Hi Dear Poets & Poetry Lovers.
I missed paying the fee for the website domain long enough that there was a late fee, which was high enough for me to drag my heels on paying, until now. Our dear founder, Lucinda Marshall, did caution that the domain name would be picked up quick by someone else were it to lapse. She was correct.
We have a new domain — longer, but still… home 🙂
https://diversegaithersburgpoetryreadingandopenmic.com
Our January and February readings featured incredible poets with thoughtful and entertaining work! Courtney LeBlanc, Nathan Leslie, Barbara DeCesare, and Donald Illich all read beautifully! The readings were moderately attended. There was some contradiction in posted dates with the February reading, which will inspire us to have Barbara and Don back to read sooner rather than later, because I bet some fans missed them for the confusion!
We’ll start posting Facebook invites and this site will enjoy timely updates. Plenty of places to check in to not miss any of the powerful poetry hosted by DiVerse! And with that too, we’ll not wait for attendees, but start punctually, 7 o’clock, to hopefully save more time at the end for mingling with the authors and buying autographed collections without rushing the Open Mic.
I like being able to look back at the history of readers and events. In that spirit, I will repost our November-February readers.
Feel free to share this site and post our future readings to all of your socials. We have some great ones coming up! Stay tuned…
-Kristin
November ’23
Jenn Koiter is the 2021 winner of the DC Poet Project. She holds degrees from Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and Antiock University, and was the recipient of the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship. Originally from Colorado Springs, Jenn lived in Los Angeles, New Delhi, Wyoming, Chicago, and Austin, prior to Washington, D.C.
Raised on a rice and catfish farm in eastern Arkansas, CL Bledsoe is the author of more than twenty-five books, including the poetry collections Riceland, Trashcans in Love, Grief Bacon, and his newest, The Bottle Episode, as well as his latest novels Goodbye, Mr. Lonely and The Saviors. Bledsoe co-writes the humor blog How to Even, with Michael Gushue. He’s been published in hundreds of journals, newspapers, and websites that you’ve probably never heard of. Bledsoe lives in northern Virginia with his daughter.
December ’23
Jacki Lewis (now DuPuy) is from Rockville, MD. She is the six of eight children. Her parents’ method of child rearing, a mixture of love, strictness, and compassion, heavily influenced her life. She always felt she had a creative side, but restricted it to hobbies. After a couple years of college, she eventually landed a job in HR at the International Monetary Fund. She slowly grew more confident in her creativity and got involved in various outlets: writing classes and clubs, open mic poetry, and urban line dancing, where she started an e-newsletter. She also had a short story published in Scribble magazine.
After a layoff, she completed her B.A., focused on her son, worked full and part-time jobs, got into belly dancing and got married. A health scare in 2021 inspired her to start an amateur artist showcase, where regular people can showcase their creative side. Through her part-time job with Casey, she heard about DiVerse, started writing again and became a regular participant.
Richard Peabody, born in Washington, DC., raised in Bethesda, MD., and now living in Arlington, VA., is a poet, writer, editor, teacher, publisher. The author of a novella and three short story collections, he taught graduate fiction writing at Johns Hopkins University for 15 years. His Gargoyle Magazine (founded 1976) released issue 76 in August 2022. The magazine has since moved online. His most recent poetry volume, Guinness on the Quay, was published in Ireland (Salmon Poetry, 2019). The Richard Peabody Reader, a career-encompassing collection, was released in 2015 by Alan Squire Publishing.
January ’24
Courtney LeBlanc is the author of the full-length collections Her Whole Bright Life; Exquisite Bloody, Beating Heart; and Beautiful & Full of Monsters.
She is the Arlington County Poet Laureate, a Virginia Center for Creative Arts fellow, and the founder and editor-in-chief of Riot in Your Throat,
an independent poetry press. She loves nail polish, tattoos, and a soy latte each morning. Find her online at www.courtneyleblanc.com.
Nathan Leslie won the 2019 Washington Writers’ Publishing House prize for fiction for his collection of short stories, Hurry Up and Relax. He is also the series editor for Best Small Fictions. Invisible Hand (2022) and A Fly in the Ointment (2023) are his latest collections. Nathan’s previous books of fiction include Three Men, Root and Shoot, Sibs, and The Tall Tale of Tommy Twice. He is also the author of a collection of poems, Night Sweat. Nathan is currently the founder and organizer of the Reston Reading Series in Reston, Virginia, and the publisher and editor of the online journal Maryland Literary Review. Previously he was series editor for Best of the Web and fiction editor for Pedestal Magazine. His fiction has been published in hundreds of literary magazines such as Shenandoah, North American Review, Boulevard, Hotel Amerika, and Cimarron Review. Nathan’s nonfiction has been published in The Washington Post, Kansas City Star, and Orlando Sentinel. Nathan lives in Northern Virginia.
February ‘ 24
Poetry and fiction by Barbara DeCesare have appeared in Grain, Poetry, Alaska Quarterly, and many other journals. Her work has been adapted for song and stage. She is a graduate of the Goddard MFA program, and the author of three poetry collections: Jigsweyesore (Anti-Man), Adrift (Seventh Wave), and Silent Type (Paper Kite Press)
Barbara lives in York, PA.
Donald Illich‘s work appears in such journals as the Iowa Review, LIT, Nimrod, Passages North, Rattle, Fourteen Hills, The Louisville Review, Cimmaron Review, Map Literary, Spork, Cream City Review, and Sixth Finch. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and received a scholarship from the Nebraska Summer Writers Conference. He won Honorable Mention in the Washington Prize book contest and was a “Discovery” / Boston Review 2008 Poetry Contest semi-finalist. Gold Wake Press named his full-length manuscript a finalist during their 2015 open reading. His work has been anthologized in A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry and City of the Big Shoulders: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry. He published a chapbook, Rocket Children, in 2012, and published another chapbook in 2016, The Art of Dissolving (Finishing Line Press). His full-length manuscript, Chance Bodies, was published in 2018 by The Word Works. His newest book, Rescue is Elsewhere, was released in 2023.
DiVerse Gaithersburg 