooks-reading-for-abortion-access/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://thenotebookscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/june-24.png END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR