The Dire Literary Series

The Dire Literary Series hosts Kathleen Spivack, Lawrence Kessenich, and Zvi Sesling.

Kathleen Spivack’s most recent novel is UNSPEAKABLE THINGS (Alfred A. Knopf, 2016), which centers on European refugees in New York City struggling to survive during the last year of the second World War. She is also the author of  WITH ROBERT LOWELL AND HIS CIRCLE (University Press of New England, 2012), a touching and deeply revealing look into the lives and thoughts of some of the most influential poets of the twentieth century, including Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Bishop, and Stanley Kunitz. 

Lawrence Kessenich is a fiction writer, poet, playwright, essayist, reviewer, editor, and teacher. He has published a number of short stories and won the 2010 Strokestown International Poetry Prize. He has published three books of poetry: Strange News, Before Whose Glory, and Age of Wonders. He’s also published essays, one of which was featured on NPR’s “This I Believe.”  His short plays have been produced in New York, Boston, and in Colorado, where he won the People’s Choice Award in a national drama competition. Kessenich is the co-managing editor of Ibbbetson Street literary magazine.

Zvi Sesling edits Muddy River Poetry Review and reviews for Boston Small Press and Poetry Scene. He has authored two volumes of poetry and one chapbook. Now retired, Zvi devotes his time to reading and writing poetry. He lives in Chestnut Hill, MA. with his wife.