Lit News

We sure will miss hanging out with you at the Soap Gallery, never mind that it will be National Chocolate Macaroon Day.  But join us for the next best thing: these poetry readings will be off the charts! Open mic to follow. For an invitation to Zoom, please email LitYoungstown@gmail.com. We’ll open the Zoom Room at 6:30, Wed. June 3. Reading begins at 7:00. Or kick back and catch us on Facebook Live. #poetry

THIS EVENT IS CANCELED but send your funny poems and stories to Lit Youngstown@gmail.com Join us for a celebration of April Fool’s with an evening of humor and play. Storytelling by Tom Beck. Open mic to follow–bring funny or playful work. We will also be celebrating National Sourdough Bread Day, so bring your favorite topping. It’s also, and we are not making this up, National Soylent Green Day. Haha yeah, we’ll be skipping that one. Wednesday, April 1 at the Soap Gallery, 1

March’s First Wednesday Reading, March 4, 7:00, The Soap Gallery, 117 S. Champion St., will feature fiction writer Kayla Jeswald & poet Cliff Richeal, followed by an open mic emceed by Kelsey Myers. We will also be celebrating National Poundcake Day. 2020 First Wednesday Readers Series: April 1 Thomas Beck (storytelling) Humor Open Mic May 6 Angie Orlando (memoir) Christine Howey (poetry) June 3 Nikki Robinson (poetry), Terry Provost (poetry) July 1 Diane Kendig (poetry),

here. Like to carpool with Lit Youngstown? Send us a note: LitYoungstown@gmail.com. #Books #stories #writingworkshop #WritingConferences #poetry #ShortStories #Novel #Literature

The McDonough Museum and Lit Youngstown will host two ekphrastic (art-from-art) writing workshops and a reading by workshop participants. The workshops and readings are free and open to the public, and registration is not required. Please bring a notebook, electronic device or your favorite writing tools. The writing workshops, part of the Scribe literary collaborative, will take place at the McDonough Museum of Art, 525 Wick Ave., Saturday, March 28 from 10:00 to noon and/or

Join us for a First Wednesday Series reading by Akron Beacon Journal columnist Holly Christensen and Youngstown poet Chris Gibowicz. Open mic to follow, emceed by Jimmy Sutman. We will also be celebrating National Nutella Day. Wednesday, February 5 at the Soap Gallery at 7:00. Holly Christensen is a 2010 graduate of the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. The mother of five children between the ages of 26 and seven, Holly has been the parenting/family/comm

John Burroughs of Cleveland was recently honored as the 2019-2021 Beat Poet Laureate for the State of Ohio. He serves as the founding editor for Crisis Chronicles Press and is the author of a dozen books including, most recently, Rattle and Numb: Selected Poems, 1992-2019, published by Venetian Spider Press. Shelley Chernin is a freelance writer of legal reference books, an environmental activist and a ukulele enthusiast. She is the author of The Vigil, published by Crisis Ch

Yo, Yo-Towners! Join us for a reading by Pamela Anderson & Steve Thomas. Open mic to follow, emceed by Beth Franklin. We will also be celebrating National Nachos Day. Wednesday, November 6 at 7:00, Soap Gallery, 117 S. Champion St. Steve Thomas is the author of The Strength of Flowers (Crisis Chronicles Press 2018), and his poems have been published in The Mill and the Hessler Street Fair Anthology. His goal is to achieve the harmony through writing poetry that he displayed a

Join us at the Soap Gallery, 117 S. Champion St. on Wednesday September 4 at 7:00 as we welcome hometown talent Clint Elston & Brandon Noel. Open mic to follow, emceed by Elizabeth Burnette. We will also be celebrating National Macadamia Nut Day. #poetry

Join us Wednesday August 7, 7:00, The Soap Gallery, 117 S. Champion St., as we welcome acclaimed poets James Arthur, Cody Walker & Catherine Wing. Open mic to follow, emceed by Arya-Francesca Jenkins. We will also be celebrating National Raspberries and Cream Day with homemade ice cream. Cody Walker directs Creative Writing at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Author of poetry collections The Self-Styled No-Child and Shuffle and Breakdown. His work appears in The New Y

