Reading and conversation: 7-8pm

Refreshments 8-9pm

Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, author of A Treatise on Stars (New Directions, 2020), is joined by Lara Mimosa Montes, author of Thresholes (Coffee House Press, 2020) for a reading and conversation about the pandemic’s impact on poetry and the challenges of publishing books during that time. This event is presented with generous support from the Battery Park City Authority.

About the Authors:

Born in Beijing, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge is the author of fourteen books of poetry, including Hello, the Roses; Empathy; and I Love Artists. Her collection, A Treatise on Stars, published in 2020, received the Bollingen Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, among others.  She lives in northern New Mexico.

Lara Mimosa Montes is a writer, editor, and teaching artist whose practice and experiences span the fields of alternative publishing and experimental writing. She is the author of Thresholes (Coffee House Press, 2020) and The Somnambulist (Horse Less Press, 2016). Her writing has appeared in BOMB, Fence, The Brooklyn Rail, The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art, and elsewhere. As a teaching artist, she gathers writers and artists working across the visual and performing arts under the umbrella of experimental practice. She has led writing workshops through Wendy’s Subway, The Poetry Project, and Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and regularly collaborates with other writers, artists, and cultural workers to develop public programs and image-text projects. She is a faculty member of the Creative Writing MFA program at Pacific Northwest College of Art. She also teaches in XE: Experimental Humanities and Social Engagement Master’s program at NYU. She was born in the Bronx. laramimosa.info