An Exceptional reading series in downtown Baton Rouge, LA (presently hosted by Caneland Distillery). River Writers offers pop up creative writing readings for the literary community. Founded in 2008, River Writers is hosted monthly. For regular reading interested readers and traveling writers can contact us at: riverwritersbr@gmail.com to inquire about LA readings.
please join us for a feb. river celebrating the voices and poetry of:
toiryan milligan vanessa saunders & dylan krieger's book release for "Giving Godhead" (Delete Press)
Toiryan Milligan is a spoken word artist born and raised in Baton Rouge
Louisiana. He was a member of the 2016 National Poetry Slam Team for
Baton Rouge Louisiana. Toiryan started his writing journey in high
school in 2011 when he made The Baton Rouge National Team to compete in
Brave New Voices, a national poetry slam competition with the top poets
in the country. Toiryan is continuing to grow and learn new ways to
captivate an audience. He hopes to keep growing and learning on his path
to becoming one of the best to grace a stage.
Dylan Krieger
is a pile of false eyelashes growing algae in south Louisiana. She
lives in a little cottage with a catfish and her demons and sunlights as
a trade mag editor. She earned her BA in English and philosophy from
the University of Notre Dame in 2012 and her MFA in creative writing
from Louisiana State University in 2015. Her first book, Giving Godhead
(Delete Press, 2017), challenges the boundary between the sacred and the
obscene by conflating biblical archetypes of holy acquiescence with
sexually deviant forms of submission. Find more of her work at www.dylankrieger.com.
Vanessa Sauders enjoys green tea, Paul Celan, and long walks on the beach.
2016
was a brutal and capricious year for Baton Rouge and the United States.
The change of presidential power markedly threatens democracy and human
rights. Major cities around the country are organizing solidarity
readings like The International Day of Poetry Benefit for Immigrants and
Human Rights and Writers Resist. As human rights advocates and literary
artists that share a home, we want to produce an original, Baton Rouge
version of rebellion-through-art-and-community
event, and we wish to invite interested artists in the community to
join us in celebrating the diversity of our talented community of
culture producers. We invite you to join us for an amazing, art-filled,
and positive evening.
Readers include Chuy Avila, Toi the
Poetic Beauty, Shannon Groll, Chelsea Murry, John Warner
Smith, Phillip Spotswood, Robert Alan Wendeborn.
With musical performances from Quiana Lynell and Peggy Trenta.
Visual art and video intermission with Baton Rouge artist and creator of the Alton Sterling mural, Jo Hines.
River celebrating Randolph Thomas' recent two
contest-winning book publications and the literary stylings of Jessica
Rogers and Dylan Krieger.
Dylan Krieger is a pile of false
eyelashes growing algae in south Louisiana. She lives in a little
cottage with a catfish and her demons and sunlights as a trade mag
editor. Her first book, Giving Godhead, is forthcoming in 2017 from
Delete Press. Her other poetry projects include a collaborative satire
of big-budget action movies, a collage of automatic captions from alien
abduction documentaries, and (mostly recently) an irreverent reimagining
of philosophical thought experiments.
After recently graduating from LSU in Creative writing, Jessica decided she would just do whats sensible and for unemployment. She then tried to get a job at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, because they have an excellent corporate structure and they... *they* give *you* the tools to be your own boss. After a month of wearing pantsuits and learning what the word 'compact' means, she now knows the value of a hard-earned dollar and if you've fallen from drinking too much tequila, Enterprise will most definitely not pick you up. You can find her short fiction piece "One, two, three" in Delta Journal 58 and other stories on her blog jessicaashleighr.wordpress.com Randolph Thomas is the
author of two prize-winning books: Dispensations, a short story
collection and winner of the 2014 Many Voices Project Award from New
Rivers Press, won a Bronze Medal in the national short fiction category
of the Independent Publishing Awards (IPPY), and was named a finalist
for Forward Reviews' INDIEFAB Book of the Year. The Deepest Rooms, a
collection of poetry and winner of the Gerald Cable Award, was published
by Silverfish Review Press in 2015. He teaches at LSU.
riverback in a brand new location, the brickyard south (171 south blvd.) celebrating new reading manager, taylor gorman and the prose stylings of mary b. sellers as well as unlikely book's kingpin, jonathan penton's book release of standards of sadiddy
Taylor Gorman's work has appeared in The Cincinnati Review, Cutbank, Passages North, and The New Orleans Review. He received his MFA from Wichita State University and currently lives in Baton Rouge, LA. Mary B. Sellers is pursuing her MFA in fiction at Louisiana State University. Originally from Jackson, MS, she now lives in Baton Rouge with her dog, Daisy Buchanan. She tries to teach freshmen English Composition, but most of the time feels like a failed, stand-up comedian. She's also the social media and blog editor over at New Delta Review. Important activities include: drinking wine and eating tacos on a regular basis. She has pieces published or forthcoming in Permafrost (Pushcart nomination, '15), Maudlin House, Queen Mob's Teahouse, and Literary Orphans. She wants to be a mermaid when she grows up. In 1998, Jonathan Penton founded UnlikelyStories.org. Since then, he has lent editorial and management assistance to a number of literary and artistic ventures, such as MadHat, Inc. and Big Bridge. He has organized literary performances, and performed himself, in places like Arkansas, California, Chihuahua, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Washington, state and DC. His poetry books are Last Chap (Vergin’ Press, 2004), Blood and Salsa and Painting Rust (Unlikely Books, 2006), Prosthetic Gods (New Sins Press/Winged City Chapbooks, 2008), and Standards of Sadiddy (Lit Fest Press, 2016).
Between shootings and floods, it's been a hellish summer in BR. The literary arts scene of the city remains persistent if not thriving, and we want to support two vital voices of our community: Donney and Leslie D. Rose.
Elevator Projects literary programing combines with
River Writers to offer a reading in support of Baton Rouge's only Donney
Rose's upcoming trip to the 2016 Individual World Poetry Slam. He will
be joined by his amazingly talented wife Leslie. Hosted by WHYR 96.9 FM,
this reading will go down in their record shop at their Main St.
location in the heart of Mid City. Come out and support Donney
representing BR on the national stage as well as your own community
radio! Come hear what's right about BR.
Donney will have his hot-off-the-press chapbook "New Definitions" ($10)
for sale and there will be vinyl to flip through and purchase for all
you music lovers.
