SummerGazeboSeries

June 11th:

Our second week was again threatened by rain (indeed those in attendance ate their picnic dinners in the Gazebo, sheltered from the weather). But, again as if on cue, when it came time to read the sun broke through and it was a great night!

We were treated to readings by Ada Limon, a very talented poet who travelled to us from Manhattan ( http://adalimon.com/Site/Home.html), and our neighbor Peter Dugan, an award-winning, published poet from East Rockaway. Once again the crowd had a great time and lingered long after the readings were over. (I read the lyrics of two songs from the incredible John Gorka http://johngorka.com/.

Coming up this Monday (June 18th) is a mixed bag of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. It simply cannot rain three weeks in a row--so come out and enjoy a pleasant summer's evening on the Green!

June 18th featured Readers

Jill Abbott's nonfiction has appeared in newspapers and magazines in the USA, UK, and Australia, including The Washington Post and The Independent. She has been a staff writer at The Queens Courier and the Brooklyn Home Reporter and is a contributor to The

Queens Chronicle.

She's also a regular contributor to The New York Daily News, The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), and The Writer magazine (US) with a feature on adapting short

stories to screenplays coming out in August. She has a short story being published this fall in

Queens Noir edited by Robert Knightly former MysteryWriters of America/New York Chapter (MWA/NY) President.

Jillian received her initial training in RMIT's writing program in Australia, earning her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine in the USA. She is the Vice-President of the MysteryWriters of America/New York Chapter.

Robert G. (Bob) Muller is the author of Long Island's Lighthouses: Past and Present (2004) and New York State Lighthouses (2006). He was the founding president of the Long Island Lighthouse Society, is the founder of LongIslandLighthouses.com, and was the recipient of the US Lighthouse Society's 2005 President's Award for "outstanding contributions to lighthouse preservation." Bob frequently conducts tours, narrates history cruises, and lectures on lighthouse history. His current writing project is a children's book based on the real-life adventures of Wobbles the Lighthouse Kitty. He is also a performing musician, photographer, and kitchen and bath designer.

Wendy Wisner's first book of poems, Epicenter, was released by CustomWords in 2004.

Recent poems have appeared in The Spoon River Review, Natural Bridge, Flint Hills Review, Pebble Lake Review, and online at Verse Daily. Wendy received an MFA in poetry from Hunter College, and her awards include an Academy of American Poets Prize and the 2003 Amy Award.

June 18th:

We finally had a rain-free day--and the evening on Schoolhouse Green could not have been nicer! Clear skies, nice breeze, a setting sun-- and 4 wonderful readers! Many thanks to Jill Abbott, Bob Muller, Janet Hannigan and Wendy Wisner, for readings on, respectively: mystery, lighthouses, poetry and poetry-- interesting, entertaining and fun!

We are very proud to host this week's readers. Two are popular Oceansiders, two are among Long Island's finest poets:

Grace Griffin is a born-and-bred Oceansider from one of our most esteemed families. A popular Middle-school English teacher, she is a former trustee of the Library Board, is the advisor to the Kiwanis-sponsored Builder's Club, and is active in many community organizations. She is one of Kiwanis' favorite people, and it is a delight for us that she'll be reading.

Born and raised in Rochester, NY, Mike Griffin has lived in Oceanside since 1972. He received his doctorate from Columbia University. A former Superintendent of Schools, he retired from his position, Executive Director of Instructional Support and Techonolgy Services at Easter Suffolk BOCES, in 2002. He is currectly doing consulting work in several Long Island School Districts.

Yolanda Coulaz is a poet and photographer, owner/editor of Purple Sage Press, and (to pay the bills) she owns and operates a security systems company with her husband, Roy. Her poetry has won a number of awards and has been widely published. In April, 2006, she published the anthology For Loving Precious Beast to help benefit their cause. Her first book of poetry Spirits and Oxygen was released in October, 2003. Her second book is forthcoming.

