Free Verse: Pierre Joris & Nicole Peyrafitte

Walker Art Center — January 22, 2004

Pierre Joris and Nicole Peyrafitte gave an awe-inspiring voco-visual performance, incorporating music, art, and poetry in their presentation SUMERICABACHBONEs, a double tryptich traveling from Mesopotamia to America to Europe.

Lisa Jarnot

Speedboat Books and Art Gallery — February 15, 2004

Lisa Jarnot read from her latest collection Black Dog Songs to a packed room of cold weather-defying poetry lovers, weaving meditative lyrics on chinchillas and tapirs with “music-of-rhythmed sounds.”

Matthea Harvey & D.A. Powell

Minnesota Center for Photography — Friday, March 19, 2004

Two Graywolf Press poets read from their recently published work to a standing-room-only crowd at the Minnesota Center for Photography in Minneapolis. Matthea Harvey read her humorous and surreal poems from Sad Little Breathing Machine. D. A. Powell read his eloquent and astonishing poems from Cocktails.

The Prose Poem: A Panel

Minnesota Book Awards Celebration — April 25, 2004

Moderated by Eric Lorberer, a panel consisting of local prose poem practitioners Diane Glancy, Ray Gonzalez, and Jim Heynen discussed a few of the controversies surrounding this elusive genre.

Simon Pettet & William D. Waltz

Tuesday, May 18, 2004,
No Name Exhibitions at the Soap Factory

Two practitioners of verse paired up for a dazzling reading amidst No Name's exhibit “Your Heart Is No Match For My Love.” Pettet, an active participant in the New York art scene since the late ’70s, read from his Selected Poems. Local poet and editor of Conduit, Waltz read from his first publication Zoo Music.

Joanna Fuhrman

Rain Taxi Salon — June 19, 2004

The author of Freud in Brooklyn and Ugh Ugh Ocean read work in progress from her captivating “Moraine” series.

Steve Healey

No Name Exhibitions at the Soap Factory—September 17, 2004

Rain Taxi Reading Series inaugurated its 2004 Fall season with a book-launch party for local writer Steve Healey, who read from his stirring debut poetry collection, Earthling, to a 100+, standing-room-only crowd.

Rebecca Wolff & Catherine Wagner

Micawber's Books—September 20, 2004

Two of the finest young voices in poetry visited the Twin Cities as part of their nationwide tour. Both read from their second books: Rebecca Wolff read from Figment, which won the Barnard Women Poets Prize, and Catherine Wagner read from Macular Hole, published by Fence Books.

2004 Twin Cities Book Festival

Minneapolis Community & Technical College — October 16, 2004

At this all-day extravaganza celebrating books, nearly 4000 people attended the exhibitor fair and reading events. Feature authors included: Chris Baty, Zander Cannon, Janet Desaulniers, Kate DiCamillo, Karen Joy Fowler, Fanny Howe, Wayne Koestenbaum, Rick Kupchella, Doug Nufer, Sheila O'Connor, Julie Schumacher, Eleni Sikelianos, and Sun Yung Shin.

Noah Eli Gordon and Eric Baus

Speedboat Books & Gallery — October 28, 2004

Two rising stars of poetry read from their recent publications. Noah Gordon read from The Frequencies and from a new manuscript. Eric Baus read from The To Sound and a delightful new poem about toy trains.

Kathleen Fraser

Minnesota Center for Photography — November 11th, 2004
co-sponsored by the Walker Art Center.

Reading to a packed room on a lovely, crisp November evening, Fraser threaded texts from her book of essays, Translating the Unspeakable: Poetry and the Innovative Necessity and her newest collection of poetry, DISCRETE CATEGORIES FORCED INTO COUPLING. She also treated the audience to a language defying reading of her cut-up poem, hi dde violeth i dde violet.