‘CU T’ Book Launch: R/B Mertz & Fellow Queer Poets (in-person and live-streaming)

To celebrate the launch of author R/B Mertz’s first poetry collection, CU T  (called an “astonishing debut” by CAConrad, “visceral and cutting, vulnerable and brave” by Craig Santos Perez), we will hear from a gorgeous cadre of queer poets: Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Sarah M. Sala, and andriniki mattis, as well as Mertz. Reading will begin at 7PM and books by all the poets will be available for sale.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:

youtube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $5.

All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

DARREL ALEJANDRO HOLNES is an Afro-Panamanian American writer. He is the author of Migrant Psalms (Notre Dame University Press, 2021), winner of the Drinking Gourd Poetry Prize, Stepmotherland (University of Notre Dame Press, 2022), winner of the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize, and the International Latino Book Award. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry, the CP Cavafy Poetry Prize, and scholarships and fellowships to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Cave Canem, and CantoMundo. He has also received fellowships to MacDowell, UCross, and the Camargo Foundation. Holnes is also a playwright. He is a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, Civilians R&D Group, Page 73’s Interstate 73 Writers Workshop, and other groups. His play Bayano was also a finalist for the O’Neill Center’s National Playwrights Conference. His most recent play, Black Feminist Video Game, was produced by The Civilians for 59E59, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Center Theater Group, and other theaters and won an inaugural Anthem Award. He founded the Greater Good Theater Initiative, a festival of Latinx short plays, and a college professor in New York, NY.

andriniki mattis was born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. He has been awarded fellowships from Cave Canem, Poets House, and The Poetry Project. He received his M.A. in Creative Writing and Education from Goldsmiths University of London and a B.A. in Political and Poetic Resistance from Brooklyn College. His writing has appeared in wildness, Indiana Review, Wasifiri, Montez Press, and elsewhere. He is the author of Quiet Fires (Anamot Press 2023) and the chaplet Living Btwn the Lines (Belladonna* Press 2018).

R/B Mertz (they/them) is a trans/non-binary poet and artist. They were raised inside Catholic fundamentalism, about which they wrote the memoir Burning Butch (Unnamed Press, 2022), which was a finalist for Memoir Magazine’s Best Memoir Grand Prize. They also wrote the essay, “How Whiteness Kills God & Sprinkles Crack on the Body” (Mistress Syndrome); and the play “Where the Heart Is” (Another Chica­go Magazine). Mertz taught writing in Pittsburgh for eleven years and was honored to be a finalist for City of Asylum’s 2020-21 Emerging Poet Laureate of Pittsburgh. On January 1, 2021, Mertz left the US for love, and they now reside in Toronto, Ontario, traditionally the territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples. They teach writing at Sheridan College.

Sarah M. Sala is a poet, educator, and native Michigander. Her debut collection, Devil’s Lake (Tolsun 2020) was named a Distinguished Favorite for the Independent Press Awards, a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, a Publishing Triangle Award, and an Eric Hoffer Provocateur Award. She is the founder of Office Hours Poetry Workshop, and teaches writing at New York University. Her work appears or is forthcoming in POETRY, BOMB, The Southampton Review, The Brooklyn Rail, and Columbia Journal. www.sarahmsala.com