Print detail event | A reading by Ed Ochester, Gerry LaFemina, and James Allen Hall

Laser Cat reading series presents a reading by Gerry LaFemina, James Allen Hall and Ed Ochester on Saturday, September 22 at 7 PM at White Whale Bookstore (Bloomfield).

James Allen Hall's first book of poems, Now You're the Enemy, won awards from the Lambda Literary Foundation, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the Fellowship of Southern Writers. His collection of personal lyric essays, I Liked You Better Before I Knew You So Well, was published by Cleveland State University Press after winning their Essay Collection Award, selected by Chris Kraus. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation of the Arts, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and the University of Arizona Poetry Center. James's work has appeared recently in New England Review, A Public Space, Copper Nickel, and is forthcoming inPloughshares. He directs the Rose O'Neill Literary House at Washington College, where and he teaches courses in creative writing and literature.

Gerry LaFemina's latest book is The Story of Ash. He's a professor, a poet, a fiction writer, an advocate for the literary arts, a rock n roller, and no stranger to Pittsburgh. His other books include Vanishing Horizon, Little Heretic, and Composing Poetry: A Guide to Writing Poems and Thinking Lyrically.

Ed Ochester’s latest book of poetry is Sugar Run Road (Autumn House Press). His others include Unreconstructed: Poems Selected and New (Autumn House Press, 2007), The Republic of Lies, a chapbook (Adastra Press, 2007), The Land of Cockaigne (Story Line, 2001), Snow White Horses: Selected Poems 1973–1988 (Autumn House, 2000), Cooking in Key West (Adastra Press, 2000), Changing the Name to Ochester (Carnegie Mellon, 1988), Miracle Mile (Carnegie Mellon, 1984), and Dancing on the Edges of Knives (University of Missouri Press, 1973).

He is the editor of the Pitt Poetry Series at the University of Pittsburgh Press and edited American Poetry Now (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007). He is also the general editor for the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for short fiction at the press. With Peter Oresick, he edited The Pittsburgh Book of Contemporary American Poetry and, with Judith Vollmer, he edits the poetry magazine, 5 AM. Ochester has received fellowships in poetry from the NEA and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He received the George Garrett Award from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs and the Artist of the Year award from the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, a major cash award given annually to one established artist in Western Pennsylvania, selected from all fields.