Join us on the first Monday of every month at 7PM at the UConn B&N at Storrs Center. 
Hang out, listen to some riveting stories, and meet us for a drink at Geno's afterwards. 

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Monday, February 4, 2019 

Edmond Chibeau 
​is a performance writer. His work has been published in The Nation, New England Theatre Journal, EAR Magazine, and California Quarterly. His work has been performed at the Lincoln Center's Bruno Walter Hall, the Knitting Factory, The Ear Inn,  and Hygienic Art. He has worked with John Cage, Alison Knowles, and Charles Bernstein, among others. He teaches scriptwriting at Eastern Connecticut State University.

Amanda Bloom
has work published or forthcoming in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, Matchbook, and elsewhere. Her story "Charles" was a finalist for the Fall 2017 Arcturus Award for Fiction and a nominee for the Pushcart Prize. "A Hopeful Animal" was published in The Cardiff Review and was a fiction finalist in the 2018 Iowa Review Awards.  Amanda is a fiction editor at the New Haven Review. Find her at amandabloom.com and on Instagram @bloomamanda. 
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Sebastian Stockman
is an associate teaching professor in the English Department at Northeastern University, where he also directs the writing minor. He has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, and The Boston Globe, as well as The Millions, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Georgia Review. His essays have been notable selections in The Best American Essays and The Best American Sports Writing collections.

Monday, March 4, 2019

Sherri Bedingfield
​has been published in numerous literary journals, including Caduceus, Journal of Poetry Therapy, and Connecticut River Review. One of her poems was selected by West Hartford town poet laureates for the Poetry in the Parks project. Sherri has written two books of poetry: Transitions and Transformations and The Clattering, Voices from Old Forfarshire, Scotland. She’s on the board of directors of the Riverwood Poetry Series and works as a psychotherapist and a family therapist.

Ginny Lowe Connors 
​​is the author of several poetry collections, including Toward the Hanging Tree: Poems of Salem Village. Her chapbook Under the Porch won the Sunken Garden Poetry Prize. Connors has also edited a number of poetry anthologies, including Forgotten Women: A Tribute in Poetry and Laureates of Connecticut - among others. She is the editor of Connecticut River Review. Connors runs a small poetry press called Grayson Books. 

Pegi Deitz Shea 
​​is a two-time award winner of the Connecticut Book Award and the author of more than 400 published articles, essays, and poems for adult readers. Her works for young readers frequently focus on human rights issues, while her poetry for adults has appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, Ireland of the Welcomes, The Examined Life Journal, and others. She teaches in UConn's creative writing program. Toying with the term "phoetry," she also exhibits her photography and poems together. She founded and directs Poetry Rocks!, a quarterly reading series in Vernon, CT. 

Monday, April 1, 2019 

Eileen Albrizio 
is a former ABC and NPR radio news host and journalist, a career which earned her numerous first-prize honors from the Associated Press and the Society of Professional Journalists. She has a BFA in Theatre and an MA in English and is the author of numerous volumes of poetry and short literature. Her book The Box Under the Bed won the 2015 Paranormal Poetry and Prose Prize. Her debut novel, The Windsome Tree: A Ghost Story, was published in May 2018. 

Ron Farina
served in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967. He earned a B.A. in Creative Nonfiction from Central Connecticut State University and is currently pursuing an MFA at Western Connecticut State University. Farina's essay "A Keyhole" was featured on NPR. His short story “A Place More Kind Than Home" is scheduled for hard-copy release in January 2019 as part of the anthology The Odds Were Against Us. His current work-in-progress, “At the Altar of the Past,” a love story set during the Vietnam War, is scheduled for completion in mid-2019.

​Megan Collins
is the author of The Winter Sister. She has taught creative writing at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts and Central Connecticut State University. She is also the managing editor of 3Elements Literary Review. A Pushcart nominee, her work has appeared in many journals, including Rattle, Spillway, and Tinderbox.

Monday, May 6, 2019

Lisa C. Taylor
is the author of two collections of short fiction, including Impossibly Small Places and Growing a New Tail. Lisa’s honors include the 2015 Hugo House New Works Award and several Pushcart nominations in both fiction and poetry. Alongside Geraldine Mills, she presented at the Elizabeth Shanley Gerson Irish Literature Reading at the University of Connecticut in 2011. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous journals, including WomenArts Quarterly Journal and The Worcester Review.

Sarah Gilligan
is currently completing The Genius of Connecticut, her collection of short stories set in the Hartford of the 1980s. She previously wrote a series of essays about her tangle with breast cancer and has run her writing and graphic design firm, Cerebration, for more than twenty-five years. Her work has been published in the Two Sisters Writing & Publishing First Annual Anthology, and she earned an honorable mention in the 2017 Short Story America Prize. Sarah lives in Windsor with her husband and two daughters.

Aaron Tillman
is associate professor of English and director of the Honors Program at Newbury College. His short story collection, Every Single Bone in My Brain, was published in July 2017. He received the John Gardner Memorial Prize for Fiction from Harpur Palate, a Short Story Award for New Writers from Glimmer Train, and he is a two-time Pushcart nominee. More details available on his website: aarontillmanfiction.com.

"DiStefano's character development is outstanding. . . . VERDICT: Both literary and sensational." 
--​Beth McIntyre, School Library Journal 

Don't forget to submit your one-sentence story!

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Elephant Rock Books: Stories You Won't Forget

 Contact us at elephantrockbooks@gmail.com if you're interested in participating in a reading.