March 20: Gegick, Guzick, Gwin, Jones

When--Thursday, March 20
Where- ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Time- 8:00 p.m.
Cover- $5 or free w/ contribution of potluck dish
Proudly sponsored by Mellingers Beer Distributor
BYOB!

Richard L. Gegick is from Trafford. His work has appeared in Hot Metal Bridge, The Cleveland Review, and Stymie Magazine. He lives in Pittsburgh and waits tables for a living.

SJ Guzik is an oral story telling recorder. Her favorite interviews include getting stoned with Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings at a Sherton Hotel and a night long debate with Das Racist on 90s r&b. She has published with Bitch and Bust magazines. She edits for publications on diversity and inclusion recently working with the National Arbor Day Foundation. When she's not working for monies, she enjoys delivering babies, tending gardens, and drinking dirty martinis.

Ben Gwin's fiction has appeared in Burrow Press Review, Dark Sky Magazine, Mary: A Journal of New Writing, and others. He lives in Pittsburgh with his daughter.

T.C. Jones is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Monarch Review, The New Yinzer, Gadfly Magazine, and Prairie Gold: An Anthology of the American Heartland. In 2013, Jones won the TAR award for fiction in The April Reader. He currently directs Jam2Jam, a quarterly literary and art series and recently has been named the fiction editor at Lime Hawk Literary Arts Collective, a New York City based literary magazine. He lives in Lawrenceville with his fiancée, poet SJ Guzik.

November 21: Cook, Gaydos, Martinac, Parker

When--Thursday, November 21st 
Where- ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh 
Time- 8:00 p.m. 
Cover- $5 or free w/ contribution of potluck dish 
 Proudly sponsored by Mellingers Beer Distributor 
 BYOB! 

Julie Ann Cook, of Rock Hill, South Carolina, is a happily married, joyfully outnumbered mother of five boys, two of whom were stillborn. Between assisting in living room railroad construction and addressing concerns of who would win in a fight between Megatron and Iron Man, Julie is an author, artist, and webmaster. With her mom and dad having been raised in the Pittsburgh area (Carrick and Kennedy Township respectively), Julie grew up in Beaver County until she flew south for college in 1998. A graduate of Winthrop University, Julie has been published in various venues, including Kakalak Anthology of Carolina Poets, Iodine Poetry Journal, moonShine review, MaMaZina.com, and The Wolf. She is celebrating the release of her inaugural poetry book, Love Like Weeds, (Main Street Rag Publishing Company, October 2013).

Raiona Gaydos grew up in a Brooklyn soap-factory-turned-performance-space that, on weekend nights, was commandeered by street poets, topless drummers, and white-faced Butoh dancers who used her childhood lair as their dressing room. When a radio interviewer asked her at eight years old how she felt about all of this, she is reported to have said, “I’m gonna be really weird when I grow up.” She was right. She has studied at the New School in New York City, lived in Paris, and is now back in her birth-town of Pittsburgh running “B.E. Literary” events and publications at Biddle’s Escape. She has finally started to edit and share some of the things she’s been writing over the years.





Paula Martinac is the author of three published novels, including the Lambda Literary Award-

winning Out of Time, which was recently re-released as an e-book. She has also published three nonfiction books on lesbian and gay culture and politics, and numerous articles, essays, and short stories. Her plays have had productions with Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Company, Manhattan Theatre Source, the Pittsburgh New Works Festival, No Name Players, and others. Find out more about her writing at
www.paulamartinac.com.

Kelcey Parker’s first book, For Sale By Owner (Kore Press), won the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Award in Short Fiction and was a Finalist for the 2012 Best Books of Indiana. She directs the creative writing program at Indiana University South Bend. During the summer of 2012, she worked as an Ask-Me Guide at Fallingwater, where she asked as many questions as she answered, helped visitors get the perfect photo of Fallingwater, and always kept an eye out for Liliane’s ghost. Visit Kelcey’s website: http://kelceyparker.com/

October 17: Dietrich, Rem-Martin, Steffen

When--Thursday, October 17th 
Where- ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh 
Time- 8:00 p.m. Cover- $5 or free w/ contribution of potluck dish 
Proudly sponsored by Mellingers Beer Distributor 
BYOB!

