The New Yinzer Presents...

January 26: COGGINS, HORNER, STEVENS-DAVIS

2012-01-10T19:29:00.006-05:00

When - Thursday, January 26th
Where - ModernFormations Gallery, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Time – 8:00 p.m.
Cover - $5 or free w/ contribution to potluck

Joel W. Coggins is a book designer, editor, and writer from Pittsburgh (by way of Ohio).

Drew Horner is a 30 year old writer born and raised in the Pittsburgh area. He graduated from IUP with a B.A in English - Writing and a B.A. in Philosophy - which is probably why he now manages a restaurant in East Liberty. He works mostly in short fiction despite the fact that he predominately reads novels and non-fiction.

Cate Stevens-Davis earned her MFA in fiction writing from Chatham University in 2009. Her stories have appeared in Six Sentences, the 6SV1 anthology, greatest lakes review, Wanderlust Review, The Linnet's Wings and shadyside review, among others, and her chapbook, Big Women, Big Girls, is forthcoming from Stamped Books.

TNY Presents November 17: Alberts, Hoover, Matthews, Stoner

2011-11-03T11:16:00.008-04:00

When - Thursday, November 17th
Where - ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Time – 8:00 p.m.
Cover - $5 or free w/ contribution to potluck

David V. Matthews was born on Neil Young's 20th birthday. David's writing has appeared in the Pittsburgh City Paper and Unicorn Mountain, and he has given readings at Brillobox and the Andy Warhol Museum. Also, his art has appeared in several Western Pennsylvania galleries, including Garfield Artworks, which held a retrospective of his drawings this June. A documentary about him, directed by Pittsburgh filmmaker Julie Sokolow, is in production. He lives with a couple of orangutans made from coconuts.

Renee Alberts' poetry and visual art have appeared in print, dance performances, live radio shows and at least one tattoo. She is author of the poetry collection No Water and editor of Natural Language: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Sunday Poetry & Reading Series Anthology, a collection of writers featured in the series she founded and curates. She guest hosts 90.5 FM’s Prosody and moderates the Pittsburgh Literary Calendar. She posts writing, photography, and collage, including her Detail a Day Project, at animalprayer.com.

Elizabeth Hoover is a poet, critic, journalist, and, most importantly, a native of Pittsburgh. She has contributed poetry reviews and author interviews to such publications as The Paris Review, The Los Angeles Times, and The Dallas Morning News. Her poetry has appeared in Poetry Northwest, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Natural Bridge, and The Café Review, among others. In 2011, she was a Flight School Fellow, resident at the Virginia Colony of the Creative Arts, and a nominee for Sundress Publications Best of the Net award. She received a combined MFA/MA from Indiana University and is currently working on a biographies of Suzanne Collins and Robert Hayden. You can see more of her work at www.ehooverink.com/poetry.html

Michelle Stoner's first book of poetry, Flats and Riots, was published in 2008 (CustomWords). Her poems have also appeared in The Collared Peccary, The New Growth Arts Review, Weave Magazine, The Carlow Journal, Pittsburgh's City Paper and Natural Language: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Sunday Poetry and Reading Series Anthology, among others. She is a sound engineer for Prosody, NPR-affiliate WESA fm’s weekly show featuring the work of national writers and holds an MFA in poetry from Carlow University.

TNY Presents October 20th: Capewell, Carroll, Mar, McIlroy

2011-10-06T13:08:00.008-04:00

When - Thursday, October 20th
Where - ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Time – 8:00 p.m.
Cover - $5 or free w/ contribution to potluck

Leslie Anne Mcilroy won the 2001 Word Press Poetry Prize for her full-length collection Rare Space and the 1997 Slipstream Poetry Chapbook Prize for her chapbook Gravel. She also took first place in the 1997 Chicago Literary Awards Competition judged by Gerald Stern. Her second full-length book, Liquid Like This, was published by Word Press in 2008. Leslie’s work appears in numerous journals including American Poetry: The Next Generation, Dogwood, The Emily Dickinson Award Anthology, The Mississippi Review, the Nimrod International Journal of Prose & Poetry and Pearl. Leslie works as a copywriter in Pittsburgh, PA, where she lives with her daughter Silas, and writer/guitarist, Don Bertschman, with whom she performs her poetry. For books and videos visit http://lamcilroy.com/

Ocean Capewell just moved to Troy Hill from Lawrenceville. She just finished touring the midwest, via Megabus, with her writing. She works at the welfare office and enjoys the occasional kale smoothie.

Khet Mar is a journalist, novelist, fiction writer and essayist from Burma. Author of one novel, Wild Snowy Night, as well as several collections of short stories, essays and poems, her work has been translated into English and Japanese, broadcast on radio and made into a film. Khet Mar is an emeritus exiled writer-in-residence in City of Asylum/Pittsburgh. She has written the text and her husband, the visual artist Than Htay, created the new artwork on the façade of 324 Sampsonia Way.

Terrence Michael Carroll has been making music in Pittsburgh under the name Tee Glitter for the better part of two shitty decades. As long as he brings his notebook, he is a real artist. Thats what someone said once anyway. He's been working on two books, "Chasing the Ghost" and "What World Do You Live In?", for several years. "Underground Economy", the newest album by his band Dirty Faces, will probably be out before either book. He also performs in the bands Raw Blow and White Ghetto (formerly White Guilt). He spends his days working construction and hating his life

The Next TNY is October 20!

2011-10-06T12:39:00.001-04:00

TNY Presents September 15th: Krygowski, Klauscher, Wielkopolan

2011-09-08T09:45:00.014-04:00

When - Thursday, September 15th
Where - ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Time – 8:00 p.m.
Cover - $5 or free w/ contribution to potluck

Nancy Krygowski’s first book of poems, Velocity, was chosen for the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press. A recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship, a Pittsburgh Foundation Grant, and residencies at Jentel, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, she was co-founder and booker of poets for the Gist Street Reading Series. She is an adult literacy instructor at Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council.

Kevin Klauscher is 23 years old and has lived his entire life in Pittsburgh, minus a year in Ohio. He has been doing creative writing and poetry for 9 years independently and playing the drums for ten years. Kevin's poetry is very spiritual and at times slightly political. He has been an activist for the past five years helping to organize peace rallies as well as other grass-roots events aimed at raising local geopolitical awareness and the importance of independent thought in the 21st century. His influences for writing include MLK Jr, JFK, Malcolm X, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier, Che Guevara, Mother Jones, Everyone involved in the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s-70s (Black Panther party and American Indian Movement in particular). Musical influences include: Ani DiFranco, Immortal Technique, Dead Prez, BB King, The Roots, Oldschool and Underground Hiphop, Saul Williams, Last Poets, Jazz, Funk, Soul, Classic Rock, Every DJ that still spins vinyl and too many artists to name in particular.

Kevin finds any artist that does what they do on their own terms and conveys their own messages to be inspiring. He attended the Oakland School, which is a private college-prepatory academy with a focus on creative arts .. and has no formal secondary education, however is self-taught and deeply interested in ethnobotany, ethnopharmacology, sociology, psychology, metaphysics, spirituality and comparitive religion, history, astrology, astronomy, philosophy, and art among other things.

Stefanie Wielkopolan is a Michigan poet who keeps moving back to Pittsburgh. Up until the age of eight, she grew up in the family's bowling alley in Dearborn, MI and she credits this experience for her love of a good dive bar, people watching, and writing poetry. She received her M.A. in Liberal Studies from the University of Michigan and in 2008 her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Chatham University. Her first collection of poetry, Border Theory, was published by Black Coffee Press in 2011. She currently teaches English and creative writing at Waynesburg University and the Community College of Allegheny County.

August TNY Presents: In Photos

2011-08-26T12:44:00.005-04:00

Mike Ninehouser reads a drily hilarious short story set in Lawrenceville.

Abeer Hoque reads from a novel about memory loss.

Jerome Crooks reads from The Whiskey Rebellion with Red Bob on drums.

Juliet Bey reads a poem about Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann.

TNY August 18th: Bey, Crooks, Hoque, Ninehouser

2011-08-07T18:18:00.006-04:00

When - Thursday, August 18th
Where - ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Time – 8:00 p.m.
Cover - $5 or free w/ contribution to potluck

In 2001, Juliet Bey------> earned a bachelor's degree in creative writing from Carnegie Mellon University. Though sometimes cold, she hates the cold...and colds. She enjoys cold chillin with a cold one. She's into a few Coldplay songs (but don't tell anyone!). She's never cold clocked someone in the face; she's not like that. Her poetry is a novelty snack.

<------Jerome Crooks began writing poetry 20 years ago this September. "i've been a mess and i feel fine" (Speed and Briscoe) was released in 2001. "The Whiskey Rebellion" (Six Gallery Press) with Jason Baldinger, was released this year to be followed by "The Moment I Feared" (Low Ghost Press). Jerome has served as the active head of the Speed and Briscoe writer's collective since its inception in 1998. His work has appeared in the City Paper, Natural Language, The New Yinzer, and Open Thread's regional review. His journalism has appeared in Magazino and Islas. He is the son of Mary Anne and Jerry Crooks, brother to Theresa, brother in law to John Leonard, and proud uncle of young Aeden.

Abeer Hoque------> is a Nigerian born Bangladeshi American writer and photographer. She is working on a novel about memory loss. See more at www.olivewitch.com.

<-------Mike Ninehouser goes by Michael. He lives in Polish Hill; real high up. He is a painter who wishes to be a filmmaker. He writes very little.

The Return of TNY Presents: August 18th!

2011-08-04T11:48:00.002-04:00

Two upcoming TNY readings: May 19 & May 20

2011-05-06T09:48:00.006-04:00

Read more about the May 19th reading here in our previous post.

And don't miss The New Yinzer Staff Presents, a May 20th reading at Fleeting Pages pop up bookstore.

TNY May 19th: Gershman, Himmer, O'Connor, Pollard

2011-05-03T12:43:00.007-04:00

When - Thursday, May 19th
Where - ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Time - 8 p.m.
Cover - $5 or free w/ contribution to potluck

Noah Gershman-----> travels frequently. His first collection of poems, The Enthusiast (Snail Press), has recently been published.

<-----Steve Himmer is the author of the novel The Bee-Loud Glade (Atticus Books, 2010), and editor of the webjournal Necessary Fiction. His stories have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, most recently Hawk & Handsaw, Weber: The Contemporary West, The Collagist, and Re:Telling. He lives near Boston, where he teaches at Emerson College, and he has a website at http://www.stevehimmer.com.

Traci O Connor----> is the author of the short story collection, Recipes for Endangered Species (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2010). She's published fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and other unclassifiable work in many journals and magazines and is currently at work on: a collaborative film/writing project about her Mormon childhood, a series of art dolls, a novel, a live storytelling series, and the formation of a collaborative artist group called The Box Salon.

<------Derek Pollard is co–author with Derek Henderson of the book Inconsequentia (BlazeVOX 2010). His poems, creative non–fiction, and reviews appear in American Book Review, Colorado Review, Court Green, Diagram III, H_ngm_n, Pleiades, and Six–Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak, among numerous other anthologies and journals. He is a contributing editor for Barrow Street, Inc., and is on faculty at Brookdale Community College, at Pratt Institute, and at the Downtown Writer’s Center in Syracuse, New York. More information is available at www.twodereks.com.

