Sunday Salon » Writers Bios

Alexis Romay

nnoveno — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:56:41 +0000

Alexis Romay received a Master of Arts in Spanish Language and Literature from the City University of New York. His novel Salidas de emergencia (Emergency Exits) was published in Spain and in Italy; his book of poetry Los culpables (The Guilty) was published in Spain. He is a contributor to the quarterlies Encuentro de la Cultura Cubana, Caleta, Replicante and Letras Libres. He has translated into Spanish the novel Flight to Freedom, by Ana Veciana-Suarez, as well as the Newbery Award winning book of poetry The Surrender Tree, by Margarita Engle and, into English, the novel Al norte del infierno, by Miguel Correa Mujica. With Enrique Del Risco, he has written lyrics for Paquito D’Rivera’s operetta Cecilio Valdés, Rey de La Habana (Cecilio Valdes, King of Havana) He lives in New Jersey with his wife, his dogs and a few books, and writes about Cuba, literature and other tropical diseases in his blogs: Belascoaín y Neptuno & Mixing Memory and Desire.

Matthew Sharpe

nnoveno — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:56:08 +0000

Matthew Sharpe is the author of the novels You Were Wrong (published this fall by Bloomsbury), Jamestown, The Sleeping Father, and Nothing Is Terrible, and the short-story collection Stories from the Tube. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He has taught at Wesleyan and Columbia Universities, and in the MFA program at Bard College. He lives in New York City. For more information: http://www.matthew-sharpe.net/?page_id=98

Jessica DuLong

nnoveno — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:55:20 +0000

After journalist Jessica DuLong was laid off from her dot-com job, life took an unexpected turn. A volunteer day aboard an antique fireboat, the John J. Harvey, led to a job in the engine room, where she found a taste of home she hadn’t realized she was missing. Working with the boat’s finely crafted machinery, on the waters of the storied Hudson, made her wonder what America is losing in our shift away from hands-on work. Her questions crystallized after she and her crew served at Ground Zero, where fireboats provided the only water available to fight blazes. Vivid and immediate, My River Chronicles is a journey with an extraordinary guide—a mechanic’s daughter and Stanford graduate who bridges blue-collar and white-collar worlds, turning a phrase as deftly as she does a wrench. As she searches for the meaning of work in America, DuLong shares her own experiences of learning to navigate a traditionally male world, masterfully interweaving unforgettable present-day characters and events with four centuries of Hudson River history. A celebration of craftsmanship, My River Chronicles is a deeply personal story of a unique woman’s discovery of her own roots—and America’s—that raises important questions about our nation’s future.

Phillip Lopate

nnoveno — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:54:12 +0000

Phillip Lopate was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1943 and received a BA from Columbia in 1964, and a doctorate from the Union Graduate School in 1979. He has written fifteen books of poems, essays, novels, film criticism, biographical monograph, urban meditation, and a memoir about teaching. He has edited numerous anthologies including Writing New York (Library of America, 2008) and The Art of the Personal Essay (Doubleday-Anchor, 1994). Phillip has been awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a New York Public Library Center for Scholars and Writers fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts grants, and two New York Foundation for the Arts grants. His most recent books include Two Marriages (Other Press, 2008), Notes on Sontag (Princeton University Press, 2009) and At the End of the Day (Marsh Hawk Press, 2010). He teaches in the MFA graduate programs at Columbia, The New School and Bennington.

Allison Tartalia

nnoveno — Sat, 29 May 2010 17:05:30 +0000

Musical Guest:

“Tartalia is to pop music what granola is to cereal.”
- NYRock.com.

Indeed, Allison Tartalia is not your run-of the-mill songwriter. Her unconventional arrangements, brutally honest lyrics, and wry humor make her as unpredictable as she is unforgettable. Audiences have taken notice at clubs, colleges and festivals around the country. A classically trained pianist, Allison draws upon diverse influences to create her eclectic brand of orchestral chamber pop. In addition to her work as a singer-songwriter, Allison composes for both theater and film. The musical drama 1918: A House Divided, was produced by Theater for the New City, and she recently co-wrote music for the documentary 5,000 Miles From Home.

Diane Schenker

nnoveno — Sat, 29 May 2010 17:04:38 +0000

Having grown up on both coasts and in between, and lived in the Seattle and Paris, Diane Schenker now happily reads and writes poetry in New York City. She has a chapbook, Relation/Couch/Dreaming and has published poems in The Gettysburg Review, Gargoyle, Writers’ Bloc and, of course, SalonZine. Her reviews of poetry appear in coldfrontmag.com and The Boxcar Poetry Review. She has also worked and taught in theater, directed opera, was co-creator of the performance piece Jane Smith Jane Smith (directed by Rinde Eckert) and wrote and staged Nannerl: A Speculative Morality.

Tim Kreider

nnoveno — Sat, 29 May 2010 17:03:56 +0000

Tim Kreider’s work has appeared in Lynx Eye. He currently lives and writes in Philadelphia.

Mira Ptacin

nnoveno — Sat, 29 May 2010 17:03:00 +0000

Mira Ptacin is the founder and host of “Freerange,” a monthly nonfiction reading series. She recently completed her first book, Poor Your Soul, which is a memoir about the uterus and the American Dream. She lives in Brooklyn, loves all dogs and most people.

Meakin Armstrong

nnoveno — Sat, 29 May 2010 17:01:32 +0000

Meakin Armstrong is a freelance writer, an adjunct professor of English, a former employee at The New Yorker, and the fiction editor at Guernica (guernicamag.com). His work has appeared in Noö Journal, elimae, Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, Our Stories Literary Journal, InDigest, Sweeeeet, and three fiction anthologies. His nonfiction has been featured in TheAtlantic.com, TheAlanticWire.com, Time Out New York, and in the books, New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg and Museyon Guides Film + Travel North America. He has received scholarships to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Alyson Greenfield

nnoveno — Sat, 01 May 2010 18:03:36 +0000

MUSICAL GUEST

Alyson Greenfield is a Brooklyn based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who experiments with pianos, guitars, glockenspiels, chord organs, synthesizers, and vintage Casio beats. Alyson’s music has been recognized by Paste, Relix, Beyond Race, The Deli, CTN-Music, and more, and her music has been heard on Fox Television, Rubyfruit Radio (SPIN Magazine’s Essential Mix), and at festivals such as the CMJ Music Marathon, Estrojam, Ladyfest, and EarthFusion. She recently released her first full-length album, “Tuscaloosa,” engineered by Denise Barbarita (David Byrne, Mary J. Blige), and featuring Jason Mercer (Ani DiFranco) on bass. As well as performing on her own, Alyson also performs with the electronic band Future Rock (Matisyhau, The Disco Biscuits), as they cover/remix her songs “Understand the Sky” and “Make Believe.” Alyson is currently working on an album of covers, an album of originals, and her blog project, “Dear Lilith Fair 2010.”