Join us in the PEACE Park as Coventry Branch and Mac’s Backs Bookstore present an outdoor summer poetry series.

July 3rd's reading features the poets: John Burroughs, Shelley Chernin and Michael Salinger.

John Burroughs is a nationally touring writer and performer who has wowed audiences from New York to Oakland. He previously served for two years as Ohio's Beat Poet Laureate and is a vice president for the Ohio Poetry Association. His books include The Wrest of the Worthwhile and Rattle & Numb: Selected & New Poems. Burroughs has also curated several regular reading series in Northeast Ohio and, since 2008, has served as the founding editor and publisher for Crisis Chronicles Press producing over 120 titles by vital independent voice.

Shelley Chernin is an environmental activist and ukulele enthusiast who has been writing poetry on and off for most of her life. She is the author of The Vigil, (Crisis Chronicles) and her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Great Lakes Review, Scrivener Creative Review, Guide to Kulchur Creative Journal, Rhapsoidia, Durable Goods, Big Bridge, and Oct Tongue-1. She was awarded Second Place in the 2011 Hessler Street Fair Poetry Contest and received Honorable Mentions twice in the Akron Art Museum’s New Words Poetry Contest. Shelley has read her poems and played ukulele in many venues, including Mac’s Backs, Visible Voice Books, Mahall’s, The Beachland Ballroom, numerous libraries, coffee shops, parks, bars and street corners. 

Michael Salinger is an educator, author/poet, playwright and metal artist. He has been writing and performing poetry and fiction for over 35 years.  He has written books for elementary through adult readers as well as having co-authored  professional books for teachers with his partner in rhyme, Sara Holbrook.  His book, Well Defined, Vocabulary in Rhyme, won a VOYA top shelf award. As a literacy consultant, he has visited over 200 cities spread across more than 50 countries, developing an expertise in working with preschool thru university aged students, native speakers as well as English language learners. Sara Holbrook and he were named the 2021 Outstanding English Educators of the year by the Ohio Council of Teachers of English.