Christopher Luna, Laura Winter, and Leanne Grabel read tonight at the NW Branch of the Multnomah County Library

VIP READING WEDNESDAY APRIL 22, 7-8 PM: LAURA WINTER, CHRISTOPHER LUNA, LEANNE GRABEL, J. STUART FESSANT:POETRY AND MUSIC AT VERSE IN PERSON, NW BRANCH OF THE MULTNOMAH COUNTY LIBRARY, 23 & NORTHWEST THURMAN Overheard on the bus: #37 Bus Vancouver WA January 2004 “It's cold out there, isn't it?”“A little bit, but it ain't like Korea.” #25 St Johns October 27 2008 “You gotta give men and women a break from the routine. It even says so in the Bible. Even Jesus went off and took a sabbatical. People got to get off by themselves every once in a while. Paul did it. And the saints.” #4 Fourth Plain Vancouver October 29, 2008 “I thought people were forbidden on this planet. I'm in a good mood today. It's a pink world, andit's coming down.” Christopher Luna, from Ghost Town USA, Poems and Observations of Vancouver, Wa. This is not an Albatross Press, 2008 Verse in Person celebrates poetry month with performance pieces by poet Leanne Grabel with J. Stuart Fessant on sax, and readings by poets with very different muses: Portlander Laura Winter and Christopher Luna from Vancouver. Wednesday April 22 from 7-8 PM at the NW Branch of the Multnomah County Library, 23 and NW Thurman. Free. Much of Christopher Luna's newest book, Ghost Town USA, was inspired by eavesdropping on snatched conversations in bus shelters and on the streets of Vancouver, Washington. Laura Winter's work feeds on deep listening to the silences and the sounds of the western landscape. Bridging the gap between tthese polar antipodes is poet and performance artist Leanne Grabel, whose latest appearance, in a duet with Steve Sander, won rave reviews in Hollywood this January at “The Bakery show.” Leanne is accompanied on sax by J. Stuart Fessant. Luna, poet, editor, and collage artist, is a graduate of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Boulder, CO. A native New Yorker, he currently lives in Vancouver, WA, where he is the host of a monthly open mic poetry series at Cover to Cover Books. Ghost Town USA-- Poems and Observations of Vancouver, Washington, is available at at Cover to Cover and Angst Gallery, or through the author. Laura Winter is the author of five books of poems. Her work is inspired by the deserts, rocks and waters of the west and by her love of improvisational music. Improvised music structures – soundscapes and silences - create an interesting tension between sound, words and silence in the landscape of her imagist poetry. Her poems have been set to music, used as liner notes for CDs, and translated and published in Germany. Her newest book, Coming Here To Be Alone, is a bilingual edition, with original poems and German translations. Winter publishes Take Out, an occasional “bag-a-zine” of writing, art and music from around the world. Leanne Grabel is a poet, spoken word performer and illustrator, co-founder of the legendary Cafe Lena. She currently is a full-time language and arts teacher at Rosemont Rehabilitation Center and School, and is working on a book of prose poems about her students at Rosemont. Author of four beautifully illustrated poetry collections, Leanne has written, produced and acted in full-length theatrical productions that include “Anger, the Musical,” “The Lighter Side of Chronic Depression, ” and “The Circus of Anguish and Mirth.” She has recently completed her first novel, “Brontosaurus.” J. Stuart Fessant is a Portland teacher, performer, mixed media collaborator, and producer. KBOO, 90.7 FM Portland, Oregon Now Broadcasting Live on the Web (kboo.fm)