Wednesday

Noelle Kocot is the author of five books of poetry, two from Four Way Books, and three from Wave Books, including The Bigger World, published in the spring of 2011.  She is also the author of a discography, out from Wave in 2010. She has received many awards for her work, including those from The Academy of American Poets, The Fund for Poetry, The American Poetry Review and The National Endowment for the Arts.  She lives in New Jersey.

Joseph Lease’s critically acclaimed books of poetry include Testify (Coffee House Press, 2011), Broken World (Coffee House Press, 2007), and Human Rights (second edition forthcoming from Talisman House). His poem “‘Broken World’ (For James Assatly)” was selected for The Best American Poetry 2002 (Scribner). His poems have also been featured on NPR and published in The AGNI 30th Anniversary Poetry Anthology, Bay Poetics, New American Writing, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Fence, and elsewhere.  Thomas Fink’s book A Different Sense of Power: Problems of Community in Late-Twentieth Century U.S. Poetry includes extensive critical analysis of Lease’s poetry. Lease is an Associate Professor of Writing and Literature and the Chair of the MFA Program in Writing at California College of the Arts.