Kate Colby and Darcie Dennigan with Spatulate Church Emergency Shift.

Doors 130pm, Reading 2pm

RSVP HERE

Kate Colby is author of nine books of poetry, including I Mean and Reverse Engineer. A chapbook called Thingking is forthcoming from Factory Hollow Press. She lives in Providence, where she teaches, writes retail copy, and runs around with Spatulate Church Emergency Shift.

Darcie Dennigan’s next book, Commander!, will be out in Fall 2024 from Canarium. Her article on Providence's 1970s poets theatre group, The Wastepaper Theatre, is in the current issue of Chicago review.

The Spatulate Church Emergency Shift is ad hoc poets theatre, co-directed by Kate Colby and Darcie Dennigan. For Torn Page, Spatulate is working with Davis Alianiello, Matthew Derby, and John Kolodij to make a piece around Keith Waldrop's prose poem "The Silhouette of the Bridge." Waldrop writes, "I come to Providence at the age Dante stumbles into Hell," and each person associated with this project has also stumbled into, and one of us out of, Providence.

Come join us for a special afternoon honoring the life and work of the late poet Craig Watson. This in person event will be held at Torn Page, to celebrate Craig's work, life and influence on many community circles. Readings by Bruce Andrews, Lee Ann Brown, Miles Champion, Kate Colby, Michael Gottlieb, E. Tracy Grinnell, Andrew Levy, Ted Pearson, Elena Rivera, Geoff Young.

Seating Extremenely Limited. RSVP Here.

Doors 6:30pm. Parlor Concert: 7pm-8pm. Seating Extremely Limited.

RSVP HERE

Josephine Foster is a Colorado song-writer and poet whose music plays games with our ideas of time and space. The Nashville Scene describes her work a "fusion of art song and American folk music" and she is "known to breathe new life into archaic forms, embodying the cultural archaeology of Harry Smith’s old weird America, and has lent her characteristic mezzo-soprano and interpretive wit to over two decades of recordings" (Blank Forms).

You might call Ms. Foster's eerie warbling old-fashioned, except that it evokes a scrambled past that exists only in her own vision: mountain songs that never were, spaced-out hybrids that never will be. - The New York Times

A "Vibrating Voice to Shake the Soul"-NPR

Join us for BYO brunch and readings by six Scottish poets! Some basic brunch supplies will be provided but feel free to bring bagels, bubbly, or just come to enjoy the poetry :)

RSVP for free or support Torn Page with a suggested donation. RSVP HERE

SIX GREAT SCOTS POETS…!!!

Christina Chalmers: Born in Scotland and currently based in New York, Christina Chalmers is the author of chapbooks including Work Songs (Shit Valley, 2013), and Willingness (Materials, 2017). She has translated work from Italian, including Elvio Fachinelli's On Freud (2022), and she is presently completing a PhD in comparative literature at NYU. Subterflect (Distance No Object, 2023) is her first full-length book.

Jane Goldman is a Reader in English Literature and Creative Writing at Glasgow University and likes anything a word can do. A member of 12, a collective of women poets based in Scotland, and of the Writers' Shift at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, she is author of the pamphlet, Border Thoughts (Sufficient Place, Leamington Books, 2014), and debut collection SEKXPHRASTIKS (Dostoyevsky Wannabe, 2021). Her translation of the Latin poet Catullus's longest poem is just out: Catullus 64 (Main Point Books, 2023).

Colin Herd is a poet and Lecturer in Creative Writing. Dennis Cooper has written of his poetry that it is “a treasure trove of razzle-dazzle stylings, superfine wit, charismatic discretion, and a vacuuming tenderness. Herd's gift for words is exquisite and adventurous and armed to the teeth”. His books include too ok (blazevox, 2011), Glovebox (Knives, Forks and Spoons, 2013), Oberwilding – with SJ Fowler (2015), Swamp Kiss (Red Ceilings Press, 2018), Click and Collect (2017), You Name It (Dostoevsky Wannabe, 2019) and Cocoa & Nothing – with Maria Sledmere (SPAM Press, 2023).

