House Poet: Dead Presidents Club with Von Wise, Blake Melvine & DJ Donald Khaleel Mason
2026-02-11 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
House Poet #27: Dead Presidents Club

Wednesday, February 11, 2026 at 7 p.m. at Fergie’s Pub.
featuring: Von Wise, Blake Melvine and resident DJ Donald Khaleel Mason
Von Wise received his MFA for Creative Writing from Florida International University and is the author of Grow a Cowboy, winner of the 2025 Beyond Words Poetry Chapbook Awards. His poetry and prose have been published and anthologized by Lucky Jefferson, Inverted Syntax, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, Philadelphia Stories, Red Ogre Review, and elsewhere. He teaches English and Creative Writing in Philadelphia, where he lives.

Blake Melvin aka “Baby” is a combination of raw vulnerability, charming confidence , and Pure Honesty. Lead by his “three keys” Bold/OPEN/Truth, Blake is sure to deliver an entertaining and impactful performance.

Khaleel Mason is a 40-year+ veteran of servicing the world with house music, home and abroad. He performed on the show “Welcome to Our House” for 10 years on 105.3 WDAS FM. An organizer, producer, and DJ, Khaleel serves up some of the grooviest beats in Philadelphia’s most welcoming and inclusive spaces.

February 18 - Live at Fergie's Pub
2026-02-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
February 18, 2026 – Live at Fergie’s Pub
Featuring: Alison Hicks, Chloe Yelena Miller, David J. Schast, Laura Tanenbaum and Sean Hanrahan as the host.
Alison Hicks’ fourth collection of poems is Homing. Previous collections are You Who Took the Boat Out and Kiss, and chapbook Falling Dreams. Her work has appeared in Gargoyle, Permafrost, and Poet Lore. She is founder of Greater Philadelphia Wordshop Studio, which offers community-based writing workshops.
Chloe Yelena Miller is the author of Perforated and Viable, and the poetry chapbook Unrest. She co-founded and co-directs Brown Bag Lit, an online writing community. Miller teaches writing and literature through University of Maryland’s Global Campus, Politics and Prose bookstore and New Directions in Writing. Miller has a BA in Italian language, literature and an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College.
David J. Schast is a poet living near Philadelphia who returned to writing after decades of creative and practical pursuits. His work draws on a full, varied life and has appeared in The American Poetry Review, The F-Word, Sheila-Na-Gig Online, Voicemail Poems, and multiple Moonstone Press anthologies.
Laura Tanenbaum is a Professor of English at LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York, where she taught composition, literature and creative writing. Her debut collection, Dear Mother, was published by Main Street Rag in January of 2026. Her poems and short stories have appeared in Rust & Moth, Cleaver Magazine, Aji, Rattle, On the Seawall, and many other publications. She has also published essays and book reviews for The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic, Dissent, and other venues.
Sean Hanrahan Host – Open Reading Follows

Sunday February 22, 2026 - ICE OUT - VIRTUAL
2026-02-22 14:00 - 17:00 | PA
Sunday February 22, 2026 – ICE OUT
Register Here: ICE OUT VIRTUAL READING
Poems about ICE, the Murders of Renee Nicole Good, Alex Pretti, and Others
There are 127 poets, click here for the list of names:

Not all Poets will be Reading – Please join us.

February 25, 2026 - Live at Fergies
2026-02-25 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
February 25, 2026 – Live at Fergies
Featuring: Blaithin Simpson, Julien Smith, and Mac Chandler as host.
Blaithin Simpson is a 22 year old writer who focuses on projecting inner thoughts in abstract ways. She is currently studying creative writing at The New School.
Julien Smith (he/they) is primarily a fiction writer who dabbles in nonfiction flash and poetry. They are often inspired by animals, flowers, the cosmos, and the universe around them. Feeling things deeply runs in their veins.
Mac Chandler Host – Open Reading Follows

