Hal Sirowitz is an internationally known poet and the author of five books of poetry: Mother Said; My Therapist Said; Before, During and After; Father Said; and Stray Cat Blues. His work has been translated into thirteen languages and published in many anthologies and magazines. He was awarded the Nebraska Book Award for Poetry, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. He is also the former Poet Laureate of Queens, New York. 

Virginia Smith lives in Fairmount, Philadelphia, her adopted city, where she reads and writes,  hikes and bikes, serves as a home chef/caterer and interior design wanna’ be, and loves on her family and friends. She feels gratified by her long and hard-working career teaching in the English department at Penn State University, as well as serving as the founder and CEO of Chancellor Writing Services, a coaching service for student writers from middle-high school, college through graduate, and professional school. 

Deborah Fries is a writer, editor and printmaker who works in multiple genres. She is the author of three books of poetry: Various Modes of Departure and The Bright Field of Everything, both published by Kore Press, and Having Visions Again, the 2021 Keystone Chapbook selection from Seven Kitchens Press.

Minter Krotzer's prose has been published in many literary magazines and anthologies, including Before and After: Stories from New York; Louisiana in Words; and Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Twenty-Five Words or Fewer. She has received creative writing fellowships at the New School, where she received an MFA in Creative Nonfiction; Bennington College; the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts; the Squaw Valley Writers Conference; Ragdale; and the Moulin à Nef in France. She is a co-creator of the Parkinson’s Poetry Project.

Susan Brennan is a poet, screenwriter and activist. Her poems can be found in her chapbooks and book, Blue Sirens (Dancing Girl Press), numinous (Finishing Line Press), and Drunken Oasis (Rattapallax Press). She curates poetry programming (WanderWord) at Wilco’s Solid Sound Music Festival, MASS MoCA. See what she’s up to at www.tinycubesofice.com.

Wendy R. Lewis, CEO of The Parkinson Council, and Minter Krotzer will be the evening's hosts.

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