extended hiatus

Due to expanded commitments to my small press, I've been forced to cut down on some other projects. I would be delighted if someone else came forward to carry on this blog. Meanwhile, I hope some of the links and contacts herein are of some use.

-RM

3/1/10

Mary Ann Samyn - March 25 - Johnstown

Mary Ann Samyn, award winning poet, will appear at 7:30 PM Thursday, March 25 in the J Irving Whalley Memorial Chapel on the University of Pittsburgh - Johnstown campus.

Samyn is the author of Rooms by the Sea (chapbook, Kent State University Press), Captivity Narrative (Ohio State University), Inside the Yellow Dress, Purr, and Beauty Breaks In.

Samyn's appearance is part of a poetry series begun in 2004 and made possible by a generous endowment from UPJ alumna Esther Goldhaber Jcovitz. Previous poets have included Lynn Emanuel, Terrance Hayes, Nick Flynn, Thomas Lux, Marilyn Chin, J. Allyn Rosser, and Mark Halliday.

An Associate Professor in the MFA creative writing program at West Virginia University (where she has won awards as an outstanding teacher and researcher), Samyn's poetry has appeared in many of our nation's best literary journals. She has also been awarded the Emily Dickinson Prize from the Poetry Society of America, the James Wright Prize, and a Pushcart Prize.

This event is free of charge and open to the public. A book signing will follow.

Patricia Smith: Bucknell: 3/23/10

Poetry reading by Patricia Smith
Tuesday, March 23
7 PM, Bucknell Hall, on the campus of Bucknell University

Patricia Smith is the author of Blood Dazzler (Coffee House Press, 2008), a poetic chronicle of the physical and emotional toil of Hurricane Katrina.

KATRINA

I was birthed restless and elsewhere

gut dragging and bulging with ball lightning, slush,
broke through branches, steel

I was bitch-monikered, hipped, I hefted
a whip rain, a swirling sheet of grit.

Scraping toward the front of you, hungering for wood, walls,
unturned skin. With shifting and frantiv mouth, I loudly loved
the slow bones

of elders, fools, and willows.

K.A. Hays: Bloomsburg: 3/4/10

Poetry reading by K.A. Hays
Thursday, March 4
7:30 PM at the Bloomsburg Public Library

Poems from Katie Hays' first book, Dear Apocalypse (Carnegie Mellon 2009), have appeared or will be in The Best American Poetry 2009, The Yale Anthology of Younger American Poetry, The Southern Review, and Gray's Sporting Journal.

Her chapbook, Some Monolith, was published this winter as part of the Black Warrior Review Chapbook Series, and contains seventeen poems from her in-progress second manuscript; other poems which have appeared or are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Poetry Northwest. Katie is currently finishing her third year as the Emerging Writer at Bucknell's Stadler Center for Poetry. She and her husband are hikers, canoeists, and soon-to-be parents (due in April).

This event is sponsored by the River Poets, and will be followed by an open reading. MC: Mike DeMarco.

2/1/10

New chapbook forthcoming by Noel Sloboda

Noel Sloboda's new chapbook, Of Things Passed, is now available for pre-order at Finishing Line Press. For preorders placed before April 9th, shipping is only $1. You can pre-order from this webpage (scroll down until you see the grenade and kitty, 15th row).
~
Advance comments on this collection:

"The wry humor and sensibility of the poems within Of Things Passed skillfully draws one into Noel Sloboda's world as he resurrects childhood memories, revisits relationships from a fresh perspective, and dispenses handy advice from iconography to tick removal. Sloboda's gift for creating short and pithy titles often reveals an extra layer of meaning."
--Barry Harris, editor of Tipton Poetry Journal

"According to HowManyOfMe.com, of the 308 million people in the U.S., there's only on eneamed Noel Sloboda. Unique, too, is his poetry, ranging from visceral ("Heat") to clever ("Pinched") to downright heartbreaking ("Organic Recycling"). Of Things Passed is an evocative chapbook--one that deserves the acclaim it's sure to receive."
--Jason Jordan, editor of decomP

"This memorable collection of poems is not sugar-coated: it's ticks in hair, bloody paws, overdue money, stock cras and an inheritance of old hats. These poems tighten stomach knots and tackle the very real fear that lives in middle America. The characters here are anything but mundane: they're sincere and tired and honest; they're pasionate and dedicated and 'squeezed in the middle.' Visit and revisit this family--their seasons and tribulations--these voices tell small stories that need to be heard."
--Micah Ling, author of Three Islands

Michael Blumenthal: Bucknell: 2/23/10

Michael Blumenthal
A Poetry Reading in Honor of Leo Francis Mackey
Tuesday, February 23
7 PM at Bucknell Hall

Michael Blumenthal is the author of And (BOA Editions, 2009), his seventh collection of poems; the memoir My Mothers and Fathers (Harper Collins, 2002), and many other works.

