Last year, the Writers Showcase Reading Series in Scranton featured an all-female line-up, and we’re doing the same again this year. The event takes place this Saturday at 7 p.m. Here is a flyer with more details. I also posted the bios of all of the featured readers. If you’re in NEPA, I encourage you to come out, hear these women read, and support the local literary scene.

Jenette Kiesendahl is an English instructor and the Writing Center Director at Lackawanna College. She earned a Masters of Fine Arts from Hofstra University in 2012 where she was the recipient of the Judith A. Jedlicka Endowed Scholarship. She is the editor for both Something Savage Animation Studio and Woodloch Pines Resort. While her most recent publication for the Pennsylvania Association of Developmental Educators is an academic one, her essay entitled “Misconception” can be found in the Narrateur, and she has published several smaller pieces through local publications on Long Island.

Marcie Herman Riebe is a bilingual case worker by day, a university ESL adjunct by night, and an aspiring writer at times in between. An import to northeastern Pennsylvania, she has been active in the arts for many years in theatre, forensics and music. Her interest in the arts continues as founder of Ink, an area writer’s group, a founding member of Voce Angeli (NEPA’s only all-female chamber choir), as a board member of Arcadia Chorale, a part of the Diva Theater Productions family, and as a member of the Northeast PA Creative Writers. She writes online as a scribe for the Rolling the Dice blog, a contributor to Project Wednesday (a self-development blog), and as the columnist of “The Writer’s Edge” for Thirty-Third Wheel. She loves all things Pittsburgh, particularly the University of Pittsburgh where she earned her Master of Arts degree in Linguistics. She lives in Scranton with her hilarious husband, Pete, and their horde of cats:  Napoleon, Gimli, King Ajax, Sam and Dean.

Samantha Patterson is a fiction and poetry writer born and raised in Larksville, Pennsylvania. Her work has been published in online journals, and she is completing her first full-length manuscript as a student in Wilkes University’s Graduate Creative Writing Program. When she is not writing, Samantha spends her time as a soccer coach for Lackawanna College, while pursuing her journey as a registered yoga instructor.

Rachel Luann Strayer is a produced playwright and aspiring novelist with an M.A. and MFA in Creative Writing from Wilkes University. Her original play Drowning Ophelia received its World Premiere production in San Francisco, followed by East Coast productions in Scranton and Philadelphia. Her short plays have been performed locally by Gaslight Theatre Company and Diva Theater. Rachel works at Keystone College as the Director of Theatre and an Assistant Professor of Communication Arts. She is a co-founder of the local theatre company Ghostlight Productions where she serves as an actor, director, and playwright. Rachel and her husband, Jonathan, live in Clarks Summit, Pa.

Emily Vogel’s poetry, reviews, essays, and translations have most recently been published in The North American Review, Omniverse, The Paterson Literary Review, Lips, City Lit Rag, Luna Luna, Maggy, Lyre Lyre, The Comstock Review, The Broome Review, Tiferet, The San Pedro River Review, 2 Bridges Review, and PEN, among several others. She is the author of five chapbooks, and a full-length collection, The Philosopher’s Wife, published in 2011 by Chester River Press, a collaborative book of poetry, West of Home, with her husband Joe Weil (Blast Press), First Words(NYQ Books), and recently, Dante’s Unintended Flight (NYQ Books). She has work forthcoming in The Boston Review and Fiolet & Wing: An Anthology of Domestic Fabulism. She teaches writing at SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College and is married to the poet, Joe Weil.