Open Door Series: Eric Elshtain & Jennifer Nelson

The Open Door series presents work from Chicago’s new and emerging poets and highlights the area’s outstanding writing programs. Each hour-long event features readings by two Chicagoland writing program instructors and two of their current or recent students. October’s Open Door Reading presents Eric Elshtain and his student Brianna Choate, and Jennifer Nelson and her student Megan Stockton.

Eric Elshtain leads students in numerous hospitals through poetry and art workshops. He has also taught at the University of Chicago, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and in several Chicago public schools. His latest book of poetry, This Thin Memory A-ha, is available through Verge Books.

Jennifer Nelson is the author of Aim at the Centaur Stealing Your Wife (Ugly Duckling, 2015) and Civilization Makes Me Lonely (Ahsahta, 2017). She is an assistant professor in the department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Megan Stockton is a member of Problem Press, the previous editor-in-chief of BathHouse Journal, and editor at Weekday Journal. Her writing has been published by Publication Studio, Monster House Press, BigBig Wednesday, Bearings: Works About Boundaries, Flint Magazine, and A Plume Journal. She currently facilitates a poetry workshop at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility.

Brianna Choate is a poet and a student of Health Psychology and Neuroscience at Brigham Young University – Idaho. Her work is largely inspired by the writing of Edgar Allan Poe and Agatha Christie.