Karen Dietrich grew up in the 1980s in Connellsville, a small factory town fifty-seven miles from Pittsburgh. Her first memoir, THE GIRL FACTORY (skirt/Globe Pequot) was published October 1, 2013. Karen lives in Greensburg, where she works as an adjunct writing instructor at Westmoreland County Community College and the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. She recently joined the faculty of the online creative writing MFA program at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. Her work has appeared in Joyland, Smokelong Quarterly, Specter, and elsewhere.

Michael Steffen is the author of three collections of poetry. His first, No Good at Sea, was published by Legible Press in 2002. His second, Heart Murmur, was released in 2009 by Bordighera Press. Bad Behavior, his third collection, was published by Brick Road Poetry Press in 2012. A long-time resident of northeastern Pennsylvania, Michael was granted a 2002 Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and has had poems appear in a wide variety of journals including Poetry, Potomac Review, The Ledge, Poet Lore,Rhino, Smartish Pace and many others. He is a Y2K graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Vermont College and currently lives in Lancaster, NY.

Sarah Beth (Rem) Martin, penname SBR Martin, was bred, born, and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she continues to live and work as a writer, journalist, and mother. An alumna of The Ellis School, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, she currently writes for The South Pittsburgh Reporter and is employed as an independent copywriter serving a variety of clients from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. Described as "a psychological and thoughtful novel of suspense" by Midwest Book Review, Martin's debut novel, "In Wake of Water," was published in Oct. 2011. Less than a year later, her second book, "Pig," hit the market after placing as a Second Prize Quarterfinalist in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest, where Publisher’s Weekly said of it, “The ultimate resolution of the story makes for quite a surprise… (Martin) is able to build good characters, flawed and believable, yet familiar, so that at the end one is saddened, but also, in a strange way, enriched.” “Pig” was recognized by Suspense Magazine as a Best of 2012 book, in the category of Indie Fiction, and won First Place for Best Lesbian Contemporary General Fiction in the 2012 Elisa Rolle International Rainbow Awards. Martin is presently working on her third novel, which takes a controversial look at murder as an artform and uniquely explores one’s ownership over the creative process.

New Season Kickoff! August 15: Malloy, Patton, Sepe

When--Thursday, August 15th
Where- ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Time- 8:00 p.m.
Cover- $5 or free w/ contribution of potluck dish
BYOB!


Patrick Malloy----> is originally from Philadelphia but now calls Pittsburgh home. His debut novel Bang Bang was published in November by Bedlam Press. Other than that, he reads a lot of Reddit and Post Gazette, which is the closest to publishing credits he's accumulated thus far.

 <------Joshua M. Patton is a Pittsburgh native and veteran of the US Army currently attending the University of Pittsburgh thanks to the Post-9/11 GI Bill. He is a regular contributor to Veteran Journal, Dadditudes, WhatToExpect.com, and AND Magazine. His fiction has been anthologized in The Sins of the Seven, published by Wicked East Press. His work has taken first-place in the 2011 & 2012 Writer's Cafe/Prosody awards in non-fiction and poetry, respectively. He is a Member Spokesperson for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. He spends the rest of his time trying his best to not embarrass his eleven-year-old daughter.







Mark Sepe------> is not from Pittsburgh, but he has lived here for 4 years. He went to West Chester University for a degree in English Education with minors in Art History and Comparative Literature. He currently is rehabiliting a house and has no life.

May 16: Jones, Salvadeo, Wagner

When--Thursday, May 16th
Where- ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Time- 8:00 p.m.
Cover- $5 or free w/ contribution of potluck dish
BYOB!

