Memphis, TN. 1977.

Christmas tree. December 24, 1972. Memphis, TN

It’s our last reading of the season! Don’t miss these amazing poets. BE HERE. THERE WILL BE A PROJECTOR. DOUGLAS PICCINNINI was born in New York City in 1982. He has been awarded residencies by The Vermont Studio Center, Art Farm in Marquette, NE and, The Elizabeth Bishop Society of Nova Scotia. In 2014, he was selected by Dorothea Lasky as a winner of the Summer Literary Seminars for Poetry. He is the author of Story Book: a novella, and a collection of poems, Blood Oboe.

CHRIS HOSEA was born in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1973, and his first book of poems, Put Your Hands In, was selected by John Ashbery as the winner of the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets. His work as a visual artist includes Over Time Across Space, with Kim Bennett, which was the subject of a 2015 full-gallery exhibition at Transmitter in Brooklyn, New York. His poems have appeared in 6x6, The American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Brooklyn Rail, Web Conjunctions, Denver Quarterly, Harvard Review, New American Review, Prelude, White Wall Review, and VOLT. He lives in Brooklyn. JONATHAN MAY grew up in Zimbabwe as the child of missionaries. He lives and teaches in Memphis, TN. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in [PANK], Superstition Review, Shark Reef, Duende, One, Winter Tangerine Review, and Rock & Sling. He’s recently translated the play Dreams by Günter Eich into English. Read more at http://memphisjon.wordpress.com/

My sister and I at Great Zimbabwe, 1990.

I went to Iceland by myself from 18 July through 26 July. I recommend everyone go on a solo trip if you are able.

Pictures in order:

1) Me in the airplane bathroom on the way there. Why not?

2) From the top of Helgafell. Nice mountain hike.

3) Recreated Viking ship you could walk around in at the Viking Museum.

4) Stekkjarkot, a peat/sod house lived in until the 1940s

5) Graffiti on Laugavegur in Reykjavik

6) I received two hand-poke tattoos from Habbe Nero at Icelandic Tattoo Corp.

7) Dinner at Dill Restaurant. I’m eating beef cheek and rutabaga there.

8) The gorgeous opera/music hall Harpa in downtown Reykjavik. Made me cry.

9) Me at Yoko Ono’s Imagine Peace Tower on Viðey Island

10) Afangar, a set of basalt columns around Viðey Island by Richard Serra

Please support this poet during these times! <3

...and this is this tattoo I got. Pizza forever.

Polka player. Taken by my grandmother, 1978.

june 13, 2014

jonathan owen may

MFA recipient from the University of Memphis, raised in Zimbabwe as the child of missionaries, BUTT model