Evelyn Berry shares work from her recently published debut poetry collection Grief Slut, at this reading alongside local poets Dustin Brookshire and Sera Joy.

Grief Slut is an examination of the queer lineage of pleasure, grief, and resilience in the American South. Berry offers a portrait of a girl living through boyhood and grappling with the violence of nostalgia in poems that blend high art, archival slivers, and Taco Bell. This collection invites us into a landscape home to sloppy kissers, swamp suitors, scrappy “limbwrecked boys,” and drag queens drenched in glitter sweat, where “each day is trespass” and queer youth fight to “hear one another breathe just a little while longer."

The reading will be followed by a brief Q&A and book signing. Before and during the event, participants will have the chance to contribute to the Community Poem (on a cute pink typewriter!), which will be read at the end of the event.

Accessibility Notes: Masks are required by Firestorm and are provided at the door. Evelyn will offer hard copies of the poems being read to participants who might want them. Evelyn will use a microphone to amplify her voice. Please note that you are free to stand, sit, stretch, text, scroll your phone, go to the restroom, doodle, or step out as needed (it's okay!); for the sake of other audience members, we ask that you do not talk during the performance. The reading will last 30 minutes and start approximately five to seven minutes late, followed by 30 minutes for the Q&A and signing.

Evelyn Berry (she/her) is a trans, Southern writer, editor, and educator. She's the author of Buggery and winner of the BOOM Chapbook Prize. She's a recipient of a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, 2022 Dr. Linda Veldheer Memorial Prize, 2019 Broad River Prize for Prose, and 2018 Emrys Poetry Prize, among other honors. Her work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, South Carolina Review, Gigantic Sequins, Raleigh Review, Taco Bell Quarterly, and elsewhere. She lives in Columbia, South Carolina. EvelynBerryWriter.com

Dustin Brookshire (he/him) is the author of the chapbooks Never Picked First For Playtime, Love Most Of You Too, and To The One Who Raped Me. He is also the co-editor of Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology. Dustin is the recipient of the 2024 Jon Tribble Editors Fellowship at Poetry by the Sea, and his work has earned him both Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations, been published in numerous publications, and been anthologized in Divining Divas: 100 Gay Men on their Muses and The Queer South: LGBTQ Writes on the American South.

Sera Joy (she/they) is an Asheville based poet. She weaves together her experiences of trauma, identity, and community in her writing. They are the author of the zine “Oh, a Little Flower Rests” which explores her experiences as a trans women processing complex trauma from childhood.

Content Warning: This event may include discussion of abuse, self-harm and suicide, violence, transphobia, homophobia, substance abuse, alcohol abuse and sex.