Coming soon: TNY April: Ross, Michalski, Robinson, Kane

2011-04-05T16:05:00.001-04:00

Thursday, April 21: Kane, Michalski, Robinson, & Ross

2011-03-25T15:28:00.009-04:00

When - Thursday, April 21st
Where - ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Time - 8 p.m.
Cover - $5 or free w/ contribution to potluck

<-----Kelli Stevens Kane's poetry appears in numerous journals including The Mom Egg, Kweli Journal, and Mythium Literary Journal. She's the recipient of a Flight School Fellowship, an alum of the VONA and Hurston/Wright poetry workshops, the editor of Planet Saturday Comics, and the author of an oral history manuscript about Pittsburgh's Hill District. She has performed nationally. For more information visit: http://www.kellistevenskane.com/

<----Jen Michalski's first collection of fiction, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, is available from So New (2007), her second is forthcoming from Dzanc (2013), and her novella MAY-SEPTEMBER (2010) was published by Press 53 as part of the Press 53 Open Awards. Her chapbook CROSS SECTIONS (2008) is available from Publishing Genius. She also is the editor of the anthology CITY SAGES: BALTIMORE (CityLit Press 2010), which won a 2010 "Best of Baltimore" award from Baltimore Magazine. She is the founding editor of the literary quarterly jmww, and is co-host of the monthly reading series The 510 Readings in Baltimore.

<-----Adam Robinson lives in Baltimore, MD, where he runs Publishing Genius, a micro press. He also plays guitar in Sweatpants, a rock band, and has written two collections of poetry including Adam Robison and Other Poems which was nominated for the Goodreads Award in 2010, and Say, Poem, a self-published MFA thesis which will be republished this year by Mitzvah Press. CAConrad called his work "marvelous, genius fun." Robinson is also a contributor to HTMLGiant, the literary blog of the future.

<-----Kristin Ross is a freelance writer, musician, and performance artist who has been active in the Pittsburgh cultural scene most of her life. She has been published by The New Yinzer, Zygote in my Coffee, Yawp and The Cerebral Catalyst. She is the author of Day Prize nominated comic book Hate Your Friends and paid her dues in local bands Sing the Evens Play the Odds and the Will Kills. Her current pet project is Literazzi, a poetry and performance troupe that is focused on increasing literacy in Pittsburgh. Literazzi donates partial funds to the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council and expects to release its first anthology at the end of 2011. Kristin can be found on the internet as the Editorial Intern at Pop Damage, a contributor to Soldout Music, and her own blog: http://baronetess.blogspot.com/ (Kristin’s photo by Ashly Nagrant)

Photos: March 17th TNY Reading

2011-03-20T18:36:00.009-04:00

Thanks to everyone who came out last Thursday to the reading. There was a good crowd to greet three of Pittsburgh's own:

<----Dave Newman read a riveting section from his novel, Please Don't Shoot Anyone Tonight.

Bob Pajich, who will soon be published on Low Ghost Press, read some wonderful Pittsburgh poems------->

And ex-cop Jimmy Cvetic closed the evening with poems both in and out of his new book, Secret Society of Dog.

Shortly I'll be posting about our next reading on Thursday, April 21st: Kane, Michalski, Robinson, Ross. Stay tuned.

Next TNY Reading: Newman, Pajich, Cvetic, March 17th

2011-02-27T14:44:00.009-05:00

When - Thursday, March 17th
Where - ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Time - 8 p.m.
Cover - $5 or free w/ contribution to potluck

Dave Newman---> has published more than 200 poems, stories, essays, and articles in journals and magazines around the world. He is the author of the novel Please Don't Shoot Anyone Tonight (World Parade Books, 2010) and four chapbooks, most recently Allen Ginsberg Comes To Pittsburgh.

<-----Bob Pajich spent the last decade-plus as a professional reporter and even longer than that as an idiot poet. He has a book of poems forthcoming from Low Ghost Press.

Jim Cvetic---> has been writing and performing poetry all his life. A retired county police officer, he is the director of the Pittsburgh Police Athletic League, and founder and director of the Summer Poetry Series at Hemingway's Cafe in Oakland. His poems have appeared in the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette and other publications. He is currently previewing readings from Ebony, a play he wrote, celebrating the value of human life, as part of the Three Rivers Peace Project. Jim's first full-length book of poetry, Secret Society of Dog, was published by Awesome Books in 2010.

Next TNY Reading: March 17th

2011-02-23T15:15:00.004-05:00

Thanks to all who came out to the February 17th TNY Presents reading. I'm always impressed how a great audience appears out of thin air at exactly 8:32 for a reading scheduled for 8:00pm. The tardy crowd didn't actually miss anything but enjoyed poems by Jason Baldinger & Justin Hopper, and stories by Sherrie Flick.

Please stay tuned for bios from our readers for Thursday, March 17th: Dave Newman will be reading fiction while Jim Cvetic will read poems; Bob Pajich writes both poetry and prose, so he'll surprise us (or at least, me).

2011-01-11T17:20:00.013-05:00

TNY Presents kicks off its fourth season with a Special early-bird Edition!

When - Wednesday, February 2nd
(Pssst! We've got another event coming up on Feb 17th, when we move to 3rd Thursdays)
Where - ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Time - 8 p.m.
Cover - $5 or free w/ contribution to potluck

Michael S. Begnal’s collections include Ancestor Worship (Salmon Poetry, 2007), Mercury, the Dime (Six Gallery Press, 2005), and Future Blues (Salmon Poetry, forthcoming 2011). He has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Notre Dame Review, BlazeVOX, Poetry Ireland Review, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. His blog is: http://www.mikebegnal.blogspot.com/ -->

<--Alan Jude Moore is from Dublin. Three collections of poetry, Black State Cars (2004), Lost Republics (2008) and Strasbourg (2010) are published by Salmon Poetry. His short fiction has been twice short-listed for the Hennessy Literary Award for New Irish Writing. Translations of his work have been published in Italian, Russian and Turkish. His website is http://www.alanjudemoore.com/

Ellen McGrath Smith teaches literature and writing at the University of Pittsburgh and in Carlow University's Madwomen in the Attic program for women writers. Her critical work has appeared in Sagetrieb, The Denver Quarterly, The Pennsylvania Review, American Book Review, The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature, and The Pittsburgh Quarterly. Poems have appeared or are forthcoming in: Cerise, Weave, The Same, Kestrel, Oranges & Sardines, CQ, 5 a.m., Café, Oxford Magazine, Diner, The Best of the Prose Poem, Pearl, Zone 3, Southern Poetry Review, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Sistersong, Descant (Canada), and others. Her work has received the Rainmaker Award in Poetry from Zone 3 magazine, the Academy of American Poets Prize, the Ascher Montandon Prize in Poetry (HyperAge magazine), and an Honorable Mention in the Lynda Hull Awards (Crazyhorse, 2004). Reviews Editor, Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics; 2007 Individual Artist Fellowship in Poetry from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Kevin Finn is author of the poetry collection, Exit Wounds (Amsterdam Press, 2010). His poetry leans on the politics of a changing environment and the social, emotional and spiritual implications of the planetary condition. Also a singer-songwriter, Finn’s music has gained critical acclaim world-wide.

TNY Presents 2010 Season Finale

2010-10-27T12:32:00.012-04:00

Featuring Readings by the poetastic:

Ed Steck, Jason Baldinger, Margaret Bashaar, M. Callen, Kevin Finn, Scott Silsbe, Jerome Crooks, Laura Davis, Don Wentworth, Jonathan Loucks, Andy Mulkerin, Jessica Fenlon, Crystal Hoffman

When - Wednesday, November 17
Where - ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Time - 8 p.m.
Cover - $5 or free w/ contribution to potluck

Please join us for the TNY Presents 2010 Season Finale! We've packed the night with some of our favorite Pittsburgh purveyors of poesy!! The evening also marks the end of an era(?) as we say goodbye to one of our own. Kristofer Collins (TNY managing editor 2005-2009,Co-Director TNY Presents) is retiring from the TNY staff, so come out and help us bid a fond farewell to that weirdo. :-)

ALSO! We've got a fantastic line-up for 2011.

(We're moving to every third Thursday of the month.)

It's already shaping up to be a beautiful year ahead!

October TNY Presents...

2010-09-26T10:10:00.008-04:00

Join us for a ghoulishly good TNY Presents on October 20th! (Indeed. We were absolutely unable to resist the alliterative reference to Halloween. We have it out of our system now, however, and we will very sincerely try not to use it again.)

Where? ModernFormations 4919 Penn Ave.
When? Wednesday, October 20 @ 8pm
Cover? $5 or a contribution to our potluck dinner

<-- Matt Bell is the author of the collection How They Were Found, from Keyhole Press. His fiction has been anthologized in Best American Mystery Stories 2010 and Best American Fantasy 2. He is also the editor of The Collagist, and can be found online at www.mdbell.com.

Aaron Burch is the author of How to Predict the Weather (Keyhole Books). His stories have appeared in New York Tyrant, Barrelhouse, and Quick Fiction, among others. He is also the editor of Hobart: another literary journal. -->

Robert Isenberg is author of The Archipelago: A Balkan Passage, forthcoming from Autumn House Press. An award-winning writer and stage actor, Isenberg is a columnist for Pittsburgh Magazine and a regular theatre critic for Pittsburgh's City Paper. His many stage-plays have received enthusiastic reviews, as has his Pittsburgh Monologue Project, a stand-up performance series based on overheard conversations (co-authored with Brad Keller). He holds a dual degree in Nonfiction Writing and Medieval & Renaissance Studies from the University of Pittsburgh and has taught Playwriting at Duquesne University. Originally from Vermont, he has traveled to 31 countries on five continents. -->

<--Jennifer Meccariello Layman used to be a writer. Really - she wrote all sorts of stuff for local publications and even had a television show in development. It was for cable, but still. She also co-founded The New Yinzer. That's gotta count for something. Now she spends most of her time working at a job she really likes, being the mom to the coolest three-year-old boy you'll ever meet and fighting the good fight against all the dirt and dust her pets and husband drag into the house. This is the first piece she's written in over four years and the first reading she's given in over five. Be kind.

The Richards Family Bible is a Pittsburgh-based trio dedicated to singing songs about Sanctification, Love, and The Violent End of Love. The trio is fronted by Brother Richards, leading the three-piece on acoustic guitar; Sister Richards, second harmony and tambourine; and Brother Phil, holding down the ones and twos on the stripped-down drum-kit, as well as the third harmony. Tight vocal blending and a sincere dedication to bringing their audience songs of integrity and real old-fashioned good-times are the hallmarks of the Richards Family Bible, hallmarks that you will be able to notice as soon as Brother Richards opens his mouth to say "Hello, we're the Richards Family Bible." The Richards Family Bible: SANCTIFIED. -->

2010-09-01T12:29:00.003-04:00

TNY Presents is holding a Special Edition to celebrate Small Press Fest!

When? Friday, September 24th @ 7 p.m.- 9 p.m.
Where? Beehive Coffehouse 1327 East Carson Street, Southside!
Cover? None! Free to all.

We have an excellent line-up of readers! Check them out our line-up so far:

Originally from New England, Noel Sloboda currently teaches at Penn State York and serves as dramaturg for the Harrisburg Shakespeare Company. He is the author of the poetry collection Shell Games (2008) as well as two chapbooks: Stages (2010) and Of Things Passed (2010).

Micah Ling earned her MA and MFA at Indiana University. She teaches courses in writing and literature at DePauw University and Franklin College. She lives in Bloomington, Indiana with her husband and dog.

Chris Bowen is administrator for the Cleveland small press, Burning River. His work has appeared in Leaf Garden, A Trunk of Delirium, and anthologized by Fast Forward Press. Previous work can be found at Hobart, Blue Print Review, New Yinzer Fiction and a slew of other journals, online or in print. Another of his stories will appear in the fall 2010 issue of The New Yinzer.

