Point of Contact will host Syracuse University M.F.A. in creative writing poets James Abele, Bridget O’ Bernstein, Ross Farrar and Allyson Young on April 25 at 6 p.m, as part of its Cruel April poetry program.
The annual series, held in celebration of National Poetry Month, also marks the release of the twelfth volume of “Corresponding Voices,” Point of Contact’s signature poetry publication. This journal features the works of Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Brooks Haxton, Joel Dias-Porter, Nina Puro, Peter Balakian and Lauren Sanderson.
James Abele
Abele is a poet, artist, educator and all-around weirdo from SoCal. He is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in creative writing at Syracuse University, and hopes to keep making/writing/reading things wherever he ends up next.
Bridget O’Bernstein
O’Bernstein is from Brooklyn and currently a third-year M.F.A. candidate for poetry at Syracuse University. Her poems and essays have been published or are forthcoming in The Bennington Review, Sugar House Review, The McNeese Review, Glittermob, decomP Magazine, Foundlings Press, Fugue and Forklift, Ohio, among others. She is currently working on a collection of poems about decay and light.
Ross John Farrar
Farrar was born in San Francisco, California. In 2004, he started the band Ceremony. Since then, he has traveled the world playing music for the black clad youth. In 2015, he graduated from University of California, Berkeley, with a B.A. in English. He is currently a poetry M.F.A. candidate at Syracuse University. His poems and essays can be found in Talkhouse, The Daily Cal, RHINO Poetry, The Chaffey Review and Canary. His published works include Society Verse (Bridge9 Press 2010)and the L-Shaped Man Poems (Matador Press 2015), a chapbook.
Allyson Young
Ally is a third year poetry candidate at Syracuse University. Her work has been published in The Bennington Review, The Columbia Poetry Review, Birdfeast, via Dancing Girl Press, and elsewhere. She currently lives in Syracuse, where she serves as editor in chief at Salt Hill.
Cruel April readings and receptions run every Thursday in April from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Point of Contact Gallery, located on the ground floor of the Nancy Cantor Warehouse, 350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse. Free parking is available in the University lot, corner of West and West Fayette streets.
This program is possible thanks to the support of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Coalition of Museum and Art Centers at Syracuse University, in addition to the University’s Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics; Department of English and the New York State Council on the Arts.
