Thursday - Writer's & Books

Writers & Books hosts
National Poetry Month Readings
George Drew & M.J. Iuppa

Thurs., April 9 7:00 pm
In the Verb Café at W&B
Free and open to the public


GEORGE DREW was born in Mississippi and grew up there and in New York
State , where he currently lives. Toads in a Poisoned Tank , his first
book, was published in 1986. The chapbook, So Many Bones (Poems of
Russia ) , was published in a bilingual edition by a Russian press in 1997.

A second collection, The Horse's Name Was Physics , appeared in 2006
from Word Tech Communications, under their Turning Point imprint. One of
George's poems received an Honorable Mention in the Robert Frost
Foundation's poetry competition, 2002, and another in the W.B. Yeats
Society of NY's competition, the same year. He was awarded a residency
at the Vermont Studio Center in 2004, and that summer he was a Guest
Poet at The Frost Place in Franconia , NH . He was the winner of the
2003 Paumanok Poetry Award. Most recently George won the 2008 South
Carolina Review's 40th Anniversary Poetry Contest, which will be
announced in the fall 2008 issue.

George has published in such literary journals as Antioch Review, Beloit
Poetry Journal, Connecticut Review, Hollins Critic, Mississippi Review,
Poetry East,Quarterly West, Salmagundi, Southern Poetry Review,
Sou'Wester, and The Texas Review.

M. J. Iuppa: Since 1986, local poet and writer, M. J. Iuppa has been
successfully teaching poetry and creative writing workshops to students
ages 8-89 throughout New York State. In 1996, she was the recipient of
the Writing In Rochester Award, honoring a teacher of writing for adult
students who has impacted the creation and appreciation of literature in
Rochester; and, at St. John Fisher College, she has received the
Part-Time Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence, May 2000; The Father
Dorsey Award, 2000-2001 and 2002-2003, and a Certification of
Recognition from The Monroe County Legislature, April 2003. Over 200 of
her poems have appeared in small press, university, and national
publications, including Poetry, Yankee, Press, and New Letters. Her
chapbooks, Sometimes Simply,(Foreseeable Future Press, 1996), and
Temptations (Foothill Publishing, 2001) and Greatest Hits 1986-2001,
(Pudding House, 2002); and her first full-length poetry collection Night
Traveler (Foothills Publishing)November, 2003. Her creative nonfiction
is included in the collection: In Brief, edited by Judith Kitchen and
Mary Paumier Jones, ( Norton) and in Chelsea 67. Presently, she is the
Writer-in-Residence at St. John Fisher College, and also teaches
creative writing and poetry workshops at Writers & Books, Young
Audiences, Project U.N.I.Q.U.E., Rochester City School District, Genesee
Valley BOCES ,Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES and BOCES 2. Since 1990, she has
been the curator of the Genesee Reading Series at Writers & Books Her
poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Award 1998, 2001, 2002; and
in June 1998, her play This Heat was selected as one of the seven plays
read in the American Voices Regional Playwrights' Festival sponsored by
GeVa Theatre and Writers & Books.