"Meet Me There" is a monthly intergenerational poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction experience curated by trans/genderqueer poet and sound artist Samuel Ace. Writers exploring genre and gender boundaries will be a special focus of this series. Some months our readings will take place at Charis Books with an option to watch virtually, and some months the event will be fully virtual, so be sure to check the listing!

November's featured poets are Bryan Borland and Zuggie Tate in celebration of their collections, Listen, Kid: Selected & New Poems 2016 - 2026 and Abomination Pink.

BRYAN BORLAND is the author of multiple books of poetry, including Brotherful, a finalist for the Publishing Triangle’s Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry, and DIG, a Lambda Literary Award finalist in Gay Poetry and a Stonewall Honor Book as selected by the American Library Association, as well as, most recently, Listen, Kid: Selected & New Poems 2016 - 2026. He is the founding editor of Assaracus: A Journal of Gay and Queer Poetry and the founder of Sibling Rivalry Press, one of the most influential independent publishers of queer poetry in the world. For more, visit www.bryanborland.com or www.siblingrivalrypress.com.

Zuggie Tate is a poet from Cleveland, Ohio, and author of Abomination Pink, Sibling Rivalry Press, 2026. Her work has appeared in Black Midwest Anthology, GLAAWC Anthology,  Wasteland Review, Exposed Bone Lit Mag, Shade Literary Arts, Emerge Anthology, BIPOCRYPHA, the Quarry, and Verum Literary Press. She is the recipient of Margie Hope’s 2023 Living Heritage Award. In 2025, Zuggie was awarded the Cleveland Arts Prize’s Verge Fellowship, Literary Cleveland’s Amplify Fellowship, and was a Lambda Literary Fellow. She has also held fellowships with Twelve Literary Arts, Assembly of the Arts, and The Watering Hole.

Samuel Ace is a trans/genderqueer writer and sound artist. His latest books are I want to start by saying (Cleveland State University Poetry Center 2024), Our Weather Our Sea (Black Radish 2019), and Meet Me There: Normal Sex & Home in three days. Don’t wash. (Belladonna* 2019). Ace is the recipient of the Astraea Lesbian Writer Award and the Firecracker Alternative Book Award in Poetry, as well as a repeat finalist for both the Lambda Literary Award and the National Poetry Series. Recent work can be found in Personal Best: Makers on Their Poems that Matter Most, Essential Queer Voices of U.S. Poetry, Fence, BathHouse, The Texas Review, Poetry, We Want it All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetry, Best American Experimental Poetry, and many other journals and anthologies.

The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on Crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate.

Please contact us at info@chariscircle.org or 404-524-0304 if you would like ASL interpretation at this event. If you would like to watch the event with live captions, you may do so by turning subtitles on in Crowdcast once the event begins. You can also choose small, medium, or large subtitle text. Your subtitle settings only affect your own viewing experience, so you can change them without affecting anyone else watching the event. If you have other accessibility needs or if you are someone who has skills in making digital events more accessible please don't hesitate to reach out to info@chariscircle.org.

By attending our event, whether in person or virtually, you agree to our Code of Conduct: Our event seeks to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), class, or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Unsolicited sexual language and imagery are not appropriate. Anyone violating these rules will be expelled from this event and all future events at the discretion of the organizers. Please report all harassment to Charis staff immediately or email info@chariscircle.org.

Meet Me There: Featuring Bryan Borland and Zuggie Tate