We’re pleased to welcome two West Michigan writers to our living room for the first in our series. Join us on February 28 to hear from fellow Eastown resident Lew Klatt and Holland poet (and Jon’s uncle!) Mark Hiskes.
We’ll gather in Jon & Hannah’s living room at 7:30 p.m. for drinks, snacks, and poetry. Please RSVP using the form at the bottom of this post, and we will get you location information and directions.
L.S. Klatt has served as the poet laureate of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He teaches literature and creative writing at Calvin University, where he recently received the Presidential Award for Exemplary Teaching. His poems have appeared widely, including such places as Harvard Review, Denver Quarterly, Crazyhorse, Poetry Daily, The Believer, Best American Poetry, Image,and The Common. His first book, Interloper, won the Juniper Prize, awarded by the University of Massachusetts Press. His second, Cloud of Ink, garnered the Iowa Poetry Prize from the University of Iowa Press. He is the author of two other collections, Sunshine Wound (Parlor Press, 2014) and The Wilderness After Which (Otis Books, 2017).
Mark Hiskes is the author of Standing with Alyosha (Dos Madres Press, 2019), a collection of poems. He grew up in Chicago, the seventh of eight kids lucky enough to be raised by Harold and Everdean. He has been blessed to be an English teacher for 35 years. When he’s not grading papers, he loves to walk, read, write, hang out in classrooms with students, and refurbish old furniture with Cindy for her antique business. On good days, he manages to do a little of all five. He and Cindy have proudly raised two children, Peter and Mary, who are off on family adventures of their own. Mark and Cindy live near the foxes in Holland, Michigan.
Yellow Chair Poetry 