Sandy McIntosh's collections of poetry include The After-Death History of My Mother, Between Earth and Sky (Marsh Hawk Press), Endless Staircase (Street Press), Earth Works (Long Island University), Which way to Egress? (Garfield Publishers), and two chapbooks: Obsessional (Tamafyhr Mountain Poetry) and Monsters of the Antipodes (Survivors Manual Books). His prose includes Firing Back, with Jodie-Beth Galos (John Wiley & Sons), From a Chinese Kitchen (American Cooking Guild), and The Poets In the Poets-In-The-Schools (Minnesota Center for Social Research, University of Minnesota). His poetry and essays have been published in The New York Times, Newsday, The Nation, the Wall Street Journal, American Book Review, and elsewhere. His original poetry in a film script won the Silver Medal in the Film Festival of the Americas. He has been Managing Editor of Confrontation magazine published by Long Island University, and is Managing Editor of Marsh Hawk Press, Forty-Nine Guaranteed Ways To Escape Death will be published in September, 2007. Sandy holds a PhD. in English and was a professor of Creative Writing at Hofstra and Long Island universities. (Marsh Hawk Press is one of our sponsors).

Richard Vetere a novelist, playwright, film and TV writer and actor. He teaches a masterscreenwriting class at NYU and screenwriting at Queens College. He wrote the novel The Third Miracle published by Simon & Schuster and he co-authored the screenplay which stars Ed Harris, Anne Heche and is produced by Francis Ford Coppola. The novel has been translated into seven languages so far. He is also the author of eleven plays all published by Dramatic Publishing. His play Machiavelli, which ran Off-Broadway last season and his play Caravaggio, which had its world premiere in Chicago last season, will both be available this month. He wrote the movie How To Go Out on a Date in Queens which stars Jason Alexander and Kimberely Williams. His other movies include The Marriage Fool staring Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett and Vigilante . His new musical A 100 Yrs Into the Heart opens Off-Broadway this fall. His TV shows include Threat Matrix for ABC and The Wonder for CBS produced by George Clooney. He has two volumes of published poetry Memories of Human Hands and A Dream of Angels. He is on the board of directors for the Queens International Film Festival and a member of Writers Guild, Dramatist Guild, Authors Guild, Poets & Writers and represented by the William Morris Agency. He is a born and raised New Yorker.

Geri Lipschultz has published in The New York Times, Kalliope, Black Warrior Review, Dunes Review, North Atlantic Review, College English, and others. She was awarded a CAPS grant from NY State for one of her novels. Rob Bundy directed a staged reading of her full-length play, and she performed in her one-woman show, Once Upon the Present Time, produced in NYC by Woodie King, Jr. She has directed and produced children's theatre, and her production, Rising Above the Shadow -- Women's Artistic Responses to September 11th, featured the work of fifty women artists – painters, musicians, dancers, writers. Her fiction was nominated for the Foley award, and she was also a Heekin semi-finalist. She teaches writing at Suffolk Community College and has taught thousands of children as a poet in the schools. She received her MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Adriana DiGennaro, a member of the Academy of American Poets and the Italian American Writers Association (IAWA), is a graduate of Bennington College in Vermont where she studied literature and creative writing. A native New Yorker, her second book of poetry, Acts of Contrition, was published in Spring 2007 by Windstorm Creative. Peripheral Vision, her first book published in 2001 by Writers Ink Press, debuted when she was just 17. That same year she was on Red River Review's list of nominees for a Pushcart Prize.

Ms. DiGennaro's poetry has been featured in Edifice Wrecked, The Abrabesque Review, BigCityLit, Red River Review, PoetryBay, Merge, The Aurora Review, Poetz, Boston Literary Review, The Tipton Poetry Journal, Tryst, Ancient Heart (United Kingdom), Eclectica, City Writers Review (NYC), Poetry Midwest, Esopian, Adagio Verse Quarterly, Falling Star Magazine, Flutter, Wonder Writings, Long Island Quarterly, Triplopia, Ward6Review, Clean Sheets, Sidereality, Southern Ocean Review (New Zealand), Perigee, Sage of Consciousness and The Improper Hamptonian. She is the youngest poet whose work is featured in The Light of City and Sea (Street Press 2006), an anthology of Suffolk County poetry edited by Suffolk County Poet Laureate Daniel Thomas Moran.

