Free and open to the public

Inprint is proud to serve as a host for the First Friday Poetry Reading Series. The First Friday Series is the oldest poetry series in Houston and has been held monthly on the first Friday of each month since 1975. The series is coordinated and curated by Robert Clark. Each reading begins with a featured poet, followed by an open mic. On August 2, 2019, First Friday presents Varsha Saraiya-Shah.

For more information on the First Friday Series click here or visit the group on Facebook here.

Varsha Saraiya-Shah is an Indian American CPA with an MBA from Cal Poly-Pomona, whose poetic roots come from her mother tongue, Gujarati. She has studied creative writing at Inprint in Houston, Sarah Lawrence College in New York, Squaw Valley Community of Writers in California, Reed College in Oregon, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. She will read from her chapbook, Voices (Finishing Line Press, 2016). Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, such as Borderlands, Cha-An Asian Literary Journal, Convergence, Echoes of the Cordillera, Right Hand Pointing, Mutabilis Press, the Texas Poetry Calendar and the University of Texas Press. Her poetry has been heard on local Public Radio KPFT at Public Poetry, and was incorporated as part of “Poetry in Motion”, a multi-language, multi-century classical/modern dance program staged in Houston, Texas by Silambam. As a member of Matwaala, a South Asian Poets’ Diaspora, she has read her work in New York City and in Austin. She performs regularly at Archway Gallery, a multi-genre venue in Houston, and has read her ekphrastic poetry at the Rice Gallery as part of the series Words & Art. A member of the board of Mutabilis Press, she serves as its Treasurer.