(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Poet Marie-Elizabeth Mali is the featured reader at yBar on Tuesday, April 24, 2012, at 8 pm (291 North St.) in Pittsfield as part of the Tuesday Night Writers Room series, a project of the WordXWord Festival hosted by Emily Pulfer-Terino and Gabriel Squailia. Mali will be reading new, unpublished work, as well as poems from her terrific volume of poetry, Steady, My Gaze, published by Tebot Bach in 2011. Admission is free.

As co-curator for two popular poetry reading series in New York City, Mali understands the importance of crafting poems that have an immediate visceral impact on reader or listener, and this is reflected in her work, which is grounded in the music of language and at home being heard out loud as much as being read on the page. Mali’s work is imagistic, metaphorical, and ethereal, often addressing marriage, love, domesticity, and family.

Mali is co-editor with Annie Finch of the anthology, Villanelles (Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets, 2012). She serves as co-curator for the Page Meets Stage reading series in New York City and also lives in Housatonic.

A spiritual, sensual, funny, and personal poet, Mali draws from varied inspirations – from Jeffrey McDaniel to Frida Kahlo, from the Vedas to the circus, from sex to death – to make a distinctive sound in the world where it’s easy to get lost in the din.

Marie-Elizabeth Mali’s work has appeared in Calyx, Poet Love, and RATTLE, among others.

Tuesday nights are Writers Room nights at yBar. Open to the public with no cover and hosted by Emily Pulfer-Terino and Gabriel Squailia, the evenings, which are a project of the WordXWord Festival, include regular readings of original and other material by in-house and guest writers.

On the first Tuesday of each month, host Gabriel Squailia reads from his novel, Dead Boys. On the second Tuesday of each month, yBar hosts an open mic for poetry, prose or creative non-fiction. The third Tuesday of each month is OPP – other people’s prose or poetry night. On the fourth Tuesday of each month, yBar features guest readers, curated by the Writers Room hosts.

Upcoming writers to be featured in yBar’s Tuesday Night Writers Room series include Seth Rogovoy (May 22).