We are thrilled to celebrate local poet, artist, and educator, grace (ge) gilbert, and their debut, Holly! Holly is a work of art, assembling hybrid collage, poetry, and memoir. We are thrilled to host a special and dynamic event in celebration of this project. grace will be joined by opening reader, Daniel McCarty, and will be in conversation with local poet and editor, Lisa Summe.

grace (ge) gilbert’s Holly merges poetry, memoir, and visual art in an effort to recreate the author’s grandmother, who was murdered in her home in 1976, and to make sense of their ensuing relationship with their father, who found his mother’s body when he was eleven years old. Having never been told explicitly by their parents about her murder, gilbert pieces together her grandmother’s story through fragments, ephemera, history, and the imaginary, looking past the spectacle of the murdered woman and into the things that come, like ripples, after.

DANIEL MCCARTY is an undergraduate student at Pitt studying biology, with plans to pursue a career in healthcare. Outside of his major, he enjoys writing and learning Spanish and playing banjo, fiddle, and singing in the Pitt Bluegrass Ensemble. Around Pittsburgh, Daniel is active in the bluegrass and old-time scene, and volunteers with the organization Prevention Point Pittsburgh. You can often find him riding his bike to work and school, hiking, and reading.

LISA SUMME is the author of Tell Me Twice (YesYes Books, 2027) and Say It Hurts (YesYes Books, 2021). She earned a BA and MA in literature at the University of Cincinnati, and an MFA in poetry from Virginia Tech. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Bat City Review, Foglifter, Muzzle, Salamander, Salt Hill, Underblong, West Branch, and elsewhere. She is currently associate poetry editor for Brink. You can find her running, playing baseball, or eating vegan pastries in Pittsburgh, PA, or at lisasumme.com.

grace (ge) gilbert (they/them) is a poet, writer, and collage artist. they received their MFA in poetry from the University of Pittsburgh in 2022, where they now teach. they are the author of Holly (YesYes Books, 2026), a hybrid image and text book about the 1976 murder of their paternal grandmother, as well as three chapbooks. Recent work can be found in the Kenyon Review, the Iowa Review, the 2023 Best of the Net Anthology, Pleiades, the Indiana Review, Ninth Letter, Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. They teach hybrid collage and poetics courses at Brooklyn Poets, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and other institutions. They are passionate about making the hybrid arts accessible to all.

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