Last year, a group of poets got together to raise money for World Central Kitchen.
My co-host contacted me earlier this year and suggested we host another reading, this time for Amnesty International.
What is this?
Well, it’s a bunch of poets reading poetry, hoping for a better world. I am so excited.
While we’re reading, we’ll be encouraging listeners to donate to AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL! We’ll be dropping links in the chat. Like this: https://www.amnesty.org/en/donate/
When is this?
SUNDAY, JUNE 14TH!
What time is this?
4:00 PM – 5:30 PM EASTERN!
(That’s: 3:00-4:30 Central, 2:00-3:30 Mountain, 1:00-2:30 Pacific: PICK YOUR POISON!)
Where is this?
MY TWITCH CHANNEL! https://twitch.tv/csecooney
IT’S VIRTUAL! FOR FREE! ANYONE CAN STREAM! You don’t even need to be signed in! But you CAN be signed in if you want to join the CHAT!
Who are our poets?
Please, let me introduce you!
A queer, disabled Latina originally from South Texas, Lisa M. Bradley now lives in Iowa. Her poetry has appeared in F&SF, Nightmare Magazine, Strange Horizons, and Uncanny, among other venues. She coedited, with R.B. Lemberg, the Ursula Le Guin tribute poetry anthology, Climbing Lightly Through Forests (Aqueduct Press). Since 2022, she has been a poetry editor for Strange Horizons. Her first collection of short fiction and poetry is The Haunted Girl (Aqueduct Press). Her debut novel is Exile (Rosarium Publishing). Learn more at www.lisambradley.com or on Bluesky, @cafenowhere.bsky.social.
Allisa Cherry is the author of the poetry collection An Exodus of Sparks (Michigan State University Press) which was the 2024 recipient of the Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize (RCAH Center for Poetry) and recently longlisted for the Julie Suk Award from Jacar Press. Her work has appeared in journals such as Rattle, Northwest Review, Chicago Quarterly, New Ohio Review and The Penn Review. Raised in an irradiated town in rural Arizona, she now makes her home in Portland, Oregon where she teaches workshops for immigrants and refugees transitioning to a life in the U.S. and serves as an associate poetry editor for West Trade Review.
C. S. E. Cooney is a two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author, a Rhysling Award-winning poet, a game designer, a SAG-AFTRA voice actor, and the singer-songwriter Brimstone Rhine. Find her on social media via her LinkTree https://linktr.ee/csecooney
McKenna Deen (she/her/hers) has an MFA in Creative Writing from SDSU. her poetry chapbook Ever Yours, Vincent — about the life and art of Vincent van Gogh — was published by dancing girl press.her poems have appeared in The Los Angeles Review, The Poet, Ekphrastic Review, and pacificREVIEW, among others. she’s the editor-in-chief of boats against the current, a poetry magazine that highlights the voices of women, LGBTQ writers, and poets from underrepresented backgrounds. through the magazine, she recently launched a poetry snail mail club that encourages people to unplug from the digital world and engage with whimsical art and physical media. she lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two cats.
Gerald L. Coleman is a philosopher, theologian, poet, and Science Fiction & Fantasy author. He is the author of the Epic Fantasy novel series, The Three Gifts, which currently includes, When Night Falls (Book One), A Plague of Shadows (Book Two), and are being prepared for re-release. His speculative fiction and essays have appeared numerous anthologies and magazines. His poetry has appeared journals, magazines, and anthologies including: Pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture, Drawn To Marvel: Poems From The Comic Books, Black Bone Anthology, the Locust Award nominated Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2022), and This is the Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets. He has been a Guest Author at multiple conventions, and a Guest Author/Poet/Lecturer at many universities and book clubs. He’s a Scholastic National Writing Juror, a Co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets, a Rhysling Award Nominee, a Locust Award Nominee (anthology), an NAACP Image Award winner (anthology contributor), and a Fellow at the Black Earth Institute. His newest releases include a collection of SF&F short stories entitled, From Earth and Sky, and a collection of poems and micro-essays entitled Incendiary. You can find him at GeraldColeman.com.
