Carol Allis, Kathleen Weihe, and John Medeiros read from their new poetry

Common Good Books keeps it local when poets from Minneapolis and Minnetonka come to St Paul for a night of Minnesota poetry.



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“Is
there poetry for ordinary people?” begins Carol Allis’ new book of
poetry. “People who don‘t have time to analyze a line to death … who
think in poetry every day... catching lines on the fly... that kind of
poetry.” Poems for Ordinary People--about
life in the trenches and the things that mean most to us--is written in
a spare, down-to-earth style. She hopes to help bring ordinary people
back to poetry.



Carol Allis has
been writing poetry since her father gave her anUnderwood typewriter
when she was seven. She lives in Minnetonka, with two cats and a herd of
deranged squirrels. By day, she writes for a living for Hennepin County
Public Affairs, paring down governmentalese into words the world can
understand.



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Kathleen Weihe’s
poems range through the territory of American culture--societal rules
of childhood, parenting, living; addictions, excesses, illness;
relationships, the natural world, and beauty. She believes in Jane
Hirschfield’s words: “Journey far enough in the terrain of language, and
the heart will begin to speak.”



Kathleen
Weihe lives with her husband, their dog, and two rescue birds in
Minneapolis. She teaches composition at Anoka-Ramsey Community College,
and has taught poetry classes at The Loft. Her poetry has appeared in
numerous journals, and she has received an artist’s assistance
fellowship from the Minnesota State Arts Board, a Loft-McKnight Award
for poetry, and has participated in the Loft’s Mentor Program. Kathleen
received an M.F.A. from Hamline University.



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"Twins
and lovers, halves and doubles, echoes and refrains, diptychs and
couplets: thus we see our world reflected and refracted in all of its
complexity in John Medeiros’ stunning new collection. couplets for a shrinking world brilliantly
displays how the best poetry is always two things at once, both
gorgeously musical and painfully taut, imperfect bodies mirrored in
liberated souls, voices divided by conflicted feeling and yet ultimately
joined in a singular and empathetic wisdom."--Rafael Campo, author of The Other Man Was Me, The Enemy and What the Body Told



John Medeiros is a poet and memoirist whose work has appeared in numerous literary journals. He is the author of couplets for a shrinking world (North
Star Press, 2012) and is the recipient of two Minnesota State Arts
Board grants; a Jerome Foundation Grant for Emerging Writers; Gulf
Coast's First Place Nonfiction Award; and the AWP Intro Journals Project
Award. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and as a
Notable Essay in Best American Essays of 2006.
He is the curator of Queer Voices: A GLBT Reading Series, a reading
series for queer writers sponsored by Intermedia Arts and Hamline
University. More information about him can be found at his website, www.jmedeiros.net.