Caitlin Bailey with April Gibson, Kate Lucas, Sagirah Shahid, and Matt Rasmussen

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SpringBox
262 University Ave W
Saint Paul, MN 55103
United States

Free and open to the public

Poets Caitlin Bailey, April Gibson, Kate Lucas, Sagirah Shahid, and Matt Rasmussen will read, followed by a conversation moderated by Carl Atiya Swanson about art, mental health, combatting stigma, and promoting healthy community for creative people.

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Caitlin Bailey received an MFA from Hamline University. Her first book, Solve for Desire, won the 2017 Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry, was published by Milkweed Editions and is a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award. She lives in Minnesota.

April Gibson is the author of a chapbook, Automation (Willow Books, 2015). Her work has appeared in Pluck!, Literary Mama, Naugatuck River Review, As/Us, Tidal Basin, and elsewhere. April was a 2014-15 Loft Mentor Series winner and is currently working on her first full-length collection of poems. She lives with her two sons.

Kate Lucas has received grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and Dickinson House, a Loft Mentor Series Award in Poetry from the Loft Literary Center, and a nomination for Best New Poets. Her work has appeared in Copper Nickel, Midway Journal, Lumina, 111O, and elsewhere.

Matt Rasmussen’s poetry has been published in Gulf Coast, Cimarron Review, H_NGM_N, Water~Stone Review, New York Quarterly, Paper Darts, and elsewhere. His first book of poems, Black Aperture, was a finalist for the National Book Award, won the 2012 Walt Whitman Award, and was published in 2013 by LSU Press.

Sagirah Shahid is an African American Muslim writer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her poems and short stories can be found in Mizna, Paper Darts, AtlanticRock, Blue Minaret, and elsewhere. She is a 2015-2016 winner of the Loft Literary Center’s Mentor Series Award in poetry, an editor at the Saint Paul Almanac and is currently at work writing her first book of poetry.

Carl Atiya Swanson is a theatermaker, artist & writer working at the intersection of creativity and organizations. He serves on the board of Dissonance, which advocates for health and wellness in creativity, and holds a BA in Studio Art from the University of Southern California and an MBA from the University of St. Thomas.