Poet Helen Ruggieri at February Rochester Poets Reading

Join us THIS SUNDAY, February 19, 2-4 pm, for our monthly Rochester Poets reading. Our featured writer will be Olean-based poet Helen Ruggieri, whose most recent volume of work, "Butterflies Under a Japanese Moon," a collection of haiku and traditional poems, has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize!  Helen's reading will be followed by by an open mic.

 

The event is being held in the Ross Art Gallery of the Skalny Welcome Center at St. John Fisher College.

 

 

Helen Ruggieri earned an MFA in Poetry Writing and taught at the University of Pittsburgh campus at Bradford. In 2000,she spent a semester at Yokohama College in Japan and became interested in the literature of early Japan. When shereturned, she became a member of the East Asian Studies program and taught in the Summer Intensive English Program for Japanese students on the Pitt-Bradford Campus. She retired from Pitt in 2009.

She has also worked as a visiting poet in area schools and currently teaches a poetry workshop at the Cattaraugus County Mental Health Association.

Helen been writing for thirty years and her work has been published widely in magazines and anthologies in the US and abroad. She has several books and chapbooks, among them "The Poetess" (Allegany Mt. Press); "Glimmer Girls" (Mayapple Press); "Concrete Madonna" (S & S Press); and "Rock City Hill Exercises" (Allegany Mt. Press). Her book of short prose pieces in the Japanese haibun form is titled "The Character for Woman (Foothills Publishing), and is about living in Japan. Her Pulitizer-nominated collection was published in December by Kitsune Books.

She has published haiku in the Manichi Daily News, Yomiuri Daily, and has won awards from the International Kusamakura Haiku Competition and the Suruga Baika literary festival, Oshiro Matsuri Festival, Kumamoto, Japan prize; Hoshino Takashi Award (sponsored by the World Haiku Club). Her poem, “A Japanese Fable” won 1st prize in Icon’s (Kent State) annual competition.

All are welcome to participate in our open mic: poets, musicians, and singers. The sound system is limited; we always have a mic and speaker (usually a Yamaha amp/speaker combination). No extra cables. The room doesn't require amplification, but if you play electric guitar or piano, it's best to be safe and bring our own amp, cables, any interfaces. A high quality mic would also do justice to your voice!

The Center is the first building immediately on the left when you enter the campus from the main entrance at East Ave & Fairport Rd. There's loads of free parking across from and right next to the building. Here's a link to a map of the Fisher campus http://bitly.com/bw8Qmk, a Google map to get to Fisher http://g.co/maps/gyjph.

 

If you're on Facebook, you can RSVP to this notice at http://j.mp/HelenR. Help spread the word by inviting YOUR area FB friends who might like to attend with the "Invite Friends" button.

 

Refreshments will be served. And Helen will have copies of her book(s) on hand for purchase.

 

We look forward to seeing you Sunday afternoon.

Frank Judge

Rochester Poets
260-9005