The 2025 HEMINGWAY’S SUMMER POETRY SERIES
The 51st Anniversary Season @ Hop Farm Brewing Company
Eight Tuesdays – May through August 2025 @ 7 p.m.
Hop Farm Brewing Company 5601 Butler Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15201
Founded by Jimmy Cvetic in 1974 or thereabouts.
Curated by Joan E. Bauer & Kristofer Collins
Audio archive: www.hemingwayspoetryseries.blogspot.com
Hop Farm Brewing: www.hopfarmbrewingco.com
Week Eight: Tues August 26
Sean Enright Celeste Gainey Rich Gegick Gwendolyn Mitchell Jesse Welch
Sean Enright is a writer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he attended Wittenberg University where he focused his education on American Modernist Poetry. He published his first book of poetry Over Responding Monster (published by Alpha Beat Press) in 1997. He produced a literary ‘zine called yawp in 2000, sharing editorial responsibilities with his friend Eric Bliman. Alongside the ‘zine he produced a multi-disciplinary artist showcase called yawp Carnival Poetica. During that time he also performed in a poetry driven musical act called Over Responding Monster. In 2017 he wrote a Historical/Cocktail Recipe book called Pittsburgh Drinks: A History of Cocktails, Nightlife & Bartending Tradition (published by Arcadia Publishing) with co-author Cody McDevitt. In 2020 he returned to poetry, publishing Tales of Love & Horror and Establishing the Lobster (a collection of older poems from the early 2000s).
He is the owner and proprietor of Poetry Lounge in Millvale.
Celeste Gainey is the author of the poetry collection, the GAFFER, as well as the chapbooks In the land of speculation & seismography and …while we were waiting to become part of our century. Graduating with a BFA in Film & Television from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, Gainey earned an MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry from Carlow University and recently served as the inaugural Poet Laureate of Allegheny County for City of Asylum. The first woman to be admitted to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) as a gaffer, she has spent many years working with light in film and architecture.
Richard Gegick hails from Trafford, PA. WPA Press published his first full-length poetry collection, Greasy Handshakes, in 2019. Richard’s poetry and fiction have appeared in 86 Logic, Chiron Review, Gulf Stream, and many other periodicals. A 16-year service industry veteran, Richard lives in Pittsburgh’s North Side neighborhood where he tends bar and freelances.
Gwendolyn A. Mitchell—poet, editor and literary consultant—is the former Senior Editor for Third World Press. Her poems have been published in journals such as American Review, Prairie Schooner, Poetry South and Essence Magazine. She has conducted workshops and seminars on poetry and the literary arts across the country. Mitchell is the author of the poetry collection, House of Women, and is the co-editor of two literary anthologies. She currently lives in Pittsburgh and is a member of and mentor for the Madwomen in the Attic community of writers.
Jesse Welch is a poet, father, and untalented juggler. He is the co-founder and host of the Nasty Slam, Pittsburgh’s head-to-head death match slam. He has competed at the National Poetry Slam for Chicago, Seattle, and Pittsburgh, He has been performing his poetry since he was twelve years old and appears in the award-winning documentary Louder Than A Bomb. He is co-author with Adriana Ramirez of In the Shadow of the Mic: Three Decades of Slam Poety in Pittsburgh (Bridge & Tunnel Books, 2020).