Big Tent
Fourth Thursdays
BIG TENT: Stories and Poems in Three Acts
Thursday, February 25
7 PM @ The Raven
Act 1: Stephen Lewis (Poet)
Act 2: Dennis Etzel (Poet)
Act 3: Brian Blevins and Nick Medved (Playwrights)
Stephen Lewis graduated from KU in 2008 and edits the online magazine Robot Melon. He likes to eat and to read at the same time even though it is often difficult.
Dennis Etzel Jr. is a recording artist with 30 years of music behind him. Dennis is a guitarist. Dennis is the top finisher for the Buckeyes in 10th place. Dennis is also very involved in planting trees and sustainable forestry. Dennis is a male first name derived from the Greco-Roman name Dionysius meaning “servant of Dionysus”. Dennis is now among the rest of these freedom hating liberal kooks. Dennis is the only one talking about shutting down the nuclear war machine. In 2006, Dennis was being pursued by the Attorney General in Washington. Dennis is a jungle menace. We need drastic solutions, like the ones Dennis is pushing. Dennis is leading positively by example, e.g. his vegan lifestyle. Dennis has engaged in interfaith dialogue with Catholics at the Vatican. Dennis has also written and produced three best-selling comedy videos on values. Dennis has played guitar on over 100 soul music gold albums. Dennis has experience handling cases from all parts of Alaska. Dennis has worked with the vanguard of New York’s dance studios. Dennis has the courage to say what many are wondering. Dennis will be in Sierra Madre, CA, Sunday the 21st, 9am. Dennis will be appearing on Comedy Central’s ‘The Colbert Report’ this Tuesday. How do I know Dennis will be able to photograph my child? By taking the time to get to know you and your taste, Dennis will be able to. Dennis will be leading out the Halloween fun ride tonight at Willowdale. Dennis will be adding a second class at Yoga Within on Tuesday evenings. Dennis will be given a sedative to relax.
Brian Blevins will be presenting “Horse Trading”, read by Jim Carothers and Jake Smith. Brian was born November 16, 1960 in Wichita Kansas, where he began writing at an early age and participated as a singer, songwriter in Wichita, and even tried his hand at acting once. However the opportunity to pursue it seriously never manifested itself. Brian visited Lawrence in 2003 as part of a business expansion project, where he met Kathy and fell in love. He moved here shortly afterward. Returning to college in 2007, Brian discovered writing again while taking a playwriting course instructed by Paul Lim. Brian says, “The future is uncertain, yet I do not intend to let my love for writing escape me again.”
Nick Medved will be presenting “The Gazelle”, read by Amy Devitt and Caleb Hall.
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BIG TENT: Stories and Poems in Three Acts
Thursday, March 25
7PM @ The Raven
Grant Jenkins poetry
Cheryl Pallant poetry
Tasha Haas fiction
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Fourth Thursdays
BIG TENT: Stories and Poems in Three Acts
Thursday, January 28
7PM @ The Raven
Act 1: Judy Bauer fiction
Act 2: Dixie Lubin poetry
Act 3: David Ohle fiction
David Ohle’s novel, Motorman, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1972 and re-released by 3rd Bed Press in 2004 with an Introduction by Ben Marcus. Its sequel, The Age of Sinatra, was published by Soft Skull in 2004, followed in 2008 by The Pisstown Chaos. In 2009, two novellas, Boons and The Camp were published by Calamari Press under one cover. He has edited two non-fiction books, Cows are Freaky When They Look at You: An Oral History of the Kaw Valley Hemp Pickers (Watermark Press, 1991) and Cursed From Birth: the Short, Unhappy Life of William S. Burroughs, Jr. (Soft Skull, 2006). His short fiction has appeared in Harper’s, Esquire, theParis Review, TriQuarterly, the Missouri Review, the Pushcart Prize and elsewhere. He has taught fiction writing at the University of Texas in Austin, the University of Missouri in Columbia and currently both fiction and screenwriting at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.
Judy Bauer won the 2009 Langston Hughes Award and has been published twice in Coal City Review. She’s an MFA grad of University of Kansas and is currently writing a mystery novel tentatively titled The Hesitation of Olivia Austin. She lives in Lawrence with her husband, Gene, their cats and hundreds of photos of their two grown kids.
