THE SPEAK EASY

In a city known for Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize Winners and Poets Laureate, Julia Vinograd is perhaps the best-known poet of Berkeley, California. According to the East Bay Express, "She is to Telegraph Avenue what Damon Runyon was to Broadway, Charles Bukowski to the gin mills and racetracks of Los Angeles." Rober Pinsky calls her "A true street poet." She is a winner of the American Book Award of the Before Columbus Foundation. With 42 books published so far, Julia Vinograd is a one-woman poetry publishing revolution.

She will read on Friday, May 26 at 7:30 p.m. at Enigma Garden Cafe, 918 S. Fourth St. (386-0999). For information on this event, you may contact Bruce Isaacson at 869-4813. The reading is free, courtesy of the sponsorship of the Community College of Southern Nevada, Red Rock Review, and the Nevada Arts Council. This is her first reading outside the SF Bay Area in over a decade.

Julia holds an MFA from the prestigous Iowa Writers Workshop. Before that, she attended UC Berkeley, where her mother was an English professor. Her father was a noted professor of Physics, and was rumored to have been chosen for a Nobel Prize (never awarded posthumously) just before his sudden death. Julia's honors also include a Pushcart Prize and an award from the city merchant association as Poet Laureate of Berkeley. She has put some 75,000 books in circulation, mostly published by Zeitgeist Press, primarily by hand-to-hand sales. A most unassuming presence, Julia is rooted in the steet world of Telegraph Avenue, sells her books in cafes, and is popularly known as "The Bubble Lady of Berkeley."

Please distribute this information as appropriate. Photos are avaialble on request. Thanks!