Queens College Event Photos

Thanks to all who came out for our Queens College event in the Godwin-Ternbach Museum of Klapper Hall this past Tuesday night—above is the lovely museum space where we held the reading. All of our readers were fabulous and it was great to meet and greet lots of new people, especially the Queens College students who stuck around after class!

HUGE thanks, once again, to Nicole Cooley and the Queens College MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation, as well as the Queens College communications department, for helping to put this special event together and doing such an incredible job of spreading the word.

Check out some photos of Tuesday's readers, all of whom contributed their work to Forgotten Borough, and who either teach at Queens College now or have in past years: Rigoberto González, Nicole Cooley, Jocelyn Lieu, Roger Sedarat, and Jayanti Tamm.

Rigoberto González

Nicole Cooley

Jocelyn Lieu

Roger Sedarat

Jayanti Tamm

Queens College Event: Tomorrow at 6:30 p.m.!

Don't forget that our big Queens College event takes place TOMORROW, Tuesday, May 3 at 6 p.m.! The reading has been featured all over NYC media, including the Daily News, Queens Chronicle, and TimesLedger! It's a CAN'T MISS event!

Head to the Godwin-Ternbach Museum on the fourth floor of Klapper Hall and enjoy a FREE evening of readings from Forgotten Borough, featuring the following contributors, all current or former instructors at Queens College:

NICOLE COOLEY
RIGOBERTO GONZÁLEZ
JOCELYN LIEU
ROGER SEDARAT
JAYANTI TAMM

The readings will be followed by a free reception and copies of the anthology will be available for sale. Check out the Facebook page for more information and to RSVP, and visit the QC Web site for directions.

Hope to see you there!

Putting in a word for Queens

Superb press coverage for Forgotten Borough! The New York Daily News has a feature on the book today, in anticipation of our big May 3 event at Queens College, with insight from two of Tuesday's readers: Nicole Cooley and Jayanti Tamm.

Among the authors scheduled to attend are poetry Prof. Nicole Cooley. She moved to Astoria in 1999 from Pennsylvania, where she had been teaching at Bucknell University.

"I loved just wandering the streets," said Cooley, 44, who often explored the area around Ditmars Blvd. and 21st Ave.

Also included is a piece by Queens College graduate and visiting professor Jayanti Tamm, who grew up as a follower of religious leader Sri Chinmoy in Jamaica.

She has since left what she views as a "cult." Her passage notes alleged sexual abuse by Chinmoy of her fellow followers.

"Queens is really this silent borough in terms of art," said Tamm, 40. "While Queens has been overlooked, there is this treasure-trove of artistic talent."

Check out the article at the Daily News Web site! Big thanks to Nicholas Hirshon for writing the piece.

Queens College Event: Tuesday, May 3 at 6:30 p.m.!

Next month, we have another exciting Forgotten Borough event in store, this time at Queens College in heart of Flushing! The amazing staff of QC's MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation is sponsoring this celebratory event in Godwin-Ternbach Museum on Tuesday, May 3 at 6:30 p.m. Current and past faculty from Queens College will read from their selections in Forgotten Borough, and the reading will be followed by a reception and book sales.

This event will feature the following contributors:

NICOLE COOLEY
RIGOBERTO GONZÁLEZ
JOCELYN LIEU
ROGER SEDARAT
JAYANTI TAMM

Plus, did I mention that the entire event is FREE to the public?

RSVP and get more info by checking out our Facebook event page!

And a huge thanks to Nicole Cooley, Maria Terrone, and everyone else from Queens College for making this event possible!

The City Would Speak

Not the city's center but its edges—Sunnyside Yards where
the train finally rises from the tunnel where ice clots
on grass scattered with trash.

The city would speak but it is currently preoccupied with
     its own defense.

—from Nicole Cooley's poem "For Joseph Crowley, 7th District, New York, Bronx and Queens" in Forgotten Borough, out now from SUNY Press

Nicole Cooley will be one of the featured readers at the official Forgotten Borough book release party on Saturday, 2/26! Click here for more details and to RSVP!

Order your copy of Forgotten Borough @ SUNY Press, Amazon, or other book retailers.

Above: "Sunnyside Yard, 12/19/09" by Wolfsburg RS on flickr

Forgotten Borough Book Release Party: 2/26/11 at LIC Bar!

Thanks to all who came out to the Forgotten Borough AWP event and who stopped by the SUNY Press table—and especially to those who bought copies! Such a blast!

Forgotten Borough is officially available for sale from SUNY Press and looks FANTASTIC, if I do say so myself. Order your copy from SUNY today and support a wonderful nonprofit publisher!

If you'll be in the NYC area on Saturday, February 26, we'll be celebrating the release of the book at LIC Bar from 6 to 8 p.m.! Books will be for sale, courtesy of Mobile Libris, and we'll hear short readings from contributors Nicole Cooley, Marcy Dermansky, and Arthur Nersesian!

Click here for more details and to RSVP on Facebook! All are welcome!