Stay tuned for additional readers!

And don't forget about our September 15th TNY Presents at Modern Formations. Details appear just below!

2010-08-24T11:25:00.008-04:00

Join us for the start-up of our fall season of TNY Presents on September 15th!

Where: ModernFormations 4919 Penn Ave.
When: Wednesday, September 15 @ 8pm
Cover: $5 or a contribution to our potluck dinner

Also, join us for drinks at Brillobox before the show. You'll find us warming a booth and having a beer (or, usually, a Manhattan) by 6:30 p.m. on show nights.

Our guest readers this month include:

Brian O'Neill has been a newspaper columnist in Pittsburgh for more than 20 years. He is a winner of the Associated Press Managing Editors of Pennsylvania Award for column writing as well as the Pennsylvania Newspaper Publishers Keystone Award. A graduate of Syracuse University, O'Neill lives on the North Side with his wife and daughters, both of whom are students at CAPA Middle School downtown. His book, The Paris of Appalachia, has sold more than 7,000 copies since last September. It is the fastest-selling book in the 35-year history of Carnegie Mellon University Press.

Nathan Kukulski

>>Becca Mertz lives in Lawrenceville. Her poems have been published in such journals as Drunken Boat, H_NGM_N, and Indefinite Space. She has an MFA from University of Pittsburgh and is a founding editor of the influental poetry journal, A Joint Called Pauline. She will teach Composition for food, and does so currently at Duquesne University.

Red Bob

Lucy Goubert was born with a red mark on her forehead. When her parents were taking her out of the hospital for the first time a mystical-looking sheik told them that she had the "Mark of the Cobra" and that she would do "great things". Now she lives in Pittsburgh and hasn't really done anything except write a couple of poems.

Our musical guest is:
>>Heather Kropf is a singer/songwriter/producer living in Pittsburgh. A native of Portland, Oregon, and trained in classical piano and fine art, she has produced three albums and appeared as a vocalist on numerous other projects. Her sound is a blend of poetry and pop, and dips into the classic sounds of 70s folk and singer/songwriters, to contemporary AAA and neo-soul. Her pristine and mellifluous voice, named "an esoteric slice of blue-eyed soul" lives somewhere between Jill Sobule, Tracy Thorn, and Aimee Mann. She has performed live all over the region, including the Three Rivers Arts Festival, First Night, WYEP and WQED Studios, the Philadelphia Music Conference, and has opened for national acts such as Mason Jennings, The Weepies, Betty LaVette and Ben Arnold.

2010-08-03T11:01:00.002-04:00

Join us for an excellent Special Edition TNY Presents on August 18th. This pre-season show starts up our engines for the fall season....vroom, vroom, VROOM!!

Where: ModernFormations 4919 Penn Ave.
When: Wednesday, August 18 @ 8pm
Cover: $5 or a contribution to our potluck dinner

Also, join us for drinks at Brillobox before the show. You'll find us warming a booth and having a beer (or, usually, a Manhattan) by 6:30 p.m. on show nights.

Readers Include:
Lisa Alexander
Michelle Stoner
Caitlin Crawford
Taylor Grieshober

Musical Guests:
The Committee for Getting Attention
Robin Vote

2010-07-20T20:04:00.006-04:00

Watch this space.

Details about August's TNY Presents, which will be held at Modern Formations Gallery and Performance Space, will appear here very soon!

Thanks so much to everyone who braved the heat and came out to Lili Cafe and the Polish Hill Arts Fest on Sunday to hear Kris Collins, Elwin Michael Cotman, Daniel McCloskey, and Amanda Reynolds!

Details on August's readers to come shortly....

TNY Goes to the Polish Hill Arts Fest!

2010-06-20T11:03:00.004-04:00

TNY Presents is excited to be part of the 2010 Polish Hill Arts Fest!

When? Sunday, July 18, 2010 @ 2:00 p.m.
Where? Lili Coffee Shop, 3138 Dobson (Neighborhood: Polish Hill)
Cover? None! Free to all.

This TNY Special Edition is held in conjunction with a weekend celebrating the wonderful Polish Hill Neighborhood. Come enjoy a coffee or tea at the beautiful, newly opened Lili Coffee Shop (in the meantime, see Karen Lillis' DiggingPitt article on Lili Coffee Shop!).

Read more about the event here at the Polish Hill Civic Association's "Blogski".
Thanks so much to Susan Constanse of the Polish Hill Civic Association!

Kristofer Collins is publisher and editor-in-chief of Low Ghost Press, co-director of the TNY Presents Performance Series, managing editor of The New Yinzer 2005-09, an occasional book reviewer for The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and owner of Desolation Row Records & CDs. A book of his poems entitled King Everything was published in 2007 by Six Gallery Press, The Book of Names was published by Low Ghost Press in 2008, and The Liturgy of Streets was published by Six Gallery Press in 2009. His most recent collection, Last Call, will be published by Speed & Briscoe in 2010.

Cyberpunk Apocalypse writer -in-residence Elwin Michael Cotman reads from his recently released dark collection of fantasies, The Jack Daniels Sessions EP, which combines urban fantasy, black folktale, punk rock, and magic brought to you by one of Pittsburgh’s most animated readers.

At the age of 20 Daniel McCloskey graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in fiction writing. At the age of 21 he founded the Cyberpunk Apocalypse Writers' Co-op, and at 22 he finished a clean draft of his first novel which jumps between comics and prose. Daniel's work has been printed in Urban Velo magazine, in his own Cyberpunk Apocalypse publication, and he has a two page comic set to come out in Shrunken Wool issue 8.

Amanda Reynolds left Pittsburgh in 2002 for hurricanes and alligators in Florida. There she received an MFA in poetry from the University of Florida and a PhD in poetry from Florida State University. Her poems have appeared in journals such as: Gargoyle, Alimentum, Gander Press Review, Mississippi Crow, and The Aurora Review among others. She has a poetry chapbook entitled Degrees of Separation forthcoming from Pudding House Press in 2010. She has recently returned home to Pittsburgh to teach and write about the city she loves.

What are Yinz doin'?

2010-05-20T12:06:00.006-04:00

Well, stay tuned! The New Yinzer is working on a Special Edition that will take place at Lili Cafe at 2 p.m. on July 18th. The event is part of the Polish Hill Arts Festival. Watch this space for details!

Also, Kris Collins' new book of poetry,titled Last Call, will be officially released on May 29th at 8p.m. The launch party will be held at Gallery 4, located at 206 South Highland Avenue in Pittsburgh.

Here are the vitals:
Speed & Briscoe Book Release for Last Call by Kristofer Collins

with poetry and fiction readings from:
Kayla Sargeson
Lucy Goubert
Karl Hendricks
Jason Baldinger
Carrie Shaley
Renée Alberts
Kristofer Collins

$5 admission (includes book)
Saturday, May 29th
8 pm

byob

May's Excellent Line-up!

2010-05-02T10:28:00.004-04:00

Join us for an excellent new line-up of readers on May 19th! This show is a close to our spring features (of course, we start revving our engines again in August with an equally excellent show organized by writer and fellow New Yinzer Taylor Grieshober)!

Where: ModernFormations 4919 Penn Ave.
When: Wednesday, May 19st @ 8pm
Cover: $5 or a contribution to our potluck dinner

Also, join us for drinks at Brillobox before the show. You'll find us warming a booth and having a beer (or, usually, a Manhattan) by 6:30 p.m. on show nights.

Kirk Nesset (reader): is author of two books of fiction, Mr. Agreeable and Paradise Road, as well as The Stories of Raymond Carver (nonfiction), Saint X (poems, forthcoming), and Alphabet of the World: Selected Works by Eugenio Montejo (translations, forthcoming). He was awarded the Drue Heinz Literature Prize in 2007 and has received a Pushcart Prize and grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. His work has appeared in The Paris Review, Kenyon Review, Southern Review, American Poetry Review, Gettysburg Review, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner and elsewhere. He teaches at Allegheny College, and serves alternate years as writer-in-residence at the Chautauqua Writers Institute in upstate New York. Learn more about him at http://kirknesset.com

Timothy Gager (reader): is the author of eight books of short fiction and poetry. His latest Treating a Sick Animal: Flash and Micro Fictions (Cervena Barva Press) features over forty stories, many previously published in various literary magazines. He hosts the Dire Literary Series in Cambridge, Massachusetts every month and is the co-founder of Somerville News Writers Festival.

Timothy is the current Fiction Editor of The Wilderness House Literary Review, the founding co-editor of The Heat City Literary Review and has edited the book, Out of the Blue Writers Unite: A Book of Poetry and Prose from the Out of the Blue Art Gallery.

A graduate of the University of Delaware, Timothy lives in Dedham, Massachusetts and is employed as a social worker.

Lori Jakiela (reader): As a native Pittsburgher, Lori Jakiela (rhymes with tequila) has a weakness for gigantic deep-fried fish sandwiches, thinks slippy is a real word, and sometimes drinks Iron City Beer for sentimental reasons.

Her hometown, Trafford, PA, is widely thought of as the birthplace of the chocolate-covered pickle.

Jakiela, who once had a great fear of flying, worked as a flight attendant at a major airline for six years. She is currently on leave from the airlines. She now spends her days on the ground, teaching at The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, where she is also director of the writing program.

Miss New York Has Everything (Warner Books) was published in January 2006. Jakiela's essays and poems have appeared in DoubleTake, River Styx, Creative Nonfiction, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, The Chicago Review, 5 AM, Nerve Cowboy, Tears in the Fence, Chiron Review, Slipstream, and elsewhere. Her chapbook, The Regulars -- a collection of poems and essays -- was published by Liquid Paper Press and was awarded first prize in Nerve Cowboy’s 2001 chapbook contest.

Ha' Penny (music): stay tuned!

2010-04-26T20:31:00.002-04:00

Close out your TNY experience for the month of April with an extra shot of TNY Presents. Join us Friday, April 30th as we host out-of-towners Chris Leo and Marcellus Hall! Also on tap are TNY up-n-comers Taylor Grieshober and Wesley Conroy!! Stick around for a nightcap with Pittsburgh’s own Uke & Tuba!!! It’s truly been an action packed month for everybody here at TNY, so come out for one last huzzah for April, to misquote TS Eliot, “the coolest month”.

Where: ModernFormations 4919 Penn Ave.
When: Friday, April 30 @ 8pm
Cover: $5 or a contribution to our potluck dinner

Chris Leo: (Reader) Chris Leo is the author of 3 books, including 2009's Feathers Like Leather, the only book of pure writing carried in the Artbook Spring 2009 catalog. He's also released over 10 albums as frontman for bands like The Van Pelt, The Lapse, and Vague Angels.

Taylor Grieshober: (Reader) Taylor Grieshober will graduate with a BA in Professional and Creative writing in May. She splits her time between the bakery where she works and school. Currently Taylor is trying to fulfill her New Year's resolution to see every Woody Allen film ever made. At the time of writing this biography she is up to 23.

Wesley Conroy: (Reader) Wesley Regis Conroy was born in Pittsburgh, PA. After a brief stint in New York City, he returned to Pittsburgh, where he now lives in Lawrenceville. He is working on a series of short stories. This will be his first reading.

Marcellus Hall: (Words + Music) Marcellus Hall is an illustrator based in New York. He was born on the great plains of the midwest and spent languid summer hours as a youth at the fishing hole or playing video games. Hall graduated with a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and moved to New York. His clients have included the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic Monthly, and Time, among others. His work has appeared in American Illustration, Communication Arts, and the Society of Illustrators annuals. His first cover for the New Yorker was published in 2005. In addition illustrating the books White Pigeons and 57 Octaves (fifthplanetpress.com), Hall has self-published books of drawings and writing including "Hard Luck Stories" and "Legends of the Infinite City" (a collection of black & white drawings of New York City). Hall has illustrated for Harry Abrams Inc a children’s book entitled Because You Are My Baby (2008). As a musician Hall has made recordings with bands Railroad Jerk and White Hassle and has toured the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Hall continues to make music under his own name.

