Monsters of Poetry

media release: Monsters of Poetry is a literary reading series in Madison, Wisconsin, founded in 2009. We host public readings featuring poets and writers from across the country and throughout the Midwest. While the readings are free, we hold a raffle featuring a treasure trove of literary ephemera, signed books, handmade notecards and carefully curated mix CDs, with all raffle donations going to the evening's readers.

November readers:

Chessy Normile is currently the Ronald Wallace Poetry Fellow at The Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing at UW-Madison. Her book of poems, Great Exodus, Great Wall, Great Party, was selected by Li-Young Lee for the 2020 APR/Honickman First Book Prize.

Jeffrey McDaniel is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Thin Ice Olympics (Write Bloody, 2022) Other books include: Holiday in the Islands of Grief (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020), Chapel of Inadvertent Joy (Pittsburgh, 2013), The Endarkenment (Pittsburgh, 2008), The Splinter Factory (Manic D Press, 2002), The Forgiveness Parade (Manic D, 1998), and Alibi School (Manic D, 1995). McDaniel’s poems have appeared in numerous places, including The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, The New York Times, and Best American Poetry 1994, 2010, and 2019. Recipient of an NEA fellowship, he teaches at Sarah Lawrence College. 

Daniel Khalastchi is the author of three books—Manoleria (Tupelo Press), Tradition (McSweeney’s), and American Parables (University of Wisconsin Press, winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry). A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a former fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, his work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in The American Poetry Review, Granta, and the National Jewish Book Council's Paper Brigade. Daniel lives in Iowa City where he recently served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and currently directs the University of Iowa’s Magid Center for Writing. He is the cofounder and managing editor of Rescue Press.

Caryl Pagel is the author of three books of poetry—Free Clean Fill Dirt (University of Akron Press, 2022), Twice Told, and Experiments I Should Like Tried At My Own Death—as well as the essay collection Out of Nowhere Into Nothing (FC2, 2020). She is a publisher and editor at Rescue Press and the director of the Cleveland State University Poetry Center. She teaches poetry and nonfiction at Cleveland State University and in the NEOMFA program.

Newsletter: https://tinyletter.com/monstersofpoetry