March 4, 2026 - Live at Fergie's Pub
2026-03-04 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday March 4, 2026 – Live at Fergie’s Pub
Featuring: Jo Piazza, Christina Rosso-Schneider, and Julianna Forlano as Host
Jo Piazza is an international bestselling author, award-winning journalist, and podcast creator known for 12+ books, including The Sicilian Inheritance and We Are Not Like Them. She hosts the critically acclaimed podcast Under the Influence. Her work spans fiction and non-fiction, often exploring relationships, motherhood, and social commentary.
Christina Rosso-Schneider (she/they) is a queer, disabled writer based outside Philadelphia. She is the author of CREOLE CONJURE and SHE IS A BEAST. Her fiction and nonfiction—often exploring gender, sexuality, fairy tales, and the occult—has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Small Fictions. She is also the co-owner of A Novel Idea, an independent bookstore and event space on Passyunk named one of the best bookstores in the region by The Philadelphia Inquirer, and teaches in the Humanities department at Moore College of Art and Design.
Julianna Forlano of the Italian American Herald and Olive on the Apple Tree on Substack—centering Italianità, ancestral voice, and the stories that both carry us forward and root us to home.
Julianna Forlano Host – Open Reading follows

Saturday March 7, 2026 - ICE OUT - LIVE READING
2026-03-07 17:00 - 19:00 | Samuel S Fletcher Art Memorial, 719 Catherine Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19147, United States
Saturday March 7, 2026 – ICE OUT – LIVE READING
At Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, 719 Catherine Street, Philadelphia
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are acting like the Nazi German SS who were tasked with detection of potential enemies of the state, the neutralization of opposition and providing domestic and foreign intelligence. The SS was most responsible for the genocidal murder of an estimated 6 million Jews and millions of other victims during the holocaust.
On January 7th, ICE agents carrying out an operation in south Minneapolis were briefly obstructed by a car blocking traffic. ICE agents approached the female driver, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, yelling, “Get out of the fucking car,” and one of them attempted to open the driver’s-side door. After the driver backed up to turn around and move, another agent drew his gun and unloaded three shots into the car. The car barreled into a light pole about 100 feet down the road, and the driver was quickly pronounced dead. This is confirmed by eyewitness accounts and videos from multiple angles.
Make Yourself Heard Everyone is Invited

Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series
2026-03-10 18:30 - 19:30 | PA
Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series
Live on PhillyCAM
Can be viewed on the Phillycam website Or Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS, 29/30 In Philadelphia.
Featuring: Lesley Valdes and Charles S. Carr as host
Lesley Valdes, a classically trained pianist, comes to poetry following a career in arts journalism — as classical music critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer and for other national publications and media. She lives in Philadelphia where she is on the faculty of the Fleisher Art Memorial, an instructor of piano, and ardent guest speaker for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. This is her debut collection.

Wednesday March 11, 2026 - Live at Fergie's Pub
2026-03-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday March 11, 2026 – Live at Fergie’s Pub
Featuring: Eli Goldblatt, Michelle Myers, Diane Sahms, Iris Wilde, and Aaren Perry as Host
Eli Goldblatt is Professor Emeritus of English at Temple University and former director of New City Writing.
Michelle Myers is an award-winning poet, author, and educator whose work centers storytelling, cultural memory, and voice.
Diane Sahms is the author of nine poetry collections, most recently, —of an octopus: an archite |x| tural awareness of words.
Iris Wilde is a poet, artist, and former English Teacher from the Philadelphia area. They are queer, neurodivergent, and have chronic, invisible disabilities.
Aaren Perry Host – Open Reading Follows

Sunday March 15, 2026 - Latinx Voices in Poetry: Poetry Without Borders - VIRTUAL
2026-03-15 14:00 - 16:00 | PA
Sunday March 15, 2026 – Latinx Voices in Poetry: Poetry Without Borders
Register Here: Latinx Voices in Poetry: Virtual Poetry Reading
This anthology will include three sections: Remembering Marjorie Agosin, Remembering Ernesto Cardenzal, and Latinx Voices in Poetry: Poetry Without Borders – Poetry by Latin American Poets both in the US and Latin America

