Join us on Thursday, December 8th at 7 PM at The Third Floor for Barrelhouse Presents Cynthia Manick, Henry Israeli, and Venus Thrash!

Cynthia Manick is the author of Blue Hallelujahs (Black Lawrence Press, 2016). A Pushcart Prize nominated poet with a BA from Hollins University and a MFA from the New School; she has received fellowships from Cave Canem, the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, Fine Arts Work Center, the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences, Hedgebrook, Poets House, and the Vermont Studio Center.  Manick’s work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, African American Review, Bone Bouquet, Callaloo, Clockhouse, Human Equity Through Art (HEArt), Fjords Review, Kinfolks Quarterly, Kweli Journal, Muzzle Magazine, Obsidian: Literature in the African Diaspora, Pedestal Magazine, PLUCK! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts and Culture, St. Ann’s Review, The Wall Street Journal, Tidal Basin Review, and elsewhere. She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Henry Israeli’s previous poetry collections include New Messiahs (Four Way Books: 2002), and Praying to the Black Cat (Del Sol: 2010). He is the translator of Fresco: the Selected Poetry of Luljeta Lleshanaku (New Directions: 2002), Child of Nature (New Directions: 2010), and Haywire: New and Selected Poems (Bloodaxe, 2011). His new book is god’s breath hovering across the waters (Four Way Books: 2016). He is also the founder and editor of Saturnalia Books.

Venus Thrash is the author of the poetry collection, The Fateful Apple which was nominated for the 2015 Pen America Open Book Award. Her poetry has been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies. She was awarded a 2016 writer’s residency at The Vermont Studio Center. She is co-director of the Joaquin Miller Poetry Series. She is a Cave Canem graduate fellow and a Summer Seminar in Kenya and Fire and Ink scholar. She is completing a second poetry collection, Scar, a short-story collection, The Soul of a Man, and a novel, (W)hole.