Jose Padua will be at the Book Gallery to read from his new poetry collection, A Short History of Monsters.

Drawing on the spirit of New York City in decades past, A Short History of Monsters presents the sins and obsessions of a poet nimble in beat and slam traditions.

Reception to follow with food and spirits.

Chosen by former poet laureate Billy Collins as the winner of the 2019 Miller Williams Poetry Prize and published by the University of Arkansas Press. Jose’s poetry, fiction, and non-fiction have appeared in publications such as Bomb, Salon.com, Beloit Poetry Journal, Exquisite Corpse, Another Chicago Magazine, Unbearables, Crimes of the Beats, Up Is Up, but So Is Down: New York’s Downtown Literary Scene, 1974-1992, and others.