6/9: Reading with Gillian Conoley, Alex Mattraw, and Jake Syersak
Join us on June 9th at 7 pm for a reading featuring poets Gillian Conoley, Alex Mattraw, and Jake Syersak!
** Please note: Masks are still required for Open Books public events. **
A poet, editor, and translator, Gillian Conoley is the author of ten critically acclaimed collections of poetry, including her most recent Notes from the Passenger (Nightboat Books, 2023), currently short-listed for the California Independent Bookseller’s Golden Poppy Award. Often comprising narrative, lyric, and fragmented forms, her work takes up an inquiry into spirit and matter, the individual and the state. Conoley received the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, and a Fund for Poetry Award. Conoley has taught at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the University of Denver, Vermont College, Tulane, and Sonoma State University. A long-time resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, she is editor of VOLT magazine. Her translations of three books by Henri Michaux, Thousand Times Broken, appearing in English for the first time, is with City Lights. https://www.gillianconoley.com/
Alex Mattraw is the author of the poetry collections Raw Anyone (2022), We fell into weather (2020), and small siren (2018), all with Brooklyn’s Cultural Society. Her poems and/or reviews have appeared in places including The Brooklyn Rail, Jacket2, Lana Turner, Tupelo Quarterly, and VOLT. A frequent collaborator with other writers, Alex is currently working with photographer Adam Thorman on VOIDS, a book-length text + image dialogue that will have a partial feature in the next issue of POSIT. She is also the founder and curator of the decade old Bay Area reading, art, and performance series, Lone Glen. http://alexandramattraw.com
Jake Syersak is the author of the poetry collections Mantic Compost (Trembling Pillow, 2022) and Yield Architecture (Burnside Review Books, 2018). He is also the translator of several books by Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine. He lives in Olympia, WA. https://jakesyersak.com/cv/