Join us for an evening of readings from Cathy Barber and Deborah Derrickson Kossmann.

Cathy Barber’s poetry has been published across four continents, including in Stone Poetry Quarterly, Belt Magazine and The Hopper, and has been anthologized many times. She is a graduate of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program and makes her home in Cleveland Heights, where she serves on the board of Literary Cleveland. Once: A Golden Shovel Collection (Kelsay Books, 2023).

About Once: A Golden Shovel Collection (Kelsay Books)

"Barber’s seamless poems make the difficult golden shovel form seem easy. Lines from Dickinson, Bashō, and Millay mingle with the words of Trinidad, Wright, and Brainard in this eclectic memoir-montage. As the words of beloved writers coil to shape Barber’s right margins, we are shown rather than told that reading and writing are inseparable and that poetry is a vital resource to understand and endure the inevitable changes of what we love—cities, bodies, even television shows—in an increasingly vulnerable natural world. Good-humored and graceful, Once reminds us that poetry, like a satisfying life, is not written alone nor in one direction." - Elizabeth Savage, Poetry Editor, Kestrel

Deborah Derrickson Kossmann won Trio House Press's inaugural 2023 Aurora Polaris Creative Nonfiction Award for LOST FOUND KEPT: A MEMOIR (January 2025). Her essays, feature articles and poetry have appeared in The New York Times, Nashville Review, Memoir Monday, and Psychotherapy Networker to name a few. Deb is a clinical psychologist who lives in Havertown, PA. For more info: lostfoundkept.com

About Lost Found Kept (Trio House Press):

How does a psychologist fail to recognize that her intelligent, sensitive, and book-loving mother has created "the worst hoarder house ever seen?" After making the horrifying discovery that her mother had no water in her house for at least two years, Deborah Derrickson Kossmann begins the otherworldly excavation of a childhood home she hasn't been inside for three decades.

Moving back and forth in time, from this surreal nightmare of an archaeological dig to recollecting her past and long buried family secrets, Kossmann seeks to untangle a web of complicated familial relationships. In her lyrical and unflinching quest, she comes to understand what's been lost, what's been found and what's been kept in both her own and her mother's life.

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Any kind of planning can be realistic or unrealistic. 80-90% of strategic and civic plans fail because they are unrealistic. Realistic planning is based on questioned assumptions. Unrealistic planning is based on unquestioned assumptions.

In this book talk, 38-time author Jack Ricchiuto talks about how any kind of planning can be realistic. Realistic planning works because anything based on reality always works.

Jack Ricchiuto is a 38-time author interested in building community in organizational and civic spaces.

Purchase your copy here.

“What's better, the movie or the book?" 

How does a novel change when it is adapted for the screen? What are the merits of each medium? Visible Voice Books invites you to the first meeting of our new Movie vs. Book Club, where we’ll discuss these very questions.

During this month’s meeting, we’ll discuss the narrative poem Song of Lunch by Christopher Reid and its film adaptation directed by Niall MacCormick.

“A mock elegy for the heady joys of old-time Soho, 'The Song of Lunch' displays the full range of Reid's wit, craft and human sympathy.”

Your host for the evening is Isaac, who says he loves movies (and books) "too much," but promises he's not an overbearing bro. He enjoys associative, nonlinear editing but also oners; visually predominant films but also films consisting mainly of conversations; and he hopes that his wide range of interests will welcome many film and book fans who want to bond over art.

Use the form below to sign up and stay connected for book club updates (or just show up on the 4th!)