Poets' Co-op TV's Poets' Page

We are proud to feature some of the best living local, regional and national poets. Our poets reflect a full spectrum of styles of contemporary American poetry, range in experience from to student to international award recipients and in age from 5 to 85 years young. Click on a name below to find out more about any of our featured poets (listed in order of appearance):

Elizabeth Robinson, our May 6th, 2007, featured poet.

Elizabeth Robinson is a winner of the National Poetry Series, 2001, and the Fence Modern Poets Prize, 2002. Her published books include Apprehend (Fence Books, 2003), Pure Descent (Sun & Moon Press, 2003), Harrow (Omnidawn Press, 2001), House Made of Silver (Kelsey St. Press, 2000), Bed of Lists (Kelsey St. Press, 1990) and In the Sequence of Falling Things (Paradigm Press, 1990). She also has several forthcoming full-length books as well as many chapbooks.

Jeffrey Ethan Lee, our June 3rd, 2007, featured poet.

Jeffrey Ethan Lee’s first full-length poetry book, invisible sister was published by Many Mountains Moving Press, 2004 (visit www.mmminc.org and click on the MMM Press link). Lee won the 2002 Sow's Ear Poetry Chapbook prize ($1,000) for The Sylf (2003), published Strangers in a Homeland (chapbook with Ashland Press, 2001), and published hundreds of poems, stories and essays in Many Mountains Moving, Xconnect, Crab Orchard Review, Crazyhorse, Crosscurrents, Drexel Online Journal, Green Mountain Review, Washington Square and others. He teaches creative writing at University of Northern Colorado. Visit www.unco.edu/poetry/jeffrey.lee. He has a Ph.D. in British Romanticism and an MFA from NYU.

Rod Smith & Mel Nichols, our July 1st, 2007, featured poets.

Rod Smith's publications include Music or Honesty, In Memory of My Theories, Protective Immediacy, New Mannerist Tricycle and the audio book, Fear the Sky. He edits Aerial Magazine, manages Bridge Street Books, publishes Edge Books in Washington, DC and is an active Flarf poet. Mel Nichols, also from D. C., is a poet and digital artist whose collaborative projects include poetry installations and web-based hypermedia works. Her chap book, Day Poems was published in 2005. The Silent Tongue, a collaboration with visual artist Doug Clevenger, was at the Jettsett Gallery in Chicago in 2001. She is currently creating a wonderful online photographic poetry series called The Beginning of Beauty: Part 1, hottest new ring tones mnichol6.

TVS & two fingers, our August 5th, 2007, featured poets.

TVS and two fingers have been creating their unique combination of performance poetry and sound art since the group's debut performance in Fort Collins , Colorado on New Year's Eve 1996. Poet Tim Van Schmidt joined forces with Mark J. Rosoff and Dave Zekman , members of the experimental music group two fingers, in the Fall of 1996 to record their first independent album release, "More Poets Inside," a limited edition cassette. Since then, TVS and two fingers have performed extensively in Colorado and Wyoming , as well as in the East Coast states of Connecticut and Massachusetts . The group has also released three more independent albums, including "Live," "Dreaming of the Pyramids," and "Air and Words," published with a book version of the words. TVS and two fingers have appeared on two albums by Australian storyteller and didjeridoo player Paul Taylor and on a CD compilation of poetry from Sparrows, Colorado 's Performance Poetry Festival.

Evan Oakley, our September 9th, 2007, featured poet.

Evan Oakley

Evan Oakley is an Associate Professor of English/Humanities at the AIMS Community College in Loveland, Colorado. He received his MFA from George Mason University in Virginia. He is past editor of the literary journals Phoebe and The Dry Creek Review. For many years, he also co-directed the annual summer literary event, Poets in the Park, held in Loveland. He is past recipient of the Colorado Council of the Arts Poetry Award, and he has published in various journals and magazines.

Megan Freeman, our October 7th, 2007, featured poet.

