Sunday, November 12, 2023 From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons

This is going to be great! We will hear from just a few of the 37 poets, from diverse backgrounds, ages from 19 to 90 in the anthology who responded to Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons in creative form, with room for the reader to join in. Each using a section of Stein's Tender Buttons as inspiration, a far-flung community of poets responds with experiments, interpretations, and imaginative imitations of Stein's willful and whimsical disruptions.

Karren LaLonde Alenier is editor of From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons and author of eight poetry collections, including how we hold on (Broadstone, 2021). Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On, her jazz opera with Bill Banfield, premiered 2005 NYC by Encompass New Opera Theatre. https://www.alenier.com/

Jacqueline Johnson, is a multi-disciplined artist in writing and fiber arts. She is the author of A Woman’s Season from Main Street Rag Press and A Gathering of Mother Tongues, winner of the Third Annual White Pine Press Poetry Award.

Roger Sedarat is author of Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic (winner, Ohio UP’s Hollis Summers Poetry Prize, 2007), Ghazal Games (Ohio UP, 2011), and Haji as Puppet: an Orientalist Burlesque (winner, The Word Works Tenth Gate Prize, 2017). He teaches in the MFA Program at Queens College.

Margo Taft Stever’s seven poetry collections include The End of Horses (Broadstone Books, 2022), Cracked Piano (CavanKerry Press, 2019) and Ghost Moose (Kattywompus Press, 2019). She is the founder of the Hudson Valley Writers Center and founding and current co-editor of Slapering Hol Press. https://margotaftstever.com

Nancy White’s poetry collections are Sun, Moon, Salt (winner of the Washington Prize), Detour, and Ask Again Later. Her work has appeared in Black Warrior Review, FIELD, Ploughshares, and many other journals. She serves as president and co-editor-in-chief of The Word Works and teaches at SUNY Adirondack.

This event will be on Zoom only. The event is free, but a $10 donation is suggested. Registration details to follow.