Dixie Lubin is a long-time Lawrence resident. She has been reading and writing poetry for more than thirty years. Her publications include poems in The Carbon Chronicle-Harvest of Arts Poets 1992-1996, Kaw, Kaw, Kaw, as the Poets Fly from Lawrence, Kansas (a CD), and Slightly Tilting Toward the Void/Rabid Doggerel, poems by Dixie and Fred Lubin. Dixie has facilitated community writing and creativity workshops. She was a member of Medusa women’s writing group, and has been published in several local ‘zines. She is a two-time winner of Poetry.com’s daily poetry contest. Dixie has been an alternative grade school teacher. She is an outsider artist, and a founding mother of the Bizarre Bazaar.
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Fourth Thursdays
BIG TENT: Stories & Poems in Three Acts
7PM @ The Raven
BIG TENT in OCTOBER
Thursday, October 22
7PM @ The Raven
Act 1: Adam Desnoyer prose
Act 2: Krista Gammper prose
Act 3: Jennie James poetry
Adam Desnoyers’ work has appeared in The Idaho Review, Fence, Lit, Black Warrior Review, and the O. Henry Prize Stories and has also received a Pushcart Prize Special Mention.
Kristin Gammper is a fifth year senior at the University of Kansas studying English with an emphasis in creative writing. Women’s, gender, and sexuality studies captivate a lot of her interest as well even though it’s not part of her “official” degree. If she’s not reading a book or telling inappropriate stories about her family, Kristin is probably outside (possibly doing either of those things anyway).
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Fourth Thursdays
BIG TENT: Stories & Poems in Three Acts
7PM @ The Raven
BIG TENT in SEPTEMBER
Thursday, September 24
7PM @ The Raven
Act 1: Cyrus Console poetry
Act 2: Mark Cunningham prose
Act 3: Nancy Hubbell poetry
Cyrus Console is from Topeka, Kansas. He holds degrees in poetry and biology from Bard College and the University of Kansas, and is completing a PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Kansas. Recent poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Boston Review, Critical Quarterly, and Lana Turner, among other places. Recent readings include the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church and the Holloway Series at University of California, Berkeley. His first book, Brief Under Water, was published last year by Burning Deck press. He teaches at the University of Kansas and the Kansas City Art Institute.
Mark Cunningham has three chapbooks out—Second Story and nightlightnight (with photographs by Mel Nichols), both from Right Hand Pointing, and 10 specimens from Gold Wake Press—and three books, Body Language from Tarpaulin Sky Press, 80 Beetles from Otoliths, and 71 Leaves, an ebook from BlazeVox.
Nancy Hubble has a degree in Education and French from the University of South Florida in Tampa. She has taught in public schools, alternative ‘one room’ multi-grade schools, in Gifted Education classes and at KU. She completed Master’s work in English as a Second Language and Anthropology, and has worked on archaeological digs, in ornithology labs and as a drug counselor. For the last 11 years, she has sold art, books and antiques on eBay. She loves writing, listening to poetry and playing with paints and clay. She has had poetry published in the Journal World, a variety of small zines and Imagination and Place’s publication: The Wakarusa Wetlands in Word & Image. She has a CD and chapbook Dharma Dog.
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Fourth Thursdays
BIG TENT: Stories & Poems in Three Acts
7PM @ The Raven
BIG TENT in AUGUST
Thursday, August 27
7PM @ The Raven
Act 1: Karen Ohnesorge poetry
Act 2: Katie Oberthaler prose
Act 3: Diane Glancy poetry
Karen Ohnesorge was born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and she has lived mostly in Lawrence, Kansas since 1986. She currently serves as Dean of Instruction for Ottawa University, Ottawa, Kansas.
Katie Oberthaler is a senior at The University of Kansas studying creative writing. She works as a science journalist for The Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets and as a student assistant at the KU Natural History Museum. Her interests include non-fiction writing, geosophy, salsa dancing, racquetball, and using her automated bread maker to dazzle friends and avoid washing dishes. She spent last summer traveling and studying in India and is currently adapting the experience into a series of essays.