Megan E. Freeman used to live in northeast Los Angeles, central Ohio, northern Norway and on Caribbean cruise ships. She currently chairs the Humanities department at a public charter school in Lafayette, Colorado. A member and former fellow in the Colorado State University Writing Project, she is also a 2007 Fund for Teachers fellow, a two-time Impact on Education Award finalist, and a 2007 Colorado Teacher of the Year nominee. Her poetry has appeared in various anthologies and literary journals, and she is working on her first novel.

The Free Radical Railroad, our December 2nd, 2007, featured performers.

Phil Woods has been writing poetry for 40 years and is the author of 6 books. His most recent are Poems for the Prophet (2006) and the chapbook "Struggle Mountain" which is part of a 3 chapbook collection called Free Radical Railroad Underground (2007). The 3 authors, Mike Adams, Phil Woods, and James Taylor III, often perform together as the Free Radical Railroad.

The Disobedient Poets (Part 1) with Hilary DePolo & James Boyce, our January 6th , 2008, featured performers.

Hilary DePolo, based in Denver, Colorado has been writing free verse and prose poetry for more than twenty years. She has received residencies from the Ucross Foundation and the Jentel Artist Residency Program. Her work is the basis of a multidisciplinary exhibition of poetry, visual art and performance entitled Character Sketches to be featured at the Loveland Museum and Gallery, Loveland, Colorado, and a second entitled Past Lives to be featured at the Curtis Arts and Humanities Center. Both exhibitions will be part if the 2008 exhibition schedule. She has recently teamed with James Boyce to form Louisiana Pearl – a poetry performance duo. She is self employed as a visual arts consultant.

James Boyce , a 40 year old guitarist from New Jersey maintains a consistent level of passion for the instrument. This passion began at a guitar player's common starting age of fifteen and rolls-on to this day. His heroes include the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Randy Rhoads, Steve Via, classical guitarist John Williams and jazz pianist McCoy Tyner. With these masters as guides, James was able to experience some success as a lead guitarist in numerous heavy metal and jazz bands. He now brings his art form to the spoken word genre with the talented poet, Hilary DePolo.

The Disobedient Poets (Part 2)with Katherine West & Jeff Finer, our February 3rd, 2008, featured performers.

Katherine West & Jeff Finer

After living most of her adult life in Latin America, Katherine West now makes her home in the mountains near Loveland, Colorado. She teaches poetry workshops at the Loveland Museum, Aims Community College, and The Colorado Contemporary Music College in Ft. Collins. She also works as contributor and poetry editor for CRONE magazine and as a member of the editorial collective of Green Fuse Community Press (www.greenfusepress.com). She has published one bi-lingual chapbook Native Speakers in 1998, and in 2006 published a full-length collection of dreams poems, Scimitar Dreams, with original artwork by Tom Katsimpalis Curator of Interpretation at the Loveland Museum. Her new collection The Bone Train, published by Howling Dog Press, is due out in 2008. Her work also appears on a regular basis in New Verse News, an online poetry newspaper, as well as in numerous journals such as White Pelican Review, Lalitamba Poetry Journal, Omega, Calyx Journal, Crone, and Poets Against War.

Jeff Finer has been accompanying poets in performance since 2003. First on bottleneck and more recently on lap-style slide guitar, Jeff has performed with poets in both ensemble and solo performances at the Loveland Museum, The Dairy Center for the Arts, The Art Center of Estes Park, Stage C at the Cameron Café in Denver, and on CCTV54's series on local poets. In 2008 Jeff will expand his efforts, co-teaching two Loveland Museum workshops that focus on performance, one with poet Hilary DePolo in her musician-meets-poet series, and another as part of the Green Fuse Summer Poetry Festival.

The Disobedient Poets (Part 3) with M. D. Friedman & Mariamne Engle Friedman, our March 2nd, 2008, featured performers.

M. D. Friedman & Mariamne Engle Friedman

M. D. Friedman is a poet, teacher, musician, photographer, digital artist and web master from Lafayette, Colorado where he resides with his wife, Mariamne Engle Friedman, and his son, Max. In the spring of 2006 he retired from teaching in the public education factories to pursue the creative arts. His fourth book of poetry, Where We Reach, was recently released and combines his poetry with his original photographs and artwork.

