Birdhouse Books and Christopher Luna welcome poets Amy Baskin, Alina Cruz and Emma Krall for October’s First Friday Poetry Night!

Amy Baskin is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, an Oregon Literary Arts Fellow, and an Oregon Poetry Association prize winner.  She is the author of the chapbook HYSTERICAL CAKE (Dancing Girl Press, 2021), and the full-length collection NIGHT HAG (Unsolicited Press, 2023). SKULL, her exploration of injury and healing, will be published by The Poetry Box this December.

Alina Cruz (she/ella) is a senior art history major and poetry minor at Lewis and Clark College. Alina is from San Diego, California, and spends most of her time yearning for the desert and Latino community she grew up in. She will be reading from two chapbooks, Garden of Eden and That Which Has Been Lost.

Lifelong child Emma Krall is just happy to be here. A self-taught poet, musician, and visual artist, she strives to find and create accessible spaces that spotlight art in all of its messiness. Passionate about self publication, Emma produces and distributes comic zines to her community in hopes of making at least one person's day a small amount better. She leads workshops in zinemaking and intends to obtain a Masters in Teaching to become a high school teacher following graduation in Spring 2025.

First Friday Poetry Night! is a poetry series featuring an ever changing slate of talented local poets hosted by Birdhouse Books and Christopher Luna. Catch us each First Friday at 7pm in the heart of VDA’s Art Walk. Drop by early to browse the books, soak in the art, and pick up some delicious treats upstairs at Short & Sweet before the show.