SWWIM: Lesley Wheeler + Haya Pomrenze

Join us for a special collaboration poetry reading with SWWIM x Matwaala featuring Lesley Wheeler + Haya Pomrenze.

In honor of SWWIM's 10th anniversary, The Betsy welcomes as part of this month's poetry reading Matwaala, which is also celebrating a decade of supporting writers.

Matwaala was launched in 2015 to increase the visibility of diasporic South Asian poets (from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Afghanistan) in the mainstream American literary landscape. The name Matwaala in a transferred sense suggests the intoxication of poetic creativity. Matwaala showcases the diversity within the South Asian community—and within the Indo-American community.

Presented in partnership with The Betsy Hotel, SWWIM and MATWAALA, and with support from the Jorge Perez Family Foundation CreARTE Grant.

Visiting writer: Lesley Wheeler, Poetry Editor of Shenandoah, is the author of Mycocosmic, runner-up for the Dorset Prize and her sixth poetry collection. Her other books include the hybrid memoir Poetry’s Possible Worlds and the novel Unbecoming. Wheeler’s work has received support from the Fulbright Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Workshop, and the Sewanee Writers Workshop; her poems and essays have appeared in Poetry, Poets & Writers, Kenyon Review Online, Ecotone, Guernica, Massachusetts Review, and elsewhere.

Local writer: Haya Pomrenze’s poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Hanging Loose, Rattle, Hawaii Pacific Review, Paterson Literary Review, Lake Effect, and MiPOesias. She is the author of two poetry collections, Hook (Rock Press, 2007), a National Jewish Book Award nominee, and How It’s Done (Finishing Line Press, 2014). Haya is an occupational therapist who uses poetry as a healing tool on a psychiatric unit. She considers herself the founder of the Jewhitsu poetry form. An award-winning storyteller, Haya enjoys performing as a stand-up poet.

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