He is the founder of the Internet Poets' Cooperative web site which features over 20 free volumes of e-books from poets around the world and over 500 free audio recordings of dozens of Colorado poets reading their own work. His newest web site, http://www.digitaldada.org, represents an effort to explore the transformational impact of digital creation on common culture. His personal web site, www.mdfriedman.com offers access to all of M. D. Friedman's creative ventures.

Mariamne E. Friedman spent her childhood in Ohio. Her father, the late John Engle, poet and creative writing teacher, surrounded her with poetry and encouragement to write. Mariamne cannot remember a time when poetry was not in her life. Today, Mariamne lives in Lafayette, Colorado and is blissfully married to poet, M.D. Friedman. She continues the dance of poetic passion and is inspired daily by her husband, by poet Mary Oliver, and her teacher, Prem Rawat.

J. Dino Delano, our April 6th, 2008, featured poet.

J. Dino Delano is a writer, poet, photographer and artist from Louisville, Colorado. He is of Portuguese, French and Indian decent and was raised by his grandparents in Fall River, Massachusetts. His photography has appeared In Photographers Forum, on magazine covers and on a Hallmark calendar. His first book, A Seekers Journal was published in 1982. Dino's poetry has appeared in several publications, and he has published a poetry chap book entitled Soul's Breath. He also hosts the open mike at the Mercury Cafe in Denver, Colorado.

Jared Smith, our May 4th, 2008, featured poet.

Jared Smith is a prominent figure in contemporary poetry, technology research, and professional continuing education. Having earned his BA cum laude and his MA in English and American Literature from New York University, he spent many years in industry and research. Starting in 1976, he rose to Vice President of The Energy Bureau, Inc. in New York; relocated to Illinois, where he became Associate Director of both Education and Research for an international not-for-profit research laboratory (IGT); advised several White House Commissions on technology and policy under the Clinton Administration; and left industry in 2001, after serving as Special Appointee to Argonne National Laboratory.

Jared's seventh volume of poetry, The Graves Grow Bigger Between Generations, was released in May of 2008 by Higganum Hill Books in Connecticut. His previous six critically acclaimed volumes include: Where Images Become Imbued With Time ( Puddin'head Press, Chicago, 2007); Lake Michigan And Other Poems ( Puddin'head Press, Chicago, 2005); Walking The Perimeters Of The Plate Glass Window Factory ( Birch Brook Press, New York, 2001); Keeping The Outlaw Alive ( Erie Street Press, Chicago, 1988); Dark Wing ( Charred Norton Publishing, New York, 1984); and Song Of The Blood: An Epic (The Smith Press, New York, 1983). Jared's Song Of The Blood is now available as a free-to-read e-book.

His first CD, Seven Minutes Before The Bombs Drop, was released by Artvilla Records in 2006, with original music performed by David Michael Jackson and Andy Derryberry. (You may enjoy some free excerpts from this CD at www.mp3poetry.org). His second CD, Controlled By Ghosts, was released by Practical Music Studio in combination with CD Baby in October '07, with music by alternative jazz composer Lem Roby. Both CDs can be downloaded in whole or in part via any digital download service worldwide.

Jared has had hundreds of publications in literary journals across the nation over the past 30 years, in addition to several foreign countries. He has published reviews of the works of such major contemporary poets as Ted Kooser, C.K. Williams, and W.S. Merwin, as well as several craft interviews, including one with Ted Kooser that was translated into Chinese for republication in Taiwan and Mainland China. Jared's work has also been adapted to stage in both New York and Chicago.

Jared Smith's poems, essays, and literary commentary have appeared in The New York Quarterly, Confrontation, Spoon River Quarterly, Kenyon Review, Bitter Oleander, Small Press Review, Greenfield Review, Vagabond, The Smith, Home Planet News, Bitterroot, Rhino, Ibbetson Street Press, Wilderness House Review, After Hours, Poet Lore, The Pedestal, Second Coming, The Partisan Review, Somerville News, Coe Review, U.T. Review, The Iconoclast, Trail & Timberline, and many others. He has also been on National Public Radio and Pacifica. He has given readings, workshops, and classes at colleges, schools, libraries, and coffee houses around the country.

