Says Green Line Café owner Douglas Witmer: “Leonard Gontarek has lived on 42nd/Osage like forever. He has a respected reputation as a poet. He has also quietly built the Green Line’s monthly poetry series into a destination poetry happening for the entire Philadelphia region.”
On Saturday, May 18, at the Green Line Café at 45th and Locust, Leonard launches his new book He Looked Beyond My Faults and Saw My Needs, published by Hanging Loose Press.
You know Leonard’s a cool cat not only because he gives some of the best poetry workshops in town, but also because he is finishing up his book party with a dance party with DJ Afrodjiak. She spins for many an APIARY event and is responsible for your wild funtimes at our last launch party.
Gontarek is the author of four books of poems: St. Genevieve Watching Over Paris, Van Morrison Can’t Find His Feet, Zen For Beginners, and Déjà Vu Diner (Autumn House Press, 2006). His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Fence, Field, Pool, Volt, The Quarterly, Exquisite Corpse, Hanging Loose, Poetry Northwest, Blackbird and The Best American Poetry (Paul Muldoon, editor). His poems also appear in the anthologies Joyful Noise! American Spiritual Poetry and The Working Poet. He has been nominated five times for the Pushcart Prize, and has twice received poetry fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
He conducts poetry workshops at The University City Arts League, Moonstone Art Center, The Kelly Writers House and in the Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership.
