***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—SPREAD FAR & WIDE***
On Saturday, 27 August 2011, at 8 pm sharp, the Wax Wroth Reading Series returns in a new location, Carrboro’s lovely
Looking Glass Café. The featured reader is Durham’s
TANYA OLSON, the tireless
Third Friday coordinator who recently won a Fellowship from the
Lambda Literary Foundation, which celebrates and nurtures LGBT literature. Greensboro’s
ANSEL ELKINS, currently racking up prizes and fellowships of her own, will read first. Admission is free, though you can support the Café by purchasing a wide variety of beverages, from espresso to alcohol, and food. Come and hear two terrific area poets, both winners of
Boston Review’s “Discovery” prize, who are both receiving well-deserved attention in the wider literary world.
Quick Facts
What: Poetry reading
Who: TANYA OLSON & ANSEL ELKINS
When: Saturday – 27 August 2011 – 8 pm
Where: The Looking Glass Café – 601 West Main St., Carrboro, NC
About the Readers
On tumorous claws, rats boarded the ship.
They left their mothers behind. That glossy hawk
kept tethered to deck, he left his mother behind.
Clinging fleas, dirt, and mites showed resilience,
leaving mothers behind. Viruses persevered
in the blood and left their mothers behind.
--Tanya Olson, from “Zeno’s Boat"
Durham’s TANYA OLSON has published work in Boston Review, Beloit Poetry Review, Cairn, The Fanzine, Bad Subjects, Main Street Rag, Pedestal, Elysian Fields, and Southern Cultures. She won first prize in the 2005 Independent Weekly Poetry Contest and was a runner-up for the 2009 Rita Dove Award. She is the recipient of an Emerging Artist Grant from the Durham Arts Council and was the 2008 Fortner Award winner. In 2010, she won the Boston Review “Discovery” prize for poetry and was named a 2011 Lambda Fellow by the Lambda Literary Foundation. She helps coordinate Durham’s Third Friday, is a member of the Black Socks poetry group, and serves on the board of the Carolina Wren Press.
____
Return the tree, the moon, the naked man
Hanging from the indifferent branch
Return blood to his brain, breath to his heart
Reunite the neck with the bridge of his body
Untie the knot, undo the noose
Return the kicking feet to ground
--Ansel Elkins, from “Reverse: A Lynching”
Greensboro’s ANSEL ELKINS won the Boston Review “Discovery” prize for poetry in 2011, as well as an NC Arts Council Fellowship. Her poetry is featured or forthcoming in The American Scholar, The Believer, Best New Poets 2011, Boston Review, The Daily Beast, Mississippi Review, Ninth Letter, The Southern Review, Third Coast, and elsewhere. She is a recent graduate of the MFA program in creative writing at UNC-G, and was the poetry editor of The Greensboro Review.
About the Looking Glass Cafe
601 West Main St., Carrboro, NC
(919) 967-9398
The Looking Glass is a vibrant, comfortable, and spacious café located in the heart of Carrboro. A dedicated lot and nearby municipal parking offer easy access. Admission is free, and alcohol, coffee, and food will be on sale. We’ll try to begin at 8 pm and wrap up by shortly after 9, leaving plenty of time to enjoy the café and mingle with the readers.
About the Wax Wroth Reading Series
Wax Wroth is a sporadic poetry reading series organized by Brian Howe whenever he feels like it and has the opportunity to present something really cool. Prior Wax Wroths have been held at the art space at 715 Washington in Durham, and have featured readers such as
Tony Tost,
Heather Christle, and
Chris Tonelli. This reading marks Wax Wroth’s debut in Carrboro.
Series organizer Brian Howe is a Durham-based journalist, critic, poet, and et cetera. Find out more about his work at
http://waxwroth.blogspot.com/. Questions regarding the Wax Wroth Reading Series may be directed to brian.g.howe@gmail.com.
