Six events this week in the Buffalo literary community

Monday, Oct. 27, 7:30 p.m.: Sound + Text at BICA. Readings featuring Thom Eichelberger-Young, Mathilda Cullen, Tommy Murther, & Diego Espíritu with performance by Seattle-based design artist and writer Ceremonial Abyss, with Steve Flato, Ryan Bell, Tim Georger, and James Pardue. Buffalo Institute of Contemporary Art, 30D Essex St., Buffalo. $10.

Tuesday, Oct. 28, 6 p.m.: Buffalo-based poets Ansie Baird and Celia White will read from their new and older work at Fitz Books and Waffles, 1462 Main St. in Buffalo. The event is free and open to the public.

Ansie Baird is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, In Advance Of All Parting, winner of the White Pine Press Poetry Prize in 2009, The Solace of Islands (BlazeVOX Books, 2016), and Porch Watch (Foundlings Press, 2019). She taught and served as poet-in-residence at Buffalo Seminary for 40 years, and is also a former co-editor of both Audit and Earth’s Daughters magazines. Her work has been published in The Paris Review, The Southern Review, Poetry Northwest, and numerous other journals.

Celia White is a Buffalo-based librarian, award-winning poet, fiction writer, researcher, and occasional journalist. She is the author of Letter (Ambient Books), a full-length collection of poems, and the chapbooks Cusp, Drink, Lit, Sip, and her most recent chapbook Bar (Blurb Books, 2021), which is available online or locally at your favorite Buffalo independent bookseller.

Wednesday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m: Regal House Publishing Presents Hauntings Tour 2025: Regal House Writers Share Messages from Beyond. Haunted forests, Gothic castles, Ouija boards, spirits, phantoms, and things that go bump in the night: throughout literary history, audiences and authors have been captivated by ghosts, whether they be frightening or benevolent, literal or metaphorical. Just in time for Halloween, a group of genre-bending authors with new middle grade, young adult, and adult novels from Regal House will share excerpts from their work, talk about their writing processes, and offer strategies for writing haunted stories. A few copies of their books will be available for purchase and signing.

Author Bios

Crissa-Jean Chappell was born in Miami and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of several award-winning novels including TOTAL CONSTANT ORDER (a VOYA Perfect Ten and New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age), MORE THAN GOOD ENOUGH, which Kirkus calls “compelling and emotionally nuanced…” (a Florida Book Award medalist) and SNOWBIRDS (“…an engrossing mystery…” School Library Journal). Her most recent novel is SUN DON’T SHINE (a Children’s Book Council Favorite). She holds a PhD and MFA from the University of Miami and is a professor of creative writing at Lehman College. When she misses South Florida, she talks to the parrots in Green-Wood Cemetery.

Elizabeth Costello’s poetry and prose have appeared in venues including Lithub, SF Weekly, 7×7, and Crab Orchard Review. Her poetry chapbook RELIC can be found at Bird& Beckett bookstore in San Francisco. She works as an editor for UC Berkeley and lives in Portland, Oregon. With Portland painter and Soliloquy fine arts gallery owner, Ruth Meijer, she co-founded the ekphraestival, a collaboration among West Coast poets and visual artists that culminates in exhibitions and readings in the spring. The Good War is her first novel.

After years teaching and writing in the field of philosophy, Carolyn Korsmeyer has turned her hand to fiction. Her first novel, Charlotte’s Story, imagines the life of Charlotte Lucas outside the pages of Pride and Prejudice. The second, Little Follies, is a contemporary thriller set in Krakow at the turn of the millennium featuring an art heist, murder, and hopeful magic. Riddle of Spirit and Bone, her third, involves the journey of three women seeking answers from beyond the grave.

Nancy McCabe is the author of ten books in multiple genres, most recently the middle grade novel Fires Burning Underground, the YA novel Vaulting through Time, the comic novel The Pamela Papers, and the memoir Can This Marriage Be Saved? Her eleventh book, Creating Some Measure of Beauty: The Healing Power of the Artful Essay is under contract with University of New Mexico Press. Her work has received a Pushcart and ten recognitions on the notable lists of Best American Essays.

Valerie Nieman’s new novel, Upon the Corner of the Moon, begins the story of the historical Macbeths, with The Last Highland King coming in 2027. She is the author of six other novels, including the Sir Walter Raleigh Award-winning In the Lonely Backwater, plus short fiction and poetry collections. She attended Jamestown Community College and graduated from West Virginia University and Queens University of Charlotte.

Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, 341 Delaware Ave., Buffalo. Free and open to the public.

Wednesday, October 29, 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.: Wednesday Night Live at Caffe Aroma featuring poet and teaching artit Robin Lee Jordan, author of They Ate Each Other Up.

Robin Lee Jordan is a writer, zine-maker, collage-based visual artist, teacher, and event organizer. As an artist, she has an interest in genre-expansiveness and multimodal, collaborative creation. As a teacher and organizer, she enjoys facilitating interactive, horizontal learning & arts experiences. Robin makes lots of zines. She wrote a libretto about artist Hilma Af Klint through a series of collaborative artmaking rituals. She wrote the chapbooks Morning Blessing Poems (Foundlings Press) and THEY ATE EACH OTHER UP (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs). Robin is an organizer for Buffalo’s ZineFest and, for 10 years, she ran a free creative writing program for teens in Buffalo, NY.

Open mic hosted by Ben Brindise and Justin Karcher to follow. 957 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo. Free and open to the public.

Thursday, Oct. 30, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.: The Home Within – a Multilingual Poetry event honoring Buffalo’s rich Linguistic Tapestry and Language Justice.

This summer, the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) and Community Canvases hosted a series of multilingual intuitive writing workshops at Fitz Books, and we’re excited to announce our upcoming poetry event to celebrate the incredible talent that emerged from these sessions. Join us on October 30th for a vibrant evening where community members will perform their original poetry, showcasing the rich language diversity and the creativity of immigrant artists in our region. This event is a key part of our ongoing language justice efforts, and we can’t wait to share this night of poetry, art, and connection with you. Mark your calendars and be part of this inspiring celebration! The event is a collaboration between the NYIC, Partnership for the Public Good, Justice for Migrant Families, Community Canvases’ Kind Fools, Hispanic Women’s League, the office of NYS Assembly member Jon Rivera, and The Buffalo History Museum.

Buffalo History Museum, 1 Museum Court, Buffalo, NY 14216

Thursday, Oct. 30, 7 p.m.to 9 p.m.: Noir at the Bar Buffalo at Charlie’s Boat Yard featuring crime and mystery writers Gary Earl Ross, Jessica Topper, Sandra Block, Stephen G. Eoannou, Timothy Bohen, A.M. Loweecey, John Schreier, Lissa Marie Redmond, Jeff Schober, Mark Hannon, Michael Parzymieso, Kate McGreevy and Timothy Joyce. Charlie’s Boat Yard, 1111 Fuhrman Blvd., Buffalo, NY 14203. Free admission and parking. Cash bar.