Other anthologies with her work include Southshire Pepper-Pot: A Literary Feast With Culinary Refrains (Windstorm Creative, 2006); Susan B. & Me: An International Collection of Women's Writings & Photographs edited by Patricia Ronsvalle, LCSW (Big Kid Publishing, 2006); In Our Own Words: A Generation Defining Itself edited by Marlow Peerse Weaver (MWE Press, 2005), Whispers of Inspiration: An Anthology of New American Poets edited by Darlene and Steven Manchester (Sunpiper Press, September 2005); Ancient Heart Magazine Poetry Anthology Vol. III edited by Richard van der Draaij (Ancient Heart Press, 2005). To watch a short video of her reading at Good Times Books, Port Jefferson, NY, go to: www.poetryvlog.com .

A born city dweller and dreamer obsessed with all forms of reggae music, she needs lots of sunlight and is happiest when in transit. She is always in search of adventure. She lives and works in New York City.

Corrine Zachary grew up on Long Island and now lives in Bayside after graduating from St. John's University with an M.A. in English. She recently became an associate editor at celebratewithstyle.com a website, media company, and soon to be magazine.

She has been writing poetry for about 6 years now, and looks forward to her first public reading outside of St. John's University.

Starr Cline is, first and foremost, a long-time Oceanside resident (tho recently re-located), and the wife of fellow Kiwanian Jerry Cline. She is a nationally-recognized expert on the education of gifted children. She holds a Bachelors of Arts in English Literature and elementary education from Molloy College, a Masters of Science in both Special Education and Reading from Hofstra, and a Doctorate from Teachers College Columbia University. She is the author of numerous books, including: Giftedness Has Many Faces, Diverse Populations of Gifted Children, The Independent Learner, The Independent Learner Resource Guide, and Teaching for Talent. A teacher for 25 years, she now is a much-sought after consultant, providing training and seminars nationwide.

Dan Giancola is Professor of English at Suffolk County Community College's Riverhead campus. He is the author of three books of poetry, Powder & Echo: Poems About Long Island's Role in the American Revolutionary War (Canio's Editions, 1991), Songs From the Army of the Working Stiffs (Karma Dog Editions, 1998), and, most recently, Part Mirth, Part Murder (Street Press, 2006) as well as two chapbooks, The Window Washer (The Landlocked Press, 1984) and Pool (Salient Seedling Press, 1992). His essays have appeared in the Southampton Press, the Sag Harbor Herald, The East Hampton Star and the New York Times.

Manhattan Madness Performers

Betsy Transom is the President of the Oceanside Education Foundation and, together with her husband Bob, the driving force behind the creation of Schoolhouse Green. She is a long-time community activist here in Oceanside, with activities and credentials too long to list.

After graduating from Boston College with a triple major in English, Speech Communications and Theatre, Betsy moved to Manhattan for 12 years where she guarded doors at Saturday Night Live, helped cast Alec Baldwin in his first TV role, understudied for Julie Kavner at the Astor Place Theatre and wrote for The Doctors, Ryan's Hope, Another World and Guiding Light. She also acted and directed at The Directors Company, where Manhattan Madness was first produced in 1989. Betsy moved to the "the Island that is Long" immediately after to star as the mother of three spirited sons. Her MM co-author, Michael Norton - a fellow comedy writer and BC grad - was last sighted working as a branding exec somewhere in the Madness.

She will be joined by:

Cindy Weinman, a senior at OHS, is President of Thespian Troupe #132. She most recently appeared as Mrs. Meers in the OHS production of Thoroughly Modern Millie. A singer and actress since age nine, Cindy has studied at the Manhattan School of Music and aspires to be a classical singer. In addition to her singing and dancing, Cindy plays piano, works two jobs – and is an honor student! (Cindy sang so beautifully at our Patriotic readings on July 2!)

Eddie Grosskreuz, a 2002 OHS grad, Eddie received his BA from Marist in Communications and Public Relations. He is currently working on his Masters in adolescent education at Adelphi. Eddie has acted in over 75 plays from high school to local, upstate and touring companies. He is currently appearing as Smokey in Damn Yankees at Plaza Theatrical Productions. At the end of the month, he will be playing Horatio in their production of Hamlet.

George Wallace was born in Hempstead LI in 1949 and raised in Huntington NY. He was educated at Cold Spring Harbor HS (1967), Syracuse University (AB, 1971) the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (MPH, 1979) and Pacific University (MFA 2008).