While at NYU, Jared studied under poet/critic M.L. Rosenthal, Library of Congress Adviser Robert Hazel, and founder of The New York Quarterly William Packard. He has served as a member of the Screening Committee and on the Board of Directors of The New York Quarterly under founding Editor William Packard, as well as being a current member of its Advisory Board under Raymond Hammond; as coordinator of readings at two Greenwich Village coffee shops in the 70s; as a Guest Columnist for Poets magazine and Home Planet News under Editor Don Lev; as Guest Poetry Editor for two issues of The Pedestal under Editor John Amen; and as Poetry Editor of Trail & Timberline.

Jared Smith is a member of The Academy of American Poets, Illinois State Poetry Society, and The Chicago Poets' Club, and past President of Poets & Patrons in Chicago. He is listed in Marquis Who's Who In America, among other reference works, and has been listed among the authors in Poets & Writers Directory since its inception.

SETH with Art Compost & the Word Mechanics, our June 1st, 2008, featured poets

One of Denver's more popular performance poets ...original, moving, insightful -- Rocky Mountain News

Writer, performance poet, actor and percussionist, SETH lives in Denver, Co where he has been a driving force behind numerous Poetry Theater productions. These include Reign of the Scar Clan which won a “Best of Denver” in 1995. For more than 18 years SETH has experimented with creative ways to present poetry. He has performed with scores of musicians, actors, poets and dancers in a long list of live, audio and video productions.

In 1991 SETH helped found Open Rangers, a dynamic network of poets, actors, musicians, dancers and other performance artists. Over a span of 13 years, Open Rangers was responsible for such innovative productions as JoY is the Name of a Child, Poetic License, Reign of the Scar Clan and Random Axe of Rhyme. They also produced two audio cassettes Drop the Other Shoe and Eating Light which interwove music, poetry and theater for a uniquely stimulating listening experience. In 1993 SETH joined Jafrika, a critically-acclaimed trio presenting “original music, provocative dance and poignant poetry.” The Rocky Mountain News listed Jafrika as “among Denver's finest cultural offerings”. His video appearances have been aired on several local television stations in the Denver-Metro area. His last major stage production was the “choreo-poem” Suite Moses, employing Afro-American popular music and dance in retelling the story of Exodus from a Black perspective. The production was praised by critics and audiences alike.

Presently SETH performs every Sunday night at Denver's Mercury Café. From 7-8pm each week, SETH along with Art Compost & the Word Mechanics hosts a “Jam before the Slam,” collaborating with poets and singers from the audience. Their first CD Love, Death & Poetry won Westword's Best of Denver in 2005 for Best Spoken Word CD.

Robert King, our August 3, 2008, featured poet.

Robert King

Born in Denver , Colorado , with Ft. Collins his hometown, Robert King attended Colorado State University (M. A. American Literature, 1961) and the University of Iowa (Ph. D. English/Creative Writing, 1965). He retired as Professor Emeritus from the University of North Dakota in 1996, having received the UND Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research, Creative Activity, and Service. He has since lectured at the University of Nebraska and the University of Northern Colorado.

He has three children—Lisa, Lynn, and Lawrence, all living in North Dakota—and he currently lives in Greeley, Colorado, where he writes and directs the Colorado Poets Center.

In the last ten years, King has published poems: American Life in Poetry, Ascent, Atlanta Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, Blue Unicorn, The Cape Rock, The Carolina Quarterly, Center: A Journal of the Literary Arts, Connecticut River Review, Cream City Review, Dalhousie Review; Descant; Ellipsis, Ekphrasis, Facets: A Literary Magazine, Great River Review, Green Hills Literary Lantern, HeartLodge, Hiram Poetry Review, Louisiana Review, The Louisville Review, Lullwater Review, Margie, Malahat Review, Many Mountains Moving, The Massachusetts Review, Midwest Quarterly, Milkwood Review, Missouri Review, New Orleans Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Northeast, The Paterson Literary Review, Pearl, Plainsongs, Poet Lore, Poetry, Potomac Review, Potpourri, Rattle, Red Rock Review, Rio Grande Review, The Saint Anne's Review, Shenandoah, South Dakota Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Sundog, Sycamore Review, Tar River Poetry, and West Wind Review. In addition, he has published five poetry chap books. His lastest book, Old Man Laughing, was publish in 2007 by Ghost Road Press and was a finalist in the Colorado Book Award.

