Cheap Wine & Poetry

Celebrate a decade-long tradition with the last installment of the Cheap Wine & Poetry series at the current Hugo House. This month’s event features the talent of Sarah Galvin, Tara Hardy, Roberto Ascalon, and Michelle Peñaloza, all for free with wine only a dollar a cup at the Hugo House bar.

Sarah Galvin is the author of a book of poetry called The Three Einsteins. She is a regular contributor to The Stranger and co-founder of Fashion Hot Dog 225, an art gallery and website (Seattle’s only high fashion, high art, high hot dog art space). She has an MFA in poetry from University of Washington. In addition to poetry her interests include demolition derbies, bouncy castles, and confetti cannons. She has a recurring nightmare about a sentient house. Her poems and essays can be found in io, Pleiades, New Ohio Review, Dark Sky, Pinwheel, Alive at the Center, and Vice Magazine.

Tara Hardy is the working class queer femme poet who founded Bent, a writing institute for LGBTIQ people in Seattle. She’s taught creative writing for fourteen years, and she’s served as the Hugo House writer-in-residence. Her first full length book of poems, Bring Down the Chandeliers, was published by Write Bloody Press in the spring, 2011.

Roberto Ascalon is a poet, writer, arts educator, and spoken-word performance artist who lives in the historic Youngstown/Cooper School in West Seattle. The recent recipient of the 2013 Rattle Poetry Prize, Ascalon has taught at Nova High School and participated in Seattle Arts and Lectures’ Writers-in-the Schools program. He currently works as a teaching artist and mentor for Arts Corps, Youth Speaks Seattle, and the Service Board.

Michelle Peñaloza’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in the New England Review, the Asian American Literary Review, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of fellowships and scholarships from Kundiman, Hugo House, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, among others. Peñaloza has been teaching since 2005.