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

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

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).

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

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...

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. -->

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!

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.