Amy Irish, our September 7, 2008, featured poet.

Amy Irish

Amy Wray Irish earned a BA in English from the University of Iowa , then attended the University of Notre Dame, where she was Managing Editor of the Notre Dame Review and a teacher of undergraduate poetry classes while she earned her MFA in creative writing. She now lives in Colorado with her husband, also a writer, and their son. Amy 's work has been seen in 100 Words, Apocalypse, Ariel, The Bend (formerly Dánta), Neologisms, the Notre Dame Review, Poetry Motel, River King Poetry Supplement and Wazee Journal. She was featured poet in Wazee's Spring 2003 edition and won 1 st place in Chicago 's Hirshfield Memorial Poetry Contest. Amy's novel-in-progress, titled Her Fertile Crescent, is set in ancient Iraq amidst goddesses, belly dancing and sacred sexuality.

Amy 's chapbook of poems and art --- Creation Stories --- from Green Fuse Press released last spring sold out in one day! Please check out www.myspace.com/amywrayirish for more information or contact her at lunablue_girl@msn.co.

George Drew, our October 5 , 2008, featured poet.

George Drew

George Drew was born in Mississippi and grew up there and in New York State , where he currently lives. Toads in a Poisoned Tank , his first book, was published in 1986. The chapbook, So Many Bones (Poems of Russia ) , was published in a bilingual edition by a Russian press in 1997.

Maggie Rowlett, our November 2, 2008, featured poet.

Maggie Rowlett

Maggie Rowlett is an artist and poet from Loveland, Colorado. Maggie Rowlett’s chapbook, Sing the Returning was the first chapbook ever published by Greenfuse Press in 2005. The title poem won first place for The Poetry Society of Colorado’s Current Events poetry contest, and Song won first place for their Trust in God contest.

Leo Goya, our December 7, 2008, featured poet.

Leo Goya

Leo Goya is a New York City ex-patriot firmly convinced that Colorado above 8,000 feet is full a'bliss and more than adequate digs. Poet, artist, percussionist, he released a CD with The Jarad Astin Jazz Trio (available on cuezonerecords.com). Leo has been trying for more than a half-century to channel e.e. cummings.

The Friends' School Poets, our March 1st, 2009, featured poets.

Friends' School Logo

Friends’ School is a supportive, dynamic community committed to educating the whole child—head, hand, and heart. Our students acquire a strong academic foundation while developing creative expression, social responsibility, and respect for diversity and the individual. We challenge students and teachers to reach their full potential as engaged, lifelong learners.

Peter Neil Carroll, our April 5 , 2009, featured poet.

Peter Neil Carroll is the author and editor of 17 books, including the recently published journal of an American poet and ambulance driver in the Spanish Civil War, James Neugass, which is titled War is Beautiful (New Press, 2008). His newest book is titled of poetry is titled Riverborne: A Mississippi Requiem, inspired by a trip along the Mississippi River following the same route he took with the same companion in 1972. The poetry focuses on the changing relationship between landscape and the two men. His poetry has appeared recently in the Arkansas Review and the Monterey Poetry Review. He was a finalist in last year Winning Writers' War Poetry contest. His work is also forthcoming in Heavy Bear. He reads frequently in the San Franciso Bay Area, where he lives with his wife, the writer Jeannette Ferrary.

Charlie Rossiter & Dan Wilcox, our May 3, 2009, featured poets.

Charlie Rossiter

Charlie Rossiter writes, performs, and promotes poetry every chance he gets. The great audio poetry website, www.poetrypoetry.com, is the latest in a long list of poetry projects which include the creating and hosting the Poetry Motel, a cable television program still seen in upstate New York and neighboring states, and organizing all-day poetry readings at the Washington Monument in Washington, DC. He received an NEA Fellowship for poetry and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Dan Wilcox has had his poems published in many literary magazines and anthologies and, as a photographer, he has accumulated what is undoubtedly the largest collection of photos of unknown (and well-known) poets in the world. His touring has been supported by the NY Foundation for the Arts.

