Participants

Poetry & Songwriting

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Dan Albergotti is the author of Charon's Manifest, which won the 2005 Randall Jarrell/Harperprints Poetry Chapbook Competition. One of his poems appears in Best New Poets 2005. He teaches at Coastal Carolina University. 3/25 2 p.m.

Terri Allard, a Virginia based singer-songwriter, recently released her fourth album, Makes No Sense. Her songs about love, hope, good times, and sadness are a blend of folk, country, and acoustic pop. She won Best Female Country Vocalist in 1999. 3/25 8 p.m.

David Bailey, a performing songwriter and 9-year cancer survivor, recently released his twelfth album, Comfort. His insightful lyrics about time, faith, hope, love, and dreams are resonated with depth and clarity among audiences of all ages. 3/25 8 p.m.

Aaron Baker’s poems have appeared in New England Review, Poetry, Poetry Daily, Post Road, Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. A former Stegner Fellow, he teaches creative writing at Rutgers University and is on the staff of Contemporary Poetry Review. 3/23 8 p.m.

Valerie Bandura's recent poems have appeared in Best New Poets 2005, Poet Lore, Cimarron Review, Crazyhorse, and elsewhere, and are forthcoming in Prairie Schooner and Agenda. Her manuscript of poems, On Fire Under Water, is in circulation. 3/22 2 p.m.

Sandra Beasley's poetry appears in Gargoyle, Cimarron Review, 32 Poems, Meridian, and other journals. She has been featured on Verse Daily and in Best New Poets 2005, and awarded fellowships to Vermont Studio Center and Virginia Center for Creative Arts. 3/22 2 p.m.

Remica L. Bingham, a native of Phoenix, Arizona, received her M.F.A. from Bennington College. She attended Cave Canem and the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshops. Recently, she has completed her first manuscript entitled Conversion. 3/24 8 p.m.

Brian Brodeur’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Gettysburg Review, Pleiades, New Orleans Review, Crab Orchard Review, Meridian, and the anthologies We Are What We Watch: Poets Respond to Movies, TV, and Media and Best New Poets 2005. He lives and works in Fairfax, Virginia. 3/22 2 p.m.

Jennifer Chang’s poems have appeared in Boston Review, New England Review, The New Republic, Poetry Daily, Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing at Rutgers University and is the Communications Director at Kundiman. 3/23 8 p.m.

Carleasa Coates has a B.A. with Honors from UVa, an M.A. and a J.D. from Harvard. She is a trial lawyer. A Cave Canem fellow since 2002, she is working on a series of children's books called The Adventures of Nosesword and Polly. 3/24 8 p.m.

Temple Cone, an assistant professor of English at the U.S. Naval Academy, has published a chapbook, Considerations of Earth and Sky, received the John Lehman Award for Poetry from Wisconsin Academy Review, and been included in Best New Poets 2005. 3/22 2 p.m.; 3/23 8 p.m.

Chad Davidson is the author of Consolation Miracle. His work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets Website, Paris Review, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, Virginia Quarterly Review, and others. He teaches at the University of West Georgia near Atlanta. 3/25 noon

Rita Dove, author of American Smooth and numerous collections of poetry, essays, and translations, was U.S. Poet Laureate from 1993 to 1995 and is currently Poet Laureate of Virginia. Her honors include the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and the 1996 National Humanities Medal. 3/22 8 p.m.

Camille Dungy, author of What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison, has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and other organizations. She is an Associate Professor at Randolph-Macon Woman's College. 3/23 6 p.m.; 3/24 8 p.m.

Claudia Emerson's most recent book is Late Wife. A 2005 Witter Bynner Fellow, she has been awarded individual artist's fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. She is Associate Professor of English at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia. 3/23 6 p.m.

Sarah Gambito is the author of Matadora, winner of the 2003 NY/NE Award, and has published poems in Antioch Review, The New Republic, and other journals. She teaches creative writing at Rutgers University and is executive director of Kundiman. 3/24 2 p.m.

