Jessica Femiani’s poems have been published in the Paterson Literary Review and she was a finalist for the American Voice In Poetry Prize, Paterson, NJ, 2009. This past summer she read at the first annual New York Poetry Festival.

    She is currently at work on her chapbook, At the Foot of a Volcano.
    A graduate student of English at Brooklyn College, Femiani is
writing her thesis on a topic within Italian American literature. By day, she is an English teacher at the Leonardo da Vinci Middle School in Corona, Queens.  She is also an IAWA Board member and has a BA in English from Wesleyan University and an MS in Education from St. John’s University.
    Dr. Susan Marc Lawley is a leadership and life coach, award-winning entrepreneur, writing instructor and founder of Sisters in Script, a non-profit organization devoted to the professional and personal development of women writers. Hieroglyphics of the Heart is Lawley's first poetry collection but she is already hard at work on her next, The Calligraphy of Courage forthcoming in 2012. 
    Through Sisters in Script Lawley conducts her Keepsake Conversations workshop in which participants bring a treasured memento or family heirloom and write about the object using a six-part model she developed. 
    Since 2009, Sisters in Script has awarded an annual grant to support an author who wishes to self-publish her debut manuscript.  Information about workshops or applications for the self-publishing grant can be found on her website; www.sistersinscript.org  
    The reading takes place Saturday, November 12, 2011, 5:45 p.m. to 7:45 p.m., at the Cornelia St. Café, 29 Cornelia Street, NYC, (212-989-9319); www.corneliastreetcafe.com. The evening starts with Open Mic readings of five minutes each. Since 1991, the organization has given voice to writers through its Open Reading series at Cornelia St. Café every month. For membership information, visit www.iawa.net