Monster House Presents: Kaveh Akbar

Monster House Presents: Kaveh Akbar
Friday, November 3
Doors 7:30 pm
Show 8 pm

$5 suggested donation to Hope Academy

Monster House Presents a night of poetry & animations featuring:
Kaveh Akbar

with support from:
Yalie Kamara
Anni Liu
Alessandra Lynch

Kaveh’s reading will feature visual accompaniment by artists:
Brain Twins, Benjamin Blevins, Jenny Ollikainen, Emily Gable, Emily Timm, Miles Grimmer, Morgan Eldridge, Tanner Keith Standridge

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Kaveh Akbar founded and edits Divedapper, where he interviews major voices in contemporary poetry. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, Tin House, APR, PBS NewsHour, and elsewhere. He is the author of the chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic (Sibling Rivalry Press, January 2017) and full-length collection Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James Books, September 2017). Akbar has received a Pushcart and a Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America. In 2016, Akbar was a recipient of the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. He was born in Tehran, Iran, and is currently a professor in the MFA program at Purdue University and in the low-residency program at Randolph College.

Yalie Kamara is a first generation Sierra Leonean-American and native of Oakland, California. Prior to becoming an MFA candidate at Indiana University, she worked in the field of social justice specializing in educational access and arts facilitation. She holds Bachelors of Arts degrees in Languages and Creative Writing from University of California, Riverside and a Masters of Arts degree in French from Middlebury College. Yalie’s writing has appeared in Vinyl Poetry and Prose, Entropy Mag, and Amazon: Day One. Her chapbook, When The Living Sing, was published by Ledge Mule Press in Spring, 2017.

Anni Liu is in the MFA program at Indiana University where she is currently Poetry Editor for Indiana Review.

Alessandra Lynch is the author of three books of poetry: Daylily Called it a Dangerous Moment, Sails the Wind Left Behind and It was a terrible cloud at twilight. Her work has appeared in the American Poetry Review, Antioch Review, The Colorado Review, The Cortland Review, The Massachusetts Review, Ploughshares, and other literary journals. Alessandra was born on the East River and now lives with her husband and sons by a stony creek, two hackberry trees, and a magnolia trio. She teaches in Butler University’s undergraduate and MFA programs.

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About Hope Academy:
Hope Academy is a tuition-free, Indiana public charter high school for students in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. As the only recovery high school in Indiana – and just one of 36 nationwide – Hope Academy provides a supportive community for students to maintain their sobriety and receive a Core 40 diploma. Hope Academy is one of only three recovery high schools in the United States accredited by the Association of Recovery High Schools.

MONSTER HOUSE PRESENTS is a monthly reading series in Bloomington, Indiana, curated by Monster House Press, showcasing emerging and established poets, writers, & artists from across the US. Each event will feature writers, musicians, and visual artists, reimagine the format of traditional poetry readings, & strive to engage diverse audiences, all in a committed effort to improve public access to literature, strengthen collaboration between literature and other expressions of art, and foster the reputation of Bloomington as an exciting hub for the literature + arts in the Midwest and beyond.

This project is supported in part by the City of Bloomington Arts Commission’s Arts Project Grant Program & the BUEA Zone Arts Grant.