St. Louis Poetry Center

Schlafly BottleworksObservable Readings

are held at 8 p.m. on the scheduled dates at the fabulous Schlafly Bottleworks at 7260 Southwest Ave. in Maplewood. Click here for a map. Admission is free.

First Thoughts from
Observable Readings

Robert Lowes

Devin Johnston admires the virtues of anonymous poetry, which does not load down the reader with the weight of the author's life. Likewise, a poet’s style can sometimes trouble him when it takes center stage. | Read More

First Thoughts Archives

January Observable Reading

Thursday, January 08, 2009 at 03:44 PM: Quincy Troupe and Patrick Rosal

Quincy Troupe is the author of eight volumes of poetry, three children’s books, and six non-fiction works. The Pursuit of Happyness, a biography, was a New York Times bestseller; The Architecture of Language, a book of poems, won the 2007 Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement. Transcircularities: New and Selected Poems won the 2003 Milt Kessler Poetry Award and was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the ten best books of poetry published in 2002. His most recent book for children is Little Stevie. He is editor of Black Renaissance Noire, a literary journal of the Institute of Africana Studies at New York University.

Patrick Rosal is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Uprock Headspin Scramble and Dive, which won the Members' Choice Award from the Asian American Writers' Workshop, and most recently MyAmerican Kundiman, which won the Association of Asian American Studies 2006 Book Award. His poems and essays have been published widely in journals and anthologies including Harvard Review, Crab Orchard Review, Indiana Review, North American Review, The Literary Review, and Black Renaissance Noire. He has served as visiting writer at Penn State Altoona, Centre College, and the University of Texas, Austin. He taught creative writing for many years at Bloomfield College and twice served on the faculty of Kundiman's Summer Retreat for Asian American Poets.