T.C Jones is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. His writing has appeared in the Monarch Review, The New Yinzer, Gadfly Magazine, and won the TAR award for fiction in The April Reader. A resident of the east end of Pittsburgh, T.C. currently directs a quarterly literary and art series called Jam2Jam.




















Alicia Salvadeo was raised in Staten Island, NY, and Stroudsburg, PA. She now lives in Pittsburgh's Polish Hill, where she spends more time on her porch than in any other room in the apartment. Current obsessions include Game of Thrones, Muriel Rukeyser, and Freddie Mercury. Her poetry and critical work has most recently appeared or is forthcoming in Bombay Gin, The Volta, DIAGRAM, and Phantom Limb.














Jasmine Dreame Wagner is the author of Rewilding (Ahsahta Press, 2013) and Listening for Earthquakes (Caketrain Journal and Press, 2012.) Her writing has appeared in American Letters & Commentary, Blackbird, Colorado Review, Indiana Review, NANO Fiction, New American Writing, Seattle Review, Verse, and in two anthologies: The Arcadia Project: North American Postmodern Pastoral (Ahsahta Press, 2012) and Lost and Found: Stories from New York (Mr. Beller's Neighborhood Books, 2009.) A graduate of Columbia University and the University of Montana, Jasmine has received grants and fellowships from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Summer Literary Seminars - Kenya, and The Wassaic Project. She lives in Brooklyn and teaches creative writing at Western Connecticut State University.

March 21: Dietrich, Hill, Knapps

When--Thursday, March 21st
Where- ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Time- 8:00 p.m.
Cover- $5 or free w/ contribution of potluck dish
BYOB!

Sean Patrick Hill------> is the author of The Imagined Field (Paper Kite Press) and Interstitial (BlazeVOX Books), as well as a chapbook, Hibernaculum, forthcoming from Slash Pine Press. Poems are forthcoming in Blackbird, Smartish Pace, and Catch Up, and have appeared recently in Cimarron Review and ILK. He is an MFA candidate in the Warren Wilson College and lives in Kentucky.













 

<------Karen Dietrich is the author of two poetry chapbooks: Anchor Glass (Finishing Line Press, 2011) and Understory (Dancing Girl Press, 2013). Her debut memoir, The Girl Factory, is forthcoming from Globe Pequot in Fall 2013. Karen's essays and poems have appeared in Weave, The Bellingham Review, PANK, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and elsewhere. She is currently an adjunct professor at The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg.










Mike Knapps------> lives and works in Pittsburgh. He’s written for a long time, but he’s never gotten anything published. He puts things on the internet at www.theburningbarrel.com

February New Yinzer in Photos

We had a packed house for the kick off reading of 2013. Stay tuned for more about the March 21 reading, and enjoy some photos in the meantime:

Poet Laura E. Davis

Novelist Lucy Leitner

Poet Ryan Kauffman

Prose writer Matt Stidle

Fiction & comix writer Daniel McCloskey

February 21: Davis, Kauffman, Leitner, McCloskey, Stidle

When--Thursday, February 21st
Where- ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Time- 8:00 p.m.
Cover- $5 or free w/ contribution of potluck dish
BYOB!

<-----Laura E. Davis is the author of Braiding the Storm (Finishing Line Press 2012). Her poems have appeared in A-Minor, Super Arrow, and Redactions, among others. The Founding Editor of Weave Magazine, she teaches poetry writing, translation, and recitation in San Francisco, where she lives with her partner, Sal.

ryanKauffman------> is an as yet unpublished poet with a BA in English Writing from the University of Pittsburgh. He resides in Pittsburgh's historic Little Italy neighborhood and hosts a bi-monthly reading series called POESIS which takes place at the Mr. Roboto Project. The manuscript "Ode To Recession" from which he will be reading was a finalist for the National Poetry Series.

