The Zoom link has been sent out to registered ticketholders!
If you haven’t received it,
or need technical assistance,
please email development@redhen.org
or call 626-406-1205!
We invite you to join us for Red Hen’s virtual benefit gala!
The event will run from 12 p.m.–2 p.m. on October 24, 2021, via the Zoom platform. We are providing an immersive digital experience, using breakout rooms to give guests time with our featured authors. The regular programming will showcase Red Hen’s place in the literary community with performances from local students, a live auction, and readings by these presenting authors:
Kazim Ali 
Martha Cooley 
Afaa Weaver
Kazim Ali – sponsored by Jacqueline Tchakalian and Kate Coles
Kazim Ali was born in the United Kingdom and has lived transnationally in the United States, Canada, India, France, and the Middle East. His books encompass multiple genres, including several volumes of poetry, novels, and translations. He is currently a professor of literature at the University of California, San Diego. His newest books are a volume of three long poems entitled The Voice of Sheila Chandra and a memoir of his Canadian childhood, Northern Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water. He edited the forthcoming anthology with Red Hen Press, New Moons: Contemporary Writing by North American Muslims.
Martha Cooley – sponsored by Gina Knox
Martha Cooley is the author of three novels—Buy Me Love from Red Hen Press, The Archivist, a national bestseller also published in a dozen foreign markets, and Thirty-Three Swoons—and a memoir, Guesswork. She co-translated Antonio Tabucchi’s story collection Time Ages in a Hurry. Her essays, reviews, short fiction, and co-translations have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books and numerous leading literary journals. She is a Professor Emerita at Adelphi University. Prior to Adelphi, she taught for fifteen years in the Bennington Writing Seminars. She lives in Castiglione del Terziere, Italy, and spends time in the United States.
Afaa Weaver – sponsored by Francesca Bell
Afaa M. Weaver, formerly known as Michael S. Weaver, was born in Baltimore in 1951. He is the author of fifteen collections of poetry, most recently Spirit Boxing (University of Pittsburgh Press). From 1970-1985 he was a factory worker in his native Baltimore for fifteen years. A graduate of the writing program at Brown University, he has also worked in theater as a playwright and published short fiction, in addition to being a freelance journalist, editor, and translator. His awards include the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the St. Botolph’s 2019 Distinguished Artist Award, the Gold Friendship Medal from the Beijing Writers Association, the 96th Medal in Writing and Art from Taiwan’s Artists and Writers Association, and a Guggenheim fellowship. In 2017, he retired from Simmons University, where he held the Alumnae Chair for twenty years. He now teaches at Sarah Lawrence College. Afaa’s papers are held in the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.
Featured host authors:
- Boreal: Elizabeth Bradfield, Marie Tozier, Nicole Stellon O’Donnell
- Letras Latinas Table (Francisco Aragón) – sponsored by James Wilson
- Aimee Liu
- Amy Shearn
- Brendan Constantine – sponsored by Linda Horioka
- Brynn Saito – sponsored by Nancy Boutin
- Dariel Suarez – sponsored by Paula Verrette
- David Mas Masumoto – sponsored by Ann Beman
- David Mason
- Douglas Manuel
- Gary Lemons – sponsored by Cindy Ballard
- Judy Grahn
- Kristen Millares Young – sponsored by Andrew Seiple
- Lara Ehrlich – sponsored by Nicole Foos
- Luis Rodriguez and Trini Rodriguez – sponsored by Gary Edelstone
- Major Jackson and Didi Jackson
- Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Additional Event Sponsors:
- Lisa Krueger and Robert Wyman – Gold Press Sponsor
- Bianca Richards and Ron Koertge – Program Sponsor, Story Line Press
- Linda Fondren – Book Angel Sponsor for Lexicon by Allison Joseph
*Updated as of October 19, 2021.
Sponsorship Packages and Tickets
Individual Tickets – $50
- 1 admission to the virtual benefit
- Red Hen gift bag mailed to your home at no extra cost
Gold Sponsorship – $5,000
- 10 admissions to the virtual benefit
- Invitation to a separate virtual room with one of our featured readers: Kazim Ali, Martha Cooley, or Afaa Weaver
- Autographed books by the author mailed to you and each of your guests
- A gift package—delivered ahead of the event—to you and each of your guests
- Full-page ad in the event’s tribute book
- 3 broadsides featuring each presenting author’s work, designed in-house by Red Hen cover artists and hand-signed by their respective authors
Silver Sponsorship – $3,000
- 10 admissions to the virtual benefit
- Invitation to a separate virtual room with one of our host authors
- Autographed books by the author mailed to you and each of your guests
- A gift package—delivered ahead of the event—to you and each of your guests
- Full-page ad in the event’s tribute book
Bronze Sponsorship – $1,800
- 10 admissions to the virtual benefit
- Invitation to a separate virtual room with one of our amazing Red Hen authors
- A gift package—delivered ahead of the event—to you and each of your guests
- Half-page ad in the event’s tribute book
Other Sponsorship Opportunities
Press Sponsor – $5,000
- Inclusion on Red Hen’s donor wall, to be displayed at the front of its Pasadena office
- Become an official sponsor of one of Red Hen’s programs: Arktoi Books, Crooked Hearts Books, DJS Books, Pighog Press, Story Line Press, Xeno Books, Letras Latinas, Quill Publishing, Writing in the Schools, and the Hen House Literary Center
- Sponsorship noted on our website, tribute book, and at the event
- Full-page advertisement in this year’s tribute book
Program Sponsor – $2,500
- Become an official sponsor of one of Red Hen’s programs: Arktoi Books, Crooked Hearts Books, DJS Books, Pighog Press, Story Line Press, Xeno Books, Letras Latinas, Quill Publishing, Writing in the Schools, and the Hen House Literary Center
- Sponsorship noted on our website, tribute book, and at the event
- Half-page advertisement in this year’s tribute book
- Available Program Sponsorships
Book Sponsor – $1,000
- Sponsorship noted on our website, tribute book, and at the event
- An optional choice of acknowledgment inside an upcoming Red Hen title
Can’t Attend but Want to Donate?
Text redhen to 56651 to donate or use the link below!
Contact Us
Please call (626) 406-1205 or email benefit@redhen.org to request additional information about Red Hen’s virtual benefit or make a table purchase.
Past Benefits