Uke & Tuba: (Music) Uke & Tuba are Pittsburgh's finest ukulele/tuba/accordion band with back-up dancers (challengers welcomed). Their hilarious stage show explores the common ground between a punk show, performance art, and a karaoke night gone horribly wrong. Memorable past performances include a Girl Scouts convention, Andy Warhol's grave, a wedding, and the One Nation Under a Uke festival in Philadelphia. Visit them at www.ukeandtuba.com

2010-04-22T09:34:00.000-04:00

April's TNY Presents! We're two years old!

2010-04-01T14:11:00.016-04:00

It's our 2nd birthday, kids. Started in 2008, our series is in its third season, but we're now officially two years old! But no terrible twos for us though....we're celebrating with a fantastic selection of 5 writers and 1 excellent band. This month, we're excited to welcome the Cleveland own Burning River Press!

Here's the first of three--count 'em, three!--events this month:

Where: ModernFormations 4919 Penn Ave.
When: Wednesday, April 21st @ 8pm
Cover: $5 or a contribution to our potluck dinner
Will there be cake, you ask: You bet there will.

Also, join us for drinks at Brillobox before the show. You'll find us warming a booth and having a beer (or, usually, a Manhattan) by 6:30 p.m. on show nights.

Michelle Reale (Reader): Michelle Reale's fiction has been published in Smokelong Quarterly, Word Riot, Monkeybicycle, elimae, Eyeshot, JMWW, Pank, Foundling Review, Rumble, Underground Voices, Emprise Review, Matchbook, Pear Noir, The Stray Branch, Blue Print Review and a host of others. Her fiction chapbook , Natural Habitat will be published by Burning River in April, 2010 and available this Wednesday. She's been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize and lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She is currently working on a novel of linked stories.

Chris Bowen (Reader): Chris Bowen is an author, editor, and life-long learner. His fiction has appeared in multiple small press and college journals. Among others: Hobart, Muse & Stone, Penumbra and forthcoming, A Trunk of Delirium, Fast Forward Press and Leaf Garden. He is the creator of the Cleveland based website and small press Burning River. He enjoys the culinary arts at Cleveland’s Tri-C Metro campus and swimming in lakes during summer.

M. Callen: (Reader) In the morning, the first thing M. Callen does is push-ups. M. Callen has always carried a knife. She maintains a promise never to eat Wonderbread again, to never buy ValuTime anything. If once you saw her drinking from the whiskey tree, she apologizes for your gnarled face and busted lip. Sometimes she has a hard time knowing when enough is enough.

M. Callen is full of bad ideas, but not the kind you think. Her memory is, at best, circumspect; full of the ghosts she once slow danced with, or wanted to slow dance with. The trellis and string quartet. M. Callen has always wanted to use the word ‘pirouette’ in a poem; but like many other things, the timing has never been right.

Everyone who has ever come to call M. Callen “home” probably regrets it, because she would not leave and she would not stay. She comes from the silence that folds the night into morning, is descendent of both the albatross and the 8-track. She is less interested in apologizing than she is in asking forgiveness.

Don Wentworth: (Reader) Don Wentworth is a small press poet whose work has been or will be published in Bear Creek Haiku, Bottle Rockets, Modern Haiku, The New Yinzer and Rolling Stone, among others. He has published two chapbooks - Tenpenny Stamens (Random Weirdness) and The Nostalgia Papers (Mockersatz Zrox) - and has a forthcoming book, Past All Traps(Sixth Gallery), due sometime this year.

Martin Dodd: (Reader) Martin Dodd joined a writers group at age 67 in 2002. Since then, he has been published in The Barmaid, The Bean Counter, and The Bungee Jumper; Chicken Soup For The Recovering Soul; Homestead Review; Hobart (Web Issues Dec '06. Jun '07); Cadillac Cicatrix; and Writers Weekly. Dodd has also won awards, or been a finalist, in contests of NorthernPros; St. Louis Short Story Contest; Central Coast Writers (California); Writer's Digest; Inkwell; and Glimmer Train.

House of Assassins (Music): Stay tuned!

Three Excellent Shows in April!

2010-03-31T10:11:00.008-04:00

Join us Wednesday, April 21 for a jam-packed night of words and music. On the literary side of things we'll be featuring M. Callen, Don Wentworth, Michelle Reale, Chris Bowen, and Martin Dodd. House of Assassins have been tapped to provide the evening's soundtrack.

Then on Friday, April 30 join us for an extra helping of TNY Presents.
We'll have wordsmiths Chris Leo, Marcellus Hall, Taylor Grieshober, and
Wesley Conroy at the mic. And the amazing Uke & Tuba will also be on hand
to get your toes a-tappin'!

Both events will follow precise TNY Presents order:
Where: ModernFormations 4919 Penn Ave.
When: April 21 & April 30 @ 8pm
Cover: $5 or a contribution to our potluck dinner

But wait! There's more....

On Friday, April 23, in a benefit for the Pittsburgh Women's Shelter, The New Yinzer is hosting a reading and rocking out at Howler's Cafe on Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield. At the mic will be writers Evelyn Pierce and Savannah Schroll Guz, along with a fantastic selection of DJs and bands. Our theme? "Good Country People".

2010-02-18T22:09:00.021-05:00

Join us again on March 17, 2010!
Where: ModernFormations 4919 Penn Ave.
When: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 @ 8pm
Cover: $5 or a contribution to our potluck dinner

Adam Kavulic (Reader) graduated from California University of Pennsylvania in 2008 and is going back to school to get his masters in elementary education. He spends his creative time between writing and photography. His top three root beers are as follows: Appalachian Brewery Co. Root Beer, D's SixPax and Dogz 1919 Real Draft Root Beer, and Dominion Root Beer. He is an atheist and currently learning Japanese.

Terry Hawkins (Reader) was born in Uniontown, PA in 1956. He is author of the novel Rage of Achilles. Through a series of administrative errors still the subject of chagrined scrutiny, he was permitted not only to attend but graduate from Yale, where he was publisher of the Yale Daily News. The wind next blew him to Madison, Wisonsin, for law school. After practicing there for three years, he returned to New Haven, where he chases ambulances for a day job. Find out more about Terry here.

Crystal Hoffman (Reader) Crystal Hoffman's poetry is forthcoming or has in appeared in journals such as A Capella Zoo, FRiGG, Weave, Blackbox, and The World According to Goldfish. She fancies herself a revolutionary for a number of reasons, one of which is The TypewriterGirls Poetry Cabaret (typewritergirls.net), where she subverts banalities in order to create living poetic experiences. In order to eat, she teaches English Literature and Composition courses at a community college and works as a pen-wielding mercenary for organized labor. It is her dearest wish is to decrease the amount of concrete in the world.

The Skirt Tasters (Music) Rock and Roll + Poesy Slingin'

Poet Angele Ellis Celebrates the warmth of TNY Presents!

2010-02-10T22:23:00.010-05:00

'Tho forty winters have besieged our 'Burgh,
And buried alleys that never will see a plow,
When from our frozen burrows we emerge,
We'll seek distraction--friends, the time is now!
Then being asked, where all the culture lies,
Point thy chilled fingers toward Penn Avenue--
Modern Formations will make several poets rise,
Hosting this year's premiere New Yinzer revue.
So venture forth next Wednesday, pretty please,
Ramirez, Joseph, Ellis, Elias, and Weird Paul
Will pluck your heartstrings, and calm every sneeze
Bringing the warmth of verse and song to all.
I trust to meet you there, dear yinzers new and old,
For art's our best defense against the cold.

-Angele Ellis

Please come out to this month's The New Yinzer Presents!

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 17, 8 P.M., at Modern Formations Gallery, 4919 Penn Avenue.
Performing are Adriana Ramirez, Diana Joseph, Che Elias, Angele Ellis, and musical guest Weird Paul Petroskey.

Thanks, Angele!!

2010-01-18T08:31:00.010-05:00

The New Yinzer's Third Season starts up again on February 17, 2010!

Join us at our favorite haunt, Modern Formations, on 2/17 at 8:00p.m.

Readers take the stage at 8:30.

Cover: $5 or free with a contribution to our pot luck spread

Feel free to BYOB!

Adriana Ramirez: (Reader) Adriana E. Ramirez is disposed to skirts over pants, dresses over pantsuits. None of the clocks in her house are set to the right time. Adri secretly considers herself a Texan, although she's far more Mexican and Colombian than anything else. She used to be a performance poet and has over fifteen years experience in theater, spoken word, and advocacy. Once ranked the 26th slam poet in the world (iwps 2006), Adri used to co-host the Latino/Indigenous Showcase at the National Poetry Slam and now hosts the Steel City Slam in Pittsburgh. Her poems and prose have appeared on the internet, on subway station walls, and occasionally, on pieces of dead wood. She currently lives in Pittsburgh, where she works as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh and is finishing a book about her death fantasies, Colombia, and the way we tell stories around violence. She is a Virgo and a Boar, and also has an MFA in Creative Nonfiction writing from Pitt.

Diana Joseph: (Reader) Diana Joseph is the author of the story collection Happy or Otherwise (Carnegie Mellon UP 2003) and the memoir I'm Sorry YouFeel That Way: The Astonishing but True Story of a Daughter, Sister, Slut, Wife, Mother and Friend to Man and Dog. Her work has been listed in Best American Stories, Best American Essays, the Pushcart Prize Anthology and has appeared in Best Sex Writing, Country Living, and Marie Claire. She teaches in the MFA program at Minnesota State University-Mankato.

Che Elias: (Reader) Che Elias was born in 1980 in Glendale, West Virginia. He spent his formative years in the surrounding Ohio River Valley area...Then relocating to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he is now currently living. He is the author of a novel Rockets Construe Vala and a poetry collection A Lesser Summer: Early Poems. His second novel, Juliet ...,Remember, was published by Six Gallery Press in 2002. His poetry collection Meddles into Preclusion appeared in 2003, and in 2004 he published his novel The Pagan Ellipsis, which is available now. Other Works by CheElias: The Abacus, Wheeling (Poems and Stories), and Death Poems.

Angele Ellis: (Reader) Angele Ellis is the author of Arab on Radar (SixGallery Press, 2007). A 2008 recipient of an Individual Creative Artist fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, her poems have appeared in Mizna, Grasslimb, Encyclopedia Destructica, Rune, Pittsburgh City Paper, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, THEMA, and the anthologies Come Together: Imagine Peace and Voices from the Attic. In September 2009, she won Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ G-20 Haiku Contest; her haiku was displayed on the marquee of the Harris Theatre for the duration of Pittsburgh’s G-20 summit.

Weird Paul: (Music) Weird Paul Petroskey is one good lookin' S.O.B. But, more importantly, he writes the damn catchiest songs. Paul began releasing his own cassettes inthe late 80's. In 1991, Homestead Records released "Lo Fidelity, Hi Anxiety", Paul's now hard-to-find cult classic CD. Since then, Paul is back to releasing his own albums of fun indie-pop/punk, including his latest (and 23rd), AS HEARD IN MY DREAMS. Currently, having written or co-written almost 600 songs, Paul has about 20 albums worth of music available for purchase (see weirdpaul.com). The new album by The Weird Paul Rock Band, "Simulating the Act of Love" will be released in early 2010. On April 21, 2006, the hour-long documentary on Weird Paul- Weird Paul, A Lo Fidelity Documentary- by Chicago filmmaker Stacey Goldschmidt - showed at the Harris Theater in downtown Pittsburgh. It has since played at the Chicago Underground Film Festival and in Leeds, England at the Leeds International Film Festival. It features interviews with Lou Barlow, Calvin Johnson, John S. Hall, BrittDaniel (Spoon), Mr. HCI (Happy Flowers) and more. The film is now also available on DVD.