Wallace traveled and worked abroad for two decades as a US Peace Corps Volunteer, US Air Force Officer and Public Health administrator, and he returned to his native Long Island in 1988, where he is a journalist, local historian and poet.

His poems are translated into over a dozen languages and published in magazines worldwide, As of 2006 they have been collected in fourteen books, published in the US, UK and in Italy. He performs his work at festivals and universities, coffee shops and libraries, and at other venues throughout the United States and Europe.

He has recently appeared at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea Wales; Howlfest, NYC; Woody Guthrie Festival, Okemah Oklahoma; and the Beat Museum in San Francisco.

In 2003 George Wallace was named the first Poet Laureate for Suffolk County NY.

Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan is the founder and president of The North Sea Poetry Scene. http://groups.msn.com/TheNorthSeaPoetryScene , she was a 2005 nominee for Poet Laureate of Suffolk County, New York, and nominated in 2006 for Pulitzer Prize for poetry book, Let Me Tell You Something. Her books & CD include: Between Willow and Cedars (2003), The Bitter The Sweet (Street Press 2004), One Woman's Voice (The North Sea Poetry Scene Press2005), Let Me Tell You Something (Street Press, 2006), and For Michael, (to be released Summer, 2007). She is working on a new manuscript, Howling the Moon (to be released Spring, 2007). Nuzzo-Morgan is the Editor of Long Island Sounds Anthology. She is creating an archival center for Long Island poetry that will be a gathering place for poets, whose Web site can be found at http://www.lipoetryarchivalcenter.com .

J. Byron Lasko is a published poet and songwriter and has been a professional copywriter for over twenty years. He began his career during college as Editor in Chief of Sequoya, the St. John's University literary magazine, and as a songwriter, performing his music in clubs in and around New York City. When his songs caught the attention of people at Sun Sign Music, it led to a publishing and recording contract, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers membership, and several years of touring with the group Tryad. When the group disbanded, he embarked on a career in advertising – first with J. Walter Thompson and then later founding his own advertising agency. "It was Thirty Something for real", Lasko remarks, and for a number of years his agency did very well as a "boutique" company for very creative and targeted campaigns.

Beauty of Souls is J. Byron Lasko's first novel. He says that he was inspired to go back to personal creative writing by his friend and playwright Richard Vetere. Over drinks after seeing Vetere's play Safe on Off Broadway, they discussed the passion for writing they both shared years ago in college and that it was time that Lasko re-connected with his inner creative force.

"The psychic, spiritual and personal experiences I write about in Beauty of Souls are all real", Lasko states. " So are the people. I decided to write about what I know, who I know and what I have experienced as a traveler riding on this ball of passion and frenzy and rock and sky – life on earth. I've met some truly amazing people along the way. People who are highly evolved both spiritually and intellectually and who live and work right in our midst. What I have learned from them is remarkable, awe inspiring and sometimes frightening. I felt it was time to share these experiences and these people with others."

Bruce Grossberg's plays have been performed in New York, Texas and California. His play, Shakespeare In The Park, was performed in the Samuel French One-Act Festival. He was the director of the DramaLogue/ Los Angeles award-winning production of Your Life Is A Feature Film. As an actor, he has appeared on Law & Order, Reasonable Doubts, in David Lynch's On The Air, and in more commercials than can be remembered.

He blogs about politics and history on "B After The Fact" www.bafterthefact.blogspot.com. Andrew Sullivan has called his commentary "brilliant". The material Bruce reads tonight will be posted on "Cow Valve Blues" www.cowvalve.blogspot.com.

A graduate of Harvard Law School, Bruce practices corporate and entertainment law in New York City. He lives in Forest Hills with his wife, the artist Laura Rovinsky.

Monday, August 6th:

A threatening sky filled most of Monday, but the sun peeked through, and though hazy, it was dry and warm and breezy on Schoolhouse Green-- and we were treated to fabulous poetry! Arthur Dobrin's warm tea poems, Maria Gillen's frank and searingly honest takes on her family; Laura Boss' wit and insight; Amy Holman's delicate turns on language; and Stanley Barkan's entertaining pieces made the Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green come alive!

