Three local poets – Gina Ferrara, Jonathan Kline and Scott Bailey – will discuss poetry and their latest works at 2 p.m., Saturday, June 10, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.

Gina Ferrara

Gina Ferrara’s most recent collection of poetry, Amis, contains surreal vignettes inspired by women who were either murdered or who are missing. Her poetry collections include Ethereal Avalanche, Amber Porch Light, Fitting the Sixth Finger: Poems Inspired by the Paintings of Marc Chagall and Weight of the Ripened and was selected for publication in the Sixty-Four Best Poets of 2019 by Black Mountain Press. Since 2007, she has curated The Poetry Buffet, a monthly reading that takes place at the Latter Branch of the New Orleans Public Library the first Saturday of each month. She teaches English and writing at Delgado Community College and is the editor of the New Orleans Poetry Journal Press.

Jonathan Kline

Poet, playwright, storyteller and visual artist Jonathan Kline grew up in Northern Michigan. He received an M.F.A. from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago in Time Art. Kline has presented his works at venues in Boston, Chicago, New York, Seattle, New Orleans, Dublin and Cork Ireland. For more than a decade, Kline's works, including When I was Twenty, The Terminal Hotel, The Nude Questions, and Six Eggs, have garnered praise from scholars, peers and audiences in the United States and overseas. His latest work is The Wisdom of Ashes. Kline teaches in the New Orleans community as an art coordinator for elementary and middle schoolers.

Scott Bailey, PhD

Scott Bailey is the author of Thus Spake Gigolo (NYQ Books). His poems have appeared in Epiphany, Jabberwock Review, Meridian, Subtropics, The Journal, The Southeast Review, and Verse Daily, among others. He describes himself as a queer poet from Mississippi who grew up in a family of carpenters, farmers and preachers. He received an MA from the University of Southern Mississippi, an MFA from New York University, and a PhD from Florida State University. He lives in the French Quarter of New Orleans, where he is an editor for Tulane University School of Medicine.

For more information regarding this presentation, contact Chris Smith, Manager of Adult Programming for the library, at (504) 889-8143 or wcsmith@jplibrary.net.