Final Thursday Reading Series

FINAL THURSDAY READING SERIES

Thursday, August 26

**Special Book Release Event**: Jonathan Stull

For poet Jonathan Stull, observing the natural world can be a means toward understanding, and that is both the beauty and terror of nature. “My poems come from actual places and events in time, and they explore what meaning the moment is revealing,” Stull notes. “To me poetry reflects the underlying music and absolute inner connectedness of all things.”

Stull has just written Kyrie, a chapbook-length collection of poems chronicling the revelations provided by nature and the often-difficult task of translating those insights into language. Kyrie is published by Final Thursday Press in a limited edition signed by the author. According to Jim O’Loughlin, publisher of Final Thursday Press, “Stull’s work is characterized by lush imagery and careful attention to language. He refuses to blink in the face of loss, but his poems always account for the possibility of redemption.”

Marvin Bell, the Poet Laureate of Iowa, has praised Stull’s work as “central to the midwestern circumstance, in touch with what awake people feel deep within, and bearing vigilance and compassion.” Bell finds that Stull’s poems “embody the beauty and dynamism of the natural world.”

Stull will be reading from Kyrie for the first time at the Final Thursday Reading Series on August 26 at Vibe Coffeehouse in Cedar Falls. Before Stull’s reading, the Cedar Valley’s longest running creative writing open mic kicks off its fourth year. Signup for the open mic begins @ 7 p.m. on a first come, first served basis. Limited slots are available, so readers are encouraged to sign up early and read your best five minutes of poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction. Singer-songwriters are also welcome. The open mic begins at 7:30 p.m. The featured reader, Jonathan Stull, takes the stage between 8:00 and 8:30 (depending on how many open mic readers there are).

Vibe is located at 909 W. 23rd St. in Cedar Falls on the second floor of Bought again Books. Persons needing access accommodation should call 266-7115 by the day before the event. For more information, contact Jim O'Loughlin.

Now Available from

Final Thursday Press

Ghost Wars

Poetry by Vince Gotera

In Ghost Wars, Vince Gotera, Editor at the North American Review, brings together a career of poetic considerations about the experience of war and its aftermath in this timely chapbook. Denise Duhamel writes "The poems in Ghost Wars are the tickers off the bottom of CNN's screen pushing out of the TV and flourishing like vines in our living rooms." Allison Joseph notes "Lively, compassionate, and intelligent, the poems of Ghost Wars are a necessary balm for our uncertain national psyche."

Ghost Wars is a signed and numbered edition limited to 500 copies.

$5.00 32 pgs. 8 1/2 by 5 1/2

ISBN 0-9742764-0-5

Laugh. Damnit.

Poetry by Ahkos

Feeling pretentious? Walk away now. The poems in this collection target poetic self-importance with humor and a bit of an edge. Formed in (and in response to) Boston's open mic scene, "Laugh. Damnit." will make you smile, or else.

$1.00 16 pgs.

Bad Men

Microfiction by Jim O'Loughlin

Four short short stories that made their debut at the Final Thursday Reading Series. They weren't originally intended to be part of a collection; it just happened that way. Find out what happens to the lounge lizard, the ex-con, the slacker student, and the serial monogamist.

$2.00 18 pgs.

Ask for them at

Bought again Books!

Check out the Final Thursday Press Website

Snowblink

from Jonathan Stull's Kyrie

I see summer flying

From these brindled hands

As my ghost gathers and winds

My thumbs in cloudy white

Across a berry brown sky

My fingers are pressing