Events

Thursday
07/08/10  7-8:30pm
Main Street Rag Publishing Co Reading & Open Mic Series (2nd Thursdays)

Featured authors: Mark Smith-Soto and Sara Claytor

Main Street Rag Publishing Company have joined together  as the newest location for the Main Street Rag Reading Series.  Every Second Thursday at 7pm, co-hosts Debra Kaufman and Stan Absher will start the evening by introducing two of our authors as featured readers, followed by an Open Mic.  Readers, writers and appreciators of poetry, short fiction and creative non-fiction are invited to join in.

Mark Smith-Soto is professor of Romance Languages, editor of International Poetry Review and Director of the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.   Winner of a 2005 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in creative writing, he has published two full-length poetry collections to date, Our Lives Are Rivers [University Press of Florida, 2003], and Any Second Now [Main Street Rag Publishing Co., 2006].  His poetry has appeared in Antioch Review, Kenyon Review, Literary Review, Nimrod, Poetry East, Quarterly West, Rosebud Magazine, The Sun, and numerous other publications.  His manuscript Waiting Room was published in December, 2008, as the winner of Red Mountain Review’s annual chapbook competition. His Fever-Season: Selected Poetry of Ana Istarú came out from Unicorn Press in January, 2010.

Sara Claytor is a native Tar Heel and former teacher of literature, writing & communications at various NC universities and public school systems, Sara Claytor holds two graduate degrees from UNC-CH. Winner of the 2000 Thunder Rain Award in poetry, she was the featured poet for L’Intrigue. Recipient of numerous poetry prizes, two short stories have received first place in Sensations Magazine competition; also first place in short fiction at the Virginia Highlands Festival and first place in The Charlotte Writer’s Club Elizabeth Simpson Smith Award. Fiction and poetry have appeared in over 100 publications, including: New Press Literary Quarterly; Miller’s Pond; California Quarterly; Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies; Spire; The Crucible; The Pedestal Magazine; The Savannah Literary Journal, The Pisgah Review. Pudding House Publications published her chapbook “Reviving the Damsel Fish” (2007). A full-length poetry book, “Howling on Red Dirt Roads,” was published by Main Street Rag in 2008. This book was one of the two poetry volumes selected for recognition by the Poetry Council of NC for the year 2008. Another full-length poetry book “Keeping Company With Ghosts” is under contract with Rock Way Press. For some years she has been active with the NC Poetry Society, serving on its Board as Director of the Student Poetry Contests, the Brockman-Campbell Book Award, and as Vice-President for Programs. Currently, she co-ordinates the McIntyre NC Poetry Society Reading Series at McIntyre’s Fine Books in Fearrington Village.

The Main Street Rag Publishing Company, a bindery and a publisher based in Charlotte, has published a quarterly print magazine since 1996. Among its features are poetry, short fiction, photography and graphic images, essays, interviews, reviews, cartoons and commentary.  MSR also publishes poetry through their annual chapbook and full-length poetry collection contests.  They also help writers self-publish their works; from design, layout and printing to shipping the books out.