Becca J.R. Lachman, Renée Nicholson & Rebecca Moon Ruark at Westside Bowl

First Wednesday Reader Series presents poet Becca J.R. Lachman of Athens, OH; poet Renée Nicholson of Morgantown, WV; and fiction writer and essayist Rebecca Moon Ruark of Galesville, MD Wednesday, August 5 at 7:00pm at the Westside Bowl, 2617 Mahoning Ave. Bella Davis will co-host, with an open mic to follow. This reading will be downstairs in the Trophy Room, accessible only by stairs. Meagan Albani will provide ASL interpretation. The First Wednesday Reader Series receives support from POP! Art Books Culture.
Poet Laureate of Athens, Ohio, Becca J.R. Lachman serves as the communications director for the Athens County Public Libraries and earned her MFA from Bennington College. The author of four poetry collections, she also publishes choral music and hymn lyrics, and edited the national anthology "A Ritual to Read Together: Poems in Conversation with William Stafford." Her recent work has been recognized by the Ohio Arts Council and the Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center.
Renée Nicholson has received grants, fellowships, and residencies from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, the West Virginia Humanities Council, the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute, the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and Chateau d'Orquevaux. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and a Certificate of Professional Achievement in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. A seventh generation West Virginian, she lives in Morgantown.
A Northeast Ohio native, Rebecca Moon Ruark earned an MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in fiction from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is co-editor of an anthology of essays and articles on dance and health for the Connective Tissue series from WVU Press. She runs the blog Rust Belt Girl, to hype the poets and writers from her native region. Before this life in words, she was a dancer who grew up in the ballet studio.
Upcoming 2026 readings at Westside Bowl:
September 2 Nancy Krygowski, Jane McCafferty
October 7 Diane Kendig, Erica Manto Paulson
November 4 William Breeze, E.F. Schraeder
December 2 Theresa Gottl Brightman, Steve Brightman