Wednesday March 18, 2026 - LIVE at Fergie's Pub
2026-03-18 19:00 - 2026-03-29 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday March 18, 2026 – LIVE at Fergie’s
Featuring: Vincent Bush, Demetra De’Vine, William E. Heston, Matthew Klauber, and Sean Hanrahan as Host
Vincent Bush is a Philadelphia-based mixed media artist and poet. Through his chosen mediums, Vincent explores healing, identity, and the power of love, often using the heart as a universal symbol that transcends culture, religion, and background.
Demetra De’Vine moved on to poetry in middle school. Not published yet but she’s currently working on her first book. She’s performed for open mics and other events in the city. She writes about her experiences as a black queer person born and raised in the lovely city of Philadelphia.
William E. Heston is a poet, painter, musician, and filmmaker whose art focuses on the personal drama of working class life-whether it’s through the lens of gritty realism, low fantasy, or surrealism.
Matthew Klauber is a writer and educator based in the Philadelphia area. A longtime devotee of the Moonstone Arts Center, his work has been published in The Literary Hatchet, Orchards, Calliope, and elsewhere.
Sean Hanrahan Host – Open Reading Follows

Sunday March 22, 2026 - World Poetry Day - Virtual
2026-03-22 14:00 - 16:00 | PA
Sunday March 22, 2026 World Poetry Day – Virtual
Register Here: World Poetry Day – Virtual
World Poetry Day is celebrated on March 21st, and was declared by UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) in 1999, ”with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard”. Its purpose is to promote the reading, writing, publishing, and teaching of poetry throughout the world, and as the original UNESCO declaration says, ”to give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional, and international poetry movements”.

Wednesday April 1, 2026 - LIVE
2026-04-01 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday April 1, 2026 – Live at Fergie’s Pub @ 7pm
Featuring: Peter Baroth, Courtney Bambrick, Emiliano Martin, and Liz Allen as Host
Peter Baroth is a writer, artist, and musician based in the Philadelphia area. He has published a novel, Long Green and his most recent chapbook is Ski Oklahoma. , he is on the editorial board of Philadelphia Stories magazine.
Courtney Bambrick was poetry editor at Philadelphia Stories, her poems appear in American Poetry Review, Spotlong, Mom Egg Review, Landlocked, Clockhouse, Pinhole, Thimble, SWWIM Everyday, New York Quarterly, Invisible City, and more.
Emiliano Martin is a bilingual poet originally from Spain. Martín served as President of “Círculo Español”, was the founding director of the “Philadelphia Poetry Forum”, Executive Director of the Latin American Guild for the Arts in Philadelphia and President of the Pennsylvania Poetry Society.
Liz Allen Host – Open Reading Follows

Wednesday April 8 - LIVE
2026-04-08 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday April 8, 2026 – Live at Fergie’s Pub @ 7pm
Featuring: John Wall Barger, Mac Chandler, Ernest Hilbert, and Sean Lynch as Host
John Wall Barger, author of Praise for Resurrection Pie, is a contract editor for Frontenac House, lives in Vermont, and lectures in the Writing Program at Dartmouth College.
Mac Chandler is a writer from West Philly who has been published in some places and not in others. They currently host quarterly shows for Moonstone Arts, and recently self-published their first collection of poetry, There Is A Thing Haunting Me I Could Grow To Love.
Ernest Hilbert founded the Oxford Quarterly and E-Verse Radio. He has also served as editor of both the Contemporary Poetry Review and Random House’s magazine Bold Type.
Sean Lynch as Host – Open Reading Follows

