Poetry Night with Tim Nolan and Philip Bryant

Tim Nolan was born in Minneapolis, graduated from the University of Minnesota with a B.A. in English, and from Columbia University in New York City with an M.F.A. in writing. Tim is an attorney in private practice in Minneapolis. His poems have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, The Nation, The New Republic, Ploughshares, and on The Writer’s Almanac and American Life in Poetry. His first three collections—The Sound of It, And Then, and The Field, were published by New Rivers Press. His most recent collection, Lines, was published by Nodin Press. He is the host of the series Readings by Writers at the University Club in St. Paul.

Philip S. Bryant, a native of Chicago, is the author of three previous collections of poetry, which include, Blue Island, Sermon on a Perfect Spring Day, and Stompin’ at the Grand Terrace: a jazz memoir in verse, with music by Carolyn Wilkins. His work has appeared in Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota, Good Poems, American Places, selected and introduced by Garrison Keillor, and Where One Voice Ends Another begins, 150 Years of Minnesota Poetry. Sermon on a Perfect Spring Day was nominated for a Forward Prize and was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award in poetry. Selections from Stompin’ at the Grand Terrace were chosen by Los Angeles Times Music Critic Ann Powers to appear in Best Music Writing, 2010. His latest full collection of poetry, The Promised Land, published in October 2018 by Nodin Press, received the Benjamin Franklin Award, Silver Winner, as a Finalist in the Poetry Category, by the IBPA (Independent Book Publishers Association). He was a fellow of the Minnesota State Arts Board in 1992 and 1998. He served on the governing board of the Loft, the premier literary arts center in the Twin Cities. He has worked with the Givens Foundation as a mentor for emerging African American writers. He was a radio-essayist for Minnesota Public Radio and is currently a professor emeritus at Gustavus Adolphus College. He lives with his wife, Renee, in St Peter, Minnesota.