Master Gardeners help the public with gardening knowledge and solutions. They offer school horticulture programs, hospital, nursing facility, horticultural therapy seminars, and library talks. They even offer a Hot Line service.

Reserve your place online.

Catherine Criswell is a resident of Shaker Heights and a member of the Cleveland Pudding House Salon writing group. She performs her poetry at The Barking Spider with Ray McNiece`s band, Mac`s Backs, and the former Bela Dubby. In the fall of 2012, she began a new poetry and prose series at Mahalls 20 Lanes in Lakewood, which she hosts one Monday a month. Her poems are published by The Lit, and she has one chapbook, Growing Girls (Writing Knights Press, 2011). She also won Ohio City Writers` 2012 Valentine`s day poetry slam. Criswell has two daughters, one a sophomore at Shaker Heights High School and one a 2012 graduate

Ray McNiece is the author of six books of poems and monologues,and has written and performed two solo theatre works, and one collaborative theatre work.

McNiece has been described as “a modern day descendant of Woody Guthrie . . .with a wry sense of humor.” He has received many awards for his writing and performance, most recently a $20,000 Creative Workforce Fellowship from the Cleveland Partnership for the Arts. He is currently Haiku Champion of Cleveland. An accomplished actor, he has appeared in plays at Ensemble, Dobama, Cleveland Public and Cleveland Playhouse theatres.

Max Stark has studied linguistics at Heidelberg University in Germany and holds an M.A. in English from Cleveland State University with a concentration in poetry. He makes his living as a organizational consultant with his own firm and is co-founder of the Grand River Group, a national group of organizational consultants working across all sectors. Max has written poetry for more than 30 years. His poems have been published in U.S. journals and staged at the Cleveland Play House. He has studied improvisational acting and produced multicultural theater. His 21-year-old son, Nehemiah, who is studying cinema at Chicago’s Columbia College of the Arts, will read with him.

Watts spent her childhood in the foster care system before she aged out at 18. She subsequently overcame a series of obstacles including homelessness, single parenthood, and cancer—all by the age of 23. Her inspiring memoir starkly illustrates the difficulties children face in foster care and beyond.

Watts is an Independent Living Coordinator for the Beech Brook foster care program in Cleveland and devotes herself through advocacy to improve the lives of children in the foster care system. She is founder and executive director of the advocacy organization The Purple Project, which provides resources for children as they age out of foster care and transition to adult life.

Following her talk, Watts’ book will be available for sale and signing.

Reserve your place online.

• Read or listen to a book
• Take a computer class
• Participate in a Book Discussion
• Attend a Library program

Names of all summer readers will be entered into a Grand Prize Drawing for a Kindle Touch.

The fun continues with summer reading themed puzzles. Download one or all of them for summer reading fun.

• Dig into the Seventies Crossword
• What Can YOU Remember about 1973?
• Egyptian Crossword Puzzle
• Caves Quiz
• Who Said That?
• Earthy Word Find

Potluck begins at 5:30 folowed by poetry at 6:30 PM.