Jan 12: Ecstatic Monkey Presents Two Iranian-American Women Poets

Persis Karim
Farnoosh Seifoddini

Thu, Jan 12
7:30 pm
Modern Times Bookstore
Valencia between 19th and 20th
San Francisco

FREE

Persis Karim was born and raised in the Bay Area by her Iranian father and French mother and five brothers and sisters. She is co-editor and contributing author to A World Between: Poems, Short Stories and Essays by Iranian-Americans (George Braziller, 1999) and is the editor of the forthcoming Let Me Tell You Where I've Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora (University of Arkansas Press, spring 2006). She teaches comparative literature and creative writing at San Jose State University and lives in Berkeley.

Farnoosh Seifoddini received and MFA in Creative Writing San Francisco State University. Post graduation, she's adjusting to having a "real job" while attempting to polish her first manuscript. Farnoosh's most recent publications can be found in the North American Review and she has work forthcoming in the anthology, Let Me Tell You Where I've Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora. In her free time, she fulfills her incurable obsession with salvaging and reviving old furniture. She is a member of Ecstatic Monkey.

Volunteer with Artifact! Grants Researchers Especially Needed.

If you are interested in being involved with Artifact, please email artifact109@yahoo.com. For the Fundraising Volunteer, please email Chana Morgenstern directly at chanamorgenstern@gmail.com.

Artifact is a community-driven venue for innovative writing in the Bay Area, including a monthly reading series, a chapbook press, and high school writing workshops. Get experience in arts non-profit organizing, events production, book layout, book production, and fundraising. Hang out with like minded writers and artists. We are a registered non-profit, so you can get college/grad credit for this.

Volunteer Descriptions:

Reading Series Volunteer:

The reading series volunteer will assist with planning, organizing, and setup for the monthly reading series. Possible responsibilities include:

• Assistance with curating and publicity
• Creating Flyers
• Creating and sending announcements
• Posting to blog/website
• Checking email and responding (every 1-2 days)
• Posting announcements for other events
• Set up/Clean up

Publications Volunteer:

The publications volunteer will assist in layout, production and marketing of Artifact Press chapbooks. Possible responsibilities include:

• Layout/Design- cover and internal
• Meetings with designers
• Proofreading
• Send out orders/Flyers
• Invoicing
• Mailings
• Website/blog updates
• Publicity event planning
• Distribution assistance

Fundraising:

The fundraising volunteer will assist in research and writing grants to fund Artifacts various projects. Possible responsibilities include:

• Web research grant databases such as The Foundation Center and NYFA.
• Identifying grants that could possibly fund the reading series, small press, or classes we provide.
• Phone calls and meeting with grant providers
• Working with a team of writers to complete one or several grants.

Sunday, December 18 New Yipes

New Yipes *Sunday, December 18 Readings and Films 7-9pm, $4 *21Grand416 25th St.Oakland, CA 94612510-44GRAND*

Rachel Levitsky is the founder and curator of the Belladona reading series at New York’s Bluestockings Bookstore and Belladonna small press, that promotes the work of women writers who are adventurous, experimental, politically involved, multi-form, multicultural, multi-gendered, impossible to define, delicious to talk about, unpredictable, and dangerous with language. Bill Luoma, in his 1998 book, “Works and Days,” writes like an anchorman, not so much an "insider" as a glider on the minimalist way of expressing being alive in groups with a purpose (the team). Once the purpose has been established, a tighter focus begins to take over, the love of women, or narrating Douglas, Bill's friend. Not since Bob Gluck and Bruce Boone's camraderie in the 70s have there been such a literary buddy's movie as this. It's sketchy, and knowing and gleeful. Local filmmaker, David Enos, screens several short experimental films.