<-----Lucy Leitner is the author of the horror-comedy novel Working Stiffs, a satirical take on what happens when zombies invade a corporate office. Raised in Arlington, VA, she adopted Pittsburgh as her hometown when she arrived in 2001 to attend the University of Pittsburgh. Though she earned a masters degree in journalism from Point Park, she estimates that she has earned more money betting on Penguins games than she has as a reporter. By day, she is a writer for a local marketing firm and by night, she is usually sleeping. When not working on her second novel, Lucy covers the burgeoning Pittsburgh film scene on the Hollyburgh blog and is learning Krav Maga.



Daniel McCloskey-----> is a writer, illustrator, and founder of the Cyberpunk Apocalypse project. Recent works include his hybrid novel A Film About Billy, and a collaborative comic seriesBears in Space. His work can be found online at www.gnarlyasiwannabe.com and at finer bookstores and comic shops in the Northeast and Midwest.

<-----Matt Stidle is overly verbose.

November 15th: Alexander, McIntosh, Ramirez

When--Thursday, November 15th
Where- ModernFormations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Time- 8:00 p.m.
Cover- $5 or free w/ contribution of potluck dish
BYOB!


Lisa Alexander holds an MFA in Poetry from Drew University and is a member of the Madwomen in the Attic writing workshop. Her work has been published in various journals including Bloom, The Burnside Review, Girls with Glasses, Pittsburgh's City Paper and anthologized in Voices from the Attic. She's a sound engineer for Prosody, NPR-affiliate WESA's weekly show featuring the work of national writers. Her manuscript throttlebody is being submitted for publication.


Tera McIntosh was born and raised in Johnstown, Pennsylvania where she attended Bishop McCort High School. She earned her B.S. degree at Slippery Rock University in Recreation Therapy, where she learned the power and healing of play. Tera earned her M.S. from Carlow University in PRL-Nonprofit Management, and has worked with numerous nonprofit organizations throughout the country and Pittsburgh on creating safe spaces and enriching community. She has performed Slam Poetry at many venues including Club Cafe, Cannon Coffee, Shadow Lounge, Antioch University-Seattle, The University of Pittsburgh, The It Gets Better Project, The Improv, Carlow University, and many living rooms and bathroom mirrors. Most of her writings can be found left in her jean pockets in the dryer on tumble dry while others are usually published in Randomly Accessed Poets, an online poetry magazine downloadable on any kindle or in the Steel City Slam Chapbook. She is a member of the Steel City Slam Poetry team which competed in the National Slam Poetry Competition this past August in Charlotte, NC. She is the co-founder of Project Coffeehouse a nonprofit that opens up coffeeshops in emerging areas whose revenue goes back into the community to continue building it back up. She is also the co-founder of Young Steel Youth Poetry League and the Pittsburgh Poetry Collective, the city’s only spoken word organization for youth and adults. She is finishing up her Doctorate Degree in just two weeks (so if she looks a bit frazzled its because she is) at Antioch University in Leadership and Change where she hopes to finally figure out world peace, free vending machines, equal rights, and smaller lines at the DMV. She is a member of the women’s football team the Pittsburgh Passion and also a habitual coffee drinker and pizza eater.



Adriana E. Ramirez is a nonfiction writer and performance poet with over fifteen years experience in theater, spoken word, and advocacy. Once ranked the 26th slam poet in the world (iwps 2006), she helped found and co-hosted the Latino/Indigenous Showcase at the National Poetry Slam; she now serves as creative director of Pittsburgh Poetry Collective and slammaster of the Steel City Slam. Her poems and writings have appeared on the internet, on subway station walls, and occasionally, on pieces of dead wood. She loves technology and refreshments—mineral water, limes, and cheap Mexican food. Adriana lives in Pittsburgh, where she is writing a book about her death fantasies, Colombia, and the way we tell stories around violence. She roots for el tricolor in the World Cup and teaches in the English Department at The University of Pittsburgh.

