I hadn't planned on hosting a reading at all during this time because I was deeply engaged in preparing the Seventh Game. But David Hess was in town from St. Louis, and it seemed like a good opportunity to have him read, along with a couple of other poets I'd been meaning to host for a long time. David has a neat little book out from Skanky Possum called Cage Dances. His poems are very clean and crisp, with a deceptive simplicity to them and a nice, ringing tone. Andrew Felsinger publishes the cool webzine Vert, and we had collaborated on a project called Beaches, some of which was published in Bombay Gin. Summi Kaipa is a great poet and good friend who I met when I took over as administrator for Rova:Arts in June of 2000. She held the job before me. A highlight of this reading was the sincerity and humor of Hess' work, especially when he did a spot-on imitation of William Burroughs while performing a new piece of work. Andrew read from a new project that floored most of us, as we hadn't heard his stuff in a while. Summi read from an ongoing project that will eventually be published by Atelos Press, and which deals with her experience of being an Indian woman both inside and outside her culture.