Stanley H. Barkan is the editor/publisher of the Cross-Cultural Review Series of World Literature and Art, that has, to date, produced some 350 titles in 50 different languages. His own work has been published in 14 collections, several of them bilingual (Bulgarian, Italian, Polish, Russian). His latest is Strange Seasons with photoart by Mark Polyakov. He was the 1991 New York City's Poetry Teacher of the Year (awarded by Poets House and the Board of Education) and the 1996 winner of the Poor Richard's Award, "The Best of the Small Presses" (awarded by the Small Press Center), for "25 years of high quality publishing." Last May 2006, he was invited by Peter Thabit Jones, editor of The Seventh Quarry, to be the solo featured poet at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea, Wales. Currently, he is organizing an April-May 2008 American tour for Peter and Aeronwy Thomas, the daughter of Dylan Thomas.

Maria Mazziotti Gillan is the Founder and the Executive Director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, NJ She is also a Professor and the Director of the Creative Writing Program at Binghamton University-State University of New York .She has published nine books of poetry, including The Weather of Old Seasons(Cross-Cultural Communications, 1988), Where I Come From(1995) and Things My Mother Told Me(Guernica Editions,1998).Her latest books are Italian Women in Black Dresses(Guernica,2002) and All That Lies Between Us(Guernica, 2007). She is co-editor with her daughter Jennifer of three anthologies published by Penguin/Putnam: Unsettling America, Identity Lessons, and Growing up Ethnic in America. She also has co-edited with her daughter Jennifer Gillan and Edvige Giunta, Italian American Writers on New Jersey (Rutgers University Press).She is the editor of the award-winning Paterson Literary Review.

Arthur Dobrin is Professor of Humanities at Hofstra University and Leader Emeritus of the Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island. He is the author and editor of more than 20 books, including poetry, novels, short stories, and works in the area of applied ethics. After serving in the Peace Corps with his wife Lyn Kenya from 1965-67, he has lived in Westbury, where his two grown children and three grandchildren also live.

Laura Boss, a national award-winning poet, was a first prize winner in Poetry Society of America's Gordon Barber Poetry Contest. Founder and Editor of Lips poetry magazine, she was the sole representative of the USA in 1987 at the XXVI Annual International Struga Poetry Readings in Yugoslavia. Her awards for her own poetry also include an American Literary Translators Award (funded through the National Endowment for the Arts), and Fellowships in Creative Writing (Poetry) from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State in 1999, 1992, and 1986. Her books of poetry include Stripping (Chantry Press, 1982) the award-winning On the Edge of the Hudson (Cross-Cultural Communications, 1986), and Reports from the Front (CCC, 1995) which was nominated for an American Book Award. Her most recent book is Arms: New and Selected Work (Guernica Editions, 1999) Her poetry has appeared in The New York Times. In 1998 her manuscript was one of ten finalists in the country in Poetry Society of America's Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award.

She has been a featured reader at the United Nations, Princeton University, the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., the Geraldine R. Dodge Festival (Poets Among Us), the Paterson Marathon, the Newark Museum, the New York Public Library, NJPAC, University of Northern Michigan, St. Mary's College in Maryland, and numerous other poetry venues and universities in this country and Europe.

For more than a decade, Amy Holman has been the expert creative writers turn to for insightful advice that gets results. She is the author of An Insider's Guide to Creative Writing Programs: Choosing the Right MFA or MA Program, Colony, Residency, Grant or Fellowship, and is a literary consultant to writers and literary groups. Over 5,000 poets and prose writers have sought her counsel at colleges, conferences and literary centers and benefited from her practical and custom-tailored methodology.

Amy regularly teaches at The New School, Hudson Valley Writers Center, and Bread Loaf Writers Conference. Her essays on the writing business can be found in the anthologies, Making the Perfect Pitch, The Writer Books, 2004, and The Practical Writer, Penguin, 2004, and on the New York Foundation for the Arts web site. She is the associate editor of Get Your First Book Published, Career Press, 2000, and it's earlier edition, First Book Market, MacMillan, 1998.

Her poetry has won the 2004 Dream Horse Press National Poetry Chapbook Competition and been selected for The Best American Poetry 1999. Poetry and nonfiction have been nominated for Pushcart prizes and published in numerous anthologies and magazines.

