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April Watershed Reading (R.B. Simon)
April 8, 2023 @ 7:00 pm
Come celebrate National Poetry Month with us on Saturday April 8, 2023 at 7 PM! This month’s Watershed features poets with new work out: RB Simon has her first full-length collection, Not Just the Fire, out from Cornerstone Press; Claire Wahmanholm’s newest book, Meltwater, is just out from Milkweed Press; and Richard Vargas’s How a Civilization Begins is recently available from Mouthfeel Press.
R.B. SIMON
R.B. Simon (she/her) is a queer, black writer who has been published in multiple journals, among them pacificREVIEW, The Coop: A Poetry Collective, Strange Horizons, Literary Mama, and Obsidian, with upcoming work appearing in CALYX. Her chapbook, The Good Truth, (© July 2021, Finishing Line Press) was a Finalist in the WI Fellowship of Poets Chapbook Contest. Her poem “Clutter” was shortlisted for the 2022 Julia Darling Memorial Poetry Prize. R.B.’s upcoming full-length collection, Not Just the Fire, is forthcoming March 2023 from Cornerstone Press. In her free time, she enjoys creating visual art, napping, and coffee-flavored caffeine. She is currently living in Madison, WI with her spouse, newborn daughter, and several unruly little dogs.
R.B. Simon (she/her) is a queer, black writer who has been published in multiple journals, among them pacificREVIEW, The Coop: A Poetry Collective, Strange Horizons, Literary Mama, and Obsidian, with upcoming work appearing in CALYX. Her chapbook, The Good Truth, (© July 2021, Finishing Line Press) was a Finalist in the WI Fellowship of Poets Chapbook Contest. Her poem “Clutter” was shortlisted for the 2022 Julia Darling Memorial Poetry Prize. R.B.’s upcoming full-length collection, Not Just the Fire, is forthcoming March 2023 from Cornerstone Press. In her free time, she enjoys creating visual art, napping, and coffee-flavored caffeine. She is currently living in Madison, WI with her spouse, newborn daughter, and several unruly little dogs.
CLAIRE WAHMANHOLM
Claire Wahmanholm is the author of Meltwater (Milkweed Editions 2023), Redmouth (Tinderbox Editions 2019), and Wilder (Milkweed Editions 2018), as well as the chapbook Night Vision (New Michigan Press 2017). Her poems have appeared widely, including in Best New Poets, New Poetry from the Midwest, Washington Square Review, Triquarterly, The Missouri Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, The Kenyon Review, and Copper Nickel. Her work has been recognized by the Academy of American Poets and The McKnight Foundation, and has been supported by residencies at Ragdale and The Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She lives in the Twin Cities.
Claire Wahmanholm is the author of Meltwater (Milkweed Editions 2023), Redmouth (Tinderbox Editions 2019), and Wilder (Milkweed Editions 2018), as well as the chapbook Night Vision (New Michigan Press 2017). Her poems have appeared widely, including in Best New Poets, New Poetry from the Midwest, Washington Square Review, Triquarterly, The Missouri Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, The Kenyon Review, and Copper Nickel. Her work has been recognized by the Academy of American Poets and The McKnight Foundation, and has been supported by residencies at Ragdale and The Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She lives in the Twin Cities.
RICHARD VARGAS
Richard Vargas earned his B.A. at Cal State University, Long Beach, where he studied under Gerald Locklin, Dora Polk, and Richard Lee. He edited/published five issues of The Tequila Review, 1978-1980, and twelve issues of The Mas Tequila Review from 2010-2015. Vargas received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico, 2010, where he workshopped his poems with Joy Harjo. He was recipient of the 2011 Taos Summer Writers’ Conference Hispanic Writer Award. He was on the faculties of the 2012 10th National Latino Writers Conference and the 2015 Taos Summer Writers’ Conference. Published collections: McLife (2005); American Jesus (2007) Guernica, revisited (2014); How A Civilization Begins (Mouthfeel Press, 2022), and a fifth book, leaving a tip at the Blue Moon Motel, to be published by Casa Urraca Press in 2023. He currently resides in Wisconsin, near the lake where Otis Redding’s plane crashed.
Richard Vargas earned his B.A. at Cal State University, Long Beach, where he studied under Gerald Locklin, Dora Polk, and Richard Lee. He edited/published five issues of The Tequila Review, 1978-1980, and twelve issues of The Mas Tequila Review from 2010-2015. Vargas received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico, 2010, where he workshopped his poems with Joy Harjo. He was recipient of the 2011 Taos Summer Writers’ Conference Hispanic Writer Award. He was on the faculties of the 2012 10th National Latino Writers Conference and the 2015 Taos Summer Writers’ Conference. Published collections: McLife (2005); American Jesus (2007) Guernica, revisited (2014); How A Civilization Begins (Mouthfeel Press, 2022), and a fifth book, leaving a tip at the Blue Moon Motel, to be published by Casa Urraca Press in 2023. He currently resides in Wisconsin, near the lake where Otis Redding’s plane crashed.
