SPECTRA presents: David R. Collins Writers' Conference Faculty Reading & Participant Open Mic
Friday, June 27 at Rozz-Tox (2108 3rd Ave. Rock Island, IL)
Social at 6pm, Faculty Reading at 7pm, Participant Open Mic at 8pm – free and open to the public
Join us at Rozz-Tox to hear the faculty of the Midwest Writing Center's annual Writers' Conference reading their work, featuring Skylar Alexander, Brett Biebel, Rebecca Entel, and Marguerite L. Harrold. The faculty reading will be followed by an open mic for Conference participants. Event is free & open to the public. For more information about the Conference, including registration, please follow the link below or call MWC at 309-732-7330.
DRC Writers' Conference Info:
https://www.mwcqc.org/events-opportunities/david-r-collins-writers-conference/
Bios:
Skylar Alexander wears many hats: she is an English teacher in an online private school; a book designer working with small presses, nonprofits, and individual clients; and a writer of poetry, creative nonfiction, and flash fiction. Her debut collection, Searching for Petco, was published by Forklift Books in 2022, and other work of hers has appeared in numerous places. She earned degrees in English and Entrepreneurial Management from the University of Iowa in 2015 and a Master’s in Secondary Education from NYU Steinhardt in 2022. She is a part-time digital nomad, splitting her time between her native Midwest, the East Coast, and abroad.
Brett Biebel is the author of 48 Blitz (Split/Lip Press, 2020), A Companion to Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon (University of Georgia Press, 2023-2024), and Gridlock (Cornerstone Press, 2024). His short fiction has been anthologized in Best Small Fictions and Best Microfiction and featured in Wigleaf’s Top 50 Very Short Stories (2021). He writes and teaches in Illinois at Augustana College.
Rebecca Entel is the author of a novel, Fingerprints of Previous Owners; stories and essays in such journals as Guernica and Literary Hub; and flash in Jellyfish Review, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing, including a novel-writing course patterned after National Novel Writing Month; U.S. and Caribbean literature; and the literature of social justice at Cornell College. As director of Cornell’s Center for the Literary Arts, she oversees a Visiting Writer Series, workshops and events, a literary and art magazine, and an internship program. She also mentors in the PEN America Prison and Justice Writing program.
Marguerite L. Harrold s a poet and writer from Chicago. Her first book, Chicago House Music: Culture and Community (Belt/Arcadia, 2024,) was short listed for Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year, 2024 by Chicago Review of Books (CHIrby award) and was nominated for Outstanding Book on the History of Chicago 2025, by the Union League Club of Chicago. She is the Educational Promotions Manager for African Poetry Book Fund, and an Associate Editor of Prairie Schooner. Marguerite is a PhD student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her work focuses on African American and African Diasporic poetry, ecology, folklore, culture, social justice.
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