The New Yinzer Presents returns October 18th

April 26: Barber, Boyd, Huber

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


Tessa Barber works as a librarian and writes a blog about teen books and why they are the thing you should be reading. She graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in 2004 where she wrote poems about Goya paintings and fake people in history while studying English & Spanish literature. Then she learned how to be a librarian at Pitt. When she's not reading she manages to feed herself and her cat and learn folk ballads, and write poems about cars & dancing & houses.



Eric Boyd is an editor for the Newer York, as well as Pork & Mead magazine. Boyd is a graduate of the Words Without Walls writing program at Chatham Universtiy in Pittsburgh; he was recently awarded second place in the PEN American Center's 2012 Prison Writing contest. Boyd’s fiction work has appeared in several magazines, both online and in print. His first short story collection, WHISKEY SOUR, was released this month by Chatham / Nervous Puppy Publishing.





Rose Huber is a science and technology writer for the University of Pittsburgh. Before moving back to PA, she lived in Baltimore, where she received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts 2010 and wrote a novella, "A Bear's Place." Her work has been featured in Pear Noir, Weave, and The Light Ekphrastic. She is currently working on a science-into-story chapbook where she translates her science press releases into prose-style poetry. She writes about lots of things and stuff at www.bindandcreate.com.

February 23: Loveridge, Olifson, Whelan

When - Thursday, February 23rd
Where - ModernFormations Gallery, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh
Time – 8:00 p.m.
Cover - $5 or free w/ contribution to potluck



A. E. Loveridge is the author of two chapbooks, Poems for Business Travelers (Dancing Girl Press, 2011) and Congregation (Little Book Publications, 2008). Her poems have been published or are forthcoming in The Southeast Review, Barely South Review, The Tulane Review, Used Furniture Review, Southern Women’s Review, wicked alice, The New Yinzer, and multiple anthologies. She is a proud active participant in Literazzi, a poetry and performance troupe that is focused on increasing literacy in Pittsburgh. She is a Southerner by birth, holds dual citizenship in Great Britain, and now happily lives and writes from Pittsburgh, PA when not paying the bills as a traveling bureaucrat.







Alan Olifson is an award-winning humor columnist, public radio commentator, and comedian who is currently working on a book of essays (not that anyone asked him to). He was born and raised in Los Angeles but recently moved to Pittsburgh when he realized no one was forcing him to spend his life sitting on the freeway. In L.A. Alan created and produced the acclaimed storytelling-with-a-DJ-soundtrack series WordPlay (http://www.wordplayshow.com), which he is in the process of bringing to Pittsburgh along with most of his furniture. In Pittsburgh he is host of the monthly Moth StorySLAM (http://themoth.org) and will be debuting his one-person show at the Bricolage Theater's In the Raw series. On the internet he blogs at www.themanchild.net. At home he is mostly just told to put a sock in it.








Carolyne Whelan received her MFA in poetry and nonfiction at Chatham University in 2009, where she was a finalist for Best Thesis. She was awarded an Honorable Mention in the Sacramento Poetry Center Prize for a Single Poem, a partial scholarship to the Vermont Studio Center, and recently attended A Room Of Her Own Foundation's 2011 Retreat. Her first chapbook, The Glossary of Tania Aebi, was recently published by Finishing Line Press. Her second chapbook, Chain Down the Moon, and her full length manuscript, Roadside Fires Burning, have both been finalists in national chapbook and first book publishing competitions, respectively. She has work forthcoming in Willows Wept Review, the medical journal CHEST, and an anthology titled 200 New Mexico Poems. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA as a part-time legal secretary and as a writing instructor at the Community College of Allegheny County.

January 26: COGGINS, HORNER, STEVENS-DAVIS

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 August 18th: Bey, Crooks, Hoque, Ninehouser

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!

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

Photos: March 17th TNY Reading

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.