Sunday April 26, 2026
2026-04-11 08:00 - 17:00 | PA
Sunday April 26, 2026 – VIRTUAL at 2pm
Moonstone Chapbook Contest 2025 – Reading Featuring:
The Winning Manuscript: All at Once by Lucia Owen
High Honorable Mention: Tarifa Moon by Bill O’Connell
Honorable Mention: Bright Clatter by Susan Coppock
Honorable Mention: Shadow House by Ada Lowenthal

PLUS These Exceptional Poets
Aliyah Cotton, author of The Lungs Remember Breath
Anne Greenhaigh, author of Half sun, half shade: a sequence of sestinas
Vincent Hostak, author of The Strangest Fire
Stacie Kiner, author of Abby Road
Brandy Reinke, author of Remnants of the Injury of Finding the Known
Meri Tumanyan, author of Why I Pray in Armenian
Register Here!

Sunday April 12 - LIVE
2026-04-12 15:00 - 17:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Sunday April 12, 2026 – LIVE at Fergie’s Pub @ 3pm
Featuring: Joseph Chelius, Lee Stockdale, Anne-Adele Wight, and Aaron Perry as Host
Joseph Chelius is the author of five collections of poems and is a former Bucks County, Pennsylvania Poet.
Lee Stockdale has won the United Kingdom National Poetry Prize, Montana Prize for Humor, Sidney Lanier Poetry Prize, and others.
Anne-Adele Wight is the author of An Internet of Containment, The Age of Greenhouses, Opera House Arterial, and Sidestep Catapult, all from BlazeVOX.
Aaron Perry Host – Open Reading Follows

Tuesday April 14, 2026 - LIVE on PhillyCam
2026-04-14 18:30 - 19:00 | PA
Tuesday April 14, 2026 – LIVE BROADCAST on PhillyCam @ 6:30pm
Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAM, Can be viewed on the
Phillycam website: PhillyCam Philly Loves Poetry
Or Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS, 29/30 In Philadelphia.
Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series
Anne-Adele Wight is the author of An Internet of Containment, The Age of Greenhouses, Opera House Arterial, and Sidestep Catapult, all from BlazeVOX. Her work has appeared in Poets and Writers, Luna Luna, Adroit Journal, and other publications. She lives and writes in Philadelphia.
Charles S. Carr, Host

Wednesday April 15, 2026 - LIVE
2026-04-15 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wedsnesday April 15, 2026 – Live at Fergie’s Pub @ 7pm
Featuring: C.M. Crockford, Chris DeMento, John Fadely, Alison Lubar, and Sean Hanrahan as Host
C.M. Crockford poems, essays, and stories have been featured in Vastarien, Nobody Magazine, Be About It Press, and The Cleveland Review of Books among many others.
Chris DeMento hosts Poetry Night in collaboration with the cafe Char & Stave, featuring some of the most impressive voices from the PHL region and beyond.
John Fadely won the 2025 Trail to Table Book Award in Poetry for his debut collection, Before Leaving the Island, which will be published on April 21.
Alison Lubar is a Nikkei poet and educator who teaches literature to teenagers, writing to adults, and yoga to all ages. Alison writes about biracial identity, queer love, transgenerational healing, and common moths; they are also a board member for Philadelphia’s Blue Stoop.
Sean Hanrahan Host – Open Reading Follows

Sunday April 19, 2026 - Haiku Poetry Day - Virtual
2026-04-19 14:00 - 16:00 | PA
Sunday April 19, 2026 – Haiku Poetry Day – Virtual
Register Here: Haiku Poetry Day Virtual Reading
National Haiku Day, an initiative of the Haiku Foundation, celebrates the art form every April 17th. A haiku is an ancient form of Japanese poetry that consists of three lines with the sentence structure ”five-seven-five”- although this is contested for being a western way of teaching the haiku. Japanese haikus also count sounds, not only syllables. Haikus typically revolve around nature, the passing of seasons, or ephemeral beauty. At the risk of sounding like your high school English teacher, they rely more on images than metaphors. They’re also very concise, due to their short length.