And 'til we see you, please check out Bob Hoover's wonderful mention of us in the January 17th edition of Post-Gazette!

2009-11-24T22:45:00.004-05:00

Join us December 11th for a TNY Special Edition!

Our very good friends, poets John Grochalski and Ally Malinenko will be in town for an evening of poesy slinging. Also on tap for the evening are the local favorites Ed Steck, Renee Alberts, Margaret Bashaar, Joel W. Coggins, and Jessica Fenlon.
(Stay tuned for pictures of our guests...)

Where: ModernFormations 4919 Penn Ave.
When: December 11th, 8pm
Cover: $5 or a contribution to our potluck dinner

John Grochalski is a writer formerly from Pittsburgh. He lives in New York now with his wife and two cats. Grochalski's book of poems The Noose Doesn't Get Any Looser After You Punch Out was published by Six Gallery Press in 2009.

Ally Malinenko has been published by Alembic, Blind Man's Review, Small Brushes, Whisky Island Magazine, The Unknown Writer, HeART, Mad Poets Society, Posey, Jack Magazine and Words-Myth. She is also a contributing poet to Reading Ground blogazine, a division of Breeding Ground Productions (http://breedingground.com/reading/). Her first book of poems entitled The Wanting Bone was published in 2009 by Six Gallery Press. She is currently working on a novel for children. Ally lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two cats.

Ed Steck is awaiting World War III. "Hoojy boojy, wumbly tumbly, goody goody, grass grass."

Renée Alberts listens to rivers, talks to the radio, and translates the conversations into poetry, sound and collage. She learned all of this in Pittsburgh. She's been lucky to collaborate with some of the city's finest wordsmiths and musicians, and has participated in and curated many events. Her chapbook is forthcoming from Speed & Briscoe. Witness her in 1s and 0s at http://williamthesilent.blogspot.com/.

Margaret Bashaar is the co-editor of Weave Magazine and co-host of The Typewriter Girls. Her poetry has appeared in or is forthcoming from numerous literary journals including Caketrain, The Pedestal Magazine, Boxcar Poetry Review, So to Speak, and Blue Earth Review. She also writes book reviews for The Multicultural Review and for Weave Magazine's blog.

Joel W. Coggins, a native Ohioan, is a Senior at the University of Pittsburgh, where he majors in Writing. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Three Rivers Review and also serves as an Editorial Assistant for Weave Magazine. His writing has appeared in Collision, Hinge, and Cedarville Review.

Jessica Fenlon lives and works in Pittsburgh PA. She makes art that touches on the currents of violence, everyday joys, and haunting losses that move in her peripheral vision. BFA UW-Madison, MFA School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Her first book of poetry, Spiritual Side Effects was published by Six Gallery Press in 2009. She spends too much time at crossroads with scarecrows. She enjoys playing with fire in her free time. She is probably taller than you.

2009-11-19T07:47:00.004-05:00

Yinzers Kristofer Collins and Savannah Guz will be opening for Stephen Elliott, author of The Adderall Diaries, given a starred review by Kirkus and pronounced 'superb' by Time Out New York.

When? Monday, November 23, 2009 @ 8:30 p.m.
Where? Modern Formations (4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh)
Cover? $4

2009-10-30T08:38:00.011-04:00

Join us for the TNY Presents season finale on Wednesday, November 18 (psst....still, stay tuned for a special *Holiday Edition* of TNY in December). We’re turning the stage over to our good friends Chuck Kinder, Karl Hendricks, and Brendan Kerr. They’ll be swapping stories, telling jokes, and pretty much whatever else they’d like to do. TNY Presents belongs to them for the evening. In a similar vein our musical guests for the night – Scott Silsbe, Kurt Garrison, and Mark Mangini – will share the stage and trade some of their favorite songs.

Where?: ModernFormations 4919 Penn Ave. Pittsburgh
When?: 8pm
Cover?: $5 or a contribution to our potluck dinner

Chuck Kinder: (reader) Chuck Kinder is the Director of the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of the novels, Snakehunter (Alfred A. Knopf), The Silver Ghost (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) and Honeymooners: A Cautionary Tale (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), a 2001 New York Times Notable Book. Honeymooners was reprinted as a Plume Paperback in 2002, and in June 2009 it was re-issued by the Carnegie Mellon University Press as a part of its Classic Contemporary Series.Kinder’s most recent book is a redneck noir, pulp romance meta-memoir titled Last Mountain Dancer: Hard Earned Lessons In Love, Loss, and Honky-Tonk Outlaw Life, which was published in 2004.

Karl Hendricks: (reader) Karl Hendricks lives in Pittsburgh, PA with his wife, Megan, and their two daughters, Maeve and Nell. He is the author ofthe chapbook, Stan Getz Isn’t Coming Back (Speed & Briscoe Books). He teaches writing at the University of Pittsburgh and also works at Paul’s CDs. His band, the Karl Hendricks Trio (sometimes Rock Band), has released eight albums, most recently The World Says.

Brendan Kerr: (reader) Brendan Kerr comes to Pittsburgh via Elkins, West Virginia and Brooklyn, New York. He recently completed his MFA at the University of Pittsburgh and his novel, The Uses of Talent, is currently looking for a home. Brendan plays bass with the rock band Workshop. He lives in Polish Hill and can often be found among the crowd in one local establishment or another.

Scott Silsbe: (music)Scott Silsbe was born in Detroit. He now lives in Pittsburgh, where he sells books, writes, and makes rock music.

Kurt Garrison: (music) Kurt Garrison is a member of The Shopkeepers, The Plat Maps and AAA.

Mark Mangini: (music) Mark Mangini is an editor at The New Yinzer.

2009-10-01T15:22:00.007-04:00

It’s time for yet another scary-good installment of TNY Presents!

Join us for a little pre-Halloween hijinks on Wednesday, October 21st. Tricks (of the literary variety) will be provided by Nathan Graziano, Holly Coleman, and Kevin Finn. Elliott Sussman will be on hand with a banjo full of tasty musical treats.

Where: Modern Formations 4919 Penn Ave.
When: 8pm
Cover: $5 or a contribution to our potluck dinner

Nathan Graziano: (reader) Nathan Graziano lives in Manchester, New Hampshire with his wife and two children. He is the author of TeachingMetaphors (sunnyoutside, 2007), Not So Profound (Green Bean Press, 2004),Frostbite (GBP, 2002) and seven chapbooks of poetry and fiction. His workhas appeared in Rattle, Night Train, Freight Stories, The Coe Review, The Owen Wister Review, and others. His third book of poetry, After the Honeymoon, will be published in Fall 2009 by sunnyoutside press. For more information, visit his website: www.nathangraziano.com.

<--Holly Coleman: (reader) Famed 'Wild Woman of the North Side,' hasn’t had a literary piece published since 1999 due to her own laziness, Holly Colemanis getting up off her ass and hummin, comin atcha!

Kevin Finn: (reader) Kevin Finn is a native of Pittsburgh, PA. A poet, as well as a singer-songwriter, his work has gained critical praise world wide. His chapbook, Exit Wounds, was published by Amsterdam Press in 2009.

<-- Elliott Sussman: (music) In 1984, the front porch and the campfire becameconcerned that they weren't being used for their intended musicalpurposes. It was that year that Elliott Sussman was birthed by the two tomake sure that their glorious traditions would never be forgotten. Visit Elliott at http://www.myspace.com/elliottsussman

2009-08-25T22:02:00.010-04:00

The weather might be cooling down but we’re heating things up at TNY Presents. Join us Wednesday, September 16th for the latest installment. We’ll be featuring the literary talents of Dave Carillo, Joel W. Coggins, Sherrie Flick, and Dana Killmeyer. Stick around for the beautiful sounds of Stephen Tribou & The Vacant Sea.

Sherrie Flick (reader) has an excellent debut novel, titled Reconsidering Happiness, just out from University of Nebraska Press. I Call This Flirting, her awarding-winning chapbook of flash fiction, was published in 2004 (Flume Press). Her work appears in the anthologies Flash Fiction Forward (Norton) and New Sudden Fiction (Norton) as well as You Have Time For This (Ooligan Press). A recipient of a PA Council on the Arts grant, she lives in Pittsburgh where she directs the Gist Street Reading Series. Learn more here: www.sherrieflick.com and read her City Paper interview here! (photo credit: John Altdorfer)--->

<---Dave Carillo (reader) Dave Carillo teaches English at the University of Connecticut at Waterbury and is the Writing Coordinator at Saint Joseph College. He lives in West Hartford, CT with his wife and dog.

Joel W. Coggins (reader) Joel W. Coggins, a native Ohioan, is a Senior at the University of Pittsburgh, where he majors in Writing. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Three Rivers Review and also serves as an Editorial Assistant for Weave Magazine. His writing has appeared in Collision, Hinge, and Cedarville Review. ---->

<---Dana Killmeyer (reader) Dana Killmeyer is a Pittsburgh native working in mixed forms of expression. As a writer, she has published the novel, Paradise, or The Part that Dies and the poetry collection, Pendulums of Euphoria with Six Gallery Press. She has been known to swallow her children whole after giving birth to them, so she is grateful the Para/Pen twins reached maturity.

Stephen Tribou & The Vacant Sea (music) Check out Stephen Tribou at www.myspace.com/thevacantsea -->

TNY Reader McClanahan's STORIES reviewed in City Paper!

2009-08-13T20:37:00.003-04:00

Scott McClanahan's deceptively simply Stories hooks you.
BY BILL O'DRISCOLL

Stories by Scott McClanahan
Six Gallery Press, 140 pp.

If you can't get Scott McClanahan to come tell you stories at your neighborhood bar, try just taking his book Stories and reading it aloud to friends. McClanahan's short stories are just that informal, and just that engaging.

McClanahan writes about life in small-town West Virginia as a boy, teenager and young man. There are 17 stories, rendered in double-spaced text, and you can read each one in about five minutes.

Told with a guileless tone, they begin with phrases like "The last time I saw Randy Doogan ..." and "You can see all kinds of strange things in Rainelle though." The stories are full of rueful comedy, moral ambivalence and poetic melancholy. They involve things like a man's arm getting ripped off by a lumber-mill saw; a protagonist's pointless running battle with a homeless panhandler; and a father's stubborn insistence on going to jail over a routine speeding ticket.
But McClanahan, an educator and filmmaker who lives in Beckley, W.Va. -- this is apparently his first book -- has mastered the art of seemingly artless transparency. He's a born raconteur with the disarming knack of sucking you into the narrative, the more offbeat the better.
Here's the opening of "Possums":

My Dad was something else though. I know he had this run in with a possum one time when we were standing around talking to this neighbor guy who was showing off his new truck. And of course I was sweeping off our driveway. I mean I hated sweeping off the driveway -- it was a driveway. But I guess my Dad was teaching something about sweeping off a driveway or something.

"Possums" continues with a kind of laidback humor, and ends on a note of unexpected exaltation. In "The Firestarter" -- in which the narrator figures a hit-and-run victim is dead because she has "this dead look on her face" -- he wonders if his mere presence is causing people to get hit by cars.

