April 12th - Patrick James Dunagan, Jackie Motzer, Ryan Newton

Dear Portland,

Welcome to SMORG, a reading series/journal collaborative hosted by myself, Jesse Morse, and the exquisite Jeff Butler. Please come out to our inaugural reading, April 12th at 7:30, with poets Jackie Motzer, Ryan Newton and Patrick James Dunagan. The reading will be at The Waypost, 3120 N Williams Ave., an intimate and supportive coffee ale house.

This is Jackie Motzer's first Portland reading. Raised and undergrad-ed in Southern Ohio, she studied Poetics at the New College of California earning an M.F.A. in 2003. She was the featured poet in the debut issue of Ellipsis magazine. Her first book, The Nymph Poem, is forthcoming from Snag Press this spring. Today is her mother's birthday.

Ryan Newton has spent the last year living near Cincinnati, Ohio, working as a bookseller. Prior to that, the author lived in San Francisco, where he studied at New College, within the now defunct Poetics program. Along with poets Richard Froude, Jesse Morse, and Erik Anderson, he is a rotating editor and contributor to the low fi publication Pop Seance.

Patrick James Dunagan lives in San Francisco and works at the library of USF. Poems and book reviews have appeared in Artvoice (Buffalo), Blue Book, Cannibal, Chain, Galatea Ressurects, Jacket, One Less Magazine, Pompom, St. Mark's Poetry Project Newsletter, and elsewhere. Chapbooks include: After the Sinews (Auguste, SF, CA) and Fess Parker (Red Ant, Portland, OR).

Hope to see you there . . .