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!

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'?

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!

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!

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

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

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!