Quintessential Poetry

Catfish McDaris’ best readings were in Paris at the Shakespeare and Co. Bookstore and with Jimmy"the ghost of Hendrix"Spencer in NYC on 42nd St. He’s done over 20 chaps in the last 25 years. He’s been in the New York Quarterly, Slipstream, Pearl, Main St. Rag, Café Review, Chiron Review, Zen Tattoo, Wormwood Review, Great Weather For Media, Silver Birch Press, Mas Tequila Review, and Graffiti and...

Luis Fermin was born in Pensacola, FL, March 25, 1987, to a White-American mother and a Dominican father. They divorced when he was 2 years old. Subsequently, he and his mom moved back to the United States. His creative writing actually started in elementary school, where artistic expression was strongly encouraged. There he remembers writing several short stories (generally about himself and his...

Lynne Spigelmire Viti was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. She is a lecturer emerita in the Writing Program at Wellesley College. A graduate of Mercy High School in Baltimore, she attended the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, and received her B.A.cum laude in English Literature from Barnard College. After teaching high school English for several years in Stamford, Connecticut and Brooklin...

Bill Cushing lived in various states, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico before moving to California. As an undergrad, he was called the “blue collar” poet by classmates at the University of Central Florida because of his years in the Navy and later as an electrician on oil tankers, fishing boats, and other naval vessels before returning to college at 37. Earning an MFA in writing from Goddard Co...

A.S. Coomer is a writer and musician. His work has appeared in over fifty literary magazine, journals, & the like. Novels include Rush's Deal, The Fetishists, Shining the Light, & The Devil's Gospel (forthcoming). He runs Lost, Long Gone, Forgotten Records, a "record label" for poetry. He co-edits Cocklebur Press, an independent micro-press for poetry. Five of his original compositions, as recorde...

Marianne Szlyk is a professor of English and Reading at Montgomery College and was a member of the DC Poetry Project.  She also edits The Song Is... a blog-zine for poetry and prose inspired by music (especially jazz), and she belongs to the DC Poetry Spot and the DC Poetry Magic Theater.  This summer she and her husband started It Takes A Community! Poetry Workshop at Montgomery College Rockville...

  The mission of the Quintessential Listening: Poetry (QL: P) Blogtalk Radio Show is to provide a forum for poets and spoken word artists opportunities to showcase their work or the work of others. Poems of all different types, genres, as well as themes are welcome. The live episode will be beamed to an international audience.  If you would like to be a guest on QL: P, please email Dr. Michael Ant...

QL:P Special Guest: Avis D. Matthews  The constant themes of my life have been family, music, and words. I am the second of four children and part of two pretty large, close-knit families who are several generations deep in the African-American communities of Prince George’s County, Maryland. My early exposure to, and love of, poetry came partly through songs – the hymns I heard in church; the pop...

The mission of Quintessential Listening: Poetry is to provide a forum to examine topical events and contemporary issues through the power of poetry. The live format offers poets and spoken word artists opportunities to showcase their own poetry and/or the works of others. The program also serves as a safe space for artists, to give voice as well as bear witness to the social, cultural, racial, pol...

The mission of Quintessential Listening: Poetry is to provide a forum to examine topical events and contemporary issues through the power of poetry. Hosted by Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram, the live format offers poets and spoken word artists opportunities to showcase their own poetry and/or the works of others, and give voice as well as bear witness to the social, cultural, racial, political, health...

The mission of Quintessential Listening: Poetry is to provide a forum to examine topical events and contemporary issues through the power of poetry. Hosted by Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram, the live format offers poets and spoken word artists opportunities to showcase their own poetry and/or the works of others, and give voice as well as bear witness to the social, cultural, racial, political, health...