Our Poets

Stephen Bor
Gary Brower
Tod Caviness
Matthew John Conley
Brian Ellis
Damien Flores
Paul Gagnon
Adam Grabowski
Meghan Jones
Danny Solis
Geoff Trenchard

Staff

Adam Rubinstein
Christian Drake
Lee Francis VI

Our Poets

Stephen Bor {top}

Stephen Bor was born in Seattle, Washington and raised in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. He first performed spoken word poetry to avoid flunking out of Chinese school (he flunked out), and began performing spoken word (in English) in March of 2002. In the fall of 2002, he helped found The 101 Project with Hanalei Ramos and Hang Le. He was named the most inspirational poet at the ACUI College National Poetry Slam in 2003 and 2004. He looks up to the Asian American artist community for inspiration and encouragement. He has worked with OCA, a nationwide Asian Pacific American civil rights organization, founded the Rice University Asian Pacific Americans for Social Action club, and was recently an officer in the United States Coast Guard. He hopes to visit your refrigerator one day.

 

Gary Brower {top}

 

 

 

Gary L. Brower holds degrees from Drury University & University of Missouri (Columbia), has taught at various universities: Kansas, UNM, USC, UCLA, UCSD. A specialist in Hispanic literature, he has published essays on Paz, Fuentes, Borges, Rulfo & other writers, as well as two books on the impact of haiku on Western poetry. He has also worked as a journalist in Los Angeles, & with the Mexican migrant worker community of southern Oregon. His poetry (& translations) have appeared in magazines & broadsides such as: Puerto Del Sol, The Poetry Bag, Put Poems, Tansy, Sagitario, Cottonwood Review, New America, Ann Arbor Review, New Mexico Magazine, Mundus Artium, 10.5 Arts Magazine, The Signpost, Ke5tra, Beatlick Poetry & Arts Review, The Rag, Sin Fronteras, and Central Avenue. He is one of the organizers of the Duende Poetry Series of Placitas, NM, where he lives.

Note: Bio photograph retouched & enhanced by David Cramer

 

Tod Caviness {top}

 

 

 

 

 

Tod Caviness is a three-time member of Orlando’s Say Anything Slam Team and has been largely unmedicated the entire time. He has been the host of the Speakeasy spoken word night, the heir to Patrick Scott Barnes’ long-running Backroom Words. He has been a film critic, a haunted house employee, a candy store manager, and a waiter. He has been featured at Boston’s Cantab Lounge, NYC’s Bowery Poetry Club, and the most hostile bars in Brevard County. He has never felt he was a typical gemini, but then geminis never do.

 

Matthew John Conley {top}

 

 

 

 

MJC/36/South Jersey Irish / Capricorn / Quaker / Earth Monkey / BAS in Creative Writing & Theater from the University of New Mexico / Lollapalooza “Slum Poet” / SlamAmerica 2000 Poet / co-founder of the Albuquerque Poetry Slam / John Denver Memorial Service attendee / appears in the Library of Congress / originator of the Drive-By Poetry Phenomenon/born with both feet bent up against his shins / 11 National Slam Teams / in love with the ampersand / My Friend Billy, illustrated by Jordan Crane (Kapow! Press, 2000) available through lastgasp.com / ”Le Vomiteur” in the film Terrorist She-Freaks Of Texas (Hybrid Vigor, 2005) / believes that words are completely adequate to express how we truly feel.

 

Brian Ellis {top}

 

 

 

 

 

Brian S. Ellis wrote his first poem, “the sweat on the pillow” on February 18th 2004. He was member of the 2006 Boston Cantab National Slam Team, and represented the Cantab in the 2007 IWPS. The word Cantab is short for Cantabrigian. Which is someone from the city of Cambridge. In 1630, John Winthrop settled on the north bank of the Charles River and founded the village of Newtowne. In 1638, Newtowne became known as Cambridge. Brian currently resides in Boston in the neighborhood called Jamaica Plain. “JP” was part of the town of West Roxbury untill it was annexed by the city of Boston in 1874. In 1896, the Thomas G. Plant Shoe Factory at Centre street and Bickford street in JP proclaimed itself to be the largest women’s shoe factory in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damien Flores is a poet from Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was a member of the 2004 ABQ Slam Team and an organizer for The National Poetry Slam: 2005. He has performed across the United States and has been published in Bomb Magazine and Shine on you Crazy Diamond by Sun Stone Press. He is the host of the Blue Dragon Slam in ABQ and is an undergraduate at the University of New Mexico.

 

 

Last seen, Paul Gagnon lived and worked in Martha’s Vinyard. He recently finished his first novel. He is a humble man, and enjoys his feet bare.

 

 

 

 

 

Poet, photographer, and social work student Adam Grabowski has been writing and performing his poetry in Western Massachusetts for the past nine years. He currently lives in Springfield, MA, with his fiance Rose Harasymiw and their daughter, April Irene. His photography can be seen at www.nationalgrabowski.blogspot.com. This is his first chapbook for Destructible Heart Press. None of these poems have appeared in The New Yorker.

 

 

 

 

Meghan Jones is a 20 year old hurricane. She is the only child of Anita and Jason Harger, a current student of English Creative Writing at Northern Arizona University, the author of The New Black and a handful of novellas, the 2006 NORAZ Grand Slam Champion, a member of the 2005 and 2006 NORAZ slam teams, and the lover of John Kofonow. She loves French press coffee, Marshmallow Treasures cereal, and old typewriters. She’s been in love twice and considers herself undeservingly lucky for this as some won’t ever get to be. She often ditches class to write and thinks you should reorganize your priorities and do the same. She can’t spell. She would like to play you at Book Lovers Trivial Pursuit.

 

 

 

 

 

Danny Solis started writing poetry at the age of five and has been called the Poet Laureate of Albuquerque, N.M. He’s been a part of two National Poetry Slam championship teams, and has won numerous indivdual tiles. His work has been anthologized widely, most recently in The Spoken Word Revolution. In 2005 he served as the first chicano Artistic Director of the 2005 National Poetry Slam in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

 

 

 

 

 

Geoff Trenchard is based in Oakland, California. He was featured on Season 3 and 5 of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam as well as guest performer and lecturer at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and San Quentin Penitentiary. Trenchard has toured nationally with the San Jose Slam Team and participated on award-winning teams throughout the Bay Area. He also coached the UC Berkeley Slam team to 1st place at the ASUC Collegiate Nationals, and is a mentor with Youth Speaks, the national youth poetry, spoken word, and writing program. Trenchard’s poems have been published in The National Poetry Slam Anthology and the Worcester Review. He continues to write and tour with the performance poetry trio “The Suicide Kings.” He is currently producing a play in verse as part of the Hip Hop Theatre Festival and pursuing a BA at the New College of California.

Staff

Adam Rubinstein {top}

Editor-in-Chief.
Adam founded Destructible Heart Press in 2000. His poems have been published in numerous magazines and lit journals you’ve never heard of. He holds a BA in Performance Poetry and Visual Literature and dreams of one day fondling an MFA. He is powered by Sriracha and Hatch green chile.