Friday 11/18: Friedman, La Prade, Held, Lisella and Torrence-Thompson Read Poetry at Left Bank Books in Greenwich Village NYC

New York, N.Y., October 18, 2011 -- On Friday, November 18th,  Left Bank Books of New York invites book lovers and poetry lovers to celebrate the November birthdays of poets Stephen Crane (11/1), Marianne Moore (11/15), J.P. Dancing Bear (11/17), Sharon Olds (11/19), Paul Celan (11/20), William Blake (11/28), and Celia Lisset Alvarez  (11/30) with a late evening poetry reading by five noted local poets. 

Poets Wear Prada's founder and managing editor, Roxanne Hoffman, will host the poetry reading at Greenwich Village's Left Bank Books in New York City. Special guest, the prose poet David Joel Friedman, author of  The Welcome (National Poetry Series, University of Illinois Press. 2006) will introduce Erik La Prade (Chelsea), George Held (Greenwich Village), Maria Lisella (Astoria), and Juanita Torrence-Thompson (Flushing).  Each poet will each read work by a favorite November birthday poet, as well as from their own recent books and  new work.

The reading will start at promptly at 8 p.m. and will be followed by a brief Q&A.

Ms. Hoffman who lived in Greenwich Village for several years while attending NYU, says she was literally walking north west down her "memory lane" -- Bleecker Street, which ends at 8th Avenue -- and found herself browsing the shelves and stalls inside Left Bank Books.  She purchased a used 2nd edition of "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Dog" a collection of autobiographical stories by Dylan Thomas and inquired if the store would entertain a poetry reading.  The store has in fact hosted several previous literary events including a recent poetry reading, featuring Barry Wallenstein and Eve Packer, and an  annual Bloomsday Celebration.  During her conversation with Zeke Finkelstein, the store manager, she learned that one of the poets she has published, Erik La Prade, frequents the store on almost a daily basis. Mr. La Prade has recently completed a memoir regarding his time as an employee of the now closed Gotham Bookstore and will be reading an excerpt from this memoir, as well as his poetry and a poem by Stephen Crane, on November 18th.

Left Bank Books is located in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan between Bank and West 12th Streets at No. 17 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10014.

Directions: By subway, take the A, C, E, L trains to 14th Street at 8th Avenue and walks south on the west side of 8th Avenue. (Note: The L train connects with the N, R, Q, F, D trains at 14th Street.) Or take the 1, 2 or 3 to 14th Street at 7th Avenue, exit at West 12th Street and head west.


About the Readers:

David Joel Friedman, a native of Washington, D.C, is a graduate of Cornell University and Columbia University and currenty lives and teaches in New York City.  Friedman won the 2004 National Poetry Series open competition, selected by Pulitzer Prizewinner Stephen Dunn; his book of prose poems, The Welcome, was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2006 and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. Dunn describes Friedman's book The Welcome as "full of pleasures, both linguistic and ideational ...  David Friedman blends surreal hijinks with gestures toward the serious.  [These poems] give you, if you let them, one of literature's underrated virtues: a good time."  The book's title poem has been featured on Poetry Daily.

Erik La Prade has a B.A and an M.A. from City College. His most recent poetry collection, a chapbook titled False Confessions, was published by Alternating Current in 2011.  Breaking Through: Richard Bellamy and the Green Gallery 1960-1965, published by Midmarch  Arts Press in 2010, traces the history of Dick Bellamy's celebrated gallery through a collection on 23 interviews with artists Claes Oldenberg, James Rosenquist, Frank Stella among many others. A chapbook SWATCHES was released in 2008 from Poets Wear Prada. His first book, Things Maps Don't Show, was published in 1995, and his second, Figure Studies, was published in 1999. Some of his poems have appeared in Fish Drum, Night Magazine, The Hat, The Reading Room, The New York Times, and Artist and Influence. He also has articles and interviews in The Brooklyn Rail, Captured: A History of Film and Video On The Lower East Side, and The Outlaw Bible of American Essays.

George Held, a five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, will be reading from his new sonnet collection, After Shakespeare (Červená Barva). A teacher, translator, writer, and poet, he has had work in such places as The Philadelphia Inquirer, Confrontation, Notre Dame Review, New York Quarterly, and Rattle, as well as on NPR and in two dozen anthologies. Among his chapbooks is Phased (Poets Wear Prada, 2008).

Maria Lisella's Pushcart Poetry Prize-nominated work appears in Amore on Hope Street (Finishing Line Press) and Two Naked Feet (Poets Wear Prada). Her poetry has appeared in The New York Quarterly, Skidrow Penthouse, Paterson Literary Review, and New Verse News, among others; her latest short story appears in Sweet Lemons 2, Writing with a Sicilian Accent (Legas Press). She co-curates the Italian American Writers Association monthly literary readings at Cornelia St. Cafe on the second Saturday of each month. She is a travel writer by profession.

Juanita Torrence-Thompson is the owner, Editor-in-Chief and publisher of the 29-year old international literary magazine, Möbius, The Poetry Magazine -- named one the best magazines of 2007, 2008. 2009 and 2010 by Small Magazine Review.  Poems from her 6th poetry book, Breath-Life, (Scopcraeft Press 2009) were nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  New York and African Tapestries (Fly By Night Press, 2007) was a Small Press Review “Best Pick.”  Her poetry was recently published in the anthologies The Cento (Red Hen Press, 2011) and Forgotten Borough: Writers Come to Terms with Queens (SUNY Press, 2011). Juanita also writes fiction for children and adults, and edits a poetry column for several newspapers, and taught as an adjunct professor at the College of New Rochelle. 

About the Host:

A graduate of NYU Stern School of Business, and a retired Wall Street banker, Roxanne Hoffman has run the small independent literary press Poets Wear Prada, since 2006. Described as "a publisher who is one miracle short of sainthood," by Angelo Verga, Poetry Curator of The Cornelia Street Cafe, she personally and meticulously designs and lays out each book, occasionally providing cover art and illustrations.  Nominated for a 2010 Pushcart Prize by House of Horror Magazine, her work appears in several anthologies including The Bandana Republic: A Literary Anthology by Gang Members and Their Affiliates (Soft Skull Press), Love After 70 (Wising Up Press), and It All Changed In An Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure (Harper Perennial). Her vampire poetry can be heard during the 2005 indie flick  Love and the Vampire, directed and produced by Dave Gold.  Born in Manhattan, where she stills spends much of her time, she now resides across the Hudson River in Hoboken, NJ.

About the Bookstore:

Left Bank Books specializes in literary first editions (especially fiction, poetry, drama, and literary non-fiction), photography, art, music, and film, but we buy and sell quality used books of all kinds in all categories.  Their inventory runs from first editions of literary highlights, many of which are signed, to an impressive number of fascinating works on a variety of subjects.  "And don't be put off by the words 'first editions' or 'rare books';  our stock is not merely a collection of the expensive and eminent--- we have quality books to suit all tastes and pocketbooks" says Lauren Taylor of  Left Bank Books.

"Our staff is knowledgeable and book-loving.  Come in to buy, browse, or talk about books.  We like what we do, and we're there to help you find what you want."

For more information visit the store's website, http://www.leftbankbooksny.com/, or call 212.924.5638.