Poetry Reading by Saint Julian Press Authors (w/Leslie Contreras Schwartz, Ron Starbuck and David-Glen Smith)

Saint Julian Press, Inc. presents a Poetry Reading by Saint Julian Press Authors Saturday, July 16 at River Oaks Bookstore, 3270 Westheimer (at River Oaks Blvd.)Houston, Texas 77098 at 3 p.m.

Please join a reading and signing by local Houston poets published by Saint Julian Press. Featuring Leslie Contreras Schwartz with her debut book of poems, Fuego, the reading will include readings by Ron Starbuck from Something About Being Episcopalian and David-Glen Smith from Variations on a Theme of Desire.

Praise for Leslie Contreras Schwartz

“Fuego is full of fire, of the passionate intensity of creation in the face of great odds— the intensity of difficult pregnancies and childbirth and all-consuming motherhood, of the immigrant student who struggles to write his first sentences in English, the child who falls from her bike and gets up again and again, the long-distance swimmer trying to swim to Antarctica, all of them stand-ins, I think, for the artist who struggles to make something meaningful from language in the midst of life, which is to say in the midst of death. This Leslie Contreras Schwartz has done in her debut collection, and hers is a distinctive and welcome new voice in American poetry.”

–Susan Wood, Gladys Louise Fox Professor Emerita of English at Rice University, author of Asunder, National Poetry Series selection 2001

Bio for Leslie Contreras Schwartz

Leslie Contreras Schwartz teaches writing workshops in poetry and personal essay at Inprint Houston and Writespace. Her poetry has appeared in Pebble Lake Review, Southern Women’s Review, Storyscape Literary Journal, Improbable Worlds: An Anthology of Texas and Louisiana Poets by Mutabilis Press, and is forthcoming in Tinderbox Literary Journal and Glass: A Journal of Poetry. Her personal essays have appeared in the Huffington Post, Houston Chronicle, The Toast, Ozy, and Dame Magazine.

Her first collection of poems, Fuego, was published by Saint Julian Press in March 2016. She holds an MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson College and a BA in English from Rice University, where she won the Academy of American Poets’ College & University Prize in 2001.

Praise for Ron Starbuck

“Ron Starbuck is poet who has taken to heart and soul the teaching in Psalm 46, ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ Spoken in the voice of a deep listener, who seeks to embrace all souls in the Mystery of God’s Love, who seeks to heal the breach. These poems are ecumenical both in that they are unifying and in the etymological root of the word, which is derived from the Greek word for house. Here is poetry that beautifully and prayerfully makes of the world a home where all of us may dwell.”

–Aliki Barnstone, Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Missouri

Bio for Ron Starbuck

Ron Starbuck (Saint Julian Press – Publisher & CEO) is author of When Angels Are Born and Wheels Turning Inward, he has written poetry and practiced contemplative prayer for many years. Both books are a rich collection of over fifty poems, following a poet’s mythic and spiritual journey that crosses easily onto the paths of many contemplative traditions. He has been a contributing writer for Parabola Magazine. And has been published in Tiferet: A Journal of Spiritual Literature, plus an interview and poem in The Criterion: An Online International Journal in English, and The Enchanting Verses Literary Review. In 2014 some of his newest poems appeared in Pirene’s Fountain Volume 7, Issue 15.

Praise for David-Glen Smith

David-Glen Smith’s Variations on a Theme of Desire is equal parts philosophical text, archeological exploration, fairy tale, and map of human memory. It’s no surprise a book of such grand scope sees saints of music, poetry, and faith appear in its pages. These are poems of jazz and crow, of the long dead and the just living, of the topography of a dreamscape built from the bones of those who walk, briefly or lingering, across our lives. But perhaps more than anything, this book is a guide written by a poet to his young son, something the boy can tuck away so that one day, when he’s ready and capable of understanding, he can read and know the map of his father’s heart. How, no matter the songs that play, the lyrics just underneath the melodies say, “Remember, son, in all aspects of this fragmented world-I will never leave you.” – Bryan Borland, author of Less Fortunate Pirates

Bio for David-Glen Smith

Primarily a poet and a father of a young boy, David-Glen Smith currently resides in Texas with his partner of over ten years. He teaches English Literature at both Wharton County Junior College and Lone Star College – CyFair. In 2010 they adopted a baby boy, Brendan—source of new material for poems!

Over the past fifteen years David-Glen Smith has served as an instructor, graphic designer, editor, and illustrator. His drawings and writings have been published in a variety of journals across the United States.

For more information, please visit www.saintjulianpress.com.

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/leslieschwartz
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/rps2053 (Ron Starbuck)
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/davidglensmith