Wednesday, December 31, 2008

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!!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008


Wednesday, December 3, 2008

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.


Friday, November 14, 2008


Friday, October 31, 2008

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 (So 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.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008


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.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008


Wednesday, August 27, 2008

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.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008


Monday, July 21, 2008

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

Tuesday, July 8, 2008


Friday, June 20, 2008

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.

Friday, June 6, 2008




Friday, May 30, 2008

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.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

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.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008


Sunday, April 20, 2008

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
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!





Thursday, April 17, 2008




Wednesday, April 16, 2008


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!







Wednesday, March 5, 2008

The New Yinzer presents...

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.