"Randy Doogan" begins as a shaggy-dog story about lending money to a half-remembered former high school classmate, but becomes a painful rumination on trust. "Poop Deck Pappy" is a strangely moving story about a broken-down old man's genuine love for a dead woman he never met. "The Prettiest Girl in Texas" finds the teen-age protagonist dragged to a low-rent strip club where a disfigured dancer's performance leads to an epiphany.

All the stories seem drawn together by "My Mom," a sketch near book's end composed mostly of stories of family tragedies the narrator's mother tells him, each rendered with the intense simplicity of a folk ballad.

Stories, oddly, lacks page numbers. While that might be an intentional informality, it's harder to excuse the frequent disappearance of paragraph indentation, or the numerous typos.
But none of that matters too much. Nor do McClanahan's mild stylistic tics, like repeating nouns for folkily poetic emphasis ("grinning a shit-eating grin"; "a dark so dark"), or the story or two that comes to a fairly banal resolution.

Mostly, you just want to know what happens next. What's next for the fourth-grade boy whose buddies all agree to dress up as baby dolls for a school pageant -- but then leave him the only one to show up in a dress? What becomes of the guy who falls in love with the woman who prank-calls him one night -- then keeps calling back? Somehow, McClanahan manages to position himself just outside his narrator's adolescent dreams and little-boy misconceptions while remaining fully invested in them too.

Scott McClanahan reads at TNY Presents with Cathy Day, Paco Mahone and Laura Davis, plus live music by Justin Andrew. 8 p.m. Wed., Aug. 19. ModernFormations Gallery, 4919 Penn Ave., Garfield. $5 or potluck donation. tnypresents.blogspot.com

TNY Presents' Fall 2009 Schedule!

2009-08-06T07:32:00.000-04:00

2009-07-22T14:35:00.012-04:00

TNY Presents is back Wednesday, August 19th!

Join us as we kick off the Fall semester of TNY Presents with a night full of late-Summer treats. On the reading side of things, we’ll be joined by the immense talents of Scott McClanahan, Cathy Day, Paco Mahone, and Laura Davis. If that wasn’t enough for yinz we’ll have Justin Andrew on hand to provide some truly golden sounds.

Where: ModernFormations 4919 Penn Ave.
When: Wednesday, August 19th, 8pm
Cover: $5 or a contribution to our potluck dinner

Scott McClanahan: (reader) Scott McClanahan is the writer of Stories (published by Six Gallery Press). His other works include Stories II, Hillbilly and the Nightmares, Stories and Revelations, The Sarah Book (Vol. 3 of McClanahan’s Lives), and Crapalachia (all forthcoming). He is co-partner of the company Holler Presents (www.hollerpresents.com), which has produced such films as Preacher Man, Spring, 1386, The Education of Bertie Mae McClanahan, and Lil Audrey’s Last Day at School. He can be reached at scottmcclanahan@hotmail.com.

Cathy Day: (reader) Cathy Day was born and raised in Peru, Indiana, which is best known as a circus town, but is also the birthplace of Cole Porter and the Spanish hot dog. She is the author of two books. Her most recent work is Comeback Season: How I Learned to Play the Game of Love (Free Press, 2008), part memoir about life as a single woman and part sports story about the Indianapolis Colts Super Bowl season. Her first book was The Circus in Winter (Harcourt, 2004), a fictional history of her hometown. Visit her at
www.cathyday.com

Paco Mahone: (reader) Paco Mahone is a father, writer and musician from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He lived in New York City for several years, taking the public transportation with his 150 year old bass, many late nights with quarter notes. He spent most of his teen and adult life playing in bands, touring the country before returning to college to study music, spent his childhood reading comics, playing with action figures and loved hanging out in the record vaults of the radio stations his father owned. He never pursued his interest in fiction until he took an elective during his last semester at City College Of New York. He currently lives on the North Side with his two boys and supportive wife and is enjoying the role of Mr. Mom while his brilliant wife pursues a doctorate degree. In his spare time, he keeps his fingers in shape, devours books and writes. This is his first public reading.

Laura Davis: (reader) Laura E. Davis was born on a sunny day in Pittsburgh in June. She is a teacher for a local charter school and is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at Chatham University. She serves as co-founding editor of Weave Magazine and organizes various literary events around Pittsburgh.

Justin Andrew: (music) makes folk-pop music that at once sounds timeless and new; the arrangements classic, yet unique. With crisp vocals and adept acoustic guitar playing, Justin's tasteful music conjures up the early-Seventies scene, when people carefully crafted their melodies and song structure.

2009-07-16T09:16:00.001-04:00

2009-07-13T10:26:00.006-04:00

To tide you over until our next reading event, The New Yinzer will be participating Pittsburgh's Small Press Festival on Saturday, July 18th and Sunday, July 19th. Not only will we be sharing a table with good friends Speed & Briscoe, several Yinzers will be participants in panel dicsussions that will take place on both days. Check this line up:

Saturday, July 18 @ 1 p.m. - Small Press, Big Impact?* (followed by Karen Lillis' presentation on the smallpresspittsburgh wiki)
Panelists: Adam Atkinson (Open Thread), Hattie Fletcher (Creative Nonfiction), Savannah Guz (author & Yinzer), Karen Lillis (LDP Distro, smallpresspittsburgh, Words Like Kudzu, author), and Scott Silsbe (The New Yinzer)

Saturday, July 18 @ 2 p.m. - Starting a Small Press or Literary Organization
Panelists: Adam Atkinson (Open Thread), Kris Collins (The New Yinzer), Sue Rumbaugh (The Diner Divas), and Edward Simon (Thirty First Bird Review and Press)

Sunday, July 19 @ 4 p.m. - Women in Publishing
Panelists: Nikki Allen (poet & Yinzer), Margaret Bashaar and Laura Davis (Weave Magazine), and Mary Biddinger (Barn Owl Review)

And on JULY 31st!
The New Yinzer will be celebrating 1970s literature and music on July 31st. Join a nattily clad Gore Vidal impersonator at Brillobox at 8 p.m. on July 31st, and celebrate literature and music with the Yinzers!

Also, stay tuned for bios of the readers featured in the next TNY Presents event, which takes place on August 19th!! We'll coming back from summer hiatus with a vengence, kids.

Summer Reading: Collins, Lillis, Guz at Kiva Han

2009-06-09T07:30:00.002-04:00

To tide TNY fans over until the next TNY Presents in August, join Kristofer Collins, Karen Lillis, and Savannah Schroll Guz as they read from their recently published books.

Collins, Lillis, and Guz will read on Friday, June 12th at Oakland's Kiva Han Coffee (420 South Craig Street) at 8:00 p.m. Come join us!

2009-05-27T10:49:00.003-04:00

TNY Presents is taking a short, two-month summer siesta, while we prepare for the fall. However, we'll be back in August to celebrate Pittsburgh lit culture again!

We have a fantastic line-up of authors for August, and we'll be sliding comfortably into the winter with an equally excellent group of musicians, writers, and poets.

In the meantime, The New Yinzer does have several summer events lined up. One of which is 1970s-themed. A Gore Vidal impersonator will be emcee-ing in a very smart suit and a pair of Vidal-worthy vampire brows. It will be held on Friday, July 24, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. at Brillobox. Come celebrate literature and music with us!

Watch this space for more information on TNY Present's excellent August literary and musical guests!

2009-04-22T11:22:00.006-04:00

Join us on Wednesday, May 20th at Modern Formations (4919 Penn Avenue) for the next edition of the fantastic pot luck reading series The New Yinzer Presents! This is the last reading before our summer hiatus. (We'll back back again in August!)

Where: Modern Formations Gallery & Performance Space, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Date: Wednesday, May 20th
Doors: 8:00 p.m.
Cover: $5 (or free with pot luck contribution)
BYOB

(And afterward, please follow Kris Collins and Scott Silsbe--as well as the rest of us Yinzers!--down the street to Brillobox for Sweet Jams!!)

Matt Newton-->: (Non-Fiction) Matthew Newton is a writer/reporter from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His writing appears regularly in national and international magazines, newspapers, and alternative newsweeklies. He has reported on the decline of sampling in hip-hop for Spin; interviewed survivors of Cambodia’s killing fields for Swindle; and investigated how Rust Belt cities are using art as a catalyst for social and economic change for Next American City. In addition, he has appeared as a commentator on Austria’s FM4 radio; is editor of the nonfiction anthology Young & Reckless; and once worked an unseemly job that found him repacking expired fish.

<--- Margaret Bashaar: (Poetry) Margaret Bashaar is the co-editor of Weave Magazine and co-host of The Typewriter Girls. Her poetry has appeared in or is forthcoming from numerous literary journals including Caketrain, The Pedestal Magazine, Boxcar Poetry Review, So to Speak, and Blue Earth Review. She also writesbook reviews for The Multicultural Review and for Weave Magazine's blog.

Mark Possanza-->: (Poetry) Mark Possanza lives and writes in Squirrel Hill. He published his first collection of poems, Atlas of Invention, in 2002, and hopes to publish a second collection, Word Count, in the fall 2009.

<--- Karl Hendricks: (Music) Karl Hendricks lives in Pittsburgh, PA with his wife, Megan, and their two daughters, Maeve and Nell. He is the author ofthe chapbook, Stan Getz Isn’t Coming Back (Speed & Briscoe Books). He teaches writing at the University of Pittsburgh and also works at Paul’s CDs. His band, the Karl Hendricks Trio (sometimes Rock Band), has released eight albums, most recently The World Says.

2009-04-15T12:24:00.002-04:00

TNY Presents is 1 year old today!!

Okay, so maybe we all look over 21, but we're young at heart, and celebrating our first birthday as a series!

So, drop those tax packets in the mail and come celebrate with us tonight at Modern Formations Gallery and Performance Space.

Have some birthday cake, listen to some excellent writers read from new work, and hear some great music.

8 p.m., 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Cover: $5 (or free with a pot luck dish!)
BYOB

2009-04-07T09:31:00.002-04:00

In Pittsburgh City Paper (March 19, 2009)

The New Yinzer Presents
BY BILL O'DRISCOLL

If you can drop by a reading series almost at random and hear something really good, chances are that series is doing something right.

I'd heard that this monthly series, at Garfield's ModernFormations Gallery, hosted good stuff: It's three writers (mostly poetry and fiction), plus a short musical performance, plus a potluck option that waives the $5 entry fee if you bring something tasty.

But while the biggest name at the March 18 installment was Baltimore-based novelist Michael Kimball, I thought the highlight was a short story by Kelly Ramsey. I didn't catch the title, but it was one of those stories, not realistic but set in a universe slightly to the left of our own, whose matter is communicated not just by its narrative, but by its very premise.

The story described a woman having a phone conversation with her ex while occupying the roof of their building, where she had (somehow) relocated all of their furniture. The tension was in the counterpoint between the plain, almost mundane dialogue and the rising action, which involved various furnishing hurtling -- silently, and apparently of their own accord -- over the roof's edge.

Somewhat in the Donald Barthelme vein, I thought -- a nice combination of surrealism and deadpan humor, with a poetic emotional undercurrent. Ramsey, an MFA student at Pitt, is a former co-editor of Hot Metal Bridge literary mag.

New Yinzer Presents is one of many events, regularly scheduled and otherwise, hosted by this online magazine (www.newyinzer.com) that for seven years has been a valuable part of the local literary scene. March was "Small Press Month," with wares for sale in the back from local literary entrepreneurs.

