EventsIRL

IN-PERSON / I smell a miracle: A Rail Reading curated by Stacy Skolnik

Featuring Courtney Bush, Rob Fitterman, Shanzhai Lyric, Otis Houston Jr., and Stacy Skolnik

Wednesday, July 8, 2026

Doors at 6:30. Reading 7-8pm at 192 Books, 92 10th Ave, New York, NY 10011

To celebrate the publishing of Robert Frost (Book Works, 2026), Stacy Skolnik curates a poetry reading with Courtney Bush, Rob Fitterman, Shanzhai Lyric, and Otis Houston Jr. 

Courtney Bush

A photo of Courtney Bush on The Brooklyn Rail's New Social Environment

Courtney Bush is a poet and filmmaker from the Mississippi Gulf Coast who lives and works as a nanny in New York City. She is the author of the poetry collections Every Book Is About The Same Thing (Newest York Arts Press, 2022), I Love Information (Milkweed Editions, 2023), A Movie (Lavender Ink, 2025), and The Lamb With The Talking Scroll (blush lit, 2025.) 

Robert Fitterman

A photo of Robert Fitterman on The Brooklyn Rail's New Social Environment

Robert Fitterman is the author of 16 books of poetry. His most recent publication is a translation of Italian poet Roberto Balò’s, Saga (Lavender Ink/Diálogos, 2026). Other recent titles include Creve Coeur—a long poem published with Winter Editions include, This Window Makes Me Feel (Ugly Duckling Presse), No, Wait. Yep. Definitely Still Hate Myself. (UDP) and Rob the Plagiarist (Roof Books). He is the founding member of the ongoing artists-poets collective Collective Task. He lives in New York City and teaches writing at New York University.

Otis Houston Jr.

A photo of Otis Houston Jr. on The Brooklyn Rail's New Social Environment
Otis Houston Jr. (b. 1954; Greenville, SC) lives and works in East Harlem, New York. A self taught artist and musician, Houston Jr. began making work after taking an art class while incarcerated. Since 1997, he has maintained an ongoing presence under the Triborough Bridge on the FDR Drive in New York, where he stages impromptu performances and a site-specific installation of signage and sculpture. Houston Jr. has presented solo exhibitions at The John Michael Kohler Arts Center and Art Preserve, Sheboygan, Wisconsin (2022) and Gordon Robichaux, New York (2024, 2021). His work is currently on view in "Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists" at the American Folk Art Museum.
 

Shanzhai Lyric

A photo of Shanzhai Lyric on The Brooklyn Rail's New Social Environment

Shanzhai Lyric (est. 2015) is a roving poetic research unit exploring radical logistics and linguistics through technological aberration and nonofficial cultures. Drawing inspiration from the experimental English of “shanzhai” (counterfeit) T-shirts made in China, they examine how mimicry, hybridity, and permutation reveal the artifice of global hierarchies. Incomplete Poem, their roving archive of poetry garments, circulates through poetry-lectures, publications, and installations. Their work has been presented at MoMA PS1, Abrons Arts Center, Artists Space, SculptureCenter, Storefront for Art & Architecture, Stuart Hall Library, Times Museum, Amant, and others with writings in publications that include The New Inquiry and Capilano ReviewEndless Garment, out now with Pioneer Works Press, compiles 10 years of archiving poetry-garments.

Stacy Skolnik

A photo of Stacy Skolnik on The Brooklyn Rail's New Social Environment
Stacy Skolnik is the author of the novel The Ginny Suite and the poetry collection mrsblueeyes123.com. Robert Frost, a collection of poems in collaboration with itinerant musician Robert Frost, was released this spring by Book Works (UK).
 

We’d like to thank The Marion Boulton Kippy Stroud Foundation and Teiger Foundation for making these conversations possible, and for their support of our growing archive 🌈✨

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