Readers in 2001:
Sherrie Flick, Nancy Krygowski, Rick Schweikert, Aaron Smith, Chauna Craig, Tony Farrington, Jonah Winter, Neno Perrotta, Mallory Tarses, Liz Ahl, Maurice Guevara, Nancy Reismann, Rick Hilles, Sandy Yannone, Jeff Oaks, Dan Leone, Lipsey Mountain Spring Band

March 2

Sherrie Flick & Nancy Krygowski

Sherrie Flick received her MA in writing from University of Nebraska-Lincoln and has had short fiction published in North American Review, Black Warrior Review, Manoa, Quarterly West, Prairie Schooner, Northwest Review, Quarter After Eight, and (ironically) American West Airlines Magazine, among others. She was awarded a Tennessee Williams Fellowship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and has also received a fellowship from the American Association of University Women. She is artistic director of the Gist Street reading series. Sample of her work

Nancy Krygowski is a poet and Assistant Artistic Director of Gist Street. She's received grants from the PA Council on the Arts and from the Pittsburgh Foundation, plus residencies at the Jentel Foundation and The Kimmel Nelson Harding Center for the Arts. She is an adult literacy instructor in Pittsburgh.

April 6

Rick Schweikert & Aaron Smith

Rick Schweikert worked in various capacities at Seattle Public Theatre and co-founded Seattle’s Beer Theater and Viaduct Studio, where he wrote and directed one-act plays. The Viaduct’s Pittsburgh incarnation has provided studio space for artists since 1997. He is in charge of “operations” for the Gist Street reading series.

Aaron Smith holds an MFA in Poetry from the University of Pittsburgh. His work has appeared in various publications including 5 AM, Kestrel, Heart Quarterly, Pittsburgh Quarterly, and Pittsburgh City Paper. He is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize and the Kestrel Poetry Prize. In addition, he has been a resident at the Vermont Studio Center and has served as a reader for Ploughshares.

May 11

Chauna Craig & Tony Farrington

Chauna Craig has published her fiction in Prairie Schooner, Passages North, Quarterly West, Ascent, and elsewhere. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and received a scholarship to Bread Loaf. A graduate of the University of Nebraska’s doctoral program, she teaches creative writing at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Tony Farrington is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His most recent work appears or is forthcoming in Antietam Review, Glimmer Train Stories, Gulf Coast, Many Mountains Moving, and elsewhere. He is currently working on a second novel and a collection of poems.

June 23

Jonah Winter & Neno Perrotta

Jonah Winter is a Pushcart Prize winning poet, children’s book author and illustrator, mandolin, clarinet, and pennywhistle player. His poetry has been published in The Antioch Review, Chicago Review, Field, Mudfish, New York Quarterly, Ploughshares, The Threepenny Review, Zing, and elsewhere.

Neno Perrotta has visited and drank coffee at several graduate schools. His poetry has appeared in The Quarterly, The Shenango Review, The Penguin Review, and The New Kent Quarterly. He Plays the bongos and clarinet and wrote such songs as “Lawn Darts,” “Lawyers and Truckers,” and “Falls Church,Virginia.” Sample of his work

August 3

Mallory Tarses & Liz Ahl

Mallory Tarses received her MA from Johns Hopkins. Her fiction has appeared in North American Review, Kansas Quarterly, Arkansas Review, Prism International, and Five Fingers Review. Her literary awards include the James Kirkwood Prize and the Stanley Elkin Memorial Award (3rd). She lives on the Cape Fear coast of Southeastern North Carolina, although she was raised in the West and born in Lancaster, PA. She isn’t Amish but has a lot of allergies.

Liz Ahl received her MFA from the University of Pittsburgh and had big fun with the Pittsburgh Poetry & Drum Ensemble. Her poems have appeared in Crab Orchard Review, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, 5AM, The American Voice, and others. Hot off six years in Nebraska, she joins the creative writing faculty at Plymouth State College, New Hampshire in September.

Sept. 7

Maurice Guevara

Maurice Kilwein Guevara was born in Belencito, Colombia and raised in Pittsburgh. His books include Postmortem (U. of Georgia Press, 1994), Poems of the River Spirit (U. of Pittsburgh Press, 1996), and Autobiography of So-and-so: Poems in Prose (New Issues Poetry and Prose, 2001). He is Professor of English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Oct. 5

Nancy Reismann & Rick Hilles

Nancy Reisman’s collection House Fires won the 1999 Iowa Short Fiction Award. Recently, her work has been selected for the 2001 Best American Short Stories (rumor has it she’ll be reading part of this story....). Nancy has received fellowships from the NEA, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing.

Rick Hilles’s poems have appeared in Poetry, The Nation, The New Republic, and The Paris Review. He has been awarded a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, a Ruth and Jay C. Halls Fellowship from the University of Wisconsin, and the Missouri Review’s Larry Levis Editors’ Prize in poetry.

Nov. 2

Sandy Yannone & Jeff Oaks

Sandra Yannone publishes poems and book reviews in journals including Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, CALYX, and Lambda Book Report. She is the Director of the Writing Center at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

Jeff Oaks’s publications include Seneca Review, Southern Poetry Review, Nimrod, Cumberland Poetry Review, and 5 a.m. He has received prizes or fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Pa. Council on the Arts, and the Pittsburgh Foundation. He teaches creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh and is the managing director of the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series. Sample of his work His website: www.pitt.edu/~oaks

Nov. 23

Dan Leone & Lipsey Mountain Spring Band

Dan Leone has two books, a collection of short stories called The Meaning of Lunch (Mammoth Books), and a nonfiction collection called Eat This, San Francisco (Sasquatch Books). His stories have appeared in The Paris Review, The Antioch Review, The Quarterly, New Stories from the South, Best American Mysteries, and elsewhere. He also writes a humorous weekly food column for The San Francisco Bay Guardian, and, until recently, has published serialized fiction on the Guardian’s web-site.

The band features Dan Leone (Ed’s Redeeming Qualities) on steel drum, Chris Leone on banjo & ukulele, Wally Sablosky on acoustic guitar, Tami Lipsey on pennywhistles, Bernie Jungle (The Earl Rays) on percussion, and Josh Housh (Nickel Beer Riot) on stand-up bass. They play old-time barn & beach music, conducive to foot-stomping, sand-kicking, and all around happiness.