The Word Works and The Writer’s Center present poets Willa Carroll and Gary Stein. Café Muse opens at 7pm with refreshments and classical guitar by Michael Davis; readings begin at 7:30. Open mic to follow.
WILLA CARROLL is the author of Nerve Chorus (The Word Works, 2018), noted on Small Press Distribution’s Recommends and Bestseller lists. Her poems have appeared in AGNI, LARB Quarterly Journal, The Rumpus, Tin House, and elsewhere. A finalist for The Georgia Poetry Prize, she won Narrative’s Third Annual Poetry Contest and Tupelo Quarterly’s TQ7 Poetry Prize. Carroll holds an MFA from Bennington Writing Seminars, which awarded her The Liam Rector Scholarship. Video readings of her poems were featured in Narrative Outloud and Tuesday; A Reading Project. A former experimental dancer and actor, she has collaborated with numerous performers and multimedia artists, including text-based projects with her filmmaker husband. She lives in New York City.
GARY STEIN is the author of Touring the Shadow Factory (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2019), winner of the 2017 Brick Road Poetry Book Contest and a chapbook, Between Worlds (Finishing Line Press, 2014), finalist in Finishing Line’s Open Chapbook Competition, and he co-edited the poetry anthology Cabin Fever (The Word Works, 2004). His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Poetry, Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, JAMA, Asheville Poetry Review, Folio, The Sow’s Ear, Antietam Review, The Baltimore Review, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from the University of Iowa, served for several years as book review editor for Poet Lore, has taught creative writing in colleges and high schools, and practices law. He lives in Silver Spring, MD.
Attending poets are invited to participate in an open mic that concludes the Café Muse program. The Word Works is a nonprofit literary organization publishing contemporary poetry in artistic editions and sponsoring programs for over 40 years. The Writer’s Center has been hosting and organizing literary programs in the D.C. area for over 40 years as well.