Laureate Writers Series Presents James Lenfestey

Tuesday | November 14 | 7 pm
Blue Heron Coffeehouse | 162 W 2nd St.

On Tuesday, November 14th, at 7 pm, poet James Lenfestey will read from his work at the Blue Heron Coffeehouse, 162 W 2nd St. The reading will be followed by a book signing and then an open mic. Bring some of your work to share. This event is free and open to the public. Please note: this event is being held on the second Tuesday of the month due to Election Day.

After a career in academia, marketing communications and journalism on the editorial board of the Star Tribune, where he won several Page One awards for excellence, since 2000 James Lenfestey has published seven collections of poems, two collections of personal essays, edited three poetry anthologies and co-edited Robert Bly in This World, University of Minnesota Press. His haibun memoir, Seeking the Cave: A Pilgrimage to Cold Mountain (Milkweed Editions) was a finalist for the 2014 Minnesota Book Award. His sixth poetry collection, A Marriage Book: 50 Years of Poems from a Marriage (Milkweed Editions), was a finalist for two 2017 Midwest Book Awards. 

In 2020 he received the Kay Sexton Award for significant contributions and leadership in the Minnesota Literary Community. In 2024, Milkweed will publish his eighth poetry collection, Body Odes, Praise Songs and other Oddities and Amazements. For fifteen years he chaired the Literary Witnesses poetry program in Minneapolis and led a summer poetry class on Mackinac Island, Michigan. He currently serves on the board of Red Dragonfly Press in Minnesota and the Hellbender Poetry Gathering in North Carolina. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife Susan Lenfestey. They have four children, eight grandchildren and two step-grandchildren.

This First Tuesday Laureate Writers Series event is co-sponsored by the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest and the Blue Heron Coffeehouse. To learn more about the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest, please visit sonnetcontest.org or email entries@sonnetcontest.org.

Photo: James Lenfestey.

River Arts Alliance serves as fiscal sponsor of the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest.