Literary Café at CFI featuring John Rigney and Julio Montalvo Valentin
John Rigney is a poet, collagist, bookseller and English teacher from Buffalo, New York.
John is a self-taught collagist and has published collages and collage poems in Instagram Poetry for Every Day, Cut Me Up Magazine, Rattlebear Magazine, Contemporary Collage Magazine, Traditions: The Kanyer Art Collection, and PoetryXCollage. You can see some of his work at postpoetical.com and on Instagram. He attended LeMoyne College in Syracuse (B.A. English ’89) and received his M.A. in English Literature at SUNY College at Buffalo in 2000. He teaches English, theatre, and creative writing at Kenmore West High School. He was one of the featured poets in the Spring 2015 issue of BlazeVox Online journal. His work has also been published online at Dispatches from the Poetry Wars. Before its closing, John and his wife Dana were the proprietors of The Second Reader Bookshop on Hertel Avenue.
John is a self-taught collagist and has published collages and collage poems in Instagram Poetry for Every Day, Cut Me Up Magazine, Rattlebear Magazine, Contemporary Collage Magazine, Traditions: The Kanyer Art Collection, and PoetryXCollage. You can see some of his work at postpoetical.com and on Instagram. He attended LeMoyne College in Syracuse (B.A. English ’89) and received his M.A. in English Literature at SUNY College at Buffalo in 2000. He teaches English, theatre, and creative writing at Kenmore West High School. He was one of the featured poets in the Spring 2015 issue of BlazeVox Online journal. His work has also been published online at Dispatches from the Poetry Wars. Before its closing, John and his wife Dana were the proprietors of The Second Reader Bookshop on Hertel Avenue.
Julio Montalvo Valentin (they/his) is the author of three chapbooks, the latest being Those Who Pray to Rice (NightBallet Press, 2019), and is a member of Los Artistas del Barrio Buffalo (LADB). Julio received their bachelor’s and master’s degree in Writing and English literature from SUNY Buffalo State, where they also received two research fellowships, one for their second coast-to-coast poetry tour and another to study poetry curated on the Stonewall Nation Radio Program. They have also authored three poetry chapbooks, the latest being Those Who Pray to Rice (NightBallet Books, 2019). Julio was a guest editor for Mutata Re, Portrait, Coffin Bell Journal, Variety Pack, and co-founder of the late Cringe-Worthy Poets Collective. Their work has been published in Thimble Literary Magazine, Cavity, Bangor Literary Journal, and Aisthesis: The Interdisciplinary Honors Journal, and more. Their work has been anthologized in Boricua en la Luna: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Voices, A Flash of Dark, Mansion, My Next Heart: New Buffalo Poetry, and the Silkworm Anthology Volume 13. Julio worked on creative writing experiences with the TimeSlips: WNY Tele-Stories Project, the BPS “Woke Words” program (“Freedom” poetry mural at Broderick Park), and the inaugural Teaching Artist Mentorship Program with the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable.
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