Poetry @ Round Top -- Samiya Bashir reading as part of "Voices Rising Sampler" April 17, 2009

Poet Samiya Bashir, author of Gospel: poems, and the Lambda Literary Award finalist, Where the Apple Falls: poems, will be reading from her new book, Gospel, as a part of the "Voices Rising Sampler" on the Saturday morning of the festival. If you'll be there, don't miss it. If you won't then go on 'head: get on in the car and come check it out!

Samiya Bashir is the author of two collections of poetry, Gospel (2009), and Where the Apple Falls, which was a finalist for the 2005 Lambda Literary Award. Bashir is the editor of two groundbreaking anthologies: Best Black Women’s Erotica 2, and co-editor, with Tony Medina and Quraysh Ali Lansana, of Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social & Political Black Literature & Art. She has also published two chapbook poetry collections: Wearing Shorts on the First Day of Spring and American Visa. Bashir’s poetry, stories, articles, essays and editorial work have been featured in numerous publications including: Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Other Countries: Voices Rising, Callaloo, Reverie, Carry the Word, Essence, Obsidian III, Cave Canem #7, Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint, Contemporary American Women Poets, Best Lesbian Erotica 03, The San Francisco Bay Guardian, Ms. Magazine, Black Issues Book Review, Curve, Vibe, Seventeen, XXL, Lambda Book Report, and The American Journal of Public Health. Bashir is a fellow with Cave Canem and a founding organizer of Fire & Ink, a writer’s festival for LGBT writers of African descent. She is currently an Artist in Residence with The Austin Project.

MORE ABOUT POETRY @ ROUND TOP:

Poetry at Round Top
18th Annual Festival Weekend
April 17, 18 & 19, 2009

Celebrate National Poetry Month at Round Top.
The Festival Hill campus by the village of Round Top is a miracle that has been growing amid green rolling Texas hills for the last four decades. Part pastoral retreat of extraordinary serenity, part world-class fine arts center for study and performance, and part Middle Earth — here, over one weekend in spring for the past seven years, a unique poetry festival has gathered readers, writers and friends in a close community of sharing and discovery. Leading American writers including Li-Young Lee and Carolyn Forché, Tony Hoagland and Marie Howe, along with many others, have participated and come away singing the praises of the festival. This year, Poetry at Round Top is exceptionally proud to announce that W.S. Merwin will be our honored guest poet.

For the second year, Round Top FRiDAY will offer a program designed for select secondary school students and teachers, featuring readings, student workshops and teacher training. This collaboration between Austin Community College, Badgerdog Literary Publishing and Poetry at Round Top offers a unique study experience for participants.

OTHER PARTICIPANTS THIS YEAR:
W.S. Merwin, Naomi Shihab Nye, Dean Young, Fady Joudah, Jo McDougall, Jennifer Clement, Marian Haddad, José Rubén De León, Bruce Noll, D'Arcy Randall, Jeff Stumpo, Jacqueline Kolosov, Michelle Paulsen, Jenny Browne, Abe Louise Young, Patty Speier, Olga Samples Davis, and possible surprise guests!

I think you can tell that accommodations for this festival will be likely to fill up early. We will be sending additional information and details, but we also invite you to be in touch with the International Festival-Institute office to pre-register and reserve a space. [email protected] or phone: 979/249-3129.

DIRECTORS:
Jack Brannon, Director, received his MFA at The University of Texas, where he was a James A. Michener Fellow. His volume of poetry, Vigil, was a finalist for the Violet Crown Book Award and his poems are included in the anthologies Urban Nature and What Have You Lost? In 2006, he was commissioned by the Blanton Museum of Art to write a poem, What Starts Here, for the grand opening of the museum's new gallery building in Austin.

Dorothy Barnett, Associate Director, founded and chairs the Creative Writing Program at Austin Community College. She has been a founder and editor of two literary journals: Borderlands and The Rio Review. A James A. Michener Fellow, she writes screenplays, memoir, poetry and fiction.