First Wednesday Reading: Tim Sproul, Leslie Wetter, Evelyn Sharenov and Moira McAuliffe. December 3, 2008

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 [email protected] with an expression of interest and sample work.

The readers/performers for December 3 are Tim Sproul, Leslie Wetter, Evelyn Sharenov and Moira McAuliffe.

Leslie Wetter: was born and bred in Brooklyn, New York. That makes me a real New Yorker. I write about my past, my present, my spirit. You might say I have developed in Oregon. I have a manuscript of about 75 poems and intend to either have it published or simply self publish. I'm taking writing classes regarding the business as well as the craft of writing. I had a future as a very promising actress until a car ran over me and broke
both my legs. I'm not in a wheel chair but I don't have the physical dexterity needed as an actor in theater and film. However that talent kind of waltzes it's way out while I read my poetry to any audience. I look to Milton Kessler, and David Ignatow as some of my favored poets.

Moira McAuliffe made her US debut in Damon Knight's Clarion Awards. In the following 25 years she has published fiction and verse in The Adelaide Review, Overland, Australian Short Stories, siglo, FEMSPEC, Eye-Rhyme, and in several webzines, one edited by Bill Shields.

She has written a libretto for La Mama Courthouse Theatre in Melbourne (Australia); in 2002 she co-founded the multilingual Portland-based Gobshite Quarterly, where she continues as contributing editor. In 2007 she co-edited The Broken Word: The Alberta Street Anthology, Volume Two, and proof-read the non-pictographic, non-Cyrillic, non-Greek, non-kanakata content of Curse + Berate in 69+ Languages (Gobshite Quarterly and Soft Skull Books, 2008).

Her collections include Fighting Monsters (Vaughan Willoughby Publishing, Melbourne, 1998), and a series of mini-chapbooks published in Portland by Urban Serf.

Tim Sproul is the author of How to Leave Your Home Town for Good. His poetry has appeared in Rattle, Zone 3, Spoon River Poetry Review, Rain, and The Talking River Review. He received a Zone 3 Poetry Award for "Feeling the Train, Finding You." Writer Willy Vlautin recently described Sproul as "the most impressive gut wrenching poet to come out of the Northwest in years." And poet Eugene Gloria said, "Sproul's voice fuses the big feeling of story and song. His debut collection is an astonishing accomplishment." Sproul lives in Milwaukie, Oregon, works in the advertising business and laments the disappearance of the nylon tavern windbreaker. He is currently writing a novel.

Evelyn Sharenov's stories, essays and poetry have been published in Glimmer Train, Fugue, Rain City Review, Mediphors, Hip Mama, XConnect, Eclectica and other journals. She has been awarded an Oregon Literary Arts grant in fiction and has been a notable in Best American Short Stories. She is a freelance reviewer for the the Oregonian newspaper, and has written features and reviews for The Bear Deluxe and Bitch Magazine. Her short story "Magic Affinities" was anthologized in "Love You To Pieces" from Beacon Press last spring. Evelyn has degrees in literature and mental health nursing and did graduate work in piano performance.