Blas Falconer is the author of Rara Avis (Four Way Books 2024); Forgive the Body This Failure (Four Way Books, 2018); The Foundling Wheel (Four Way Books, 2012); A Question of Gravity and Light (University of Arizona Press, 2007); and The Perfect Hour (Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literary Press, 2006). He is also a co-editor for The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity (University of Arizona Press, 2011) and Mentor & Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets (Southern Illinois University Press, 2010).
Carlos Hernandez is the author of The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria, Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe, and scores of stories and poems, mostly in sff. He is a college professor and a game designer who often collaborates with his partner C. S. E. Cooney
Anne Hills is best known for her rich vocals and interpretive work, being featured on many recordings along with her own busy catalogue. As a songwriter, she continues to garner fans. Her song “Follow That Road” was chosen as the title cut for the Second Annual Martha’s Vineyard Singer/Songwriter’s Retreat and continues to be a radio and audience favorite. Lyrics being her primary love, she has alway written poetry, submitting occasionally with some successes. These include 2nd prize in the 1999 Atlantic Monthly and being published in Eastern Structures, Haiku Review and Room with a View. She even got her M.D. with a poem published in The Annals of Internal Medicine and their book “On Being a Doctor”, though she is only a licensed clinical social worker.
Julia Rios (they/them) is a queer, Latinx writer, editor, podcaster, and narrator whose fiction, non-fiction, and poetry have appeared in Latin American Literature Today, Lightspeed, and Goblin Fruit, among other places. Their editing work has won multiple awards including the Hugo Award and the Shirley Jackson Award. Julia is a co-host of This is Why We’re Like This, a podcast about the movies we watch in childhood that shape our lives, for better or for worse. They’ve narrated stories for Escape Pod, Podcastle, Pseudopod, and Cast of Wonders.
Liz Pino Sparks is a writer, musician, and teacher. She lives in the Southwestern United States, where her ancestors have lived for thousands of years. You can find her work in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Boats Against the Current Magazine, and others.
Adam Stutz is a neurodivergent poet and the Editor-in-Chief and publisher of The Broken Lens Journal. He is the author of one chapbook and three books of poetry including The Sham Tapestry and Compunctions + Thefts (White Stag Publishing, 2024). His work has appeared or is forthcoming in various print and online publications including Prelude, The Pinch, Dream Pop, Cover, Ghost Proposal, Columba Poetry, INKSOUNDS, Trilobite, hush: a journal of noise, SWERVE, The Sonora Review, Action Spectacle, Chartreuse Lit and Fourteen Hills. His work can also be found at https://stutzwrites.com. He currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.
Hanna Tawater is the author of the poetry collections VOID (White Stag, 2022) and Reptilia (Ayahuasca, 2018). She completed her MFA in writing, with focus on interdisciplinary poetry, at UC San Diego. Her work has appeared in various publications, both online and in print. She teaches writing and project-based learning in San Diego, where she lives with entirely too many cats.
Ali Trotta is a poet, writer, editor, word-nerd, and unapologetic coffee addict. Her poetry has been published in Uncanny, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s, Small Wonders, Enchanted Living, The Deadlands, Fireside, Strange Horizons, Cicada, Nightmare, Mermaids Monthly, Dream Theory Media, Simultaneous Times, The Best of Uncanny Magazine (Subterranean Press), and several of the Rhysling Anthology compilations. Her collection, Offerings for Ordinary Gods, comes out July 2026 from CLASH Books. Seven of her poems were Rhysling Award nominees. Her short fiction has appeared in Worlds of Possibilities and Curtains. When she’s not writing, she’s usually cooking, baking, hugging an animal, or pretending to be a mermaid. She has a rescue cat named Thor, who is part Maine Coon and part Gremlin. Her website is alitrotta.com. You can sign up for her newsletter (https://buttondown.email/alwayscoffee) or follow her Tumblr (@alwayscoffee), Bluesky (@alwayscoffee), or Instagram (@alwayscoffee7).
C.S.E. Cooney 