Wednesday April 22 - LIVE
2026-04-22 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednseday April 22, 2026 – LIVE at Fergie’s Pub @ 7pm
Featuring: Grace Bauer, Sean Hanrahan, Gina Myers, and Anne-Adele Wight as Host
Grace Bauer has published six books of poems and co-edited the anthology Nasty Women Poets: An Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse.
Sean Hanrahan is author of Headless, has taught classes titled A Chapbook in 49 Days, Ekphrastic Poetry, Poetry Embodied and has hosted and read at poetry events throughout Philadelphia.
Gina Myers is the author A Model Year and Hold It Down, she coedits the tiny with Gabriella Torres andruns the Accidental Player reading series.
Anne-Adele Wight Host, Open Reading Follows

Virtual: Moonstone Chapbook Contest Winners 2025
2026-04-26 14:00 - 16:00 | Virtual
Moonstone Chapbook Contest Winners 2025
Sunday April 26, 2026 @ 2pm ET – VIRTUAL
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/NOIi7-_lSja6fp2YjqQPgw
The Winning Manuscript: All at Once by Lucia Owen
Unsentimental yet open hearted, these poems capture a married couple’s long and loyal love. The voice is older. The voice is precise, wise, stoic, and self-reliant. It confronts old age with toughness, compassion, and moral strength. I cherish these poems and the spirit behind them more and more each time I read them.

High Honorable Mention: Tarifa Moon by William O’Connell
A collection of many profound delights, these elegant and precise poems take us on a magnificent journey with a husband and wife through Southern Europe. He shares precise reflections on the places visited including the coastal town of Tarifa. The speaker’s voice is learned, observant, open to awe and discovery of self and place.
Honorable Mention: Bright Clatter by Susan Coppock
These are unforgettable, precise, and stoic poems of a girl’s coming of age and her relationship with her beautiful, cold, and often rejecting actress mother. We get glimpses of her free-spirited dating life during the 1950s and 1960s. These are stirring and compelling poems.

Honorable Mention: Shadow House by Ada Lowenthal
These poems captivate with their witty and playful wordplay, their allusions to all manner of things, and their occasional enthusiastic moments of absurdity. I marvel at this poet’s mind and the way in which she darts here and there as she weaves eclectic images and observations together.

PLUS These Exceptional Poets
Aliyah Cotton, author of The Lungs Remember Breath, her work appears in Adroit, Cortland Review, Emerson Review, Grub Street Literary Journal, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, Redivider, Rust & Moth, Salamander, Southern Humanities Review, and South Carolina Review.
Anne Greenhaigh, author of Half sun, half shade: a sequence of sestinas, Her debut chapbook, Now that mother is dead, all quilts unravel in the end, published by Moonstone Press, features a double crown of sonnets that explore themes of time, memory, and loss.
Vincent Hostak, author of The Strangest Fire poems have been featured in literary journals including The Dewdrop, Sonder Midwest (Iowa), The Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas, and more. He writes & produces a podcast, the Phantom Script, examining the evolution of the world’s most accessible form of literature and how it reaches others.
Stacie Kiner, author of Abby Road Her poems have appeared in Calyx, The Charlotte Poetry Review, Madison Review, Comstock Review, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Apalachee Quarterly, The Ekphrastic Review, Lavender Review, Panoply, Plainsong, Rhino, and more.
Brandy Reinke, author of Remnants of the Injury of Finding the Known, published pieces in: The Redrock Review, Esthetic Apostle, Tulane Review, Glassworks, Big Muddy Review, Microfiction Monday Magazine, Moonstone Arts, Unleash Press, Hare’s Paw Journal, and the HCE Review.
Meri Tumanyan, author of Why I Pray in Armenian, a first-generation Armenian-American, earned a B.A. in English and Comparative Literary Studies from Occidental College and an M.A. in Creative Writing from CSUN. For her, writing is an exploration—a journey toward reconciliation, hope, fresh perspectives, and a deeper self-awareness.