“Writing is a conversation,” observes Diane Glancy, a Cherokee/English/German writer from Kansas City. Her poetry, scripts, essays, and fiction have earned her numerous literary prize including an American Book Award, the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, the Native American Prose Award and a Sundance Screenwriting Fellowship. “My students and I come together to take risks and reach new frontiers.” For Glancy, writing has also been a journey. As artist in residence for the State Arts Council of Oklahoma she traveled the state for a decade, teaching the skills of writing, oral communication and critical thinking. Her growing reputation as a writer opened the door to a fellowship at the prestigious University of Iowa Writers Workshop.
Glancy was a professor at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she taught Native American Literature and Creative Writing. Glancy also taught in the Bread Loaf School of English M.A. program on the campus of the Native American Preparatory School in Rowe, New Mexico, in 1999. She was the 1998 Edlestein-Keller Minnesota Writer of Distinction, University of Minnesota, where she taught Topics in Advanced Poetry. Glancy also was the Native American Inroads Mentor at The Loft in Minneapolis where she taught Creative Nonfiction in 1997.
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Fourth Thursdays
BIG TENT: Stories & Poems in Three Acts
7PM @ The Raven
BIG TENT in JULY
Thursday, July 23
7PM @ The Raven
Act 1: Becca Evanhoe prose
Act 2: Jackie McClenny prose
Act 3: Jillian Hishaw poetry
From relationships to environmental issues, Jillian Hishaw is as diverse as her interests. She has been featured at the American Jazz Museum’s Blue Room and competed in the Regional University Spoken Word Finals in Houston, 2006. Her current focus has been developing Kansas City’s National Youth Spoken Word Team. As co-coach of the Youth team, Kansas City placed eighth in the Nation making it to the Semi-Finals in Washington DC, 2008. As an environmental attorney, professor, poet and advocate of various causes, Jillian’s diverse personality, heritage and wit are expressed uniquely in her poetry and on her first CD entitled “Life Lessons”. Please join Jillian in her debut performance at the Big Tent!
Rebecca Evanhoe is a native Kansan and former student at the University of Kansas, where she studied chemistry, journalism, and creative writing. Now she waitresses, cleans houses, and does freelance writing work. Rebecca’s work has appeared in NOON annual, Chemical and Engineering News, Mote magazine, and the Spencer Art Museum’s elevator.
Jackie McClenny has lived in Lawrence since 1986. She received a B.A. in English from KU in 2007, and now teaches there while pursuing her MFA. Her current project is a book-length collection of essays entitled The House That Catfish Built.
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Fourth Thursdays
BIG TENT: Stories & Poems in Three Acts
7PM @ The Raven
BIG TENT in JUNE
Thursday, June 25
7PM @ The Raven
Act 1: Peter Wright poetry
Act 2: Amy Haake prose
Act 3: Linda Rodriguez poetry
Focusing on the shadows that feed and motivate this symphony of existence Peter Wright has been writing poems for seventeen years. He lives with his partner thirty miles north of Lawrence. As this small stretch of land on a rise in the middle of nowhere is a new arrangement, he looks forward to the continued evolution of his work influenced by the giant whispering Kansas sky. He has self-published one chapbook of short poems called Spray.
Linda Rodriguez is proud to be a Tia Chucha Press author in their 20th year of publishing with her book of poetry, Heart’s Migration. She also has published a cookbook, The “I Don’t Know How To Cook” Book: Mexican (Adams Media, 2008) and a chapbook of poetry, Skin Hunger (Potpourri Publications, 1994; Scapegoat Press, 2007). She is vice president of the Latino Writers Collective, a wonderful group of Midwestern writers who are like family. Linda is a long-time feminist, activist, and unashamed liberal and lives with her husband, dog, cat, and about three million books.
Amy Haake is a poet, author, freelance copywriter, wife and mother. She lives and works in Lawrence, Kansas, where she received a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from the University of Kansas. Currently, she is working on a memoir about autism, as well as a series of comical shorts about growing up in Kansas.
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