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The Writers Guild at Bloomington celebrates Pride Month by featuring Westley Penland and Molly Gleeson for the June 2026 edition of First Sunday Prose (host: Hiromi Yoshida). Open mic to follow. Westley Penland is a spoken word poet originally from Florida, now residing in Spencer, IN. He writes about life's most rewarding and disappointing moments and all the weird stuff in between. His debut chapbook, Confirmation of Life (Alien Buddha Press, 2024), tells of his struggles surviving conversion therapy up to his coming to terms with being a transgender man. He and his partner currently run the Natural Poet Society, a group of poets dedicated to reading poetry in the natural world, specifically in caves.
Molly Gleeson writes both fiction and creative nonfiction. She had a late start, beginning to write only in her late thirties while living in China. After returning from teaching overseas, Molly began writing more seriously and is grateful for her writing communities, including Women Writing for (a) Change Bloomington, and the Writers Guild at Bloomington. In January, her essay "Two Sides of the Same Coin" was published in Post Road Magazine, and her short story is forthcoming in a Wordrunner eChapbooks anthology whose theme is "Endings." In 2020, she won Grand Prize in the Midnight Oil Magazine's short story contest, and her winning entry was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. In 2024, she hosted a local author book fair for the Writers Guild at Bloomington, and in 2025, and brought best-selling author Aminatta Forna to Bloomington for a talk at the Monroe County Public Library.
Come early for a drink or snack; shop for gifts and art! Celebrate Pride, celebrate community. Everyone is welcome.
More about the Writers Guild at Bloomington:
https://writersguildbloomington.com/
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Event Venue
Juniper Art Gallery, 615 W Kirkwood Ave, Bloomington IN, 615 W Kirkwood Ave, Bloomington, IN 47404-5162, United States
Tickets
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