The North Carolina Writers Network and The Brandy Bar + Cocktails present VIVIAN I BIKULEDGE & MICHAEL HETTICH
as next in their series “In the Company of Writers”
The program offers a series of personal and conversational dialogues featuring guest writers/poets followed by an open mic forum. These inspirational gatherings will elucidate and entertain those attending. The guest authors speak from 7-8 PM with an open mic from 8 -9 PM. The original music of Bob Sherrill welcomes you, continues during intermission, and closes the evening. Sign-ups for the open mic sheet are posted at the entry.
Vivian I. Bikulege is a poet and essayist. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has appeared in the North Carolina Literary Review, The Fourth River, and Broad River Review. A semi-finalist for the 2023 James Applewhite Prize, she also earned honorable mention
in the 2022 Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition. Vivian was the 2022 Gilbert-Chappell emerging adult poet for western North Carolina under the mentorship of Ken Chamlee. Currently, she writes the Transylvanian of the Week column for the Transylvania Times. Her first chapbook of poetry, How to Pray in Pittsburgh, was published with the Charlotte Literary Press (2024). She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Queens University of Charlotte and lives in Brevard with her husband Mac and silky terrier Trooper.
Michael Hettich’s A Sharper Silence (Terrapin Books, 2025) has been called a “heartfelt, heartbreaking collection” (Marie Harris). His previous book of poetry, The Halo of Bees: New and Selected Poems, 1990-2022 won the 2024 Brockman-Campbell Book Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society. His poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared widely in journals and anthologies, and he has published more than a dozen books of poetry across four decades. Other honors include several Individual Artist Fellowships from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, The Tampa Review Prize in Poetry, the David Martinson/Meadowhawk Prize, a Florida Book Award, the Lena M. Shull Book Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society, and the inaugural Hudson-Fowler Prize from Slant magazine at the University of Central
Arkansas.
Co-sponsored by the North Carolina Writers Network and The Brandy Bar + Cocktails, the program, “In the Company of Writers” is featured the 2nd Wednesday of each month.
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