Wednesday April 29 - LIVE
2026-04-29 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday April 29, 2026 – LIVE at Fergie’s Pub @7pm
Featuring: Shannon Frost Greenstein, Emily Rose Reed. With Hosts Warren Longmire & Lindsay Hargrave
Shannon Frost Greenstein resides near Philadelphia with her family and cats. She is the author of Through the Lens of Time, and “These Are a Few of My Least Favorite Things. Shannon is a former Ph.D. candidate in Continental Philosophy and a multi-time Pushcart Prize and BOTN nominee. Her work has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Pithead Chapel, Nimrod Journal, Bending Genres, Parentheses Journal, Litro Mag, Philadelphia Stories, and elsewhere. Shannon’s passions include Friedrich Nietzsche, anti-racism, the Seven Summits, the Hamilton Soundtrack, motherhood, and acquiring more cats.
Emily Rose Reed is a queer trans chaotic mess of a DIY musician, writer, and all around sweetie from Philly/South Jersey who makes music under the name How I Became Invisible. If you have a band she’s probably in it, and she might also be your girlfriend. Find her music at howibecameinvisible.com, and everywhere except Spotify because they’re a garbage company.
Warren Longmire & Lindsay Hargrave Hosts – Open Reading Follows

Sunday, May 3 - LIVE AND VIRTUAL - 3pm
2026-05-03 15:00 - 17:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Remembering Hal Sirowitz
Sunday May 3, 2026 – LIVE at Fergie’s Pub AND Virtual
Hal Sirowitz (March 6, 1949- October 17, 2025) was an American and internationally known poet, who first began to attract attention at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe where he was a frequent competitor in their Friday Night Poetry Slam. He eventually made the 1993 Nuyorican Poetry Slam team and competed in the 1993 National Poetry Slam along with his Nuyorican teammates Maggie Estep, Tracie Morris, and Regie Cabico.
He would later perform his poetry on stages across the country, and on television programs such as MTV’s Spoken Word: Unplugged and PBS’s The United States of Poetry. He wrote five books of poetry: Mother Said, My Therapist Said, Father Said, During and After, and Stray Cat Blues. He was the best-selling translated poet in Norway, where Mother Said has been adapted for the stage and turned into a series of animated cartoons. He has been translated into thirteen languages.
Sirowitz was a 1994 recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Poetry and was the Poet Laureate of Queens. He worked as a special education teacher in the New York public school system for 23 years and was married to the writer Minter Krotzer, who will be attending.
Tom Devaney and Jeff Lee as Hosts

Purchase the anthology featuring over 30 poets honoring Hal and his legacy.
Register Here for Virtual

Wednesday May 6, 2026 - 7pm – LIVE
2026-05-06 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday May 6, 2026 – 7pm – LIVE at Fergie’s Pub
Featuring: Dilruba (Ruba) Ahmed, Barbara Siegel Carlson, Raina J. León, ariel rosé
Dilruba (Ruba) Ahmed is the author of Bring Now the Angels (Pitt Poetry), with poems featured in New York Times Magazine, The Slowdown, and Poetry Unbound. Her poems have appeared in Kenyon Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, and Virginia Quarterly Review. Her work has also been anthologized in Best American Poetry; Halal If You Hear Me; New Moons: Contemporary Writing by North American Muslims; They Rise Like A Wave: An Anthology of Asian American Women Poets; and elsewhere.
Barbara Siegel Carlson is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Current published by Lily Poetry Review Books, 2026. Her poetry and translations have appeared in Verse Daily, Cortland Review, Mid-American Review, Salamander, 2River, The Poetry Porch and others. Her poems have been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. Carlson is a Poetry in Translation Editor of Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices.
Raina J. León, PhD, 2026-2027 Philadelphia Poet Laureate, is a Black, Afro-Boricua poet, writer, and educator from southwest Philadelphia (Lenni Lenape ancestral lands). Her work is grounded in collective action and community engagement, centering storytelling, memory, and the liberatory practice of humanizing education across poetry, visual art, and archival practice. She is the author of black god mother this body, Canticle of Idols, Boogeyman Dawn, sombra : (dis)locate, and several chapbooks, and is the founding editor of The Acentos Review, an international journal dedicated to the promotion and publication of Latinx arts.
ariel rosé is a trans gender / androgynous / queer poet, essayist, and illustrator originally from Poland, resident of Norway, a nomad. Ariel is coming to the United States to read from Both Sides Face East. Durable Words, that they edited: well as their latest poetry collection, morze nocą jest mięśniem serca (the sea at night is a muscle of the heart) nominated for the Orfeusz Award, and Północ. They were for the Most Beautiful Book Award for their illustrations for Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s Kocia Książka (Cat Book).

