Ogden, Ep. 2

November 2, 2022 — In our return to Ogden, Utah, we once again joined forces with the Utah Humanities Book Festival for a fun-time showcase at Good Company Theatre that saw Ben Gunsberg topple Rees Sweeten in a Repeat After Me finale, winning Gunsberg the LDM Ogden, Ep. 2 crown, and literary immortality to go with it.

Here's the full lineup from the night: 

JUDGES: 

Literary Merit: Sunni Brown Wilkinson, author of The Marriage of the Moon and the Field, and winner of Sherwin W. Howard Poetry Prize, the Joy Harjo Poetry Prize and the Sundress Chapbook Contest, and was recently a finalist for Nina Riggs Poetry Award 

Performance: Brenda Sieczkowski, poet lyrical essayist and author of Like Oysters Observing the Sun and Wonder Girl in Monster Land — her work has also appeared in The Colorado Review, Versal, The New England Review, Diagram, The Florida Review, Gulf Coast and way more

Intangibles: Jesse Parent, author of The Noise That Is Not You, finalist at several international poetry slams, touring improv comedian, and software engineer who helped create the first telecommunications company for the Deaf

READERS:
Round 1:
* Ben Gunsberg, poet and author of Welcome, Dangerous Life and Rhapsodies with Portraits, winner of the University of Michigan’s Hopwood Award for Poetry Writing for his manuscript, Cut Time, and Associate Professor of English at Utah State

* Angelika Brewer, Ogden's 2022-2023 poet laureate and community organizer

Round 2: 
* Rees Sweeten, Ogden-born poet who grew up in a conservative LDS family, and who's poetry speaks to anyone who has been othered or mistreated. She advocates for LGBTQ+ rights and preventing youth suicide in the state of Utah

* Siân Griffiths, author of the all-new The Sum of Her Parts; Borrowed Horses (a semi-finalist for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award); The Heart Keeps Faulty Time, and creative writing teacher at Weber State 

Hosted by LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga (author of the award-nominated novel Collision Theory)

Produced by Willy Palomo

Where: Good Company Theatre, 2404 Wall Ave, Ogden, UT