Second Summer Literary Salon on June 28 Features Poets Emilia Phillips and Lesley Wheeler, Plus Local Musicians

The second of the Rose O’Neill Literary House’s Summer Literary Salon series features poetry readings by Emilia Phillips and Lesley Wheeler, as well as music from local musicians Pam and Bob Ortiz. The free, public event, starting at 4:30, will be followed by a book signing and light refreshments.

Emilia Phillips

Emilia Phillips is the author of two poetry collections from the University of Akron Press, Groundspeed (2016) and Signaletics (2013), and three chapbooks. Her poems and lyric essays appear in Agni, Boston Review, Gulf Coast, The Kenyon Review, New England Review, Ninth Letter, Poetry, Ploughshares, StoryQuarterly, and elsewhere. She is the assistant professor of creative writing at Centenary College of New Jersey.

Lesley Wheeler’s poetry collections include Radioland and Heterotopia, winner of the Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize, and her most recent critical study is Voicing American Poetry: Sound and Performance from the 1920s to the Present. Recent poems and essays appear in Crazyhorse, Gettysburg Review, Ecotone, and Poetry, and she blogs about poetry at lesleywheeler.org. A recipient of grants from Fulbright and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Wheeler is the Henry S. Fox Professor of English at Washington and Lee University. She lives in Lexington, Virginia.

Lesley Wheeler

Pam Ortiz is that rare songwriter who can touch people where they feel deeply, where they laugh and where they cry. She did this for ten years with the group Terra Nova in the ’90s, playing to packed coffee houses in the Baltimore-Washington area. Her songs were showcased in the three albums that the group recorded. Pam released a fourth album, Rattle Them Chains, in 2012. Since then, she has performed solo, with her five-piece group the Pam Ortiz Band, and also with her husband, percussionist Bob Ortiz. Her signature clear voice, coupled with her turn of phrase and melody, enhance a catalogue of original songs that speak of who we are, what we’ve won and lost, how we love and live. For this performance, Pam will be joined by husband Bob Ortiz on congas and percussion.

The last event in this series will be held on July 26, 2016. All three events are free and open to the public. Each Summer Literary Salon will be followed by a book sale and signing. Light refreshments and wine will be served. For more information on these events or the Literary House, visit the website at https://www.washcoll.edu/centers/lithouse/.