OK people. For real for real, this is just about the best way I can think of to end the poetry calendar year. An amazing, generous, brilliant feature surrounded by guest poets of his choosing, and our lovely little open mic. Not to be missed if you are anywhere in the vicinity...

Monday, December 12th, 7 p.m.
13 Bar/Lounge, 35 East 13th Street, Union Square

Pinion: A Reading to Celebrate the Quill, the Ink, and the Turning of the Gears, featuring MARK DOTY with guest poets Tina Chang, Kathy Graber, Brenda Shaughnessy, and Joel Whitney.

louderMONDAYS closes out 2005 with a quintuple feature centered on one of the country's most admired poets, Mark Doty. The Pinion Reading Series features exceptional poets of particular renown or accomplishment. These poets are encouraged by the curators to invite a selection of guest readers whose work they have mentored or through whose work or teaching they have been influenced.

Mark Doty is the author of six books of poetry, including including Source (HarperCollins, 2002); Sweet Machine (1998); Atlantis (1995), which received the Ambassador Book Award, the Bingham Poetry Prize, and a Lambda Literary Award; My Alexandria (1993), chosen by Philip Levine for the National Poetry Series, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and Britain's T. S. Eliot Prize, and was also a National Book Award finalist; Bethlehem in Broad Daylight (1991); and Turtle, Swan (1987) – plus an autobiography and a memoir. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim, Ingram Merrill, Whiting, and Rockefeller foundations, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Open Mic sign-up at 7 p.m. sharp! hosted by Lynne Procope
13 Bar/Lounge 35 East 13th Street @ University Place, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10003
4, 5, 6, L, N, Q, R, W to 14th Street/Union Square
$5 ($4 for students)
2-for-1 drinks all night

www.louderARTS.com