First Wednesday Reading Series: Ron Bloodworth, John Blackard, Alison Apotheker, David Hill February 4, 2009

Oregon Literary Review co-hosts First Wednesdays, a series of readings, performances and wine-tasting at the Blackbird Wine Shop, 3519 NE 44th off Fremont, 7-9pm. Readers and performers interested in participating should contact Julie Mae Madsen at maemadsen [at] gmail.com with an expression of interest and sample work.

The readers/performers for February 4 are Ron Bloodworth, John Blackard, Alison Apotheker, David Hill

Ron Bloodworth has published poems in The Oregonian and in Ghosts: Dreams & Hauntings, a chapbook of poems by the Nulla Dies Poets. He has been influenced and inspired by many different poets at writing workshops in the Northwest including Centrum, Fishtrap, Oregon Mountain Writers Community, and the MFA program at Pacific University. Ron is active locally with a number of writer's groups and a long-time member of the Portland-based Nulla Dies Sine Linea poetry group. He lives with his domestic partner of 23 years in Portland, Oregon.

John Blackard is a graduate of the University of North Carolina with advanced degrees in English Studies and Library and Information Studies. He has two books of poems in print and a book about the golden age of paperback publishing. He has received Fulbright and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships. He now lives in Portland with his wife, the poet Valentina Gnup, and was recently appointed assistant managing editor of Poetry Northwest.

Alison Apotheker’s first book of poems, Slim Margin, will be published by WordTech Communications in Dec. 2008. Her work is the recipient of an Oregon Literary Arts fellowship and two Pushcart Prize nominations. She has poems published in or forthcoming from Prairie Schooner, Crab Orchard Review, and Mid-American Review among other literary magazines. She teaches creative writing and English at Portland Community College where she also runs the Rock Creek Writing Center.

David Hill will read from his new book, *Consumed* (KenArnoldBooks, 156 pages. $14.00), which offers quirky snaps of life in the consumer age. Hill's poetry has been published in numerous anthologies and periodicals, and a debut collection was issued in 1999 by the UK's National Poetry Foundation. He has also provided lyrics for recording artists, and writes journalism and nonfiction on economy, travel and culture. "Well on his way to becoming a major poet—perhaps the first for the era of globalization." —James Bowman, former American editor, the *Times Literary Supplement*.