Dive into an insightful evening with Poetry Global Network's Chancellor, Mark Fishbein, as he discusses the UK nonprofit's dedicated efforts to support and connect a growing international community of poets. This session offers a unique window into the organization's mission, complemented by powerful readings from their latest anthologies, featuring the distinct and evocative work of Rich Glinnen, David G. Siller, and Mona Zamfirescu.
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POETRY GLOBAL NETWORK (PGN) was founded in 2021 by several poets who met during the Covid Zoom era, a non-profit located in the UK, and our mission, simple: to serve world poetry. PGN currently offers their growing community a weekly Sunday event at 11 AM Eastern: open-mics hosted by spoken-word champion 2025 C.P. Maze, as well as a poetry book club, townhalls, and workshops. Partnering with international festivals such as Nottingham, Singapore, and Chicago both live and on Zoom, PGN is presently on their third season of publishing collections and anthologies.
BIOS:
A native New Yorker, MARK FISHBEIN graduated CCNY in 1971 and attended the Sorbonne in Paris for Literature. He received an MFA in Poetry in 2025 from Columbia College Chicago. Mark has four collections available, Poems Hanging on A Wall (2021) and recently a photo/poems/journal Billboards of Chicago (Shy House Press 2024). He serves as Chancellor of PGN-Poetry Global Network's Poetry Academy, and as editor of its recently published ekphrastic anthology, Improvs in Black & White. (PGN 2025). He is host and producer of the Chicago Poetry Festival at the Afterwords Bookstore in Chicago, which is now in its 4th year. He has been featured in Rattle, Allium and many other publications. Also, a musician, you can find out more about Mark here: www.poetwithguitar.com.
RICH GLINNEN's work can be found in more than 100 print and online journals. He is a mainstay online at Nuyorican Poet's Café, a Best of Net nominee, and featured on the podcast "My Wife Hates Me." Currently he has three kids, two cats, one wife, and he aims to keep it that way. His chronicle of poems about first time parenting, Front to Back, was published by PGN Publishing in 2025.
DAVID S. SILLER studied Francophone African & Caribbean literature. He is a poet, editor, translator, actor, director, producer, and a comic book buff who and knows more about French hip hop than you could possibly imagine. Among many others he has works in 100 Poets Against The War, Newtown Literary, The Ekphrastic Review, and Waxy & Poetic. He currently calls Queens, New York home, though his soul wanders the streets of Paris as he teaches literature at St. John University. His first collection, which captures both wonder and surprise, & Other Improprieties, was published by PGN Publishing in 2025.
Writer, painter, and photographer MONA ZAMFIRESCU is a Professor of Mathematics at Baruch College, CUNY. Her poetry has been published in various anthologies and has been showcased at the NYC Poetry Festival. Mona is a 2025 Pushcart Prize nominee for her poem "American Soldier," published in Mayari Literature. She holds a PhD in Statistics from Columbia University. Currently, she is studying for an MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry at CCNY, CUNY. Her debut transformative collection, Who Looks Outside Dreams, was published by PGN Publishing in 2025.
