Rough Draft is excited to welcome author, filmmaker, and relationship expert Michelle Fiordaliso, MSW, to Kingston as our June writer-in-residence.

Michelle will read one of her two personal essays published in the New York Times Modern Love column, and will answer questions about pitching and writing non-fiction for newspapers, film, magazines, and more.

She will also be bringing along her vintage Smith Corona typewriter and will be dolling out advice in the form of Rx Haiku — a performance art piece where problems become poetry. Michelle combines her years of experience as a therapist and a writer in this innovative format, where visitors sit down and share a problem or concern in their life and she responds with a 17-syllable solution intuitively created and typed on the spot.

Since the inception of Rx Haiku in 2016, prescriptive poems have included everything from one for a father who was minutes away from seeing his estranged son for the first time in two decades, to one for a woman who believed she had a curse that prevented her from ever finding love, to one for a seven-year old who was eager to give her puppy a birthday party and was concerned that her dog’s best friend Shaggy might not show.

This event is free with food or drink purchase, and we'll have a limited number of Michelle's book, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Ex, for sale. Michelle will read and discuss her non-fiction writing from 7 to 7:45, and will be holding one-on-one Rx Haiku sessions from 7:45 to 9:15.