Nicky Melville, Scotland’s best kept secret, has been described positively as an ‘avant-radge’ and pejoratively as ‘a poet.’ His magnum-opus The Imperative Commands came out with Dostoyevsky Wannabe in 2022 and Decade of Cu ts, his selected poems, was published in 2021 with Blue Diode Press. He is working on the third book in his ABBODIES trilogy, in which pop legends ABBA team up with problematic fave James Bond to make sense of the horror of Brexit and geopolitical coincidence. He makes music as Fuck This, a project which could be described as Ivor Cutler on [nick-]e. Melville is a Teaching Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh and a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow.

Iain Morrison is a poet, performer and programmer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. His collection I’m a Pretty Circler was shortlisted for the Saltire Prize in 2019. In 2018 he made a filmpoem called Moving Gallery Notes as ArtfulScribe writer-in-residence at Southampton University’s John Hansard Gallery. His past events have included a night of drag queen poetry at Scottish Poetry Library in 2016, and a five-day-long reading of Emily Dickinson’s complete works at Berlin’s 2014 SOUNDOUT! festival. He trained as a musician and his practice moves between artforms, often ending up in a gallery.

Maria Sledmere is an artist and writer based in Glasgow. She is Managing Editor at SPAM Press, teaches community writing workshops with Beyond Form and the87press and is Lecturer in English & Creative Writing at the University of Strathclyde. Maria was recently included in the Saltire Society’s ‘40 under 40’ list celebrating Scottish creatives. Most recent publications are Woundscape (Osmosis Press), An Aura of Plasma Around the Sun (Hem Press), Cocoa and Nothing (SPAM Press) – with Colin Herd and Visions & Feed (HVTN Press). Her next poetry collection, Cinders, is forthcoming from the Bay Area press Krupskaya Books in 2024. She is currently interested in the poetry of love, dreams and exhaustion.

Adeena Karasick & Warren Lehrer Book Celebration!

Karasick and Lehrer will present a multimedia performance/reading with selections from each of their new and recent works, culminating in their award-winning first collaboration. Book signing and reception to follow.

Books will be on sale.

RSVP for free

or make a contribution ($13 suggested) to support Torn Page

RSVP HERE

Adeena Karasick is a New York based Canadian poet, performer, and cultural theorist and the author of 14 books of poetry and poetics. Her Kabbalistically inflected, urban, Jewish feminist mashups have been described as “electricity in language” (Nicole Brossard), “proto-ecstatic jet-propulsive word torsion” (George Quasha), and “a twined virtuosity of mind and ear which leaves the reader deliciously lost in Karasick’s signature ‘syllabic labyrinth” (Craig Dworkin). Her writing is acclaimed for its “cross-fertilization of punning and knowing, theatre and theory.” Among countless honors, she’s an Andrew Mellon Foundation Award recipient, the 2023 Susanne K. Langer Award recipient for Outstanding Scholarship from the Media Ecology Association, and the winner of the Voce Donna Italia Award for her contributions to feminist thinking. She teaches Literature and Critical Theory at Pratt Institute and is currently the Poet Laureate of the Institute of General Semantics. The “Adeena Karasick Archive” is established at Special Collections, Simon Fraser University.

Warren Lehrer is a New York-based writer and artist known internationally as a "pioneer of visual literature and design authorship." His solo and collaborative books and multimedia projects explore the vagaries and luminescence of character, the relationships between social structures and the individual, and the pathos and absurdity of life. Honors include: Ladislav Sutnar Lifetime Achievement Prize, Center for Book Arts Honoree, the Brendan Gill Prize, the Innovative Use of Archives Award, the International Book Award for Best New Fiction, three AIGA Book Awards, and fellowships and grants from the NEA, NYFA, Rockefeller, Ford, and Greenwall Foundations. The author/co-author of 12 books, Lehrer is a founding faculty member of the Designer As Author/Entrepreneur MFA program at the School of Visual Arts, and co-founder of EarSay, a non-profit arts organization in Queens, NY. “In Lehrer’s books, words take on thought’s very form, bringing sensory experience to the reader as directly as ink on paper can allow.” The New York Times Book Review

Praise for Ouvert Oeuvre: Openings

“An arresting attempt to put collective pain and healing on the page…”

Starred Kirkus Review

“A vivid new graphic-text collaboration… Distinctly shaped, strikingly formed, Ouvert Oeuvre:

Openings is a vibrant and attractive book, handled with suppleness.”