Since joining poetic forces in 1993, Charlie & Dan have performed their work around the country at major venues such as the Bowery Poetry Club, NYC; Cantab Lounge, Cambridge, MA; the Green Mill, Chicago; Nuyorican Poets Cafe, NYC; Newport Beach Arts Center, Oregon; in schools and libraries throughout the land, on NPR and numerous state-wide public radio networks and in Albanys in 11 states. Their ultimate goal is to perform their poetry in all of America's 18 Albanys. They began this venture as “3 Guys from Albany,” but in January, 2006, one of their numbers (Tom Nattell) passed away from throat cancer. They have decided to continue with the project. Their Grand Plan may seem a bit quirky, but have found that it creates a unique brand of poetry outreach that can sometimes bring readings to places that rarely have such events. In their readings we use a variety of performance techniques: musical instruments, real and home-made; multi-voice presentations; and audience participation; to present our personal and socially-committed poetry.

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Vicki Mandell-King, our June 7 , 2009, featured poet.

Although she has written poetry most of her life, about 10 years ago, Vicki Mandell-King decided to claim "being" a poet as well. Since then, along with continuing her almost 30-year career as a Federal Public Defender, she has been writing, publishing and performing her work. Her poetry has been published in such literary journals as Calyx Journal, Margie, Kalliope, Mainstreet Rag, Ilya's Honey, and others. Vicki is currently seeking a publisher for her first collection, called Emptying. The cover will be designed by her son. Vicki and her husband have lived in Louisville for over 30 years in a remodeled (and remodeled) century-old Victorian.

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WE ARE theUnreal, our July 5, 2009, featured poets.

WE ARE theUnREAL has been a nationally touring act (and Toronto, Vancouver, and Oxford) since November of 2008. They currently are made up of Barakanoel Mumbles, Dusty Rose, Samul Sax, and the Dunce Apprentice of Citizens of Sleep. Check out their 2007 release Copyright Law.

bringing slam and off kilter duo/trio/quartet
games, tricks, improv, haiku, hip hop,
theater, comedy, slapstick, vaudeville,
& whatever else it takes to wreck a room.

featured @ the Green Mill,
Broken Speech in Orlando, Slam Nuba in
Denver, the Corvallis and Portland Slams
in Oregon, Slam Richmond, Toronto Slam,
Berkeley Slam, Chico Slam, Kinetic Poetics
in Santa Cruz, FlagSlam in AZ, the Killeen
Slam in TX, and a long boring list of other
colleges, showcases, open mics, parties, etc.

Do the very fate of humanity a favor. And check them out.- http://www.illiteratemagazine.com/blog

One of this year's most intriguing albums -- Okayplayer.com

Citizens of sleep seem to resurrect the golden era of hip hop -- HiphopLinguistics.com

Dusty Rose has poems that could save lives - John Survivor Blake

I'm glad I didn.t kick you out - David @ Louder Arts

Chances are this shit will never catch on, but my friends like my songs and i like my songs.-- the Grouch

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Time Space & Experience with Kelly Hosner & Nick Orf, our August 2, 2009, featured poets.

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John Amen, our September 6, 2009, featured poet.

John Amen is the author of two collections of poetry: Christening the Dancer (Uccelli Press 2003) and More of Me Disappears (Cross-Cultural Communications 2005), and has released two folk/folk rock CDs, All I'll Never Need and Ridiculous Empire (Cool Midget 2004, 2008). His poetry has appeared in various journals and anthologies, including, most recently, Rattle, The New York Quarterly, The International Poetry Review, Gargoyle, and Blood to Remember . He is also an artist, working primarily with acrylics on canvas. Amen travels widely giving readings, doing musical performances, and conducting workshops. He founded and continues to edit the award-winning literary bimonthly, The Pedestal Magazine ( www.thepedestalmagazine.com ).

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Pat Maslowski, our October 4, 2009, featured poet.

