Please join us to celebrate Michael M. Weinstein and his new book Saint Consequence: Poems. Joining him for this reading and conversation are Ashley Keyser and Bela Shayevich.
Please note: Masks are required for our in-person events.
Michael M. Weinstein's debut poetry collection, Saint Consequence, meditates on the body as a site of continuous change--both painful and beautiful, elected and imposed--to explore the often tangled journeys of physical and spiritual transformation.
What does it mean to inhabit a body--and for that body to inhabit our shared world, in all its complexity? Saint Consequence attempts to mine the gap between a life seen from the outside and the realities of a life lived. Influenced by time spent living in Siberia, Weinstein draws on experiences spanning gender transition, chronic illness, and disability to explore the tensions between public perception and private truth.
Ever wary of the temptation "to make a career of pain," (Adrienne Rich), these poems instead weave together personal experience and cross-cultural perspectives to invite us to reimagine our place in the world with greater nuance and compassion. Equally a personal reckoning and universal meditation on the complexities of identity, Saint Consequence expands from an examination of one man's singular experience of embodiment into a broader contemplation of the endless particularities of lives other than our own.
Michael M. Weinstein is a poet, essayist, and scholar of twentieth-century literature and visual art. A proud member of the trans and disability communities, he lives in New York City. His debut poetry collection, Saint Consequence, is out now from Alice James Books.
Ashley Keyser is a poet based in Chicago. Her work has appeared in publications like The Adroit Journal, Quarterly West, Copper Nickel, and Best New Poets. She is currently writing a poetry collection about colors and queer desire. Find her online @ashley.keyser.poet
Bela Shayevich is a writer and translator from Chicago. She has translated a number of prominent Russian women authors, including Svetlana Alexievich, Elena Kostyuchenko, and Victoria Lomasko. Her writing has appeared in Harper's, n+1, and Jewish Currents. She currently teaches in the translation department at the University of Iowa.
Accessibility: This event is hosted at the bookstore, which is a wheelchair accessible space. Masks are required. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. To request ASL interpretation for this event, please email events@womenandchildrenfirst.com by no later than 14 days before the event. For other questions or access needs, please email events@womenandchildrenfirst.com.