Johanna Drucker JD: ABCs Newsletter

“Like nothing I’ve seen in recent memory… It’s not ‘experimental’ — it’s 21st-century realism. It’s how information flows… A joyful meditation on our post-everything world.”
Bill Lessard Heavy Feather Review

“A swirling palimpsest of spectral voices, textures, whispers and type…”

Steven Heller Print Magazine

“A striking publication that demonstrates the crafting of a sensory experience that will interest anyone with an appetite for linguistic and typographic experimentation..."

Amy Henry Eye Magazine

“Recommended for all poetry lovers… Transformative and deeply rewarding.”

Ruchi Agarwal Pegasus Literary

“A total work of art, Ouvert Oeuvre: Openings combines poetry, typographic design, and music as a single unit…

Tom Bowden Book Beat

“A true masterpiece of linguistic play and exploration!”

Paolo Granata, Professor, Book and Media Studies, University of Toronto

YOU are INVITED to celebrate the republication of the radical classic text CUNT NORTON redesigned by Wayne Smith to match the Tender Buttons original edition of CUNT-UPS.

Both books will be available!

Come get them both signed by the author DODIE BELLAMY

DOORS 5pm. Refreshmenr will be served and a series of READINGS will happen beginning at 6pm.

DONATIONS gladly accepted with RSVP: LINK HERE

For donations $15 and ABOVE you will recieve a copy of one of the books,

and for DONATIONS of $25 and above BOTH BOOKS, a SPECIAL MATCHING SET!

(If you already own CUNT-UPS bring it to get it signed by Dodie!)

Plus they make great HOLIDAY GIFTS!

COME CELEBRATE AND SUPPORT TENDER BUTTONS PRESS

Frank O'Hara's 1951 version of his short play TRY! TRY! was inspired by his friendships with Violet Lang and John Ashbery, while his 1953 rewrite was informed by his intimate relationship and artistic collaboration with painter and set designer Larry Rivers. This fully staged reading presents both plays back to back with identical casts navigating the tonal shift from 1951's surreal Sirk-ian melodrama to 1953's screwball sex comedy, much like Rock Hudson would navigate from the world of a film like Magnificent Obsession to that of Pillow Talk. Featuring Lee Ann Brown, Emmitt Joe George and Tony Torn. Directed by Tony Torn. Poster image from Noah Saterstrom's portrait of Frank O'Hara. Seating extremely limited! Reserve a seat with a donation HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/try-try-twice-two-plays-by-frank-ohara-tickets-736714501907

Join us in celebrating the publication of third edition of Rene Daumal’s

RASA: Knowledge of the self.

Essays on Indian Aesthetics and Selected Sanskrit Studies

(Cool Grove Press)

Originally written in French by RD, the first edition was translated from the French by Louise Landes Levi and released in 1982 by New Directions. After many years of being out of print it is now available from Cool Grove Press, Brooklyn. https://coolgrove.com/

Rasa will be presented by translator Louise Landes Levi and Tej Hazarika, publisher of Coolgrove. Actor Tony Torn will read from the stanzas of the Natya Shastra, one of the antique texts in the book. With special guest Kelvin Daly.

inquiries: info@coolgrove.com

Please join us for a reading of   an adaptation of  Jane Bowles'  "Camp Cataract".  Quintessentially Bowles, this  brilliant, eccentric, feverish, slightly surreal, tragically funny one-act play centers on two sisters locked in a love/hate battle of wills. Directed and  adapted  for the stage from Jane Bowles' short story by Laura Esterman. With Brooke Bloom, Maggie Bofill, Layla Khoshnoudi, Johanna Leister, Kate Levy, and Sam Tsoutsouvas.  Admission is free but seating is limited so please make reservations, and stay for a glass of wine afterward. 

