Blank Verse is a reading series that supports diverse writers of all ages, levels, genres and performance styles including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and spoken word. Each event will feature local poetry and prose writers, and time for open mic and conversation.

Blank Verse is sponsored by Cracked Walnut, a chapter of the League of Minnesota Poets, which aims to generate love for live literature, community, and creativity.

Paula Cisewski is a poet, artist, educator, editor, publisher, and curator in Minneapolis. Her hybrid book, Ceremonies for No Repair, is newly released from Beauty School Editions, LLC, and her poetry collection, The Becoming Game, is forthcoming from Hanging Loose Press in spring of 2025. She is also the author of Quitter (Diode Editions Book Prize winner), The Threatened Everything, Ghost Fargo (Nightboat Poetry Prize winner, selected by Franz Wright), Upon Arrival, and several chapbooks. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies from organizations including the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Oberholtzer Foundation, and Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts.

Clarence White is a writer, typewriter poet, curator, arts administrator, ice skating instructor and a former bookseller at the Hungry Mind Bookstore. His publications are included in several editions of the Saint Paul Almanac, Suisun Valley Review, The Cortland Review, Poetry in the Windows (Lake Street, Minneapolis), Barstow & Grand, and Public Art Review, and Mountain Bluebird Magazine. His essay “Smart Enough for Ford'' appears in the anthology Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota. He is the co-curator of the 2016 and 2017 Banfill-Locke Reading Series and Silverwood Park’s 2014 Art on Foot. He is a past Givens Foundation Retreat Fellow, a recent alum of the Loft Literary Center Mentors Series Fellow, a recent recipient of the Zora Neale Hurston Scholarship for the Naropa University Summer Writing Program and was a finalist for mnartists.org’s flash fiction contest miniStories. He lives in Saint Paul.

Micah Ruelle is a queer poet, editor, and youth advocate residing here in the Twin Cities. Their first chapbook, Failure to Merge, was published in 2019 by Finishing Line Press. Thier second chapbook, Clean Getaway, was a semi-finalist in the YesYes Books Vinyl Chapbook competition last year and is still looking for a literary home. They were the scholarship receipt for the Northwoods Conference last summer as a Minnesotan Poet with Great Promise. Their work has been featured in Cutthroat, Chicago Quarterly, About Place, Jet Fuel, and elsewhere. They’re currently working on a full-length collection exploring their queerness, their father’s passing, and religious upbringing in the Midwest tentatively called, My Father’s Work. 

Haley Lasché is the co-owner, co-founder and co-editor of the poetry press Beauty School Editions and the founder, editor and designer of the literary magazine Concision Poetry Journal. And the faculty editor of North Hennepin Community College’s student lit mag, Under Construction. She teaches writing and literature courses at colleges and universities in and around St. Paul, Minnesota. She also has two poetry chapbooks: Where It Leads (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2016) and Blood and Survivor (Locofo Chaps, 2017). Her debut poetry collection, ONE was published by Beauty School Editions in October 2023.

Mike Alberti grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He received his MFA in fiction from the University of Minnesota. His debut collection of short stories, Some People Let You Down, was awarded the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Short Fiction in 2020. His stories have appeared in Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, One Story, and elsewhere. Mike has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the Camargo Foundation, the James Merrill House, the Jentel Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, the Ucross Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the MacDowell Colony. He lives in Minneapolis, where he works as the Executive Director for Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop and teaches at Century College.

Anoka County Library strives to ensure that all visitors are able to access library resources, services, and programs. Assistive technology and program accommodations are available at many library locations as outlined here. Please call the library branch hosting the program at least two weeks prior to an event if there are additional accommodations we can provide for you to fully participate.