A frequent reader at series from New York to Paris, Amy has also taught at Spalding University, North Carolina Writers Network Fall Conference, NYU, Emerson College, Midwest Writers Workshop, Walloon Lake Writers Conference, Western Montana Writers Workshop, Poets House, and the People's Poetry Gathering, and is open to travel elsewhere.

Amy Holman lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Tom Phelan will read from most recent novel, The Canal Bridge, a tale of Irish stretcher bearers serving in the British army in World War I. The Canal Bridge has been praised as "another First World War masterpiece" by the Irish Independent and "powerful and deeply affecting" by Books Ireland. The Irish Echo noted that it is "an incredibly moving story" and "the writing is consistently stunning." And Irish Eyes commented, "Don't miss out on a great contemporary author."

Tom Phelan, author of the novels THE CANAL BRIDGE, IN THE SEASON OF THE DAISIES, ISCARIOT, and DERRYCLONEY, has seen his works published in four countries and three languages. He has also written for NEWSDAY, for the journal of the Irish American Historical Society, and for the newsletter of the Great War Society.

A frequent speaker, this July he will give the banquet lecture at the Hofstra University Summer Writers Conference, and will teach a seminar on Writing Historical Fiction at the West Cork Literary Festival in County Cork, Ireland. In addition, he has been awarded a 2007 Writer's Residency at the Heinrich Boll Cottage in County Mayo, Ireland.

Born and raised on a farm in Ireland, Tom Phelan now makes his home on Long Island. For additional information, see www.TomPhelan.net.

Alison Stine is the author of the poetry collection Lot of My Sister, winner of the Wick Prize (Kent State University Press). Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, and others, and has three times been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, she has worked as a high school teacher, a window painter, a professor, and a ballerina. She lives with her husband and stepson in NYC, where she is completing her first novel, a YA mystery for girls.

Jordan Davis is the author of Million Poems Journal and host of The Million Poems Show, a live poetry talk show based in Manhattan at the Bowery Poetry Club. His poems have appeared in Volt, American Letters and Commentary, Boston Review, and Fence, among other journals. His essays and reviews have appeared in Publishers Weekly, Chicago Review, Paper, and the Village Voice. He has read his poetry everywhere from Copenhagen to San Diego, giving several readings a year in New York. He has also lectured at the Poetry Project, The New School, Denison University, the University of Kansas, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Columbia College, and the New York City public schools.

With Chris Edgar he edits The Hat, an annual literary journal. He lives in New York City with his son and his wife,the writer Alison Stine Davis. http://www.jordandavis.com/

Marcia Slatkin, former high school English teacher, was for many years a farmer, raising goats, ducks and hens. Many of her poems center on this compeling way of life, and her most recent collection, A Woman Milking, Word Press, focuses on the drama of the barnyard. Marcia's second book of poems, "I Kidnap My Mother," Finishing Line Press, deals with early experiences she had as care-giver to her mother, an Alzheimer patient, during the four years her mother lived on Long Island with her.

A photographer and cellist, Marcia also writes in genre other than poetry. So two of her stories won PEN fiction prizes, and 11 of them have been published in magazines like Midstream, North Atlantic Review, The Reconstructionist, Portland Magazine, Context Magazine. 16 of her one acts have been produced in small NY venues by Love Creek Productions, the Riant Thratre, and the now defunct Morrill Theatre. Her full length plays and screen plays have been given readings in libraries, and are searching for producers. Now retired from teaching, farming and, most recently, care-giving, she is in the thick of trying to make it as... a writer! See www.marciaslatkin.com

Sonia Russell is an author and publisher. Her first novel, "The Cost of Love" debuts in September under the pseudonym of LeRoia. This novel is the first publishing effort of her company, SoniSpeaksVolumes Publishing, LLC.

Sonia is also a published poet, with one of her many poems, "I Thought I Knew", published by The National Library of Poetry, for a book of a compilation of poems entitled "The Other Side of Midnight". Sonia has a poetry ministry with Holy Unity Ministry's of Queens, NY, and writes and orates for special events for the church, where she is also a part of the Music & Fine Arts Ministry, singing with two choirs. She writes original poetry for special occasions such as weddings, anniversaries, and other events.

Sonia resides in Long Island, N.Y., and attends The College of New Rochelle, where she is pursuing a degree in writing.

