The Betsy Hotel‎: Zen and the Art of Poetry by Women with Naoko Fujimoto + Freesia McKee

Monday, April 27th at 7pm The Betsy and FIU Miami Beach Urban Studios, working in partnership with the poetry reading series and online literary journal, SWWIM (Supporting Women Writers in Miami), are pleased to present a new online series of salons featuring women and women identifying poets. You’re invited to “Zen and the Art of Poetry by Women,” curated by three major Miami literary voices: Jen Karetnick, Catherine Esposito Prescott, and Caridad Moro-Gronlier.

Presenting, Naoko Fujimoto and Freesia McKee. Broadcasting via Zoom.com. To get access, RSVP here.

Naoko Fujimoto was born, raised in Nagoya, Japan, and author of Where I Was Born, winner of the editor’s choice by Willow Books (2019) and Glyph:Graphic Poetry=Trans. Sensory by Tupelo Press (2020). Her chapbooks, Mother Said, I Want Your Pain, winner of the Shared Dream Immigrant Contest by Backbone Press (2018), Silver Seasons of Heartache (2017) by Glass Lyre Press, Home, No Home (2016), winner of the annual Oro Fino Chapbook Competition by Educe Press, are also available from each press. Her most recent publications are in POETRY, Kenyon Review, the Seattle Review, Diode Poetry Journal, and PANK. She is a RHINO Poetry associate editor.

Freesia McKee is author of the chapbook How Distant the City (Headmistress Press, 2018). Her words have appeared in cream city review, The Feminist Wire, Painted Bride Quarterly, CALYX, Gertrude, So to Speak, Nimrod International Journal, Bone Bouquet, Flyway, and the Ms. Magazine Blog. Freesia’s poetry is forthcoming in The Hollins Critic, The Antigonish Review, and The Grabbed Anthology. Her book reviews have appeared in South Florida Poetry Journal, Gulf Stream, and The Drunken Odyssey. Freesia was the winner of CutBank Literary Journal’s 2018 Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry, chosen by Sarah Vap.