Karen Garthe, author of Frayed escort, has published in numerous literary journals, including New American Writing, Chicago Review, American Letters & Commentary, VOLT and Fence. Frayed escort is the winner of the 2005 Colorado Prize, chosen by Cal Bedient. 3/25 noon

Brian Gilmore is a poet, writer, and lawyer who teaches at Howard University School of Law. He has two collections of poetry, including Jungle Nights and Soda Fountain Rags: Poem for Duke Ellington. He is a columnist with the Progressive Media Project and contributing writer to Jazz Times magazine. 3/24 8 p.m.

Lara Glenum, author of The Hounds of No, is a Fulbright recipient; she teaches at the University of Georgia, where she is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in Modernism and the Historical Avant-Garde. She has recently served as an associate editor of Verse magazine. 3/23 4 p.m.

Kendra Hamilton, Charlottesville City Council Member and UVa Ph.D. candidate, is an assistant editor of now Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Her essays have appeared in Southern Cultures and BrightLeaf: New Writing of the South; her poetry in Southern Review, Callaloo, and Obsidian III. 3/24 8 p.m.

Monica A. Hand, a recipient of Maryland State and Montgomery County Individual Artist awards, has work in E. Ethelbert Miller's Beyond the Frontier and in online and print journals. She printed a limited edition handmade book of haiku with artists Steven Stichter and Frederick Nunley. 3/24 8 p.m.

Jane Hirshfield is the author of six collections of poetry, including her most recent, After. An earlier collection, Given Sugar, Given Salt, was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award. Respected translator and essayist, she was awarded the 70th Academy of American Poets Fellowship for poetic achievement. 3/25 4 p.m.

Brandon D. Johnson (Canem Fellow ’97-’99) lives in the Washington, D.C. Author of The Strangers Between, he is a 1999 D.C. Commission on the Arts Grant recipient and has published in: Callaloo, Drumvoices 2000, and Gathering Ground. 3/24 8 p.m.

Sarah Kennedy is the author of four books of poems, including Double Exposure, and co-editor of Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets of Virginia. A current holder of VCA and NEA grants, she teaches at Mary Baldwin College. 3/23 6 p.m.

Raina J. León, Carolina African American Writers Collective member and University of North Carolina graduate student, has been published in the Poetic Voices Without Borders anthology, AntiMuse, and Furnace Review. She was a finalist for the 2005 Cave Canem Prize. 3/24 8 p.m.

Jeffrey Levine is the author of the poetry collections Rumor of Cortez and Mortal, Everlasting. Winner of the Larry Levis Poetry Prize, the James Hearst Poetry Award, the Mississippi Review Prize and the Kestrel Prize, he is the editor-and-publisher of Tupelo Press. 3/23 8 p.m.

Judy Longley, author of My Journey Toward You, Rowing Through Eden, and Parallel Lives, combines her skills as a psychotherapist and poet as editor for Tough Times Companion. Her poems have appeared in Paris Review, Southern Review and Western Humanities Review. 3/22 4 p.m.

Charlotte Matthews' first book of poetry, Green Stars, follows two published chapbooks, A Kind of Devotion and Biding Time. Her work has recently appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, Borderlands, Tar River Poetry, Sou'wester, The Mississippi Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Meridian, and Potomac Review. 3/25 2 p.m.

John McCutcheon’s 24 recordings have garnered numerous honors, including five Grammy nominations. He is a music producer, songwriter, author, teacher, and his newest CD, Mightier Than the Sword, includes tracks co-written with Barbara Kingsolver and Rita Dove. 3/26 4 p.m.

Mong-Lan’s Song of the Cicadas won the Juniper Prize and the Great Lakes Colleges Association's New Writers Awards. Artist and writer, she has been included in Best American Poetry and The Pushcart Prize anthology; her second book is Why is the Edge Always Windy? 3/23 8 p.m.; 3/24 2 p.m.

Fernando Opere’s newest book of poetry is Memorial del Olvido. He has 11 other poetry books and four academic books. He is a Professor of Spanish and Director of the Latin American Studies Program at UVa. 3/24 8 p.m.

