Next Wednesday, June 1, from 7:00-8:30pm, Pen and Brush will host its most recent reading from their curated series “Pen and Brush Presents…” with Augury’s Carey McHugh representing Augury Books. Other readers will include Laura Sims (Ugly Ducking Presse) and Jennifer L. Knox (Bloof Books). Admission is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served, and copies of books will be available for purchase and signing. We hope to see you there!

For more information, please see the Facebook event.

Jennifer L. Knox is reading on behalf of Bloof Books. The New York Times Book Review wrote that her new book, Days of Shame and Failure, “hits, with deceptive ease, all the poetic marks a reader could want: intellectual curiosity, emotional impact, beautiful language, surprising revelation and arresting imagery.” Jennifer is the author of four books of poems; her work has appeared four times in the Best American Poetry series as well as The New York Times, The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, McSweeney’s, and Bomb. She teaches at Iowa State University.

Carey McHugh‘s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, Gulf Coast, and Tin House. Her chapbook Original Instructions for the Perfect Preservation of Birds &c. was selected by Ray Armantrout for the Poetry Society of America’s 2008 New York Chapbook Fellowship. She lives and works in Manhattan. She is reading on behalf of Augury Books.

Laura Sims is the author of Staying Alive (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2016). Her first book, Practice, Restraint, was the winner of the 2005 Fence Books Alberta Prize, and in 2006 she was awarded a US-Japan Creative Artists Fellowship. In 2014 she edited Fare Forward: Letters from David Markson, a book of her correspondence with the celebrated experimental novelist. Her poems have recently appeared in Black Clock, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Eleven Eleven and Gulf Coast. Sims has been a featured writer for the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog, and a co-editor of Instance Press since 2009. She teaches literature and creative writing at NYU-SPS. Laura is reading on behalf of Ugly Duckling Presse.

This reading series is curated by Kate Angus for Pen and Brush (www.penandbrush.org). For over 122 years, Pen and Brush has been the only international nonprofit organization offering an outlet for women in both the literary and visual arts in the city of New York.

VIDA: Women in Literary Arts has recently announced its budget for the year. VIDA, like many small organizations and nonprofits, operates partially as a result of its donors. This means that any contribution, no matter how small, is the reason they can keep doing work that we hope will one day benefit the entire literary community. From publishing emerging women’s voices to organizing events across the country and starting the VIDA Count, they are committed to breaking down gender disparities and building new, tangible realities in the arts and beyond. VIDA says of The Count:

Each year, volunteers from across the country dedicate thousands of combined hours to perform an arduous task: we manually, painstakingly tally the gender disparity in major literary publications and book reviews.

We break down thirty-nine literary journals and well-respected periodicals, tallying genre, book reviewers, books reviewed, and journalistic bylines to offer an accurate assessment of the publishing world.

We were not surprised to find that men dominate the pages of venues that are known to further one’s career.

The VIDA Count, annual since 2010, has not only effected change in the publishing industry, but has also created a strong community of writers and advocates who stand with us. There is much more work to be done.

If you’re unable to donate to VIDA, please consider sharing their project with others, or even volunteering.

Augury’s Founding Editor Kate Angus has been hard at work on her debut book of poems, forthcoming from Negative Capability Press on June 1. We would love to see you at her launch party on Friday, May 6th at Pen and Brush. Details are below, and more can be found on the Facebook event.