March 5, 2020 | Prose Café Bellas Artes

Prose Café’s First Birthday Celebration

by Rosaleen Bertolino

 

Come celebrate with us and enjoy the work of three accomplished writers living in San Miguel: Linda Laino, Ronald Alexander, and Rosaleen Bertolino.

A year ago, after noting the success of Poetry Café, Prose Café was conceived. The first events, last March and April, were an experiment to see if readers would come out to celebrate the work of prose writers. The answer was a quick and resounding yes and readers filled Bellas Artes each month to hear local and visiting writers.

Please join us as we kick off our second year with these fine writers:

Linda Laino is an artist, writer, and teacher who has been making art in one form or another for over 40 years. Holding an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, she enjoys playing with words as much as form and color. Since 2012, she has resided in San Miguel de Allende, where the surreal atmosphere and sensuous colors have wormed their way into her paintings. The last few years have found her making art at residencies around the world, most recently in Spain and France. Her poetry and essays have been published in anthologies and small presses such as The New Engagement, Sheila-Na-Gig Journal, and Life in 10 Minutes. Last year her poem, “Poem at Sixty,” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her artwork can be seen at lindalaino.com.

Ronald Alexander’s fiction and poetry have been published in the Chicago Quarterly Review, the Huffington Post, the Los Angeles Review, Confrontation, and Chicago Tribune. His essay “Survivor’s Guilt” was published by Chattahoochee Review and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His novella Romanze for Martha was a finalist in the St. Andrew’s Novella Competition. Alexander has an MFA in Fiction from Warren Wilson College and is an instructor at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.

Rosaleen Bertolino was born in San Francisco, spent most of her life just north of the Golden Gate, and earned her MA in English and Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. A writer of fiction, her short stories have appeared in the New England Review, Vassar Review, Gravel, Chicago Reader, Superstition Review, Storyscape, Litro, and many others, and are forthcoming in failbetter and several anthologies. Currently living fulltime in San Miguel, she has just completed a collection of short stories and is at work on another. She is a co-founder and host of Prose Café.

Prose Café Bellas Artes is run by volunteers and offers monthly readings of excellent prose, September to April. Seating is limited; please arrive a few minutes early.