Contributors and organizers on-hand included Jessica Fenlon, Kristofer Collins and Scott Silsbe. Kimball read from his new novel Dear Everybody (Alma Books), structured as a series of undelivered letters written from childhood on by a depressive weatherman who committed suicide. The music was by Colin Baxter and his combo. (Full disclosure: two CP types were also implicated, including staffer Andy Mulkerin, who read his poetry, and art reviewer Savannah Guz, who MC'd.)

The seating includes couches, and there's art on the walls. It's a fair bet for the fourth Wednesday night of the month.

2009-03-23T10:58:00.010-04:00

The Next TNY Presents will be April 15th, Tax Day
The April 15th reading also marks the series' 1st anniversary!

Come hear some excellent local writers read, listen to some good music, and have some cake to celebrate with us...

Where? Modern Formations Gallery, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Cover: $5 (or FREE with pot luck contribution)
Doors Open: 8:00 p.m.

<-- Bill Hughes: (Poetry) Bill Hughes was born in Akron, OH in 1987. He willgraduate from the University of Pittsburgh this summer. He has one book of poems out with Six Gallery Press, called Vagrancy, and he is in theprocess of publishing a second book of poems called Down The Western Dark. He is currently writing a short novel.

Molly Prosser -->: (Poetry) Molly Prosser holds an MFA in Poetry from CarlowUniversity where she teaches literature, marketing, and writing. She works for ModCloth.com as a Fashion Writer, and is currently developing her restaurant review blog, The RadDish. She's on the board of the International Poetry Form and the Small Press Festival, and her work as appeared in the Pittsburgh City Paper, La Fusta, and Weave Magazine. She is currently working on her chapbook entitled 'The Slip.' Molly is a lover of travel, new spaces, urban farming, and Bollywood. She lives in Regent Square with her husband and mini wiener dog, Keith Richards.

<-- Adam Matcho: (Non-Fiction) Adam Matcho writes true stories for The NewYinzer. Names have not been changed and distinguishing characteristics have not been altered. They are all just as guilty as Adam.

Thirteenth Rune-->: (Music) Kevin Finn began a folk renaissance with his droning first solo ep Bonesong+4 in 2000. Since then, the indie underground continually fed upon his work. Vessels was released as an offshoot, and iconic in its approach to self production. Now recording/performing songs for Thirteenth Rune, Finn continues to deconstruct his art.

2009-02-20T16:38:00.003-05:00

Join us Wednesday, March 18th for the next installment of everybody’s favorite potluck and performance series, TNY Presents!

On display this month will be the tasty literary talents of Michael Kimball, Kelly Ramsey, and Andy Mulkerin. Stick around for a few musical delicacies from Colin Baxter.

Also, March is designated Small Press Month. LDP Distro will be on handwith a selection of zines and micro press books for sale. http://www.smallpressmonth.org/

Cover: $5 or FREE with contribution to our Potluck Dinner
BYOB

Michael Kimball: (Reader) Michael Kimball’s third novel, Dear Everybody,was recently published in the US, UK, and Canada. His first two novels are The Way the Family Got Away (2000) and How Much of Us There Was (2005),both of which have been translated (or are being translated) into many languages. He is also responsible for the art project—Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard)--and the documentary film, I Will Smash You. Michael lives in Baltimore. Find more of his world here: www.michael-kimball.com ------>

<--- Kelly Ramsey: (Reader) Kelly Ramsey is a poet and fiction writer whose work has appeared in The New Yinzer and Whiskey & Fox. She will complete her MFA at the University of Pittsburgh in April of this year and soon thereafter depart for warmer climes.

Andy Mulkerin: (Reader) Andy Mulkerin is a writer and collector of small things of no monetary value. He lives in Pittsburgh, where he lays downprose for an alternative weekly newspaper. His interests include newspaper comics and similar arcana/ephemera. --->

<--- Colin Baxter: (Music) Colin Baxter has been writing songs made mostly by stitching schizotypal fragments of notes and lyric together. Amidst habitual experiences of panic, fear, ruination and guilt, bouyancy has developed by the externalization of feeling. Reveling in multiple viewpoints, decentralization of self relieves distress and creates a net against oblivion. Aiming to change his need to change, illustrating vistas in which time becomes space and space becomes presence, looking and listening--all things are telling their story. Together with friends Mika, Nathan and Anna they bring to The New Yinzer a collection of songs. Violins, accordian, vocals, acoustic guitar and bass will be present.

2009-02-17T09:15:00.000-05:00

2009-01-13T20:22:00.007-05:00

We're firing up the 2009 TNY Presents season with a fantastic group of writers and artists. Join us at Modern Formations Gallery at 8 p.m. on February 18th. And watch this space for furhter details!

Sherrie Flick: (Fiction) Sherrie Flick is author of the award-winning flash fiction chapbook I Call This Flirting (Flume Press, 2004). Recent anthologies include New Sudden Fiction (Norton, 2007) and Flash Fiction Forward (Norton, 2006). Her short essay "Flash in a Pan" will appear in The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field (2009). A recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship, she lives in Pittsburgh where she is co-founder and artistic director of the Gist Street Reading Series. Her first novel Reconsidering Happiness will be published in Fall 2009. www.sherrieflick.com.

Julie Sokolow: (Fiction) Julie Sokolow is a Chancellor’s Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh, musician, and writer of drama and prose. Her work has appeared in The Original magazine and on Pittsburgh’s radio station WYEP. Her debut album Something About Violins was released on the label Western Vinyl. Currently, she is developing a screenplay out of her collection of short stories set in the surreal New Jersey suburbs.

Patti Emory: (Poetry) Patti Emory is a poet, artist, activist, and antagonist. She has beenwritingpoetry since she was a wee girl. While in college she started reading atopen mikes. Upon moving to Pittsburgh she started practicing at local venues such as the Shadow Lounge. She was motivated to try spoken word bylocal artists such as Brian Francis, Kellye Maize, and Vanessa German. When she's not writing she's working and earning credits for graduateschool. By the grace of God, she plans to enter the MAT program at the University of Pittsburgh next summer. She hopes to become a high school English teacher and eventually a college professor.

Best Friends: (Music) 'Best friend' (or close friend): a person(s) with whom someone shares extremely strong interpersonal ties with as a friend.

2008-12-31T10:37:00.008-05:00

Hello, TNY Presents followers!!

We are on hiatus for January 2009, but we begin a whole new season in February with a fantastic line-up of readers and musicians, including the excellent fiction writer Sherrie Flick and band Best Friends!

Stay tuned...details will come in early January!!

2008-12-10T16:05:00.001-05:00

2008-12-03T22:57:00.006-05:00

Join The New Yinzer as we unwrap our presents early with the final installment of TNY Presents for 2008. Shiny baubles abound in the fiction of Jackie Corley and the poetry of Jessica Fenlon. Batteries are included with electronic mayhem that is the mysterious Lottery Puffs. As always the pink bathtub will be overflowing with holiday spirits provided by our good friends at Penn Brewery.

Date: Wednesday, December 17
Where: ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue

Doors: 8:00pm

Cover: $4

Jackie Corley was born in 1982. She developed Word Riot in March 2002 with the help of Paula Anderson. Word Riot Press, an independent publishing press, evolved out of the magazine in January 2003.

Her writing has appeared on-line at MobyLives.com, 3AM Magazine and Pequin, among others, and in various print anthologies.

Her short story collection, The Suburban Swindle, will be published in October 2008 by So New.

Artist and writer Jessica Fenlon lives and works in Pittsburgh PA. She makes art that touches on the currents of violence, everyday joys, and haunting losses that move in her peripheral vision. BFA UW-Madison, MFA School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Her first book of poetry will soon be published by 6 Gallery Press soon. It is called Spiritual Side Effects.

She spends too much time at crossroads with scarecrows. She enjoys playing with fire in her free time. She is probably taller than you.

Lottery Puffs is Lottery Puffs.

2008-11-14T10:18:00.001-05:00

2008-10-31T08:21:00.007-04:00

November's TNY Presents brings talent from Pittsburgh and beyond! Join us November 19th at Modern Formations for poetry, fiction, music, and libations!

Date: Wednesday, 19 November
Where: ModernFormations Gallery
Doors: 8:00 p.m.
Cover: $4
Beer provided by our good friends at Penn Brew.

Karen Lillis relocated to Pittsburgh in December 2005. Her creative writing has been published in anderbo.com, A Taste of River Water, Long Shot, New York Nights, nthposition.com, Pulse Berlin, and The Southern Quarterly, among others. She is the author of the novels i, scorpion (Words Like Kudzu Press, 2000) and The Second Elizabeth (Six Gallery Press, 2009); and the illustrated novella, Magenta's Adventures Underground (Words Like Kudzu Press, 2004). Her writing was recently included in the anthology of women writing experimental prose, Wreckage of Reason (Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2008). She has read extensively in New York, across America, and in Paris.

Yona Harvey is a swish caught in a net of teeth. She rises in the light of blue curtains & sleeps with one ear open. Maybe she is the water from which she pulls her baby son. Slippery Fish, she once called him. Slippery Fish, her daughter echoed back across the water. Maybe she is the woman closest to the blackboard. Maybe she is the woman wading at the edge of the room. Maybe she has been reading too much Tomaz Salamun. Maybe she is one small word in a noisy sea. Maybe she should speak more of credentials, academic scholarships. But she is afraid you’ve heard all the best stories. (Hard work, high marks, determination). She should keep better track of her volunteering—carpooling, book sharing, telling the stories of Martin Luther King, Jr. Next year, she’ll probably go swimming in Tokyo. Or in Pittsburgh—people wear black & gold there. The rivers take hold & don’t let go. The children say: Look! This is Yona Harvey. She buys green lentils from East End Food Coop. She prepares dinner, drinks, and works in the city.

Amy Guth is the founder of Pilcrow Lit Fest and author of Three Fallen Women (S o New Media Publishing, 2006), as well as a forthcoming second novel, Light of Waters. Previously, she has written for The Believer, Monkeybicycle, Ninth Letter, Four Magazine, Bookslut, The Complete Meal and Outcry, among others. Currently, in addition to her authorey blog, Bigmouth Indeed Strikes Again, and her running and fitness blog Bonkless, she is assistant fiction editor at 42 Opus and hosts the monthly Fixx Reading Series in Chicago. Once upon a time, she collaborated on a few sketch comedy productions at The Second City's training center. Around the same time, she was also fumbling around a few improv comedy stages as well, and fondly recalls the nights she played the "Kill Whitey" crayon.

Boca Chica plays sometimes quiet, sometimes raucous alt-folk in the vein of Iron & Wine, Bright Eyes, and Sufjan Stevens. The Tribune Review describes their 2007 release, Transform into Beasts, as "Neil Young circa "Harvest" crossed with the hipster cool of Neko Case." They are currently recording their second full-length album due out in early 2009.

2008-10-08T12:45:00.002-04:00

2008-10-08T07:50:00.010-04:00

TNY Presents! Wednesday, October 15
At ModernFormations Gallery
Doors open at: 8 p.m. Cover: $4

October's event features the super-sized Pittsburgh talents: Jonathan Loucks, Tiffany Merriman-Preston, and band Samoan Cats.

Beverages are provided by our friends at Penn Brew.

Jonathan Loucks was born in Southern California. He has studied at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Pittsburgh. Jonathan lives in the Greenfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA, where he teaches writing at the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University. He also plays guitar and sings for the noise pop band Workshop.

Tiffany Merriman-Preston is a poet and non-profiteer. Originally from Georgia, she moved to Pittsburgh in 2003. She received an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh and has published her work in such journals as Cream City Review, Rattle, Terminus, Tulane Review, Poetry Motel, and 88: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry. She also created the local blog Walking Pittsburgh with her husband, Matt. Tiffany currently resides in Lawrenceville.

