SEERSUCKER COTERIE
“Novelist” Christopher Berinato (Seersucker Live co-host) has not actually completed his novel, but he will talk incessantly about it if you give him the opportunity. Buy him a drink at your own risk. Christopher has written for the now defunct Murmur Magazine, and was the recipient of the Lillian Spencer Fiction Award for his short story “Lips and Teeth.” He volunteers with Deep (DeepKids.com), teaching creative writing to primary school students. He has been a fixture of Downtown Savannah for over a decade, so you probably already know him. He is the co-founder and co-host of Seersucker Live.
Zach Powers lives and writes in Savannah, Georgia. He is writing this bio himself, and writing it in the third person, which to him feels rather pompous. He is averse to pomposity and is really quite personable. You'd like him. Give Zach Powers a chance. Why do you have to be so judgmental? His work, equally self-absorbed, has appeared or is forthcoming in Caketrain, The Bitter Oleander, Opium Magazine, Quiddity, Pindeldyboz, Paradigm Journal, PANK, and maybe elsewhere but he can't remember. He is a past winner of Opium Magazine’s Literary Death Match, a reading/performance event held in cities throughout the world. His writing won an Emmy Award, which was his fourth Emmy for television production excellence. Yes, excellence. He is on the board of directors for the Flannery O'Connor Childhood Home, and he teaches English at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. He is the co-founder and co-host of Seersucker Live. Get to know him at ZachPowers.com.
As a music director, Brian Dean has worked at the Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre in lovely Grand Lake, CO, and also led, arranged music for, and performed in The Undertones, a 12-person all-male a cappella group. A lifelong chorus tenor, he has sung with both the Chicago and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, as well as appeared with B.J. Thomas (I mean, you might as well list everybody, right?) and the Chieftains. He once sat in front of accordion legend Dick Contino on a plane. As a music editor for five years at Hal Leonard Corporation, he did everything from arranging and editing music to producing talent in the recording studio. He also scored the movie Echo Lake – he’ll give you a buck if you’ve seen it. Brian is very excited to be affiliated with Seersucker Live, though the only thing he has written lately is this bio. He is The Seersucker Live Orchestra, providing music for all Seersucker Live events.
Catherine Killingsworth is the executive director of Deep (DeepKids.com), a local nonprofit that offers free creative writing programs at area public schools. She studied English with a Writing Concentration at Yale University, where she graduated magna cum laude and won the Curtis Prize for her academic writing and the Wright Prize for her creative writing. She also won the Thouron scholarship to study creative writing at Cambridge in 2006 and the Wagster, Cepeda-O’Leary, and Richter fellowships to conduct independent research in Argentina in 2007. She is the author of Writing Wednesdays, Deep's guidebook to teaching creative writing. Catherine is a volunteer Event Coordinator with Seersucker Live.
Joseph J. Schwartzburt holds a B.A. in English from Armstrong Atlantic State University and is currently pursuing his M.F.A. in Creative Writing through Wilkes University's Low Residency program. He lives and writes in Savannah, GA where he is working on his first novel, which is set in a New Hampshire town that he has only ever been to once. Suffice it to say he enjoys a challenge, even ulcer-inducing ones. Joseph is an Event Coordinator with Seersucker Live and serves on the Board of Directors.
Sarah Bates is the volunteer coordinator for Deep (DeepKids.com). She received her B.F.A. from the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she studied Motion Graphics, Graphic Design and Creative Writing. She is the former Managing Editor and Lead Writer for Tidbits, a trivia newspaper, was a teacher's assistant at Fort Dale Academy, and a Resident Assistant and summer programs' assistant for at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Sarah is a volunteer Event Coordinator with Seersucker Live.
Lucas Rager is an underground artist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who is based in Savannah, Georgia. He is a graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. His favorite things to draw are snakes, skulls, wolves, and breasts. Lucas is Seersucker Live's house artist, providing all the illustrated writing prompts for our performers.