This reading is free and open to the public.

1/1/10

Tim Seibles: Bucknell: 1/26/10

Poetry reading by Tim Seibles
Tuesday, 1/26
7 PM, Bucknell Hall

Seibles is the author of five books of poems, most recently Buffalo Head Solos (2004) and Hammerlock (1999), both published by Cleveland State. He currently serves as the spring Poet-in-Residence at Bucknell University.

11/1/09

November news . . .

Michael Loughran and Lisa Sewell will read their poems on Monday, November 2, 6:30 PM at the Central Library in Philadelphia--click here for the full details . . . Poet Randy Boone will read on Thursday, November 5, 6:00 PM at Cucina Cafe at the Goggleworks (201 Washington Street) in Reading; an open mic will follow Randy's reading . . .

Randy Boone: Reading: 11/5/09

Thursday, November 5, 6 - 8 PM: Poet Randy Boone will read at Cucina Cafe at the Goggleworks, 201 Washington Street in Reading, PA. An open mic reading will follow the featured poet. This event is free and open to the public.

Randy Boone hails from Hellertown, Pennsylvania and teaches at Northampton Community College's Monroe Campus. His most recent publications include poems in Spout, Glimpse, Lehigh Valley Literary Review, English Journal, Connecticut River Review, Clark Street Review, and Epicenter, and a chapbook, Ignoble Daydreams for Impudent Minds (Violent Publications).

10/1/09

October news . . .

. . . Baron Wormser will give a reading in Bucknell Hall on the campus of Bucknell University on Tuesday evening, October 6, at 7 PM . . . Guest judge Karen Weyant has selected Jeff Walt's Soot and Rebecca Lauren's The Schwenkfelders as the co-winners of the 2009 Keystone Chapbook Prize; look for both chapbooks to appear next summer . . . The River Poets will host their annual Dead Poets Reading at the Bloomsburg Public Library, October 29 at 7:30 PM . . .

9/1/09

September news. . .

. . . Paul Siegell's newest book, jamandbootleg, has reviews up at the following sites: Relix Magazine, Black Ocean, Surrender to the Flow, and Amazon. Congrats, Paul! . . . Fourteen finalists have been named in the Keystone Chapbook Prize competition from Seven Kitchens Press. This year's judge, Karen Weyant, will select the two winning manuscripts in October; check the 7KP blog for further updates and a list of finalists and semifinalists . . . Kudos to poet Shanna Wheeler, whose chapbook Lo & Behold is forthcoming next month from Finishing Line Press. You can pre-order a copy by clicking here . . . The third annual Stillwater Poetry Festival is coming up on Saturday, September 12--find out more by clicking here . . . Sascha Feinstein reports that this fall's visiting writer will be Scott Russell Sanders, who will read at Lycoming College on Monday, September 28 . . . more news added as we get it: pop me an e-mail . . .

Scott Russell Sanders: Williamsport: 9/28/09

Monday, September 28, 7:30 PM - Essayist Scott Russell Sanders will give a reading in Honors Hall on the campus of Lycoming College. This reading is free and open to the public.