Pat Maslowski is a retired teacher and librarian, living in Drake, Colorado. Her first poetry chapbook is Camping Trip, a series of poems inspired by San Luis Lakes and Burro Bridge campgrounds in Colorado and Canyon de Chelly in Chinle, Arizona. Camping Trip won a First Chapbook Prize in 2009 and is published by Green Fuse Press.

Pat has published poetry in Bamboo Ridge, a Hawaiian literary magazine, and in Crone, Sacred Poetry, Beyond Pluto, and Improv I, 2, and 3 (Green Fuse anthologies). New Verse News online, Teaching the Humanities (Summer 1995), the Journal of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Storm Mountain Emergency Response Team Web Site are other places where her work has appeared.

Her next book of poetry will be titled, Two Years on Ta'u and the Journey of Returning about living and teaching in American Samoa.

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Kit Muldoon & Nahshon Cook, our November 1, 2009, featured poets.

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Kit Muldoon is a regular at the Mercury Cafe readings in Denver and has thrilled audiences at readings throughout Colorado. Her work is powerful, gritty, honest and revealing. Kit lives in Lakewood, Colorado, when she is not off chasing the muse around.

Nahshon Cook's poetry has appeared in two Cleo Parker Robinson Dance productions and at peace and interfaith conferences in Colorado which have included Mysticism and Social Change, A Celebration of Religious Freedom, and Race, Gender and Class in the Building of the Beloved Community, Peace out Loud... for a change!, and the 2009 Denver Martin Luther King Day parade and march. He has had poems published in Divine Revolutions Magazine and Grafitti-Kolkata. His first collection of poetry A New Beginning will be published in January 2010 by "please” press.

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Julie Cummings, our December 6, 2009, featured poet.

Currently residing in Aurora & Conifer, Colorado, Julie Cummings is known for her contributions to the literary world through many facets. In addition to being the standing President of Columbine Poets, Inc, which is the Colorado state poetry society affiliated with the NFSPS, Ms. Cummings also facilitates and conducts workshops on various writing topics on a regular basis. Ms. Cummings' poems have been published in three anthologies over the course of the past several years. Additionally her work is found in a local literary magazine, newspapers, as well as on the internet. Ms. Cummings began writing poetry at the age of 9. Ms. Cummings is strongly influenced by Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, and Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer as well as many others. In addition to being a middle school educator, Ms. Cummings also enjoys educating people about social issues through her poetry as well as through workshops. Her poems are available in postcard form as well as in a little self published book of poems in which she donates all of the proceeds to several different social awareness causes.

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Shanon Brown, our January 3, 2010, featured poet.

Shanon Brown is a talented young poet and visual artist from Denver, Colorado. Shanon started writing poetry at age 6, soon after she learned to write at all. Her work speaks from the heart of what it means to be human. Although she is a popular regular of the Denver poetry open mic scene, her appearance on the Poets' Co-op TV Show in January of 2010 represents her debut performance as a featured reader. After viewing her performance, we are sure you will agree it certainly will not be her last! Shanon is currently going to school at Colorado University Denver campus as a premed student majoring in psychology.

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Lorna Dee Cervantes, our February 7, 2010, featured poet

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A fifth generation Californian of Mexican and Native American (Chumash) heritage, Lorna Dee Cervantes was a pivotal figure throughout the Chicano literary movement. She began publishing the literary journal, Mango, in the mid-1970s. Her small press, also named Mango, was widely admired for its creative designs and for the important voices it first brought into print, including Sandra Cisneros, Luis Omar Salinas, Ray Gonzalez, Jimmy Santiago Baca and Alberto Ríos among them.

Cervantes is a dynamic poet whose work draws tremendous power from her struggles in the literary and political trenches. Her power is channeled by a keen intellect and careful attention to craft, which allows her to explore the boundaries between language and experience. Joy Harjo says of her poetry, "Lorna Dee Cervantes is a daredevil... We are transfixed as she juggles rage, cruelties, passion. There is no net. Seven generations uphold the trick of survival. No one is alone in this amazing act of love."

