Join us at The SPF Stage with live authors readings organized by Orange Island Arts Foundation and Reading Queer. A diverse group of local authors will read passages from their recent publications amidst the SPF Fort Lauderdale goings on.

Authors include:

Laura McDermott was the 2014-2015 Writer-in-Residency of Girls’ Club. Her first book of poetry, Visions on Alligator Alley, was published by Lominy Press in the summer of 2015.  Laura is the founder and executive director of Orange Island Arts Foundations and also a tenured assistant professor of English at Broward College, where she was the recipient of the 2014 Wells Fargo Endowed Teaching Chair. Laura earned a BA in creative writing at Florida State University and an MFA in creative writing at Florida International University. Her poetry can be found in various publications. 

Sergio Mora is a poet, performer and yoga teacher committed to helping individuals cultivate a strong personal practice. He uses art to communicate the depth of emotion that grips the human experience, exposing hidden truths beneath the surface of our day-to-day interactions - a poet first and foremost who evolved into a Performance Artist in order to challenge myself artistically and work within and against physical and mental limitations. His latest performance project, Glasses, is a one-man physical theatre project that explores male compassion and vulnerability as strength rather than weakness.  The vignettes within the work also illustrate how each one of us comes to know the world through our own personal set of experiences and are subsequently affected by how the world comes to know each one of us.   

E. Parker Phillips is a poet based in Miami, FL. Parker's work has appeared in Jai-Alai magazine and Hinchas de Poesia and is forthcoming from Voluble, Sliver of Stone and The Sensation Feelings Journal. Parker teaches creative writing and BDSM education and conducts sessions as a Pro Dominatrix in a private fetish studio under the name Lady P. 

J.V. Portela (Habana, Cuba 1989) is a poet, translator, editor, activist and researcher based out of Miami, FL.  He is the translator of three books of poetry: Dave Landsberger’s Suicide by Jaguar (Jai-Alai Books 2014), Peter Richards’ Helsinki (Casa Vacía, forthcoming 2017), and Legna Rodriguez Iglesias’ Chicle: Ahora Es Cuando (2016), the first English translation ever published by renowned Cuban press Letras Cubanas. His original children’s poems about native South Florida wildlife will be permanently exhibited by the Miami Frost Museum of Science as part of its Everglades ecology exhibit and eventually published as a children’s book.