Gumbo Bottoms Open Mic ft. Ellen Stone and Scott Beal
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Welcome to July’s gathering of the Single Pot Still Poets Society! This month, we are delighted to welcome two poets from Michigan courtesy of our dear friend, Justin Hamm! Round-room open mic will follow the feature and a short break, as usual.
Ellen Stone grew up above the north branch of the Susquehanna River in the Appalachian Mountains of rural Pennsylvania. She taught in Kansas and Michigan public schools for over 30 years while raising three daughters with her husband. Ellen advises a high school poetry club, co-hosts a monthly poetry series, Skazat! and helps edit Public School Poetry in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her work has been published recently in Third Coast, Indianapolis Review, Michigan Quarterly Review Mixtape, and Flint Hills Review. Ellen is the author of Everybody Wants to Keep the Moon Inside Them (Mayapple Press, 2025), What Is in the Blood (Mayapple Press, 2020), and The Solid Living World which won the Michigan Writers’ Cooperative Press chapbook prize in 2013. Ellen’s poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart prize and Best of the Net.
Scott Beal is the author of Stegosaurus Moon (Dzanc Books, 2026) and Wait 'Til You Have Real Problems (Dzanc Books, 2014), as well as the chapbook The Octopus (Gertrude Press, 2016). His poems have appeared in journals such as Rattle, Pleiades, Prairie Schooner, and Michigan Quarterly Review, and have received awards including a Pushcart Prize. He directs the Lloyd Scholars for Writing and the Arts at the University of Michigan and teaches in the Sweetland Center for Writing. He co-hosts the Skazat! online poetry series and co-edits the literary journal Public School Poetry. He’s performed at the Cantab Lounge, the Green Mill, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, the Individual World Poetry Slam, and elsewhere. He lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Ellen Stone grew up above the north branch of the Susquehanna River in the Appalachian Mountains of rural Pennsylvania. She taught in Kansas and Michigan public schools for over 30 years while raising three daughters with her husband. Ellen advises a high school poetry club, co-hosts a monthly poetry series, Skazat! and helps edit Public School Poetry in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her work has been published recently in Third Coast, Indianapolis Review, Michigan Quarterly Review Mixtape, and Flint Hills Review. Ellen is the author of Everybody Wants to Keep the Moon Inside Them (Mayapple Press, 2025), What Is in the Blood (Mayapple Press, 2020), and The Solid Living World which won the Michigan Writers’ Cooperative Press chapbook prize in 2013. Ellen’s poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart prize and Best of the Net.
Scott Beal is the author of Stegosaurus Moon (Dzanc Books, 2026) and Wait 'Til You Have Real Problems (Dzanc Books, 2014), as well as the chapbook The Octopus (Gertrude Press, 2016). His poems have appeared in journals such as Rattle, Pleiades, Prairie Schooner, and Michigan Quarterly Review, and have received awards including a Pushcart Prize. He directs the Lloyd Scholars for Writing and the Arts at the University of Michigan and teaches in the Sweetland Center for Writing. He co-hosts the Skazat! online poetry series and co-edits the literary journal Public School Poetry. He’s performed at the Cantab Lounge, the Green Mill, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, the Individual World Poetry Slam, and elsewhere. He lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
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Where is it happening?
Gumbo Bottoms Alehaus, 221 Madison St ,Jefferson City, Missouri, United States
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherGumbo Bottoms Single Pot Still Poets Society