Just a quick reminder that we have only two weeks remaining in our Summer Gazebo Readings series for this year. (And, yes, we definitely will have the series next year!)

So come on down-- bring your dinner, bring your lawn chairs and bring a friend or two-- free readings, free coffee and free desserts await!

Monday, August 20th:

J R (Judy) Turek strives to write a poem a day and mostly succeeds. She is in her ninth year as Moderator of the Farmingdale Creative Writing Group; she is Secretary of The North Sea Poetry Scene. A portion of the proceeds from her poetry book, They Come And They Go, supports Autism Awareness organizations on Long Island.

In 2007, she was a co-editor of Long Island Sounds: 2007, and for the forthcoming anthologies: Finding Our Voices, and Performance Poets Association Literary Review #11. You can see and hear her read her poetry on www.poetryvlog.com.

J R has been published in Long Island Sounds: 2007, Long Island Quarterly, For Loving Precious Beast, Long Island Sounds: 2006, The Long Islander, the East Meadow Herald, Performance Poets Association Literary Review Volumes 8 through 11, Long Island Expressions Autism Awareness, 2001: A Long Island Odyssey, and the Farmingdale Poetry Chapbook. She is also a contributor to Grassroot Reflections. Her poetry will appear in Primal Sanities!, The Towe Auto Museum Poetry Collection, Assbestos, Soul Fountain, and PAUMANOK: Poetry and Pictures of Long Island. J R's poetry has won awards from Princess Productions, Writer's Digest, Mid-Island Y JCC, The Towe Auto Museum, and Lake Ronkonkoma poetry contests.

She is a born and bred Long Islander who resides in East Meadow with her soul-mate husband, her dogs, and her extraordinarily extensive shoe collection. If you see the license plate MSJEVUS, follow her; chances are, she's going to a poetry event.

Anthony Policano is a Long Island poet born in Brooklyn three days before Jack Kerouac's On The Road was first published. He thinks that this may explain his fondness for jazz, long trips and run on sentences.

A former technology manager for J.P. Morgan Chase, his passion for poetry has recently reawakened. He writes, attends workshops and reads his work publicly at every opportunity.

In 2007, he was awarded 1st place in the Long Island Poetry Collective contest and received honorable mentions in several others. His poems have been published in PPA literary review, Loomings, Flutter, Poetryvlog.org and soon to be published in Primal Sanities (a Whitman anthology) and Xanadu (fall issue).

Anthony is married, has a daughter and calls Oyster Bay home.

Jack Anderson is the author of nine books of poems and prose poems, including Field Trips on the Rapid Transit (Hanging Loose Press) and Traffic (New Rivers Press), which won the Marie Alexander Award for prose poetry. He has appeared in recent anthologies of subway poems, police poems, and poems about New York City streets. A dance historian and critic, he is the author of seven books of dance history and criticism, a dance writer for the New York Times, New York correspondent for The Dancing Times of London, and dance critic for the New York Theatre Wire (nytheatre-wire.com, then click on "Dance").

Christine Kehl O'Hagan, an Irish American from Queens, New York, is the author of a novel, BENEDICTION AT THE SAVOIA, set in that community. Her recent memoir, THE BOOK OF KEHLS, traces the history of her family, and its struggle with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. O'Hagan is a contributor to FACTS ON FILE: THE AMERICAN NOVEL. Her essays are included in the anthologies THE DAY MY FATHER DIED and BETWEEN FRIENDS, the latter reprinted in LIVES THROUGH LITERATURE, a college text. O'Hagan's essays, one of which was the winner of The Jerry Lewis National Writing Awards Contest, have also appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, and other local publications. The mother of Patrick Jr., and the late James, O'Hagan lives on Long Island with her husband, Patrick.

Ellen Pober Rittberg is a poet playwright and former journalist. Her feature writing and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Newsday, and op-ed pages. She was a frequent contributor to the Daily News writing about social trends and family issues. Her poetry has appeared in Kansas Quarterly, Flutter, Long Island Quarterly and

Wheelhouse Literary Journal. A winner of several Sigma Delta Chi/Press Club awards and a Long Island Coalition for Fair Broadcasting's FOLIO award for Best Public Affairs Show. She was a winner of the Border's

Bookstores Poetry Contest and one of the winners of the 2007 Mid Island Y JCC Poetry Reading Series Annual award Contest. Her plays have been performed off-off Broadway and at festivals

How hard did we try to squeeze the very last drop out of Summer last night? Denis Gray read by a combination of car headlights and a flashlight held by fellow reader Robert Dunn!