Tuesday May 12 - PhillyCAM - Philly Loves Poetry
2026-05-12 18:30 - 19:30 | PA
Tuesday May 12, 2026 @ 6:30pm – LIVE BROADCAST
Moonstone Poetry @ PhillyCAM
Can be viewed on the Phillycam website
Or Cable 66/966HD/967 or Verizon FIOS, 29/30
In Philadelphia.
Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Readings Series
Sean Hanrahan (he, him, his) is a Philadelphian poet originally hailing from Dale City, Virginia. He is the author of Headless (Collapse Press), the full-length collections Safer Behind Popcorn (2019 Cajun Mutt) and Ghost Signs (2023 Alien Buddha), and the chapbooks Hardened Eyes on the Scan (2018 Moonstone) and Gay Cake (2020 Toho). His work has also been included in various anthologies and journals. He has taught classes titled A Chapbook in 49 Days, Ekphrastic Poetry, Poetry Embodied, and has hosted and read at poetry events throughout Philadelphia. He can be found on Instagram as gaycakepoet. Sean Hanrahan, author of Headless, Safer Behind Popcorn and Ghost Signs, Hardened Eyes on the Scan and Gay Cake. His work has also been included in various anthologies and journals..
Charles S. Carr, Host

Wednesday May 13, 2026 - LIVE @ 7pm
2026-05-13 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday May 13, 2026 – 7pm
Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom
Convergence: Poetry on Environmental Impacts of War
Convergence: Poetry on Environmental Impacts of War offers a groundbreaking and vital perspective on war’s destruction of the natural world—the creatures, plants, soil, water, and atmosphere of Earth. In poems and contextual comments, 61 contemporary poets focus on military damages to the ecosystems on six continents and the moon. This compelling anthology alerts readers to environmental degradation of our planet while affirming nature’s resilience and regeneration.
Contributors: Ninety poems, each paired with an Author’s Note, by U. S. and international poets, including John Balaban, Gillian Clarke, Camille T. Dungy, Ferida Duraković, W.D. Ehrhart, Willian Heyen, Cynthia Hogue, Denise Low, Craig Santos Perez, Eric Paul Shaffer, Jillian Sullivan, Brian Turner, Pamela Uschuk, and Mai Der Vang.
“Bringing light to a dark place, these geographically and historically wide-reaching poems illuminate how war pulls, from under our feet, the earth on which we stand and pollutes even the air we breathe. Convergence: Poetry on Environmental Impacts of War is unique in its scope and its focus on how war’s intolerable human cost is inseparable from the devastation of nature and its non-human animals—war against life itself. Though, like green shoots from a charred root, here, too, are poems of eloquent witness to nature’s humbling power of resilience and restoration.” —Eleanor Wilner – Chancellor, Academy of American Poets

C. Todd, co-editor of Convergence: Poetry on the Environmental Impacts of War. Her most recent books are Beyond Repair and the bilingual English–Lithuanian What Kept Me Awake? / Kas neleido užmigti?. A former Pew Fellow, she has poems in American Poetry Review, The Paris Review, Pedestal.

