425 West Western Avenue
Muskegon, MI 49440
USA
Mature Audiences Only!
(Doors open at 6:00 pm for book sales, cash bar, and live music)
Tickets available at Frauenthal Theater Box Office or 1.800.585.3737
Sharon Olds:
Sharon Olds is the author of eight volumes of poetry. Her poetry, says Michael Ondaatje, is “pure fire in the hands,” and David Leavitt in the Voice Literary Supplement describes her work as “remarkable for its candor, its eroticism, and its power to move.” With sensuality, humor, sprung rhythm, and stunning imagery, she expresses truths about domestic and political violence, sexuality, family relationships, love, and the body. Often compared to “confessional” poets, she has been much praised for the courage, emotional power, and extraordinary physicality of her work.
Her poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Poetry, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New York Times. Named New York State Poet Laureate (1998 – 2000), Olds teaches graduate poetry workshops at New York University as well as the writing workshop she helped found at a 900-bed state hospital for the severely disabled. She is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science. Her poetry collection, One Secret Thing, was a finalist for the T. S. Eliot Prize & the Forward Prize. Her most recent collection, Stag’s Leap (2012), was named one of Oprah’s Favorite Reads of 2012 and won the T.S. Eliot Prize, and also the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. In 2014, Sharon Olds was awarded the Donald Hall-Jane Kenyon Prize in American Poetry. In 2015 she was an elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Sharon Olds lives in New York City.
“I cannot praise [Sharon Olds’ poetry] enough. It seems to me not only faultless, but it also deals effortlessly with many urgent subjects that are left out of so much contemporary poetry. Every poem is a wonder – strong, actual, unsentimental and without bullshit – in a world glowing with solid reality.”
Megan Falley and Olivia Gatwood:
SPEAK LIKE A GIRL is a feminist, interactive poetry show that uses spoken word to educate entertain and inspire. Born from the minds of Olivia Gatwood and Megan Falley, SPEAK LIKE A GIRL juggles issues such as street harassment, body image and gender inequality with humor and grace. Megan Falley is the author of two full-length collections of poetry, After the Witch Hunt (2012) and Redhead and the Slaughter King (2014), both out on Write Bloody Publishing. Her chapbook, Bad Girls Honey [Poems About Lana Del Rey] was the winner of the 2014 Tired Hearts Competition. Olivia Gatwood has been featured on HBO’s Brave New Voices (2010) and is the author of the chapbook Drunk Sugar. She is a sex and relationships writer for Bustle Magazine and a recent graduate of Pratt Institute’s fiction program. Together, Megan Falley and Olivia Gatwood are National Poetry Slam and Women of the World Poetry Slam finalists and have been featured on TV One’s Verses and Flow. They are currently touring the North America until infinity.
“Blown away by their humor, their freshness, and their smarts. By the end of their performance, they had every last person laughing and clapping.” – Brooklyn Magazine
Brought to you by Muskegon Writers’ Center, Muskegon Community College, Frauenthal Theater, Muskegon Area Arts and Humanities Festival.
