Jen McConnell, author of Welcome, Anybody and poet Holly Jensen will read at Mac's Backs on Wednesday, April 11th at 7 p.m. The reading will be followed by a poetry open mic. Welcome, Anybody is a terrific debut collection of short fiction published by Press 53. A lonely woman imagines life with a dead cowboy; a trucker drops out of life for a weekend;  a pregnant wife secretly employs feng shui to forestall the impending chaos. The vivid and sometimes heartbreaking stories in Welcome, Anybody progress from a quiet and profound despair to ones where hope, in some quiet form, begins to rise again. “The characters in these stories stand absolutely still in the middle of their lives while the world spins around them, chaotically and often dangerously. There is an intensity of vision here — both riveting and haunting — that will remind you of Carver’s stories, but the territory McConnell has staked out is unquestionably her own.” – Lewis Buzbee, author of The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop A native Californian, Jen began her writing life in San Francisco in 1996. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College in Vermont. She has published numerous stories in literary journals and anthologies. Jen currently makes her home on the Lake Erie shore, with her husband, child, and pug. She supports her writing habit by working in non-profit marketing and communications. Holly Jensen, an Ohio writer, will share new poetry, including Persian and free ghazals. This lively and beguiling form of poetry predates the sonnet, yet continues to speak to us in fresh and exciting ways. By addressing romantic longing, humor, mortality, and spirituality through a non-Western approach to poetry, the ghazal illuminates our modern world. Holly Jensen’s writing has appeared in Pank Magazine, The Ante Review, Kestrel, Damazine, Defenestration Magazine, Tilt-a-Whirl, wtf pwm, and elsewhere.