D. Ehrhart is a Marine Corps veteran of both the American War in Vietnam and Vietnam Veterans Against the War. His most recent books are Smart Fish Don’t Bite and Getting Shot At: Essays on War, Conflict, and Culture Clash.
Vernita Hall, author of Where William Walked: Poems About Philadelphia and Its People of Color. Poems have appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, African American Review, Barrow Street, and elsewhere.
Rick Kearns is a writer of Puerto Rican and European heritage. His poems have appeared in over 70 publications and six anthologies in the US and Argentina. He was Poet Laureate of Harrisburg. Rick and the Con Alma Quartet blended his poetry with established jazz tunes. A freelance journalist for over 35 years, he writes mostly about Latin American and Indigenous issues.
MaryAnn L. Miller is a poet, printmaker, and book artist. Miller has been thrice nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her work has appeared in the anthologies Illness as a Form of Existence, Welcome to the Resistance, and Stained.
Michelle Servellon is a Salvadoran-American writer and graduate of Stockton University. She lives in South Jersey with her family—whose joy, grief, and anger often become the subject of her pieces. She now dedicates her time at the Long Branch Free Public Library working as a Technology Assistant.

Live Reading: Featured Poets 2025
2026-05-16 14:00 - 16:00 | The Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine Street, 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Saturday, May 16 2026 – 2pm ET
Philadelphia Central Library, Literature Department – 1901 Vine Street
Featured Poets from 2025
Moonstone presents over 100 poetry readings a year, creates a book with some of the presenters poems, and has a live and virtual reading. This is it.
Featured Poets (not all poets will be reading):

Nathalie
Anderson

Peter
Baroth

Grace
Bauer

Nilufer
Bektas

Phoebe
Brown

Christopher
Brown

Sarah
Browning

Sydney
Coffin

Marion
Cohen

Robert
Coles

C.M.
Crockford

CRAIG
CZURY

Eileen
D’Angelo

Bill
Ehrhart

Shannon
Frost Greenstein

Thalia
Geiger

Jenny
Grassl

Julia
Gwiazdowski

Brian
Harper

Faleeha
Hassan

Alison
Hicks

Dennis
Hinrichsen

Ditta Baron
Hoeber

Jones
Irwin

Mackenzie
Lerario

Lynn
Levin

Cameron
MacKenzie

Marjorie
Maddox

Emiliano
Martin

MJ
McGinn

Carol
Metellus

David
Milley

Jane Edna
Mohler

Nader
Rahimi

Sultana
Raza

Don
Riggs

Lynda Gene
Rymond

Amy
Small-McKinney

Karamo Muchuri
Sulieman

Mark
Svenvold

Tara
Tamburello

Elaine
Terranova

Bill
Van Buskirk

BJ
Ward

Bernardine
Watson

Von
Wise

Alexis
Young

Robert
Zaller

Wednesday May 20, 2026 @7pm - LIVE
2026-05-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Wednesday May 20, 2026 @7pm – LIVE at Fergie’s
Featuring: Chris Darrah, Olga Livshin, David Milley, Elijah B Pringle, III, and Sean Hanrahan as Host
Chris Darrah – Unwashed heathen wordsmith. Published several times in area zines. Member of the New Hope Beats. “Heretic Vicar” nome de plume.
Olga Livshin grew up in Ukraine and Russia. Her poetry appears in POETRY, The New York Times, Ploughshares and other journals.
David Milley’s recent work appears in 3rd Wednesdya, Bay Windows, RFD Magazine, Neologism Poetry Journal, and Last Syllable. His collection of poems, Tiller and Shears, will appear under the Aldrich Press imprint in fall 2026.
Elijah B Pringle, III has to credit his experience in Radio, TV, Stage and FIlm, has worked as a dancer, choreographer, actor, director, and vocalist. Facilitator for writing and Performance, Mr. Pringle has been published in almost fifty anthologies, journals, and books.
Sean Hanrahan Host – Open Reading Follows
