Smartish Pace

Rebecca Aronson reading on February 8, 2026 in The HOT L Poets Series Series at Bird in Hand Charles Village; introduction by Clare Banks. The HOT L Poets Series is presented by Smartish Pace and Baltimore Poets Theatre. Readings are held on the second Sunday of the month at Bird in Hand or The Ivy Bookshop Baltimore.

Rebecca Aronson is the author of three books of poetry: Anchor, winner of the 2024 Poetry Award from the Philosophical Society of Texas and the 2024 Eric Hoffer Award for Poetry; Ghost Child of the Atalanta Bloom, winner of the 2016 Orison Books poetry prize and the 2019 Margaret Randall Book Award from the Albuquerque Museum Foundation; and Creature, Creature, winner of the Main-Traveled Roads Poetry Prize. She has been a recipient of a Prairie Schooner Strousse Award, the Loft’s Speakeasy Poetry Prize, a Tennessee Williams Scholarship to Sewanee, and a Yetzirah poetry fellowship. She is co-founder and host of Bad Mouth, a series of words and music.

Barbara Hamby reading on March 6, 2026 in The HOT L Poets Series at the Mt. Vernon Place Church, an iconic long-shuttered 19th-century church in Baltimore, MD. Introduction by Stephen Reichert. Thanks to Peabody Heights Brewery for their generous beer sponsorship and to The Ivy Bookshop for selling the poets books.

The HOT L Poets Series is presented by Smartish Pace and Baltimore Poets Theatre. Readings are held on the second Sunday of the month at Bird in Hand or The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore.

Barbara Hamby is the author of seven poetry collections including Burn (Pitt Poetry Series, 2025), Holoholo (2021), Bird Odyssey (2018), On the Street of Divine Love: New and Selected Poems (2014), and Delirium (1995), winner of the Vassar Miller Prize, The Kate Tufts Award, and the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award. She teaches at Florida State University where she is a Distinguished University Scholar.

David Kirby reading in The HOT L Poets Series!

March 6, 2026 at the Mt. Vernon Place Church, an iconic long-shuttered 19th-century church in Baltimore, MD. Introduction by Stephen Reichert. Thanks to Peabody Heights Brewery for their generous beer sponsorship and to The Ivy Bookshop for selling the poets books.

The HOT L Poets Series is presented by Smartish Pace and Baltimore Poets Theatre. Readings are held on the second Sunday of the month at Bird in Hand or The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore.

David Kirby’s latest books are a poetry collection, Help Me, Information (LSU, 2021), and a textbook modestly entitled The Knowledge: Where Poems Come From and How to Write Them (Flip Learning, 2021). Entertainment Weekly has called Kirby’s poetry one of “5 Reasons to Live,” and he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florida Humanities Council, which called him "a literary treasure of our state."

Poet Gina Myers reading at the Mt. Vernon Place Church in Baltimore presented by Smartish Pace, 32 Poems Magazine & Barrelhouse for Association of Writers & Writing Programs. Intro by Dan Brady. Part of the fun of this event was seeing inside an iconic historic space in Baltimore, a long-shuttered 19th-century church. Thanks to Peabody Heights Brewery, LLC for their beer sponsorship & The Ivy Bookshop for their book selling.

Gina Myers (Barrelhouse) is the author of Works & Days (Radiator Press, 2025). Other titles include Some of the Times (Barrelhouse, 2020), Hold It Down (2013), and A Model Year (2009).

Erin O’Luanaigh reading on March 4, 2026 at the Mt. Vernon Place Church in Baltimore, MD; introduction by poet Amy Raasch. The reading was hosted by Smartish Pace, 32 Poems Magazine & Barrelhouse for AWP. Thanks to Peabody Heights Brewery, LLC
for their beer sponsorship & The Ivy Bookshop for selling the poets books. Part of the fun of the event was seeing inside an iconic historic space in Baltimore, a long-shuttered 19th-century church.

Erin O’Luanaigh’s debut poetry collection, Avail, was published by Paul Dry Books in January, 2026. She is currently a Steffensen Cannon Fellow in English Literature and Creative Writing at The University of Utah.

Amy Raasch reading on March 4, 2026 at the Mt. Vernon Place Church in Baltimore, MD; introduction by poet Steven Leyva. The reading was hosted by Smartish Pace, 32 Poems Magazine & Barrelhouse for AWP. Thanks to Peabody Heights Brewery, LLC
for their beer sponsorship & The Ivy Bookshop for selling the poets books. Part of the fun of the event was seeing inside an iconic historic space in Baltimore, a long-shuttered 19th-century church.

Amy Raasch is a Los Angeles-based artist whose projects include the album Girls Get Cold, animated film Cat Bird Coyote, and theatrical show The Animal Monologues. Her poems have appeared in Smartish Pace.

Poet Steven Leyva reading at the Mt. Vernon Place Church in Baltimore presented by Smartish Pace, 32 Poems Magazine & Barrelhouse for Association of Writers & Writing Programs. Intro by Justin Marks. Part of the fun of this event was seeing inside an iconic historic space in Baltimore, a long-shuttered 19th-century church. Thanks to Peabody Heights Brewery, LLC for their beer sponsorship & The Ivy Bookshop for their book selling.

Steven Leyva was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in Houston, Texas. He is the author of two collections of poetry, The Understudy’s Handbook (Washington Writers' Publishing House, 2020) and The Opposite of Cruelty (Blair, 2025). His poems have appeared in Smartish Pace.