The Future Absence Tour kicked off at Scribbles Coffee Co. in Kent, Ohio on October 7. The Future Absence Tour was created by Monster House Press and features poet Richard Wehrenberg Jr. and short fiction writer Bella Bravo. The October 7 reading also featured Mallory Whitten, another writer published by Monster House Press, and Emma Shepard, a writer in Cleveland.
Wehrenberg is the co-founder of Monster House Press and the author of two chapbooks and a pamphlet. His poetry is very grounded in nature, reflecting on how each element of the world interacts. Some of his poems are centered around the several years he lived in Kent, using the Cuyahoga River as the driving force of these pieces. The reading was small and intimate, with a table set up to showcase Monster House Press’s publications. Shepard read first, introducing the poets and their tour before sharing some of her own work. She read several of her poems and an excerpt from an essay that was inspired by the parallels between her life and her grandmother’s. Emma Shepard’s chapbook I Am Trying to Fall in Love with Myself is available through Bottlecap Press. Bravo read next, sharing excerpts from her new pamphlet Public Figures, a short story centered around a family struggling with addiction. Whitten was the last reader of the night, choosing to forgo the microphone. Whitten’s most recent collection of poems and stories, titled Collected Poems and Short Stories, is available through Monster House Press.
Monster House Press is a nonprofit publishing house operating out of Bloomington, Indiana. The press publishes up to ten books in print each year, and between ten to twenty online poems and stories each year. They also have a pamphlet series, each pamphlet featuring one short story or a long poem. These publications are available for purchase on their website at www.monsterhousepress.com, and excerpts can be read as part of the press’s free PDF library. Submissions are open year-round and can be sent to: Monster House Press, PO Box 1548, Bloomington, IN, 47402.
The Future Absence tour ran until October 18, 2016, hitting stops in Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
Scribbles Coffee Co. is a local staple in Kent, Ohio, serving organic and fair trade ingredients with coffee roasting on-site. Scribbles supports the Kent community of artists, musicians, and writers, and hosts many events in their space. To learn more about Scribbles, visit their website.