Reserve HERE: 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/camp-cataract-by-jane-bowles-tickets-619168518707

You are invited to the launch party for Lonely Christopher’s new poetry collection from Roof Books: IN A JANUARY WOULD!

Mostly a social occasion with a little poetry thrown in from:

Lonely Christopher
Paul Legault
& Ana Božičević!

Free admission, snacks, and drink. Hosted by Tony Torn & Lee Ann Brown in association with Roof Books at:

TORN PAGE
435 W 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Join us for a trio of most excellent poets and poetry translators with food & wine!
Doors 8:30pm / Readings 9pm
Poetry by Patricio FERRARI : Martin CORLESS-SMITH : Keith TUMA

Born to Piemontesi and Calabresi immigrants who settled in Argentina at the turn of the 20th century, PATRICIO FERRARI left Merlo (Buenos Aires) at the age of 16 to attend high school and play soccer in the United States as part of the Rotary Exchange Program. He holds a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature from the Sorbonne-Nouvelle, an M.F.A. in Poetry from Brown University, and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Lisbon. Poems from Elsehere––his multilingual trilogy in progress––were recently featured in Cover to Cover by Jack Foley. As polyglot poet, he has translated from English (Frank Stanford, Laynie Browne), French (Alejandra Pizarnik), Hindi (Vidrohi), and Portuguese (Fernando Pessoa, António Osório). Ferrari edited two journals in the United States on Pessoa’s English writings (Tagus Press, 2015 & Gávea Brown, 2018) and published seven editions of Pessoa’s works in Europe, including the first critical edition of his Poèmes français [French Poems] (Editions de la Différence, 2014). With New Directions, he edited and translated The Galloping Hour: French Poems by Alejandra Pizarnik (with Forrest Gander; 2018) and The Complete Works of Alberto Caeiro by Fernando Pessoa (with Margaret Jull-Costa; forthcoming 2020). Ferrari resides in New York City and teaches at Rutgers University, while serving as Managing Director of San Patricio Language Institute, a school in the Greater Buenos Aires his mother founded in 1971, and pursuing a collaboration with the Endangered Language Alliance, a non-profit organization focused on the linguistic diversity of urban areas throughout the world.

MC-S was born and raised in Worcestershire, England. He is the author of seven collections of poetry including The Fool and the Bee (Shearsman Books, 2019) along with Odious Horizons (Miami University Press 2019), a translation of Horace; the novel This Fatal Looking Glass (SplitLevel Texts 2015) and a forthcoming collection of essays The Poet's Tomb (Parlor Press, 2020). He lives and teaches in Boise, Idaho.

KEITH TUMA is the author of books including On Leave: A Book of Anecdotes (Salt, 2011) and a volume of selected poems, Climbing into the Orchestra (The Mute Canary, 2017). He teaches at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he edits the Miami University Press and directs the Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing.

FREE / Donations for Wine & Food gratefully appreciated!

Please join us on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019 at 6:30-8:30 p.m. at TORN-PAGE SALON, 435 West 22nd Street, NYC, to celebrate the journal TALISMAN and its founder-editor Ed Foster.

A Celebration of Talisman, The Journal: Reading and Conversation
FEATURING:
Ed Foster
Vyt Bakailis
Tom Fink
Cheryl J. Fish
Burt Kimmelman
Basil King
Martha King
Heller Levinson
Andrew Levy
Joel Lewis
Tim Liu
Murat Nemet-Nejat
Elinor Nauen
David Wilk

Tuesday, April 9th, 2019 8pm-10pm

Yu Jian, rare NYC bilingual poetry reading / intros by Ron Padgett and Anne Waldman, Q&A with Yu Jian

Jennifer Firestone Book Party for Ten (BlazeVox)

Hosts: Lee Ann Brown + Montenegro Fisher

Short Films by Kate Greenstreet