KGB Bar

Brooklyn poet Michele Madigan Somerville is the author of the book-length poem WISEGAL (Ten Pell Books 2001) and Black Irish, her first collection of verse, forthcoming this fall (2009) from Plainview Press.  Her work has appeared in many literary journals.  Her essay “Born Again Catholic in Brooklyn” recently appeared in the New York Times online Happy Days series.  Somerville’s poems have has won a number of poetry awards: an Honorable Mention in Dublin’s Ireland’s Eason Books Poetry Competition in 2003, first place in the W.B. Yeats Society poetry competition in 2000, a MacArthur scholarship for poetry at Brooklyn College in 1987, and the Louise B. Goodman Award for Women-Centered writing at Brooklyn College.  She has run reading series at The Old Stone House in Park Slope, Ceol Bar in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn and Cornelia Street Café in Manhattan, and has given many public performances of her work. Somerville recently completed two collections of verse: Glamourous Life, and Stations of Light, and is currently working on two books of prose: a novel, SUCKER PUNCH and a memoir (yet untitled) about being Catholic. She worked for 14 years s a teacher in New York City elementary and high schools, and as a lecturer in creative and expository writing at CUNY and SUNY, Purchase. She posts her verse on Fresh Poetry: www.michelemadigansomerville.com.

Nava Renek is author of SPIRITLAND (Spuyten Duyvil 2002)and NO PERFECT WORDS (2009).  She is also the editor of WRECKAGE OF REASON: XXPERIMENTAL PROSE BY CONTEMPORARY WOMEN WRITERS.  Her short stories and essays have appeared in a number of literary magazines and websites.  She is currently program coordinator of the Women’s Center at Brooklyn College.