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.

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.

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.