“Expect the Be(a)st” is a debut book of poetry and drawings by a Brooklyn-based artist and poet Maria Dimanshtein. Written in and for the age of the short attention span, her poems are conveniently sized at one or two sentences. Humorous, personal and often sinister, they talk about search for meaning, loneliness, feeling lost in a big city, romance in the age of apps, depression, God and fear of death. Maria will read from her book and have original artwork displayed at the event.

Maria Dimanshtein is an explorer of poetry in its written and visual forms. A 2018 finalist with Gold Wake Press for her poetry manuscript “Expect the Be(a)st,” she has exhibited her art across the country at venues including Radiator Arts Gallery, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Arcilesi and Homberg Fine Arts, Local Project Gallery, Trestle Gallery, Arizona State University, Evanston Art Center, Galesburg Civic Arts Museum, Tides Institute and Woman Made Gallery. Her poems have also appeared in Gold Wake Live Journal and Live Mag. In 2016, she was a recipient of an Individual Artist Grant from Queens Council on the Arts. She holds an MFA in Painting from Northern Illinois University. Originally from Riga, Latvia, she currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.