(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Princeton Makes, a Princeton-based artist cooperative, and Ragged Sky Press, a local publisher focused on poetry, will host a Second Sunday Poetry Reading on Sunday, May 8 at 4:00pm.  The readings will take place at the Princeton Makes store in the Princeton Shopping Center.  The reading will feature Rachel Hadas and Kevin O’Shaughnessy.

Their readings will be followed by an open mic available to up to 10 audience members who would like to read their original poetry.  Poems reflecting Mothers’ Day are encouraged. 

Rachel Hadas is the author of Pandemic Almanac (Ragged Sky) and numerous other collections of poetry and essays, including Love and Dread and Poems for Camilla (both poetry), and Piece by Piece (essays). The recipient of honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the O. B. Hardison Award from the Folger Shakespeare Library, and a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.  Rachel Hadas is Board of Governors Professor of English at Rutgers University-Newark, where she has taught for many years.

Keith O’Shaughnessy’s latest book, Petrushka (Ragged Sky), is a collection of poems and fables set in a quasi-Russian dreamscape.  His first book of poems, Incommunicado, won the inaugural Grolier Discovery Award. His second, Last Call for Ganymede (Ilora Press) followed in 2014. Along the way he also authored three chapbooks (all Pudding House Press). A life-long resident of Princeton, he teaches English at Camden County College in southern New Jersey.

Princeton Makes is a cooperative comprised of 32 local artists who work across a range of artistic genres, including painting, drawing, stained glass, sculpture, textiles, and jewelry. Customers will be able to support local artists by shopping for a wide variety of art, including large paintings, prints, custom-made greeting cards, stained glass lamps and window hangings, jewelry in a variety of designs and patterns, and more.  Princeton Makes is an ideal place for holiday gift ideas.

Ragged Sky is a small, highly selective cooperative press.  They work with their authors closely.  Authors retain copyright and they use their experience and professional resources to support the author’s work through the editing, production, and design process.  Ragged Sky Press has historically focused on mature voices, overlooked poets, and women's perspectives.