This event takes place in person at Charis and on Crowdcast, Charis' virtual event platform. This event is free, but registration is required for virtual attendance.

Join Charis, The Georgia Review, and Sinister Wisdom for a celebration of Minnie Bruce Pratt’s work and legacy. The evening features readings of poems collected in The Georgia Review, written by eight poets across a range of generations and poetic sensibilities with creative statements about their work and its debt of influence to Minnie Bruce Pratt. Silas Heying, Christine Cuomo, E.R. Anderson, Julie Enszer, Noah Baldino, and Cassandra Gillig will participate. 

This event is part of our celebration of the National Women's Studies Association Conference and Charis' 52nd birthday weekend (Nov. 5-9th). The weekend's events are co-sponsored by Sinister Wisdom. Check the calendar for all events.

"Minnie Bruce was an exemplary poet and poet citizen. During her lifetime she published six collections of poetry, We Say We Love Each Other (1985), Crime Against Nature (1989), Walking Back Up Depot Street (1999), The Dirt She Ate (2003), Inside the Money Machine (2011), and Magnified (2021), and two chapbooks, The Sound of One Fork (1981) and The Money Machine (2003). In addition, she published three influential prose collections, Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism with Elly Bulkin and Barbara Smith (1984), Rebellion (1992), and S/HE (1995). Pratt won many awards for her writing, including the prestigious Lamont Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, a Lillian Hellman–Dashiell Hammett award, a Lambda Literary Award for Poetry, and the Publishing Triangle’s Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. She was generous to other writers—offering independent classes to people wanting to work with her and study poetry and craft. Pratt was a dedicated teacher, though for her entire teaching career she was a contingent faculty member, a condition that negatively impacted her, her health, and her family. She provided support and encouragement to a large circle of poets and writers and freely gave of her time as a reader, mentor, speaker, and thinker. She wrote poems that changed our perspectives on the world, and she built poetry communities." It is in her spirit that we gather.

- Taylor Marie Doherty, Julie R. Enszer, Laura Alexandra Harris, Silas Margaret Heying, and Amanda Mixon (from the Introduction to The Georgia Review Minnie Bruce Pratt Folio)

Silas Margaret Heying is an assistant professor of English at Lees-McRae College in Western North Carolina. Their fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Greensboro Review, West Branch, Autostraddle, Literary Hub, and elsewhere; their scholarly work has appeared in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society and Journal of Lesbian Studies. They also perform drag as Ponyboi, a cowpunk who don’t apologize to nobody but his mama.

Chris J. Cuomo is Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies at University of Georgia.

Charis Circle Executive Director, Errol “E.R.” Anderson (he/him) manages the fiscal and daily operations of Charis Circle, and is always interested in the ways our communities can share skills and resources. A native Atlantan, E.R. came to Charis as one of the founding members of the Young Writer’s Group in 1997, and has enjoyed helping build connections between communities of activists, artists, and academics in this city ever since. E.R. co-facilitates the Gender Creative Parenting Collective, Q/T Youth Game Night, and our Trans and Friends support group. When not at Charis, E.R. is working on a novel, And Let God Sort Them Out.

Julie R. Enszer is the author of six poetry collections, most recently The Lamed-Vovniks (Indolent Books, 2026). Enszer is the editor of Fire-Rimmed Eden: Selected Poems by Lynn Lonidier (Sinister Wisdom, 2023) and OutWrite: The Speeches that Shaped LGBTQ Literary Culture with Elena Gross (Rutgers University Press, 2022), among other titles. A Fine Bind: A History of Lesbian-Feminist Publishing is forthcoming from Duke University Press. Enszer edits and publishes Sinister Wisdom, a multicultural lesbian literary and arts journal.

Noah Baldino is a trans writer and editor from the Midwest. His poems have appeared in POETRY, The American Poetry Review, Poem-a-Day, New England Review, Poetry Daily, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. A graduate of the Knox College Creative Writing Program, Noah has also received support from Bread Loaf, Poetry Foundation, Purdue University, The University of Arizona Poetry Center, and The Stadler Center for Poetry and Literary Arts, where he was both a 2015 Bucknell Seminar for Undergraduate Poets Fellow and a 2019-2020 Stadler Fellow. A 2021-2023 Reader for POETRY, he currently lives in Athens, Georgia, where he is the Editor of Poetry and Reviews at The Georgia Review.

Cassandra Gillig is a writer, editor, and curator based between Chicago and Lawrence, KS. For work on Leslie Feinberg and Stone Butch Blues, Gillig is the Bibliographical Society of America's 2026 Blahnk New Scholar and has received support from Cornell University and Duke University. Gillig is a recipient of the Charles S. Longscope Jr. Writers and Artists Grant from The Gay & Lesbian Review and is working on a book about policing and anti-cop organizing in the gay 70s. Gillig is co-translator of Grenade in Mouth: Some Poems of Miyó Vestrini (Kenning Editions, 2019) and has a decade of experience as a book designer and editor, working especially with poetry, non-fiction, and arts writing. Gillig works as the program coordinator for Trans Studies at the Commons, is a proud former Kansas public librarian, and has a background in community organizing and playing rock n roll music.

Sinister Wisdom is a multicultural lesbian literary & art journal founded in 1976. Sinister Wisdom works to create multi-class, multicultural, multi-gender, multi-racial, world-wide intergenerational queer and lesbian spaces. Through publishing quarterly issues, a Sapphic Classics book series, and offering educational programs, Sinister Wisdom nurtures lesbian communities. Sinister Wisdom is a living archive that celebrates the multiplicity of lesbian identities across races, classes, genders, abilities, and lived experiences. Sinister Wisdom recognizes the power of language and art to create radical, empowering, resilient, and joyous sanctuaries that build and sustain vibrant lesbian futures.

The Georgia Review is the literary-cultural journal published out of the University of Georgia since 1947. While it began with a regional commitment, its scope has grown to include readers and writers throughout the U.S. and the world, who are brought together through the print journal as well as live programming. Convinced that communities thrive when built on dialogue that honors the difference between any two interlocutors, we publish imaginative work that challenges us to reconsider any line, distinction, or thought in danger of becoming too rigid or neat, so that our readers can continue the conversations in their own lives.

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 or in person at the event.

Charis Books is a fully wheelchair accessible space with on site van accessible parking, two ramps, and additional overflow accessible parking nearby. Additional accessibility information can be found on the Accessibility page of our website.

Please read the in-person event guidelines blow to be sure you can participate in the event. 

All attendees must wear a face mask during the event.

We will begin seating people at 7:00 PM ET.

This event will be live-streamed via Crowdcast. Click here to register to attend virtually.

As a reminder: If you are not feeling well, please do not come to the event.

If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request specific accessibility accommodations, please contact info@charisbooksandmore.com or call the store at 404-524-0304.

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 AI captions, you may do so by watching it in Google Chrome and enabling captions: Instructions here. 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.

A Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Minnie Bruce Pratt