We will meet in our office at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 323 Wick Ave. at 6:00, Thursday, June 20. Come to the door on the right, under the stone archway, and ring the buzzer. #WritersCritiqueGroup #stories #poetry #ShortStories #Essays #Fiction

Have a great 4th, and we’ll see you on the 10th! We send out a special invitation to NEOMFA alumni, students & faculty. The open mic will be emceed by Joelle Lambert, so bring your poems & stories. Also, we’ll be celebrating National Piña Colada Day & National Pick Blueberries Day: a double-header! Wednesday July 10, 7:00, The Soap Gallery. Noor Hindi (she/her) is a Palestinian-American poet who is currently pursuing her MFA in poetry through the NEOMFA program. Her poems hav

Join us Saturday, June 8, for LITerally A Picnic for all ages, at Bear’s Den Cabin in Mill Creek Park, from 5:30 – 8:30. We’re planning a BYOBBQ (Lit Youngstown will supply the condiments, garnishes, and grilling tools, guests bring their own [veggie] burgers and buns). We’re putting together a poetry hike for those who are interested, also board games and nature collages. Should be a lot of fun. #Hike #Picnic #poetry

Mary Grimm has had two books published, Left to Themselves (novel) and Stealing Time (story collection) – both by Random House. Currently, she is working on a dystopian novel about oldsters. She teaches fiction writing at Case Western Reserve University. Susan Grimm is the author of Almost Home (1997), Lake Erie Blue (2004), and Roughed Up by the Sun’s Mothering Tongue (2011). Her poetry has appeared in Blackbird, The Journal, South Dakota Review, Poetry East, and Tar River P

The second Lou Yuhasz Memorial Scholarship is open for submissions. Each year, we will award one $100 scholarship, and invite the recipient to read their work at the Fall Literary Festival, Oct. 4-5. The winner and runner-up will receive free registration to the Festival. The 2018 scholarship recipient was D.T. McCrea, selected by Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts Professor Robert Miltner and alumna Amy Sparks. This year’s judges are to be determined. If you will be a NEOMF

Lit Youngstown presents a reading with Bonné de Blas, Monica Kaiser & Sheryl St. Germain, Wednesday May 1 @ 7:00 at The Soap Gallery, 117 S. Champion St. No open mic this month. We will also be celebrating National Chocolate Parfait Day. Monica Kaiser is a graduate assistant at Kent State University and is pursuing a NEOMFA creative writing degree. She is the author of Still Sifting, and is passionate about the environment, ecopoetics, conflict management, and how these genre

We will meet in our office at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 323 Wick Ave. at 6:00, Thursday, April 18. Come to the door on the right, under the stone archway, and ring the buzzer. #poetry #ShortStories #Novel #Literature #Essays

CALL FOR PROPOSALS FALL LITERARY FESTIVAL 2019 Lit Youngstown seeks proposals for presentations, workshops, craft talks and creative readings for our 3rd annual Fall Literary Festival to be held October 4-5 at Youngstown State University. The two-day festival will feature an acclaimed faculty: Nin Andrews (poetry), Christopher Barzak (fiction), Erica Cardwell (essay, creative nonfiction), Jill Christman (creative nonfiction), Michael Croley (fiction),  George Ella Lyon (poetr

Join us for a reading Wed. March 6 at 7:00 at the Soap Gallery, 117 S. Champion St., as we welcome Margie DeLong & Tanya Pilumeli from the North Coast. Open mic to follow. We will also be celebrating National Oreo Day. Margie DeLong, a retired nurse practitioner, has published in poetry journals and authored a nonfiction book: Grand Observations, A Year of Weekly Visits to the Grand River at the Blair Road Bridge. A grandmother of five, she and her husband reside on a bluff o

Join us for a conversation about Line Study of a Motel Clerk by First Wednesday visiting writer and native daughter Allison Pitinii Davis. Read more about/purchase this poetry collection here. Haven’t read the book yet? No worries. Join us. Here are the remaining titles in this year’s selections by writers who have recently visited the Valley: January 9 (Historical Novel) Robert Olmstead Savage Country February 13 (Nonfiction) Austin Channing Brown I’m Still Here: Black Dign