March 31, 2011
Poetry in the Garden Tuesdays in April
at the Main Library
The Poetry in the Garden series, sponsored by the Friends of the Public Library, returns to the Main Library’s
Reading Garden Lounge during National Poetry Month on Tuesdays April 5, 19, and 26 at 7:00 p.m. Talented
poets from around the Tristate will read from their work and share their love of poetry. For more information,
please call 513.369.6919.
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April 5 | Dr. Tyrone Williams, Aryanil Mukherjee & Dr. Tonya Matthews
April 19 | Michael Hennessey & Dana Ward
April 26 | Poets from the Greater Cincinnati Writer's League & Little Pocket Poetry
Dr. Tyrone Williams teaches literature and theory at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the author of
three books of poetry, c.c. (Krupskaya Books, 2002), On Spec (Omnidawn Publishing, 2008) and The Hero
Project of the Century (The Backwaters Press, 2009). A prose eulogy is forthcoming from Hooke Press in 2011.
He has completed a manuscript of poetry commissioned by Atelos Books. Further information about his work is
available on his http://home.earthlink.net/~suspend/.
Aryanil Mukherjee writes in both Bengali and English. He has authored five books of poetry and a collection
of hybrid-prose. He received the Poetry Fortnightly Honor (Subhas Mukhopadhyay Memorial Award) for 2007.
Aryanil is also a prolific essayist who writes regularly on poetry and poetics in both electronic and print media.
His recent English work/Spanish translations have appeared in RainTaxi, Open Spaces, Jacket, CRIT, Moria,
Helix and forthcoming in Big Bridge, El Invisible Anillo (Spain), Drunken Boat and The Literary Review. His
poetry has been translated into Hindi, Spanish and Danish. Aryanil edits Kaurab, both magazine and webzine.
He emigrated to the U.S. in 1995. An engineering mathematician by profession he lives in Cincinnati.
Dr. Tonya Maria Matthews is the Vice President of Museums at Cincinnati Museum Center. She is also a
nationally noted poet, storyteller and spoken word artist who recently moved to Cincinnati from the East Coast.
Her published poetry and commentary includes Still Swinging (Three Sisters Press), The Legend of Aphrodite
(CD) and is featured in the permanent exhibitions of the Reginald F. Lewis Maryland Museum of AfricanAmerican History and Culture.
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Michael S. Hennessey is the editor of PennSound and Jacket2 (which will archive and continue the mission of
John Tranter's Jacket Magazine, one of the web's first and best venues for poetry and poetics), as well as the
faculty advisor for Short Vine, the University of Cincinnati’s undergraduate literary journal. His poetry has
appeared in Jacket, EOAGH, Cross Cultural Poetics, Elective Affinities and Horse Less Review, as well as in
the chapbooks Last Days in the Bomb Shelter (17 Narrower Poems) (2008) and [static] (2009). You can listen
to several archived readings on his PennSound author page at
http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Hennessey.php
Dana Ward, author of Roseland & the Drought, lives in Northside, edits Cy Press, and works as an advocate
for adult literacy at the Over-the-Rhine Learning Center. He is the author of The Imaginary Lives of My
Neighbors (Duration E-Book 2003). Recent poems have appeared or are forthcoming in A Very Small Tiger,
Aufgabe, Bird Dog, Pom2 and elsewhere.
Kids & Teens Enjoy Poetry at the Public Library
For Teens: To take part in the Library’s 9th Annual Random Acts of Poetry Contest from April 1—30, teens
ages 12—18 are invited to commit their “random-est” acts of poetry. They can e-mail their entries online or turn
their typed or handwritten poems into any Library location for their shot at first prize: a $25 gift card to
Chipotle! It’s all part of Young People’s Poetry Week, sponsored by the Children’s Book Council, in
collaboration with the American Academy of Poets and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. For
more details visit http://teenspace.cincinnatilibrary.org/.
For Kids: Poetry appreciation and writing activities for kids are taking place at various branches across the
Library system. Visit www.CincinnatiLibrary.org/programs for a complete list of poetry programs.
Students of literature, take note! An indispensable resource for literary criticism is available in the Library’s
collection of Research Databases. Literature Criticism Online provides access to more than 200,000 hard-tofind essays on authors and their works. Coverage spans the centuries from Classical to Contemporary, and
includes every major literary genre, including poetry, drama, short stories, and children’s literature. You’ll also
find information about more than 600 remarkably diverse topics of literary interest such as “American
Transcendentalism,” “Cuban Exile Literature,” “Nineteenth Century Science Fiction,” and “Polish
Romanticism.”
To access these and other databases available for free from your Public Library, log on to
www.CincinnatiLibrary.org/resources/ and click on “Research Databases.” Connect from home with your
Library Card number and PIN, or use computers with free Internet access available at any of the Library’s 41
locations throughout Hamilton County.
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