Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

Recorded On: Saturday, September 13, 2014

As part of the Star-Spangled 200 celebration, the Pratt Library invites you to meet and hear historian Marc Leepson talk about his new book, What So Proudly We Hailed.

In the first full-length biography of Francis Scott Key in more than 75 years, Leepson explores the life and legacy of Key and reveals unexplored details of the life of this American patriot: how the young Washington lawyer found himself in Baltimore Harbor on the night of September 13-14, 1814; how the poem he wrote morphed into the National Anthem; and his role as a confidant of President Andrew Jackson.

Former staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, Marc Leepson is the author of eight books, including Lafayette, Desperate Engagement, Saving Monticello, and Flag.

Recorded On: Thursday, September 11, 2014

Not long after moving back to his hometown of Baltimore, Kelly Thorndike meets an old friend from high school who has had "racial reassignment surgery." Once a skinny, white Jewish kid, Martin has altered his hair, skin and physiognomy to allow him to pass as African American. He wants Kelly to help him sell racial reassignment surgery to the world. Kelly agrees and soon things begin to spiral out of control.

Jess Row is the author of the story collections The Train to Lo Wu and Nobody Ever Gets Lost. His stories have been anthologized three times in The Best American Short Stories and have won two Pushcart Prizes and a PEN/O. Henry Award.  In 2007 he was named a "Best Young American Novelist" by Granta.

Recorded On: Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Celebrating the release of Little Patuxent Review's Summer 2014 issue, LPR is excited to host a reading and conversation with four writers. Joseph Ross, Alan King, Michael Brokos, and Tafisha Edwards will read a selection of original work published in LPR and other journals, followed by a panel discussion on the role of small press journals in the career of poets. Copies of the latest issue of Little Patuxent Review and books by the authors will be on sale at the event.

Joseph Ross is the author of two poetry collections: Gospel of Dust (2013) and Meeting Bone Man (2012). His poems appear in many anthologies and literary journals including Poet Lore, Tidal Basin Review and Drumvoices Revue. He has received three Pushcart Prize nominations and is the winner of the 2012 Pratt Library / Little Patuxent Review Poetry Prize. He teaches English at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., and writes regularly at www.JosephRoss.net.

Alan King is an author, poet and journalist who blogs about art and social issues at alanwking.com. A Cave Canem graduate fellow, he holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the Stonecoast Program at the University of Southern Maine. He is the recipient of the Best City Poem of 2006 (3rd Muses Prize), and was a 2009 and 2012 Best of the Net nominee and a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. His work has been published in 11 anthologies and dozens of journals─Tidal Basin Review, MiPOesias, Compass Rose, Black Arts Quarterly, and Indiana Review, to name a few. His debut collection of poems, Drift, was published by Aquarius Press in 2012.

Michael Brokos received an MFA in poetry from Boston University in 2012.  He is the recent recipient of a Bakeless Fellowship from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Camargo Foundation, during which he spent the month of May 2014 in southern France.  His work appears in Little Patuxent Review, Hobart, Salamander, Sixfold, and other journals.  He lives in Baltimore, where he works as a writer and editor.

Tafisha Edwards is a Guyanese Canadian poet, Cave Canem fellow, and graduate of the Jiménez-Porter Writers House. She lives and works in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area after earning her B.A. in Journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park. You can find her most recent works in Little Patuxent Review, Vinyl Poetry, Toe Good Poetry, and Stylus. She is working on her first collection of poems entitled Glamourpuss.

Recorded On: Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Recorded On: Monday, July 21, 2014