Her poetry has appeared in literally hundreds of literary magazines and she has been featured on the cover of Bloomsbury Review and other literary journals. Her work has also been included in many anthologies, including Daughters of the Fifth Sun (1995), ¡Floricanto Sí! A Collection of Latina Poetry (Penguin, 1998), Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry (1994), No More Masks! An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Women Poets (1993), and After Aztlan: Latino Poets of the Nineties (1992). Cervantes' poems have appeared in over 150 textbooks, including mainstays such as The Norton Anthology of American Literature and The Heath Anthology of American Literature.

Cervantes' first book, Emplumada (University of Pittsburgh, 1981), a recipient of the American Book Award, was praised as "a seamless collection of poems that move back and forth between the gulf of desire and possibility." Her second collection, From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger (Arte Público, 1991) was awarded the Patterson Poetry Prize, the poetry prize of the Institute of Latin American Writers, and the Latino Literature Award. In 1995 she received a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award.

Cervantes holds an A.B.D. in the History of Consciousness; she is an associate professor of English at the University of Colorado in Boulder where until recently she directed the creative writing program. She has received two National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowships, a prestigious Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fellowship, two Pushcart Prizes and numerous other grants and awards.

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Rosemerry WahtolaTrommer, our March 7, 2010, featured poet.

Poet, writer and organic fruit grower Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer uses poetry to help people fall more deeply in love with the world and their lives. She was recently reappointed Poet Laureate of San Miguel County.

She has authored and edited ten books, including:
• Intimate Landscape: The Four Corners in Poetry and Photographs;
•Holding Three Things at Once;
•Insatiable: Poems;
• The Christmas Candle Book: Poems of Light;
• Suitcase of Yeses (audio CD);
• Charity: True Stories of Giving & Receiving;
• If You Listen, winner of the Colorado Independent Press Association poetry award.

She’s widely anthologized, including The Geography of Hope: Poets of Colorado’s Western Slope, What Wildness This Is: Women Write About the Southwest, and Improv: An Anthology of Colorado Poets.

In addition to writing, Rosemerry teaches public speaking for Mesa State College,
teaches poetry in schools, independently and with Young Audiences, writes an award-winning linguistics column for the Telluride Daily Planet, sings with a 7-woman a cappella group, and is mother and step-mother to four-year-old Finn, infant Vivian, and 25-year-old Shawnee. Whew. For ten years, Rosemerry served as director of the Telluride Writers Guild and led a poetry discussion series at the Telluride Public Library.

In 2007, she and her husband, Eric, bought a 70-acre orchard and now grow organic peaches, pears, cherries, nectarines, apples and apricots. Her master’s degree in English Language & Linguistics is from University of Wisconsin—Madison.

“To witness Rosemerry Trommer’s myriad talents before a group and to hear her
message is to restore one’s faith in humanity.” —Mike Nobles, Director of “A Gathering of Writers”

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Bhanu Kapil, our April 4, 2010, featured poet.

Born in the UK to Indian parents, Bhanu Kapil lives in Colorado. She teaches in in The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University, as well as the graduate writing program at Goddard College in Vermont. Bhanu Kapil has written three full-length prose/poetry works: The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers (Kelsey Street Press, 2001), Incubation: a space for monsters (Leon Works, 2006), and Humanimal, a Project for Future children (Kelsey Street Press, 2009). She also maintains a blog, "Was Jack Kerouac A Punjabi? a day in the life of a Naropa University Writing Professor", devoted to quotidian and hybrid behaviors of all kinds. Nationally, she has given readings of her work and presented lectures/panel talks on monsters, cyborgs, and hybrid subjects of all kinds; most recently as part of Adfempo, a feminist poetics conference in New York City. This summer, she will be teaching a workshop on "sentence/species" as part of Naropa University's Summer Writing Program.

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Sandy Tseng, our May 2, 2010, featured poet.

(Photo by Mark Chen).

Sandy Tseng's book of poems, Sediment , was published by Four Way Books in October 2009. Among her awards are The Nation 's 2006 Discovery Award, and scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the Vira I. Heinz Foundation. She has held residencies from the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her work has appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Crazyhorse, Fugue, Hunger Mountain , Third Coast , and other journals. Her poems were recently anthologized in Yellow as Turmeric, Fragrant as Cloves (Deep Bowl Press, 2008).

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