Writer’s Read: Dennis Barone & Steve Straight

Readings will begin at 5:30pm April 25

Dennis Barone is a Professor of English at the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, Connecticut.  He is the author of seven books of short fiction.  In 2011 Quale Press published his book of stories: Field Report.  He is also the author of two novellas, Temple of the Rat (Left Hand Books, 2000) and God’s Whisper (Spuyten Duyvil, 2005), and the author of a collection of prose poems,The Walls of Circumstance (Avec Books, 2004).  Bordighera Press published his study of Italian-American narrative America / Trattabili in 2011.  Early in 2012 Blaze Vox published On the Bus: Selected Stories. Barone is co-editor with James Finnegan of Visiting Wallace: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Wallace Stevens (University of Iowa Press, 2009) and editor of Beyond the Red Notebook: Essays on Paul Auster (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995).

Left Hand Books published his selected poems volume one, Separate Objects, in 1998, and Shearsman Books published volume two entitled Parallel Lines in 2011.  In 2012 Wesleyan University Press published his book Garnet Poems: An Anthology of Connecticut Poetry Since 1776 and in 2011 Star Cloud Press published the anthology he edited entitled New Hungers for Old: One-Hundred Years of Italian-American Poetry.  Currently he is completing a book on Italian American Protestantism that will be published by Fordham University Press. A graduate of Bard College, he received his Ph.D. in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania.

Steve Straight is professor of English and director of the poetry program at Manchester Community College.  His most recent book, The Almanac (Curbstone/Northwestern University Press) came out in 2012.  His previous collection of poetry, The Water Carrier (Curbstone, 2002), was featured on the nationally syndicated radio program “The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor.”  

For many years Straight directed the Connecticut Poetry Circuit, and for many summers he directed the Seminar Series for the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival.  He has given workshops on writing and teaching throughout the eastern United States and in Ireland.  In 1998 he was named a Distinguished Advocate for the Arts by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts.  He lives in South Windsor with his wife, Marian Maccarone, soprano and voice teacher.

Hope to see you at the readings!

If you have questions and/or are interested in reading in the series, though we can make no promises initially, please email David Giannini, coordinator of the WRITERS READ series, at davidgpoet@gmail.com