The Voices Seasonal Reading Series presents a special evening of readings and book-signings by writer Patrice Melnick and poet Kim Vodicka at Carpe Diem! Gelato Espresso Bar in Lafayette at 8 p.m. Saturday. The Voices Seasonal Reading Series presents a special evening of readings and book-signings by writer Patrice Melnick and poet Kim Vodicka at Carpe Diem! Gelato Espresso Bar in Lafayette at 8 p.m. Saturday. The public is invited to enjoy gelato, espresso, tea and pastries while experiencing these literary readings and poetic performance. The featured authors will have their newly released books for sale and signing.
Photo by Philip Gould
Patrice Melnick
Melnick's newest memoir, Po-Boy Contraband (Catalyst Book Press) was published in July. Melnick taught English and creative writing at Xavier University in New Orleans where she founded one of the first creative writing programs at a historically black university. Her essays and poems have appeared in Grain, The Xavier Review, Buffalo Bones, Prism International and other journals. Turning Up the Volume (Xavier Press), a memoir, was published in 2005. Following Hurricane Katrina, Melnick moved from New Orleans to Grand Coteau where she opened a gift shop and started a literary reading and open mic series. In 2010, she established the nonprofit organization the Festival of Words Cultural Arts Collective. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Texas at Austin, and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Vodicka grew up in Lafayette and received her B.A. in English from UL
Kim Vodicka
Lafayette in 2010. She is currently working on her M.F.A. in poetry at LSU, where she is also a graduate teaching assistant and co-coordinator of Delta Mouth Literary Festival 2012. Kim hosts a psychedelic rock show, "Shangri-La-La Land," on KLSU. Her poems have been published in Shampoo, Ekleksographia, Dig, Spork, UnlikelyStories and RealPoetik (forthcoming). Aesthesia Balderdash (Trembling Pillow 2012) is her first full-length collection. She recites most of her work from memory.
This event is free and open to the public. For more information contact Clare L. Martin at [email protected] or (337) 962-5886.