Poets @ Large

TWO HEAVY HITTING POETS TO READ AT THE VANILLA BEAN CAFÉ

The fall spoken word/poetry series at The Vanilla Bean Café continues on October 28^th, 7-9 p.m. with two heavy hitting poets. Julie Choffel and Doug Anderson will perform at this event. Admission is $15.00 and includes a give-away. These events are recommended for ages 14 and up. There will be an open mic as time allows, 5-minute max, after the featured readers. To sign up email karen.warinsky@gmail.com.

Julie Choffel is a poet whose work has appeared in Orion, Barrow Street, Posit, New American Writing, and many other publications. She is the author of The Hello Delay (Fordham), The Chicories (Ethel Press), and most recently The Inevitable Return of What We Do Not Love (Finishing Line Press). Born and raised in Austin, Texas, she lives near Hartford and teaches at the University of Connecticut.

Poet Doug Anderson grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. He served as a combat medic in the Vietnam War, and after Vietnam attended the University of Arizona, where he studied acting. He started writing poetry after he moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, and worked with the poet Jack Gilbert.

Anderson has written about his experiences in the Vietnam War in both poetry and nonfiction. He is the author of the poetry collections The Moon Reflected Fire (1994), the winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and Blues for Unemployed Secret Police (2000). In 2009 he published his memoir, Keep Your Head Down: Vietnam, the Sixties, and a Journey of Self-Discovery. His most recent book is Horse Medicine (Barrow Street Press, 2015). Anderson’s awards include a grant from the Eric Mathieu King Fund of the Academy of American Poets, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Pushcart Prize. Anderson has taught at the University of Connecticut, Eastern Connecticut State University, and the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Its Social Consequences at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.