(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 12, 2024 at the Princeton Makes store in the Princeton Shopping Center. The reading begins at 4:00pm and features John Amen and Michael Montlack.

Their readings will be followed by an open mic available to up to 10 audience members who would like to read their original poetry.

John Amen is the author of five collections of poetry, including Illusion of an Overwhelm, finalist for the 2018 Brockman-Campbell Award, and work from which was chosen as a finalist for the 2018 Dana Award. He was the recipient of the 2021 Jack Grapes Poetry Prize. His poems and prose have appeared recently in Rattle, Prairie Schooner, American Literary Review, Tupelo Quarterly, and Los Angeles Review, and his poetry has been translated into Spanish, French, Hungarian, Korean, and Hebrew. His music, literary, and film reviews appear widely in such publications as Colorado Review, No Depression, Beats Per Minute, and PopMatters. He founded and is managing editor of Pedestal Magazine. His new collection, Dark Souvenirs, will be released by New York Quarterly Books in 2024.

Michael Montlack is author of two poetry collections, most recently Daddy (NYQ Books), and editor of the Lambda Finalist essay anthology My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them (University of Wisconsin Press). His poems recently appeared in Poetry Daily, Prairie Schooner, Barrelhouse, december, Cincinnati Review, and phoebe. His prose has appeared in The Rumpus, Huffington Post and Advocate.com. He lives in NYC, where he teaches Poetry at CUNY City College.

Princeton Makes is a cooperative comprised of 35 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.

Ragged Sky is a small, highly selective cooperative press that works 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.

Additional information is available at www.princetonmakes.com, and everyone is invited to follow Princeton Makes on Facebook and Instagram.