Genesee Reading Series – M.J. Iuppa & David Delaney

Now in its 34th year, the Genesee Reading Series is a smorgasbord for your literary palate. Come every month on the second Tuesday, and by the end of the year, you will have feasted on the work of 24 regional authors (some prominent, some emerging; writers of fiction, poetry, essay, creative nonfiction, memoir). It’s up close and personal in the intimate Performance Space upstairs – stay afterwards and talk to the authors while eating cookies.

April 10: M.J. Iuppa and David James Delaney

M.J. Iuppa is the Director of the Visual and Performing Arts Minor Program and Lecturer in Creative Writing at St. John Fisher College; and since 2000 to present, is a part time lecturer in Creative Writing at The College at Brockport. Since 1986, she has been a teaching artist, working with students, K-12, in Rochester, NY, and surrounding area. Most recently, she was awarded the New York State Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Adjunct Teaching, 2017. She has four full length poetry collections, newly released This Thirst (Kelsay Books, 2017), Small Worlds Floating (2016) and Within Reach (2010), both from Cherry Grove Collections, and Night Traveler (Foothills Publishing, 2003), along with 5 chapbooks. She lives on a small farm in Hamlin, NY.

Philip Levine, Pulitzer Prize winner and Poet Laureate (2011), said of David James Delaney, “He’s got talent, material, [and he’s] sensitive.” Delaney, of Irish Canadian descent, grew up in a blue collar family and attended East High School in Rochester. He studied at the University of Rochester, RIT, SUNY Brockport, and other local universities, at the University of Wisconsin, and, as recipient of a graduate fellowship, at the University of London, England. He is a board member for Just Poets, a former coeditor of Le Mot Juste, an award-winning photographer, and a painter; one of his watercolors will be the cover of national poet Bill Heyen’s upcoming book. Delaney also writes short stories and plays (one performed at Writers and Books).

Delaney has worked as a United Auto Worker, teacher, journalist, day laborer, and employee assistance counselor, but his best job ever is that of “Dad.”