Gregory Orr is the author of eight books of poetry (including his recent Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved), four volumes of criticism, and a memoir. Numerous awards for his work include a recent Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. 3/23 8 p.m.; 3/25 4 p.m.

Patrick Phillips won the Kate Tufts Discovery Award for his first book, Chattahoochee. The recipient of fellowships from the U.S. Fulbright Commission, Sewanee and Bread Loaf Writers' Conferences, he teaches at New York University. 3/25 2 p.m.

Tom Prasada-Rao teaches songwriting, produces records, and performs as a solo artist (Out of the Blue) and with The Dreamsicles (What We Know Now). Among his awards are The Kerrville Music Award and Songwriter of the Year. 3/25 8 p.m.

Vijay Seshadri is the author of Wild Kingdom and The Long Meadow--winner of the James Laughlin Award. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Threepenny Review, The New York Times Book Review, and numerous other publications. 3/24 2 p.m.

Vivian Shipley, author of Hardboot: Poems New & Old, is the editor of Connecticut Review. Her numerous awards include the 2004 Paterson Prize for Sustained Literary Achievement and the 2003 Connecticut Book Award for Poetry from the Library of Congress' Center for the Book. 3/24 4 p.m.

Jan Smith's "tunes sparkle with freshness and originality," said Performing Songwriter magazine. The Louisville native's original roots music combines folk music with the country and bluegrass of her new home in the mountains of central Virginia. In April 2006, Landslide Records will release Smith's second album, 29 Dances. 3/25 8 p.m.

Mary Szybist's first book, Granted, was a finalist for the 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry. A recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writing Award, she won the 2004 Great Lakes Colleges Association's New Writers Award in Poetry. 3/23 4 p.m.

Livingston Taylor is a singer-songwriter, originally from Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in a musical family, including his brother James Taylor. His latest CD is There You Are Again. 3/25 8 p.m.

Venus Thrash received an M.F.A. from American University and the Myra Sklarew Award in Fiction. A fellow of Cave Canem and the Lannan Foundation, her work has appeared in Enhanced Gravity, Gargoyle, and Catalyst. She is working on a short story collection and a novel. 3/24 8 p.m.

Natasha Trethewey is the author of Native Guard, Bellocq's Ophelia and Domestic Work. She is the Lehman Brady Joint Chair Professor of Documentary and American Studies at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 3/25 2 p.m.

Judith Viorst’s eighth collection of poems for adults, I’m Too Young to Be Seventy and Other Delusions, follows Suddenly Sixty and Other Shocks of Later Life. Author of 17 books for children including Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, she resides in Washington, D.C. 3/23 11:45 a.m.

Hilda E. Ward, host of the public-access television show "Artistic Expressions," is the author of a chapbook and has created two spoken word CDs with jazz pianist George Melvin. She is an artist-in-residence for the Albemarle County School District. 3/25 8 p.m.

Susan R. Williamson’s poetry appears in Lumina, Lagniappe, Three Candles, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and other journals, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She serves on the Advisory board of Streetlight Magazine and is Associate Publisher at Tupelo Press. 3/22 8 p.m.

Eliot Khalil Wilson, author of The Saint of Letting Small Fish Go, is a native of Virginia. Honored by the Academy of American Poets and the NEA, he earned his Ph.D. in Critical Theory and American Drama at the University of Alabama and teaches at St. Olaf's in Minnesota. 3/25 noon

Gail Wronsky is the author of Poems for Infidels, Dying for Beauty, and other books. Her poems and reviews have appeared widely in journals and anthologies. She is Director of Creative Writing and Syntext at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. 3/23 4 p.m.

Toni Wynn is a third-generation Jersey girl who's lived in Hampton Roads since 1997. Her chapbooks and portfolio on domestic violence are published by Shakespeare Press Museum. Toni works with students and teachers via creative writing residencies throughout the state. 3/24 8 p.m.

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Poetry & Songwriting