Caffe Lena Poetry Night with Stuart Bartow, Rana Bitar, and Robert Bensen

After a year of virtual concerts, we were finally given the green light to open our doors to the public at a limited capacity. This month’s poetry night will be hosted by Carol Graser and feature Stuart Bartow, Rana Bitar, and Robert Bensen.

Stuart Bartow teaches writing and literature at SUNY Adirondack. He is also chair of the Battenkill Conservancy, an environmental group focused on the watershed bordering Vermont and New York. His latest collections are Green Midnight, from Dos Madres Press, and One Branch (haiku and haibun), from Red Moon Press.

Rana Bitar is a Syrian-American physician, poet, and writer. Her poetry has appeared in many journals including, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Magnolia Review, El Portal, Pacific REVIEW, Black Coffee Review, The International Human Rights Art Festival, and in Seeing Things: Anthology of Poetry (Woodland Arts Editions and Bright Hill Press, 2020). Her poetry chapbook, A Loaf Of Bread (Unsolicited Press, 2019), was a finalist in the “Concrete Wolf Chapbook Competition” in 2017, and won an honorable mention in “The 2017 Louis Award” for poetry. Her narrative nonfiction book, The Long Tale Of Tears and Smiles, will be published by Global Collective Publishers, Spring 2021. She lives in Niskayuna, NY where she practices hematology and oncology.

Robert Bensen has published six collections of poems, most recently Before (Five Oaks Press) and Orenoque, Wetumka and Other Poems (Bright Hills Press). Poems have appeared in Agni, Antioch Review, Callaloo, Caribbean Writer, Jamaica Journal, Paris Review, Poetry Wales, and numerous other journals. His work has been awarded an NEA Poetry Fellowship, the Robert Penn Warren Award, the Eric Hoffer Award for Independent Publishing, the Harvard Poetry Prize, two NEH Fellowships, and other prizes and grants. He has edited anthologies of Caribbean and American Indian literature, on which subjects he has written literary and scholarly essays. He is Professor Emeritus and former Director of Writing at Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY (1978-2017). He is founding director of Woodland Arts Editions, a literary press.

Currently, Caffe Lena cannot offer refreshments. Your mask must be on at all times so you cannot bring food or drink with you. Full Safety Protocols will be delivered with your e-ticket. Please read them carefully.

One ticket provides seating for one person. If you are purchasing a single ticket be expected to potentially share a table.