This event takes place on crowdcast, Charis' virtual event platform. Register here.

"Meet Me There" is a monthly intergenerational poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction experience curated by trans/genderqueer poet and sound artist Samuel Ace. Writers exploring genre and gender boundaries will be a special focus of this series. Some months our readings will take place at Charis Books with an option to watch virtually, and some months the event will be fully virtual, so be sure to check the listing!

May's featured writers are Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore and Megan Milks in celebration of their books, Terry Dactyl and Mega Milk: Essays on Family, Fluidity, Whiteness, and Cows.

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of seven books, and the editor of six anthologies. Her new novel, Terry Dactyl, was described by the New York Times Book Review as “a remarkably grounded look at what it means to be fully alive.” Her previous title, Touching the Art, was a finalist for a Washington State Book Award and a Pacific Northwest Book Award, and her book The Freezer Door was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award. She’s currently working on a new anthology, ACT UP Beyond New York: Stories and Strategies from a Movement to End the AIDS Crisis, and her next book, Social Distancing, will be published in spring 2027.

Megan Milks is the author of Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body, shortlisted for the 2022 Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Fiction, and Slug and Other Stories. Their new book, Mega Milk: Essays, was released this January from Feminist Press. They live in Brooklyn.

Samuel Ace is a trans/genderqueer writer and sound artist. His latest books are I want to start by saying (Cleveland State University Poetry Center 2024), Our Weather Our Sea (Black Radish 2019), and Meet Me There: Normal Sex & Home in three days. Don’t wash. (Belladonna* 2019). Ace is the recipient of the Astraea Lesbian Writer Award and the Firecracker Alternative Book Award in Poetry, as well as a repeat finalist for both the Lambda Literary Award and the National Poetry Series. Recent work can be found in Personal Best: Makers on Their Poems that Matter Most, Essential Queer Voices of U.S. Poetry, Fence, BathHouse, The Texas Review, Poetry, We Want it All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetry, Best American Experimental Poetry, and many other journals and anthologies.

The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on Crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate.

Please contact us at info@chariscircle.org or 404-524-0304 if you would like ASL interpretation at this event. If you would like to watch the event with live AI captions, you may do so by watching it in Google Chrome and enabling captions: Instructions here. If you have other accessibility needs or if you are someone who has skills in making digital events more accessible please don't hesitate to reach out to info@chariscircle.org.

By attending our event, you agree to our Code of Conduct: Our event seeks to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), class, or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Unsolicited sexual language and imagery are not appropriate. Anyone violating these rules will be expelled from this event and all future events at the discretion of the organizers. Please report all harassment to Charis staff immediately or email info@chariscircle.org.

Meet Me There: Featuring Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore and Megan Milks