By R.D. Pohl

Tuesday, Nov.12, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.: Tuesday Night Open Mic Series at the Em Tea Coffeecup Café. All are welcome whether new to poetry or a long-time member of the community. 80 Oakgrove Ave., Buffalo, NY. Free and open to the public.

Tuesday, No. 12, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.: Tuesdays at Cabernet, monthly open mic poetry and prose reading series hosted by Sinead Tyrone. Cabernet’s Wine Café , 9 N. Ellicott St., Williamsville.

Wednesday, Nov. 13, 8 p.m.: Just Buffalo Literary Center BABEL Series Lecture by and discussion with author Tommy Orange.

Orange is the author of The New York Times bestselling novel There There, a multi-generational, relentlessly paced story about a side of America few of us have ever seen: the lives of urban Native Americans. There There was one of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of the Year, and won the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and the Pen/Hemingway Award. There There was also longlisted for the National Book Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

His new novel, Wandering Stars, was published in February 2024. It delivers a masterful follow-up to his already classic first novel. Extending his constellation of narratives into the past and future, Tommy Orange traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through three generations of a family in a story that is by turns shattering and wondrous. It was longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize.

Orange graduated from the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and was a 2014 MacDowell Fellow and a 2016 Writing by Writers Fellow. He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He was born and raised in Oakland, California.

In his talk and conversation with Just Buffalo Artistic Director Barbara Cole, Orange will discuss Wandering Stars and the epigenetic narratives it weaves—past and present—to the lives of the Native American characters he introduced in There There.

Kleinhans Music Hall, 3 Symphony Circle, Buffalo. $40. Visit https://www.justbuffalo.org/ for tickets to the event, which also include an online livestreaming option.

Wednesday, Nov. 13, 9 p.m.: Poetry Night at Caffe Aroma, biweekly open mic reading series hosted by Ben Brindise and Justin Karcher. 957 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo. Free and open to the public.

Friday,  Nov. 15, 6 p.m.: Fourth Friday Reading Series  at Dog Ears Books. This month’s featured reader is poet Maureen O’Connor. Additional reading slots available. Dog Ears Bookstore and Cafe, 688 Abbott Road, 2nd floor, in Buffalo. Admission to the event is $5. Proceeds benefit the Dog Ears Bookstore, a 501 c (3) not-for-profit organization. 

Friday, Nov. 15, 7 p.m.: Canese Jarboe will join poets Jillian Hanesworth, Rachelle Toarmino, and Spencer Williams in a reading and book launch for their debut full-length collection of poems Sissy (Garden-Door Press, 2024). Aidan Ryan of Foundlings Press will serve as host.

Canese Jarboe is the author of Sissy (Garden-Door Press, 2024) and chapbooks from Foundlings Press (2022) and Willow Springs (2018). Their honors include being selected as a 2024 Tallgrass Artist-in-Residence, a 2022 Nō Studios artist grant, and the AOP Fellowship from UW-Milwaukee. Their work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Poetry, Indiana Review, Colorado Review, and many other venues. Jarboe lives near Kansas City, Missouri with their partner, Andi.

Fitz Books & Waffles, 433 Ellicott St. in Buffalo.