Observable Readings

Three Missouri Poets Schooled in Light, Inner Light, and Lightning Visit Observable Readings April 8 at Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood

Monday, January 11, 2010 at 07:01 PM

Seido Ray Ronci is a Zen monk, the resident teacher of Hokoku-An Zendo in Columbia, and a professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia where he teaches critical theory, postmodern American poetry and world literature. His most recent book of poems, The Skeleton Of The Crow – New and Selected Poems 1978 – 2008, was awarded the 2009 PEN Center USA Award for Poetry.  He is the author of five other books and chapbooks, and his work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Iowa Review, Ploughshares, Agni, Rattle and elsewhere. To read a newspaper profile of Ronci as well as one of his poems, click here. 

 Mary Ruth Donnelly’s second chapbook, Weaving the Light, has recently appeared from Cherry Pie Press.  A poem titled “Women at Sunrise” from this chapbook has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her first chapbook, Tomb Figure, was published by Snark Publishing.  Her work has appeared in Natural Bridge, River King, Cottonwood Review and other journals and in Loosely Identified’s anthology Breathing Out. A Kansas City native, Donnelly now lives downriver in St Louis. Rivers and roads, as both boundaries and connectors, serve as seed to much of her work.  Besides poetry, she writes occasional articles, reviews, and academic papers, usually focusing on relationships among nature, culture, and women.    She is the interim president of the St. Louis Poetry Center and a professor emerita at Southwestern Illinois College. To read selections from Weaving the Light, click here.

James Arthur's first book of poetry, Charms Against Lightning, is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press. His poems have appeared or will appear in The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Southern Review, Shenandoah, Narrative, and Ploughshares. He has received the Amy Lowell Travelling Poetry Scholarship, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry, and a Discovery/The Nation Prize, as well as residencies at Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and the Sacatar Foundation. He lives in St. Louis with his wife, fiction writer Shannon Robinson.  He blogs at www.jamesarthurtravel.blogspot.com. To read one of his poems, click here.