Samoan Cats is a Pittsburgh soft-rock band Scott Silsbe does when not rocking with local band Workshop. Occasionally, Kurt Garrison helps keep time. The SamCats debut album, Coming of Age in Samoa, is due out sometime in the future.

2008-09-10T08:06:00.000-04:00

2008-08-27T22:15:00.009-04:00

TNY Presents!
Wednesday, September 17 at ModernFormations Gallery
Doors open at: 8 p.m.
Cover: $4

For the September installment of TNY Presents, we’ve enlisted some serious star power. Join poets Dawn Lundy Martin and Ed Steck, short story writer Karl Hendricks, and musician Dave Bernabo for an unforgettable night of words and music.

Beverages provided by Penn Brewery.

Dawn Lundy Martin: Dawn Lundy Martin was awarded the 2006 Cave Canem Poetry Prize by Carl Phillips for her manuscript, A Gathering of Matter/A Matter of Gathering. She is the author of The Morning Hour, selected in 2003 by C.D. Wright for the Poetry Society of America’s National Chapbook Fellowship. In 2002 and 2006, she was awarded a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artists Grant for Poetry. Her poems have appeared in several journals, including Callaloo, nocturnes and Encyclopedia. She is a founding member of the Black Took Collective, a group of experimental black poets; co-editor of a collection of essays, The Fire This Time: Young Activists And The New Feminism (Anchor Books, 2004); and a founder of the Third Wave Foundation in New York, a national young feminist organization. She teaches in the Language & Thinking Program at Bard College and is a doctoral candidate in English literature at the University of Massachusetts.

Karl Hendricks: Karl Hendricks lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Megan, and their two daughters, Maeve and Nell. A chapbook of his stories entitled Stan Getz Isn’t Coming Back was published by Speed & Briscoe. He teaches writing at the University of Pittsburgh and works at Paul's CDs. He also is a musician and songwriter, and with his band the Karl Hendricks Trio (sometimes Rock Band), has released eight albums and toured the country numerous times. Their most recent CD is The World Says.

Ed Steck: Ed Steck is awaiting World War III. "Hoojy boojy, wumbly tumbly, goody goody, grass grass."

David Bernabo: David Bernabo is a producer, musician, and artist from Pittsburgh, PA. His recent projects include curating the Abstract On Black experimental music imprint and scoring music for Critter Round-Up, one of nine introductory games for Nintendo WiiWare. David has also released a new EP called Mahler Box, which is a prequel to a full-length follow-up due on Sort Of Records this winter.

2008-08-05T12:40:00.001-04:00

2008-07-21T19:31:00.003-04:00

On August 20th, The New Yinzer Presents....

The fifth installment of TNY Presents revels in the heavyweight talents of CM Burroughs, Jen Michalski, Nikki Allen, and Emily Rodgers.

CM Burroughs: CM Burroughs is a poet based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her poetry has appeared in journals including Runes, Jubilat, PLUCK!, Bat City Review, and Tuesday; An Art Project. She has received commissions from the Studio Museum of Harlem and the Warhol Museum to create poetry in response to art installations. Burroughs is a fellow of The MacDowell Colony and Cave Canem, and a nominee for the recent Pushcart Prize. She received her MFA from the University of Pittsburgh, where she currently teaches poetry and creative writing.

Jen Michalski: Jen Michalski lives in Baltimore and is the author of the short fiction collection Close Encounters (2007). Her fiction has appeared in more than 35 publications, including McSweeney's, Failbetter, storysouth, Hobart, The Summerset Review, Word Riot, and Thieves Jargon.

Nikki Allen: *Disintegration Loops I. Saucony Jazz. 513 to 412. Cumulus, hemicrania, birds at four a.m, mixed tapes, honeybear holders and handshakes.
* *
*She's nice, she reads.*

Emily Rodgers: A native of northern Indiana, Emily Rodgers began writing music during a move to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she now resides. Guided by the songwriting of Gillian Welch and Neil Young and inspired by the instrumentation of various mid-90s grunge rock and shoe-gaze, Emily's songs are literate and poetic, alternating between self-consciousness and abandon.

Emily also fronts a four piece indie-folk outfit that embraces a fuller sound as the band takes its cue from more atmospheric influences. The band's release entitled Emily Rodgers & Her Majesty's Stars was selected as a top CD of 2005 by WYEP-FM, Pittsburgh.

Emily Rodgers has shared the stage with many like-minded artists, including: Magnolia Electric Company, Laura Cantrell, Great Lake Swimmers, Edith Frost, Ike Reilly, Clem Snide, Jolie Holland, and Nina Nastasia.

Join us! Wednesday, August 20th at ModernFormations
Doors at 8pm
Cover $4

2008-07-08T22:14:00.000-04:00

2008-06-20T08:58:00.013-04:00

Join us again on Wednesday, July 16th at 8 p.m. at Modern Formations Gallery!

July's edition of The New Yinzer’s TNY Presents is bursting at the seams. This time around, we feature Kevin Finn, Kurt Garrison, Kristofer Collins, and Carlos Pena.

Kevin Finn: Kevin Finn is a poet from Pittsburgh, PA. He is currently pursuing an MFA at Carlow University, and working on his first book, Visible Extinction. Finn has been published in Tiger's Eye Journal, and the Pittsburgh City Paper. Also a singer-songwriter, Finn's Vessels has gained critical acclaim world wide. He lives with his wife, child and pet cat. Visit him at www.kevinfinn.net or at www.myspace.com/theinsectvoice.

Kurt Garrison: Kurt Garrison is a member of Workshop, The Plat Maps and AAA.

Kristofer Collins: Kristofer Collins is the managing editor of The New Yinzer, an occasional book reviewer for The Post Gazette, and owner of Desolation Row CDs. A book of his poems entitled “King Everything” was published in 2007 by Six Gallery Press. “The Liturgy of Streets” is forthcoming from Six Gallery Press in 2008.

Carlos Peña: Carlos Peña seeks to illuminate life's diversity and has found music to be his most effective means in this process. In doing so, he has learned to embrace the paradoxes and ambiguity which comprise our experience. Carlos takes a holistic approach to sound production on his instruments of choice (guitar, percussion, and piano) and emphasizes the role of improvisation within harmonic and rhythmic frameworks in his style of musical expression. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, Carlos has been an instrumentalist and performer for most of his life, holds a masters degree in ethnomusicology, and additionally functions as a music librarian and researcher.

Cover is $4. Light vittles and beverages will be available.

2008-06-06T09:10:00.001-04:00

2008-05-30T15:49:00.005-04:00

A preview of the writers and musicians slated for June 18th TNY series!

Join us again for an evening of fiction, poetry, music, beer and good food at Modern Formations Gallery in Garfield! The cover is $4. The program begins at 8 p.m. Here is June's line-up!

Julie Albright is a fiction writer living in Friendship. She also owns The Writing Studio, where she provides individual tutoring, editing services, and summer creative writing camp for kids.

Savannah Schroll Guz is an art critic for Pittsburgh City Paper and writes a monthly column on newly released reference guides for Library Journal. She is author of The Famous & The Anonymous (2004) and editor of the theme-based fiction anthology, Consumed: Women on Excess (2005). She is currently at work on a novel.

Jerome ‘Rev Rome’ Crooks was raised in Buffalo, NY and Deep Creek, VA. Twleve years ago he moved to Pittsburgh, where he served as poet laureate of South Oakland for severn years. He currently lives in Shadyside and is finishing work on “The Moment I Feared”, his first manuscript.

Raymond Morin came to Pittsburgh in 2005, and quickly started the seminal Sort Of Records CD-R label. He performs mostly acoustic and fingerstyle guitar music, inspired by the British Folk Revival of the 1960s, and by more modern lo-fi fare. He is a member of Pairdown, The Instances, and David Bernabo’s Assembly.

2008-05-24T07:43:00.015-04:00

Some images from the May 21st event!
...and stay tuned for details on the June 18th event!

Renee Alberts reads from her forthcoming poetry chapbook.

Brendan Kerr reads three chapters from a new novel-in-progress, based on the the people who are rooted and those who are mobile in small-town West Virginia.

Kurt Garrison of The Plat Maps sings "Three Mile Island".

Megan Williams, the other half of The Plat Maps, accompanies Kurt with back-up vocals and amazing lyrical violin work.

2008-04-22T12:29:00.002-04:00

2008-04-20T11:30:00.008-04:00

A preview of guests for the May 21st event!
On stage at Modern Formations Gallery at 8 p.m.

Brendan Kerr comes to Pittsburgh via Elkins, West Virginia and Brooklyn, New York. He recently completed his MFA at the University of Pittsburgh and his novel, The Uses of Talent, is currently looking for a home. Brendan plays bass with the rock band Workshop. He lives in Polish Hill and can often be found among the crowd in one local establishment or another.

Renée Alberts listens to rivers, talks to the radio, and translates the conversations into poetry, sound and collage. She learned all of this in Pittsburgh. She's been lucky to collaborate with some of the city's finest wordsmiths and musicians, and has participated in and curated many events. Her chapbook is forthcoming from Speed & Briscoe. Witness her in 1s and 0s at http://williamthesilent.blogspot.com/.

With The Plat Maps

he yelled and played guitar. she sang and played violin. others joined in on the madness. alcohol was often (if not always) involved. fun was had by all.

Listen here: www.myspace.com/theplatmaps

2008-04-20T11:21:00.005-04:00

Some shots from the April 16th event at Modern Formations Gallery. Featured were writer Jason Jordan (among the crowd in the red T-shirt); poet Scott Silsbe (in the bottom-most photo in the camel-colored sports coat); and vocalist Julie Sokolow (on stage).

Stay tuned! The next event is May 21st!

2008-04-17T10:41:00.000-04:00

2008-04-16T08:12:00.014-04:00

On Wednesday, April 16 at 8:00 p.m. at Modern Formations Gallery,
The New Yinzer presents...their first installment:

Fiction: Jason Jordan is a writer from New Albany, Indiana, who always says he's from Louisville, Kentucky, because people actually know where that is. His fiction has appeared in The2ndHand, Pequin, Pindeldyboz, VerbSap, Word Riot, and many other publications. Jordan is also Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine decomP. He is currently in the MFA program at Chatham University, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he is working on his first novel. You can visit him at poweringthedevilscircus.blogspot.com.

Poetry: Scott M. Silsbe was born in Detroit. He now lives in Pittsburgh, where he sells books, writes, and makes rock music. His work has appeared in Kitchen Sink, Third Coast, good foot, and The New Yinzer. He is also an editor at The New Yinzer.

Music: Julie Sokolow
To record Something About Violins, Julie Sokolow used nothing more than her voice, an inexpensive acoustic guitar , and the built-in microphone on her Macintosh G4 Powerbook. In doing so, she has turned on its head the old adage that lo-fi is the provenance of analog fetishists. She has also created a work of great and unusual beauty.Using contrasting melodies and vocal textures, she rehashes the most painful, disappointing, and embarrassing episodes of her past. In the end Something About Violins is a portrait of an unsettled heart, isolated and caught in-between worlds.

"She pronounces "violins" like "violence," giving this lonesome, Cat Power-ish ballad a subtle sense of menace" – Washington Post

Some excellent dips and other light vittles provided by Quiet Storm!

Beer provided by Penn Brewery!

The New Yinzer presents...

2008-03-05T08:03:00.016-05:00

The inaugural literary and musical event opens at Modern Formations Gallery

on Wednesday, April 16 at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.

An admission of $4 buys you an evening of thought-provoking writing, good local music, and a healthy amount of victuals and libations.

Mark your calendars for every third Wednesday. It's the beginning of a beautiful lit series.