You're welcome to attend an afternoon of the pleasure of poetry!
Here is the lineup:
Poets, Cynthia Atkins, Judy Light Ayyildiz, Kenneth Joholske, and Lindsey Royce will be reading from their poetry collections on Thursday, December 21 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Busboys and Poets, 5th & K.
Cynthia Atkins was born and raised in Chicago, Il, receiving a BFA and an MA from the University of Illinois and an MFA from Columbia University’s School of the Arts. She is the author of Psyche’s Weathers and In The Event of Full Disclosure. (Wordtech, 2013), with themes of mental illness/wellness and family life. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including, Alaska Quarterly Review, American Letters & Commentary, BOMB, Del Sol Review, Florida Review, Green Mountains Review, Harpur Palate, The Journal, North American Review, Seneca Review, Sou’wester, Tampa Review, Valparaiso Review and Verse Daily, among others. Atkins’ poems were nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize. Her awards and honors include The New Voice Award from the Writer’s Voice, as well as residencies from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.
Formerly, Atkins worked as assistant director for the Poetry Society of America. She has taught English and Creative Writing at various colleges including, Sweet Briar College, Hollins University, James Madison University and Roanoke College. For eight years, she was founder and artistic director of Writers @ Jordan House/FAIR (reading series and workshops). She is currently Assistant Professor of English at Virginia Western Community College and the newly minted Associate Poetry Editor for MadHat Lit (http://madhatlit.com/masthead/).
Atkins is also a visual artist and currently lives on the Maury River of Rockbridge County, VA with artist Phillip Welch (www.phillipwelchdesigns.com) and their family.
Judy Light Ayyildiz, a graduate of Hollins University Writing Program, long taught creative writing to all education levels. As a graduate of the Marshall University Teachers College with a major in voice, she spent years in classrooms and on stage as performer, director, and conductor. She has been an instructor and presenter at literary workshops, international conferences on poetry, writing, and women’s studies and has through the VCA worked extensively as a writer in the schools. Internationally published and translated, she was an editor of Artemis for 13 years, a Blue Ridge Writers Conference founder, Medical Auxiliary President and founder/director of RAMA Chorus. Author of 11 books in 5 genres, including Mud River, Nothing but Time, Forty Thorns, Intervals- Appalachia to Istanbul. And 4 co-written creative writing hands-on supplementary textbooks for students and teachers. Literary publications appeared in New York Quarterly, Mickle Street Review, the new renaissance, Sow’s Ear, Pig Iron Press, Hawaii Pacific Review, Black Water Review, Northeast Journal, Kalliope, The McGuffin,and Nazim Hikmet Festival Chapbook. Judy was featured in international professional biographies in Women in Dialogue and in Outstanding Persons Who Have Come and Gone in Kirklareli,Turkey. Anthologies include a story translated into Italian in International Women Writing Today, a memoir in Biting the Bullet, and Auschwitz Poems-Auschwitz Birkenau Museum. Honors include YWCA “Women of Achievement in Education”, Virginia Commission of the Arts grants, various poetry short story prizes, Daughters of Ataturk award, Turkish Forum award, College Bookstores Best Book nominee, Gusto Poet Discovery Winner, VCCA Fellow, and JPX International Literary Novel 1st Place. Judy is currently completing a narrative non-fictionr titled, The West Virginia Diet, from which sections have appeared in Fjords, Artemis, Six Hens. http://www.judylightayyildiz.com
Kenneth Joholske is a native of College Park, Maryland and have lived in both Montgomery County Maryland and the District of Columbia. Being of both Polish and Tsalagi/Cherokee heritage his interest in cultural diversity led him to study Cultural Anthropology. His background in Anthropology and library sciences has fostered an interest in cultural diversity and languages that has greatly enriched his life. After graduating from University of Maryland with a degree in Anthropology, Kenneth began working in the field of Native American Health Care creating culturally appropriate models of HIV/AIDS prevention for Urban Native Two-Spirit (LGBT) populations. In 1996 Kenneth joined the staff of the Biomedical Research Clinical Center Library at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He provided research data for clinical trials and other health related research on going at the Clinical Center at NIH. Kenneth’s interests in Turkish culture grew out of his love of history, culture and music of Turkey. He began to study the Turkish language at the Ataturk language Academy in McLean, VA and joined ATA-DC in 2013. Kenneth then began to volunteer at the annual Washington DC Turkish festival. His love of Turkish literature and poetry led him to join the ATA-DC book club where he now sits as a chair on the newly formed ATA-DC book club committee. Kenneth enjoys planning literary events for the ATA-DC Book Club and bringing authors to Turk Evi to read their works and share the beauty of literature with the Turkish American community. His other hobbies include the study of world music and classical piano.
Lindsey Royce received her Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston. She also holds an M.A. from New York University and an M.F.A. from Brooklyn College. Her poems have appeared in numerous American periodicals, and her first poetry collection, Bare Hands, came out in September of 2016. Molly Peacock called Bare Hands “a virtuoso debut.” The recipient of a Cambor fellowship, along with several residency awards, Royce is currently Professor of English at Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Jun 26, 2025 6:00 pm
