Finishing Line Press Poetry Reading

Local poet, novelist and columnist Michele Herman will make a return engagement, reading her poems along with three of her favorite fellow Finishing Line Press poets. The poets will also be happy to talk about their writing and publishing process and to answer questions about anything writing-related.

Joyce Englander Levy is a poet, mother, writer, and senior yoga and meditation teacher. Her debut chapbook, Pier 40, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in 2025. She is the poetry editor at Human Shift, and a reader at Only Poems. She is also the author of the Substack “Look Both Ways,” which explores meditation, creativity, and mindful movement. She is also a former director of mindful movement at The Well and cofounder of Yoga Shanti NYC. She has spent her life and career studying and sharing the art of mindful living.

Kim Farrar is a writer and collage artist.  Her poetry collection, The Impossible Physics of the Hummingbird, is forthcoming in 2025 from Unsolicited Press. She is the author of two chapbooks published by Finishing Line Press: The Familiar and The Brief Clear. Her poetry has been published most recently in Midwest Review, Alaska Quarterly Review and New Ohio Review. Her essays have been published in Illness & Grace, Voices of Autism and Reflections. She was a semifinalist in Grayson’s Poetry Contest in 2022 and 2021.  She is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Her work can be found on her website at Poetrysite.blog.

Michele Herman’s first novel, Save the Village (Regal House, 2022), was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Prize. She’s also author of two poetry chapbooks from Finishing Line Press: Victory Boulevard (2018) and Just Another Jack: The Private Lives of Nursery Rhymes (2022). In 2023, one of her poems was an honorable mention for the Robinson Jeffers Prize and another was a finalist in the Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest. Her work has appeared in recent issues of Carve, Ploughshares, The Hudson Review, The Sun and many other journals. She’s a devoted teacher at The Writers Studio, a developmental editor, a writing coach, an award-winning translator of Jacques Brel songs, and an occasional columnist at The Village Sun and LitHub.

Ivy Raff is the author of What Remains/Qué queda, a bilingual English/Spanish poetry collection which won the Alberola International Poetry Prize and is forthcoming for publication later this year. Her debut chapbook, Rooted and Reduced to Dust, is out now from Finishing Line Press. An avid challah baker and hiker, Ivy is mainly nomadic and calls Queens home.

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