Kirsten Mosher

Kirsten Mosher

Kirsten Mosher is an American artist and author based in Western Massachusetts. Mosher is engaged in video, writing, studio work and art in public places. At once subversive and always playful, Mosher's work draws attention to how context transforms the language of urban scenes, signs and furniture by navigating and challenging everyday boundaries. Mosher often documents the relationships between and beyond seemingly opposing spaces: inside/outside, private/public, natural/artificial: A baseball diamond merges with a busy intersection; a road extends into the interior of a gallery; and in her performance "Carmen," she crosses streets and parks as an amalgamation of human and car.  Mosher has been exhibiting her work nationally and internationally since the late 1980s, at venues such as the Venice Biennale Aperto, Villa Arson, Nice, France, the Museum of Modern Art, the Public Art Fund, NYC, Boston Center for the Arts, and MUSAC in Leon Spain. Her installation Soul Mate 180° for which she received the LACMA Art+Technology Award was exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2020. In 2024 she was invited to participate in an artist residency and exhibition Word is Round at the FRAC Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France. Mosher’s practice includes artist books, stories and poetry. Her Gumhead books were published by MUSAC in Leon, Spain and Revenge of the Nice Dogs by the Villa Arson, Nice France. Her recently published chapbooks are Zero (minutes to) Home, published by Selektion, and Plea$e Steal Me for 100 Plus Dollar-zz, Lily Poetry Review Books. Her stories can be found in Minor Literature[s], and Exacting Clam, Magazine Sonder, Bath Flash Fiction Anthology, HAVE, HAS, HAD and forthcoming in Wigleaf. Her series Automotive Stories occasionally show up in the Automotive sections of local newspapers.  Mosher has lectured, conducted professional development workshops, and created publications, and worked as an art educator at institutions such as Dia Art Foundation, LA County Museum, C.C.S. Bard College, Boston Center for the Arts, and Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts de Lyon, France.

Maria Luisa Arroyo Cruzado

María Luisa Arroyo Cruzado was born in Manati, Puerto Rico, and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts. She received a BA from Colby College, an MA from Tufts University, and an MFA from Pine Manor College. Arroyo Cruzado writes poetry and prose that code-switch between English, Farsi, German, and Spanish—the cultural languages of her experiences. She is the author of Thought Here Would Cure Me of There (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2024); Landscapes: photos & poems (MultiCreative Wisdom, 2023); Resistencia: Resilience (Human Error Publishing, 2023), a collection of poems and essays; the chapbook Destierro Means More than Exile (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018); and Gathering Words/Recogiendo palabras (Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe, 2008). Arroyo Cruzado has been awarded both a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship and New England Public Radio’s Arts and Humanities Award. She is also the recipient of an honorary degree from Smith College.  In 2014, Arroyo Cruzado was named the inaugural poet laureate of Springfield, Massachusetts. She is currently a Clark Fellow and is pursuing a PhD in comparative literature at SUNY Binghamton.

Kevin Carberry & Ellen Miller-Mack

Kevin & Ellen read from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass : the first 25 "cantos", in honor of its publication on 4July 1855. Walt Whitman is America’s world poet—a latter-day successor to Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Shakespeare. In Leaves of Grass (1855, 1891-2), he celebrated democracy, nature, love, and friendship. This monumental work chanted praises to the body as well as to the soul, and found beauty and reassurance even in death. Along with Emily Dickinson [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/emily-dickinson], Whitman is regarded as one of America’s most significant 19th-century poets and would influence later many poets, including Ezra Pound [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ezra-pound], William Carlos Williams [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-carlos-williams], Allen Ginsberg [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/allen-ginsberg], Simon Ortiz [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/simon-j-ortiz], C.K. Williams [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/c-k-williams], and Martín Espada [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/martin-espada]. from The Poetry Foundation

Lesle Lewis

Lesle Lewis is the author of six poetry collections:  Small Boat  (2003), Landscapes I & II (2006),  lie down too (2011), A Boot’s a Boot (2014),  Rainy Days on the Farm (2019), John’s Table (2026) and the chapbooks,  It’s Rothko in Winter or Belgium  (2012), and Hydrogen (2025).  A new book, Survival of the Fittest Pronoun, is due out this fall.  She graduated from the UMass MFA program in 1995 .   She lives in the New Hampshire woods.

Carol Edelstein

Carol Edelstein, with Robin Barber, co-founded Gallery of Readers Press. With Liz George, she edits Switch, a journal of micro fiction. She is the author of three books of poems, most recently Past Repair (Simian Press, 2021). Her poetry and fiction have been featured in numerous anthologies and literary magazines, including The Massachusetts Review, The Georgia Review, and Alaska Quarterly Review. Her collection titled 73 very short stories will appear in the fall.