Christopher Soto (aka Loma) is a queer latin@ punk poet & prison abolitionist. Their first chapbook “Sad Girl Poems” is forthcoming from Sibling Rivalry Press. They’ve interned at the Poetry Society of America & received an MFA in poetry from NYU. They cofounded The Undocupoets Campaign with Javier Zamora & Marcelo Hernandez Castillo in 2015. They edit Nepantla: A Journal Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color with the Lambda Literary Foundation. Originally from the Los Angeles area; they now live in Brooklyn.

Roberto F. Santiago: First and foremost, I have to congratulate you on your wonderful chapbook SAD GIRL POEMS. It is heartbreakingly lovely, and I am sure Lana Del Rey is gonna love it! I took your collection with me on my lunch break with the intention of having a bite and a few poems for lunch. I wound up reading it cover to cover… and I am sure SAD GIRL POEMS had me for lunch, rather than the inverse!

Loma: Thanks!

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Juliana Delgado Lopera is an award-winning Colombian writer/educator/oral-historian based in San Francisco. The recipient of the 2014 Jackson Literary award, and a finalist of the Clark-Gross Novel award, she’s the author of ¡Cuéntamelo! an illustrated bilingual collection of oral histories by LGBT Latin@ immigrants awarded the Regen Ginaa Grant from Galería de la Raza and a 2014 National Queer Arts Festival Grant from the Queer Cultural Center. Her work has been published in Four Way Review, The Bold Italic, Weird Sister, Revista Canto, Transfer Magazine, Raspa Magazine, Black Girl Dangerous, and SF Weekly among others. She’s performed in countless events around the Bay Area including Action Fiction!, Red Light Lit, Beast Crawl, Lit Quake and lectured at Wayward Writers, SFSU, 826 Valencia. She’s the executive director of RADAR Productions.

Founded in 2003 by writer Michelle Tea, RADAR Productions nurtures queer artists and audiences by organizing literary arts programs that authentically reflect Queer communities’ experiences. RADAR’s presenting, commissioning, touring and professional development programs give voice to innovative Queer writers and artists and explores the community-building role played by literature and the arts.

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Angel Nafis will be reading at Free Water 8 on Friday, August 14th, at KGB, at 7 p.m. along with Tommy Pico, Lynn Melnick, and Morgan Parker.

What is the best poetry advice you’ve received?

Angel Nafis: Reading is writing too.

What are you currently working on?

Nafis: Bars! Writing hella Bars. My second book full of Bars. Bars-City, USA, population me.

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Morgan Parker will be reading at Free Water 8 on Friday, August 14th, at KGB, at 7 p.m. along with Tommy Pico, Lynn Melnick, and Angel Nafis.

What is the best poetry advice you’ve received?

Morgan Parker: Write drunk, edit sober.

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Tommy Pico will be reading at Free Water #8 on Friday, August 14th, at KGB, at 7 p.m. along with Morgan Parker, Lynn Melnick, and Angel Nafis.

What is the best poetry advice you’ve received?

Tommy Pico: Milk, milk, lemonade: around the corner, verse is made! Juuuust kidding. I think it was probably something like, “don’t be so vain” both with regard to my nerves while reading in front of people, and being too precious with the “I” of the poem. Like the speaker or whoever shouldn’t be the hero, the smartest, the best, the most witty or the most complex.

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Lynn Melnick will be reading at Free Water #8 on Friday, August 14th, at KGB, at 7 p.m. along with Morgan Parker, Tommy Pico, and Angel Nafis.

What is the best poetry advice you’ve received?

Lynn Melnick: Alice Walker said “If art doesn’t make us better, then what on earth is it for?” That’s the best poetry advice I’ve received. But do you mean advice that I’ve personally received? One time a man told me he couldn’t take me seriously as a writer because I wear a lot of dresses so I’ve continued to wear a lot of dresses.

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With wife Connie Rourke, Lexi Beach established The Astoria Bookshop in August 2013. The 1,200 square foot storefront under the elevated N/Q train line has become a community hotspot, patronized by several Queens-based writing collectives and reading series, including Boundless Tales, the LIC Reading Series and Oh! Bernice. The store hosts a book club, a storytime for children’s books, the occasional celebrity author, and maintains an active calendar.

Elizabeth Frank: You recently (7/14/15) tweeted: “Anyone worried about the future of independent bookstores should take a look in my front windows today. Mobbed.” Can you describe what was going on that day?

Lexi Beach: That was the day that Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman came out. The store was packed from open to close. We offered some happy hour drinks and snacks to customers, to celebrate the publication, and then our regular monthly open mic storytelling show was that evening, as well, so there was quite a crowd by 6pm.

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The Butcher’s Sons is the latest novel by author Scott Alexander Hess. He launched The Butcher’s Sons in May. The family saga is set in 1930 New York City and follows three Irish brothers as they attempt to find their place in Hell’s Kitchen.

Roberto Santiago: Congratulations on the release of book No. three, The Butcher’s Sons! Since we are Press brothers, I must ask: How did TBS find its way to Lethe?

Scott Alexander Hess: My first two novels were with a different press, which did not deal with literary fiction. Those first books were a bit more subversive, while The Butcher’s Sons represents my current direction as a writer toward literary historical fiction. I hunted around for a good match and saw that Lethe authors had won awards and I read some good press. So I submitted and began a wonderful relationship with publisher Steve Berman.

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