An Evening of Erotic Poetry
With Poets Elana Bell, Tina Barry, Lisa St. John,
and Irena “Namyrah” Nayfeld
Thursday, February 12, 2026
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Blue Heron Books
High Falls, NY
Join us for an intimate and unforgettable night of erotic poetry. This special reading will feature poets sharing both their own work and beloved erotic poems by writers such as Sharon Olds, Margaret Atwood, and more, weaving together voices that celebrate desire, vulnerability, longing, and the charged beauty of the human body.
Featured poets include Elana Bell, Tina Barry, Lisa St. John, and Irena “Namyrah” Neyfeld—each bringing a distinct perspective to the art of sensual language and emotional candor.
Come gather for an evening that honors the power of poetry to awaken, unsettle, and open the heart. This is a celebration of eros as a creative force, expressed through language that is bold, tender, and deeply human.
Elana Bell is a poet, sound practitioner, and creative guide whose work blends ritual, writing, and voice to support individuals and communities in accessing their authentic expression. She is the author of Eyes, Stones (LSU Press), winner of the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, and Mother Country (BOA Editions), a collection exploring fertility, motherhood, and mental health.
An inaugural finalist for Split This Rock’s Freedom Plow Award for Poetry & Activism, Elana has led writing and performance workshops nationally and internationally for participants of all ages, including college campuses, educators, and women in prison. She has taught at CUNY College of Staten Island and Brandeis University and currently teaches poetry to first-year drama students at the Juilliard School. To find out more, please visit https://elanabell.com
Irena “Namyrah” Nayfeld (they/she) is a poet, facilitator, and embodied liberation guide based in the Hudson Valley, NY. Namyrah’s work arises from lived experience and the body itself, inviting a return to nature and internal life force as sites of remembrance and reclamation. With a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology and a background in somatics, they delight in creating spaces where authentic self-expression, embodied presence, and devotion meet. Namyrah’s first poetry collection, Become Light, Blinding, is now making its way into the world. https://irenanayfeld.com
Lisa St. John is a writer living in New York’s Hudson Valley. She is the author of Ponderings (Finishing Line Press) and Swallowing Stones (Kelsay Books). A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, Lisa’s writing has been published in numerous journals and anthologies, including Light, Entropy Magazine, The Poetry Distillery, Poets Reading the News, Boomer Lit, Chronogram, and Sleet. Her awards include Winner of The Poet’s Billow’s Bermuda Triangle Contest and first place in Anthology’s 2024 Poetry Award. When poems allow it, Lisa writes her Substack, Widow's Words, and fine-tunes her memoir. For a list of publications, please visit her at https://lisachristinastjohn.com
Tina Barry is the author of three full-length collections, most recently I Tell Henrietta. Tina has been published widely in newspapers, magazines, literary journals, and anthologies, including Rattle, Verse Daily, and The Best Small Fictions 2020 and 2016.
Tina holds an MFA in creative writing from Long Island University, Brooklyn. She’s been nominated several times for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Microfiction awards. Tina is a teaching artist at the Poetry Barn and Writers.com. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her husband, the ceramic artist Bob Barry. For more, visit https://tinabarrywriter.com