Covid Safer Policy: This event is in-person; Masks & Proof of Vaccination + Booster Required. More about the IPRC’s Covid-Safer Guidelines here ; reach out to info@iprc.org with questions re: medical exemption.

Please join us for a book release reading for Bruce Beasley’s latest collection Prayershreds. Bruce will be joined by poets Alicia Jo Rabins & Jessica Lee.

Jessica Lee earned an MFA in Poetry from Vanderbilt University and a BA in Creative Writing from Western Washington University. She has served as a Poetry Editor for Nashville Review, an Assistant Poetry Editor for Narrative Magazine, and as an intern for Copper Canyon Press.

Alicia Jo Rabins is an award-winning writer, musician, performer and Torah teacher. She is the author of two poetry books, Divinity School (winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize) and Fruit Geode (a finalist for the Jewish Book Award), as well as a collection of short personal essays about Jewish spirituality and early parenthood, Even God Had Bad Parenting Days. As a musician, Rabins is the creator and performer of Girls in Trouble, an indie-folk song cycle about women in Torah which she is currently developing into a theatrical show. Rabins is the creator, star and composer of A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff, an independent feature film released in 2022, which The Atlantic calls “a blessing.” Visit her at www.aliciajo.com. 

Bruce Beasley is the author of nine collections of poems, most recently All Soul Parts Returned (BOA Editions, 2017), Theophobia (BOA Editions, 2012), and forthcoming in spring 2023, Prayershreds (Orison Books). He has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Artist Trust of Washington. Beasley grew up in Macon, Georgia, and now lives in Bellingham, Washington. He is a professor of English at Western Washington University and, in 2013, recipient of the university’s Peter J. Elich Excellence in Teaching Award.