FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


June 9, 2008

Hyphenated Artist Series Examines Writers Resources

Who: Poets Philip Memmer and Georgia Popoff
Where: Downtown YMCA, 340 Montgomery St., Syracuse
When: Saturday, June 21, 11 am – 2 pm
What: Roundtable discussion for writers and literary arts community
Cost: Free

Are you a writer, aspiring or established? Does your organization offer resources to writers? If you answered "yes" to either of those questions, mark your calendar for June 21st.

In an ongoing series of “laboratories” to research the entrepreneurial work of regional artists, Philip Memmer, poet and director of the YMCA’s Downtown Writer’s Center, and poet Georgia Popoff will host a roundtable discussion for all those with an interest in the literary arts on Saturday, June 21st, from 11 am to 2 pm at the Downtown Writer’s Center at the Downtown YMCA. A light lunch will be served. The focus of the Roundtable will be to develop a comprehensive listing of all current CNY literary resources, educate attendees about resources currently available to writers, and develop a regional “wish list” for developing future resources.

The event is free and open to the public. To attend, please call Partners for Arts Education at 234-9911, or email georgia@arts4ed.org.

Philip Memmer is the founder of the YMCA’s Downtown Writer’s Center, the CNY region’s only community center for the literary arts. The DWC hosts the largest poetry and fiction reading series in the region, and also offers a wide variety of creative writing workshops for writers of all experience levels. Beginning in Fall 2008, the DWC will offer DWC PRO, a creative writing certificate program for advanced level writers who are unable to attend a more traditional graduate writing program. Memmer is also the author of five collections of poems, most recently Threat of Pleasure (Word Press, June 2008). His work has appeared in such journals as Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Epoch, and many others; he is currently the poetry editor of Stone Canoe, and associate editor for Tiger Bark Press.

Georgia A. Popoff is a teaching poet in schools and community settings in Central New York and throughout the United States, providing workshops and readings in women’s shelters, adult education and senior centers, juvenile detention facilities, libraries, poetry festivals, and writing conferences.  Ms. Popoff is also a performance poet, spoken word producer, and senior editor of The Comstock Review. She has appeared in numerous journals, anthologies, and web publications.  She has two collections of poetry, The Doom Weaver (Main Street Rag Publications 2008) and Coaxing Nectar from Longing (Hale Mary Press 1997), and is included in the Puddinghouse Press Greatest Hits chapbook series. Additionally, Ms. Popoff is the CNY Program Director for Partners for Arts Education, faculty member of the Downtown Writer’s Center, and a board member of the Association of Teaching Artists.