Sundress Academy for the Arts Presents May Reading Series

The Sundress Academy for the Arts is pleased to announce the guests for the
May installment of our reading series, poets Valerie A. Smith and Anthony DiPietro. Join us
on Thursday, May 16th at Pretentious Beer Co. from 7:00-9:00 PM for a reading followed
by an open mic hosted by Shlagha Borah. Sign-up for the open mic begins at 7 PM sharp and
is limited to 10-12 readers.

Valerie A. Smith has a PhD in Poetry from Georgia State University and an MA in Professional Writing from Kennesaw State University where she is a Lecturer of English. A 2022 Sewanee Writers Conference Scholar and Hambidge Center Fellow, her poems appear in The South Carolina Review, Aunt Chloe, Weber—The Contemporary West, Spectrum, Obsidian, Crosswinds, Dogwood, Solstice, Oyster River Pages, Wayne Literary Review, and elsewhere. Find her online at www.valeriesmithwriter.com.

Anthony DiPietro is a gay sex poet and arts administrator originally from Providence, RI. He has lived throughout New England and in California, New York, Oregon, and Tennessee. A graduate of Brown University with honors in creative writing, he earned a creative writing MFA at Stony Brook University. Now deputy director of Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, he resides in Worcester, Massachusetts. He composed his 2021 chapbook And Walk Through (Seven Kitchens Press) on a typewriter during the pandemic lockdowns. kiss & release (Unsolicited Press, 2024) is his debut collection. His writing and readings are featured on his website, www.AnthonyWriter.com

This event is brought to you in part by grants provided by The Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry and the Tennessee Arts Commission.

Our community partner for May is FACK (First Aid Collective Knoxville)! FACK is a radical mutual aid collective bringing resources and support to our city’s underserved. Resisting the scarcity and isolation imposed by capitalism through sustained community care, harm reduction, and direct action. Recently, the First Aid Collective in Knoxville has been working with students at the University of Tennessee who are protesting the war in Palestine and calling on the administration to divest. Donations will help with supplies and other mutual aid efforts.