Award-winning poet Jonathan K. Rice
Courtesy of Hailey Ray
Black Dog Café held its weekly literary night featuring award winning poet and visual artist Jonathan K. Rice, at its Railroad Square location.
Rice gave readings from his newest poetry book “Killing Time” as well as his first “Shooting Pool with a Cellist” which has roots from what he call his short time at Florida State University.
“I went to FSU very briefly, and now I do most of my work in North Carolina but when I came back to visit a dear friend of mine I knew I wanted to do a reading for the students here if I could book one, which luckily I did.”
Rice is also editor and publisher of Iodine Poetry Journal and encourages students interested in writing not to be afraid of criticism.
“Get involved in a writers group and get honest reviews of your work, not just a pat on the back saying that was good. If you’re a writer and want to pursue it, send your work out there, everyone gets rejected but persevere, hone your craft and keep doing it.”
Sydney Shaffer a third-year criminology student at FSU said that she heard about the reading and was excited to come.
“I’ve been to a poetry reading before but only with younger kids so I thought it would be cool to come to this event and see what it was all about.”
Emile Boghos who has worked at Black Dog Café for more than six years and coordinates most of the events says literary night is always a great event to come out to especially for aspiring writers.
“Every Thursday we feature visiting authors, local authors and students as well. We wanted to be a coffee shop that reaches out to the community and we felt like apart of that was having a strong literary presence.”
Students can purchase of a copy of Jonathan’s book via his website johnathankriceartist.com and sign up for a spot at literary night by contacting Emile at Emile.Boghos@gmail.com.