Fire Roulette: An L.A. Book Launch with Cahuenga Press

Celebrate the L.A. launch of Fire Roulette — poems of risk that “dance between rebellion and the norm” (Mariano Zaro, Decoding Sparrows). Joining author Jeanette Clough are Cahuenga Press members James Cushing, Phoebe MacAdams, and Harry Northup. Book signing and reception to follow after the readings in The Wanda Coleman Theater.

Doors Open: 1:30 PM I Readings 2:00 PM

Livestream: If you can’t join us in-person the event will be livestreamed on at the scheduled time of the event.

Fire Roulette is Jeanette Clough’s fourth poetry collection. An earlier book, Flourish, was a finalist in the Otis College of Art and Design and Eastern Washington University book competitions. Other publications include Island from Red Hen and two artist books, Stone and Rx. Her poetry received awards from the Los Angeles Poetry Festival Fin de Millennium, Ruskin Art Club, and Rainer Maria Rilke International Poetry competitions, and a Commendation in the Aesthetica Creative Works competition (UK). She was also Artist in Residence in Joshua Tree National Park. A native of Paterson, New Jersey, Clough holds an M.A from the University of Chicago, Division of the Humanities. She worked as an art librarian at the Getty Research Institute, and divides her time between Ventura County and L.A.

Phoebe MacAdams was born and raised in New York City, but has mostly lived in California. She moved to LA in 1986. With the poets James Cushing, the late Holly Prado and Harry Northup, she is a founding member of Cahuenga Press, which now includes the poet Jeanette Clough. She taught English at Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights until her retirement in 2011. She has published seven books of poetry, the last five with Cahuenga Press, including in 2016, her new and selected volume, The Large Economy of the Beautiful. In 2017, Beyond Baroque published Every Bird Helps: A Cancer Journal. She lives in Pasadena with her husband, Ron Ozuna.

Harry E. Northup has had twelve books of poetry published, the latest being: Love Poem to MPTF (Cahuenga Press, 2020). He received his B.A. in English from CSUN, where he studied Verse with Ann Stanford. Northup made a living as an actor for thirty-four years, acting in thirty-seven films, including Mean Streets,Taxi Driver;The Silence of the Lambs and;Over the Edge. He lives in the Motion Picture Country Home. Harry produces and hosts a weekly, one-hour poetry show on ZOOM, Harry's Poetry Hour, Creative Chaos MPTF.

James Cushing, born 1953 in Palo Alto CA, holds a doctorate in English from UC Irvine. In the early 1980s, he hosted a live poetry radio program on KPFK-FM in Los Angeles which gave early exposure to Dennis Cooper, David Trinidad, Amy Gerstler, Wanda Coleman, Leland Hickman, Scott Wannberg, and many others. From 1989 through 2020, when he retired, he taught literature and creative writing at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and served as the community’s Poet Laureate for 2008 – 2010. Cushing’s poems have appeared in many journals, and his 30-year association with Cahuenga Press has resulted in seven full-length collections of poetry, the most recent of which is Tangled Hologram. His daughter is the New York-based poet Iris Cushing.

Tickets will be available at Beyond Baroque's bookstore on the day of the event, but we recommend registering in advance through Eventbrite. Masks are encouraged while inside our center. No one turned away for lack of funds.

If you have any questions, please email us at [email protected]

Event attendees are expected to behave in a respectful and considerate manner while in our space. Beyond Baroque reserves the right to remove individuals from our events, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, fellow attendees, or performers.

Host or Publisher Beyond Baroque Literary | Arts Center