"Personal Velocity" organized by Katie Bennett. The series will feature personal stories (creative nonfiction/ memoir) by Philadelphia-based writers who identify as women, nonbinary, and trans.

This night’s readers include:

Camellia-Berry Grass is trying to live. Presently in Philadelphia, she is the author of Hall of Waters (2019, The Operating System). A 2019 nominee for the Krause Essay Prize, her essays and poems have been widely published in places such as DIAGRAM, The Texas Review, Barrelhouse, and Waxwing, among others. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Alabama, and has taught most recently in the MFA program for creative writing at Rosemont College. 

Rosario Santiago (they/we) is a Lesbian Puerto Rican writer, scholar-activist, and memory worker from unceded Lenni Lenape lands. They received their B.A in Literature from Bryn Mawr College in 2022, having written their senior thesis on the queer spatio-temporality of love letters. They were nominated for a Pushcart Prize for their poem “something red” published in Celestite Poetry, and they also received a 2022 up//root Community Award for their writing on collective community care. Their writing and research center all the ways human beings are connected to one another. When not at work shelving picture books in the children’s department, they are working on their first novel.

Cynthia Schemmer is a writer, editor, and musician living in West Philadelphia. From 2014 to 2021 she worked as the manager editor of She Shreds Magazine, a print and online publication dedicated to women and nonbinary guitarists. Her work has been published in The Score for Lincoln Center, Mask Magazine, Underwater New York, Philadelphia City Paper, Impose, and more. She has also co-authored a chapter in Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind, a collection of tips and narratives on ways non-parents can support parents and children, and contributed to Stompbox: A Visual Exploration of the Guitar Pedal. She has a BA in Journalism from SUNY Purchase and an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College, and is working on a book about nature and grief. You can follow her on Instagram at @cynthiaschemmer.