We ended this year's Summer Gazebo Readings on a high note-- Susan Deacon, a faithful attendee started us off with two of her poems, one dedicated to Max Wheat; Austin Alexis trekked out from Manhattan, bringing elegant poetry with him; Angela Carruba, a local Oceansider shared a reading on perseverance, and amusing takes on life; Robert Savino, with finely crafted pieces, hit home with the audience-- applause is one thing-- it's the nodding heads and knowing smiles that truly tell when a poem hits its mark-- and Robert had many in the crowd nodding and smiling, as well as applauding; Robert Dunn blew the audience away with his energetic, often hilarious pieces; and Denis Gray took it all home by fading light, brilliantly transporting us with his prose, bringing his vivid character Modecai to life, making us hope as the moon rose that Modecai would find happiness to go with his new apartment.

And so it ends. On behalf of the Oceanside Kiwanis Club, the Oceanside Education Foundation, the kids we sent to Kamp Kiwanis, and all of us involved in this project, let me thank all of you--our sponsors, our Readers, our audience, and those who took the time to read these emails--thank you for making this a very successful venture! We certainly look forward to next year!

See you Monday, June 2, 2008 7:00 p.m.....at the Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green!

Tony

Monday, August 27th:

Our last week, our last Summer Gazebo readings for the Summer. A last chance to hear great prose and poetry, to mingle with a friendly crowd, to enjoy a summer's night on Schoolhouse Green.

Writer/artist Robert Dunn is the author of such books as Zen Yentas in Bondage, Horse Latitudes, and Baffled in Baloneyville. He is the editor of Asbestos Poetry Journal and has served as Editor of Medicinal Purposes Literary Review and The New Press Literary Quarterly. Mr. Dunn's poetry has appeared around the world, which is more than you can say for him. His comic strip, Knish & Carob, has appeared in Street News. In every generation, there are 36 individuals whose very existence persuades the Almighty not to destroy the world. Among these 36 individuals, Mr. Dunn is definitely #37.

Robert Savino is a native Long Island poet and practicing retiree. His poems have been published widely, in print, from The Long Island Quarterly to the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, as well as in The Light of City and Sea (An Anthology of Suffolk County Poetry 2006); and online in Poetry SuperHighway, Combat Magazine and about:Poetry.com. (Winter Poems). Robert was a recent winner of the Lake Ronkonkoma Historical Society's 15th Annual Poetry Competition; and a long standing Board Member of Island Poets.

Denis Gray is a novelist/playwright residing in Woodmere, Long Island. He's the author of 26 books, two novellas, thirteen plays, and over fifty short stories. His novella Benny's Last Blast!!, was published in May, 2002.

Sometime this summer, Denis expects the release of his first audio book CD Black Love Notes from a series of short stories of the same name. He'll be reading an excerpt from one of those stories as Monday's reading.

Currently, Denis is working on a sequel to Benny's Last Blast!!, Benny, God, and the Blues.

Austin Alexis attended the Graduate Creative Writing Program at New York University. He has published poetry and fiction in Barrow Street, The Journal, The Pedestal Magazine, Red River Review, Tryst, Clara Venus, Poets.com, the anthology Off the Cuffs: Poetry by and about the Police and elsewhere. One of his plays has been performed in the Samuel French Short

Plays Festival. He has a chapbook forthcoming in October from Poets Wear Prada Press. He received a Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Scholarship and a Millay Colony residency. He has taught at Nassau Community College and Hunter College and currently teaches at New York City College of Technology, CUNY.

Angela Carruba is an Oceanside resident and is involved with Literacy Nassau and the Bide-a-Wee shelter in Wantagh. She has been active in several community theaters, and appeared in Music Man, South Pacific and Bye Bye Birdie with the Oceanside Theater wing. She is a retired customer service representative and ticket agent from Delta Air Lines. She loves to write and has written several song parodies for parties and special occasions.

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