Name: Valerie G. Keane

What’s your current project: As the event coordinator for Newtown Literary, I am running Book Trivia Night on November 2nd, a fundraiser for the Newtown Literary Journal.  You should come!  As a poet, I am reading with Saeed Jones and Molly Rose Quinn at the LIC Reading Series at LIC Bar in Long Island City on November 10th at 8pm.  As founder of Poetry & Coffee, I hold monthly meetups to discuss poetry (the one rule is that it cannot be your own work) over food and drinks in various locations in NYC/Westchester/LI.  Next month, November, is the 2nd anniversary of the group.  In the last year, I’ve expanded it into Poetry Hikes and special events for book-length poems.  In the second half of 2016, I will be developing Poetry & Coffee nationally and internationally.  But in the first half of 2016, I will be concentrating on my own writing, submissions, and finally putting a manuscript together.  In the middle of all of this, I am a former executive director who is looking for a full-time position as an office manager, project manager, event planner, or all-around kick-ass assistant in a company that is doing good things in the world.  Hire me!

Why and how are you involved?  I am involved in the world because I am supremely interested in the world.  I am also supremely interested in things BEYOND this world, which is probably why I can handle everything in my life with a fair amount of patience and not take myself too seriously.  I really just want to leave the earth at the end of my days having made a few people a little happier and their lives a little easier.

Websites: www.newtownliterary.org ; www.valeriegkeane.com; www.poetryandcoffee.com