Buffalo Area Poetry & Literature Calendar (week of Dec. 17-Dec. 23)

Wednesday,  6 p.m. to 9 p.m.: Writing and performance poetry workshop taught by Marquis Burton (aka Ten Thousand) focusing on creating new poems or improving current ones, getting poems ready for the stage, and/or improving stage presence. Fitz Books and Waffles, 433 Ellicott St., Buffalo. Free.

Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.: The Screening Room Series open mic reading hosted by poet Sandy Geary.  The Screening Room Cinema Café, 880 Alberta  Drive, Amherst. $3.

Thursday, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.: Buffalo Corner Reading Series featuring Susan Dworski Nusbaum, Ansie Baird,  and Rabbi Alex Lazarus Klein.

Susan Dworski Nusbaum is the author of the full-length poetry collections What We Take With Us (2014) and Open Wide, The Eye (2016), and Alive in This Place (2019), all published by Coffeetown Press. Born in Rochester, and a graduate of Smith College and the University at Buffalo Law School, she lives in Buffalo, where she has worked as a teacher, arts administrator, and criminal prosecutor.

Ansie Baird is the author of three full-length collections of poetry,  In Advance Of All Parting, winner of the White Pine Press Poetry Prize in 2009, The Solace of Islands (BlazeVOX Books, 2016), and Porch Watch (Foundlings Press, 2019). She taught and served as poet-in-residence at Buffalo Seminary for 40 years, and is also a former co-editor of both Audit and Earth's Daughters magazines.

The reading will be live and in person at Congregation Shir Shalom, 4660 Sheridan Drive in Amherst, NY and virtual via Zoom, Boxcast, Facebook and YouTube. It is free and open to all.Visit www.shirshalombuffalo.org for additional information and links to livestream the event.