Born in Tennessee and reared in Ohio, Scott Russell Sanders studied at Brown University and earned his Ph.D. from Cambridge University before going on to become a Distinguished Professor of English at Indiana University. Among his more than twenty books are novels, collections of stories, and works of personal nonfiction, including Staying Put (Beacon, 1993), Writing from the Center (Indiana U.P., 1995), and Hunting for Hope (Beacon, 1998). His memoir, A Private History of Awe (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2006), was nominated by the publisher for a Pulitzer Prize. His latest book is A Conservationist Manifesto (Indiana U.P., 2009), which envisions a shift from a culture based on consumption to one based on caretaking.  For his writing, Sanders has won the AWP Creative Nonfiction Award, the John Burroughs Essay Award, the Lannan Literary Award, the Indiana Humanities Award, and the Mark Twain Award. His work has appeared in such magazines as Orion, Audubon, and The Georgia Review, and it has been reprinted in The Art of the Essay, The Norton Reader, and more than fifty other anthologies, including the annual Best American Essays. In his books he is concerned with our place in nature, the practice of community, the relationship between culture and geography, and the search for a spiritual path. He and his wife, Ruth, a biochemist, have reared two children in their hometown of Bloomington in the hardwood hill country of Indiana’s White River Valley. 

EMCA Open Poetry Readings: Tunkhannock: 9/13/09

Sunday, September 13, 2 - 5 PM: The Endless Mountains Council of the Arts will resume its presentations of monthly Open Poetry Readings. The program will be held at the EMCA Gallery, 302 West Tioga Street, in Tunkhannock. Members of the public are invited to read from their favorite poets or read from their own work . . . or just sit, listen, and enjoy. The event is free and refreshments will be served. For more information, please call 836-3622 or 945-7621.

Stillwater Poetry Festival: 9/12/09

Saturday, September 12: The third annual Stillwater Poetry Festival will feature readings by Joe Weil, Lee Upton, Phill Miller, Gabriel Welsch, Ed Ochester, James Hoch, Todd Davis, Jerry Wemple, and K.A. Hays, among others. Participate in morning poetry workshops! Enjoy the live acoustic music! Pay what you wish! Find out more by clicking here!

Don Riggs: Philadelphia: 9/08/09

The Moonstone Arts Center, 110A South 13th St in Philadelphia, will present a poetry reading by Don Riggs at 7 PM on Tuesday, September 8.

Will Schutt & Michael Scalise: Bucknell: 9/8/09

Tuesday, September 8, 7 PM: The Stadler Center for Poetry presents a reading by poet Will Schutt and nonfiction writer Michael Scalise.

Will Schutt is a poet and translator from New York City. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Faultline, FIELD, Harvard Review and The Southern Review. In 2003, he co-founded Verso, a culture and arts magazine based in Siena, Italy, where he was a contributing editor and translator until 2007. He is the 2009-2010 Stadler Fellow at Bucknell. Click here for more information and to read one of Will's poems.

Michael Scalise's essays and articles have appeared or are forthcoming in Ninth Letter, Post Road Magazine, Hot Metal Bridge, The Rumpus, PopMatters and many other publications. He earned his M.F.A. at George Mason University, where he studied creative nonfiction. He is the 2009 Philip Roth Resident in Creative Writing at Bucknell. Click here for more information and to read an excerpt from one of Michael's essays.

Fox Chase Reading Series-Open Mic: Philadelphia: 9/08

Tuesday, September 8, 7-9 PM:

The Fox Chase Review and the Blue Ox Bistro present The Fox Chase Reading Series: 2nd Tuesdays Poetry Open Mic.

Host: Diane Sahms-Guarnieri

Location: Rhawn St and Oxford Ave in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia.

Come early to sign up and enjoy the great atmosphere of the Blue Ox Bistro: excellent menu and ten rotating drafts on tap. Sign up ahead of time for the open mic by emailing foxchasereadingseries@yahoo.com.

Upcoming notices:
  • The Autumn/Winter 2009 edition of The Fox Chase Review is due first week of September.
  • September 26: C.A. Conrad and Frank Sherlock will read at 3 Sisters Corner Cafe.

Kudos - Shanna Wheeler

Kudos to Shanna Wheeler, whose chapbook Lo & Behold is forthcoming next month from Finishing Line Press. You can pre-order a copy by clicking here--just scroll down (chapbooks are listed alphabetically by author).

7/1/09

Vincent Quatroche & Timothy Gager: Philadelphia: 7/25/09

The Fox Chase Review and The Mad Poets Society present Vincent Quatroche and Timothy Gager.

The Fox Chase Reading Series at 3 Sisters Corner Café
Corner of Barnes and Loney Streets, Fox Chase Section, Philadelphia.
July 25, 2009: 2 - 4 PM

Vincent Quatroche is from Fredonia New York and is a Professor at Fredonia State University. Quatroche has released two CDs of his work at Sleeping Giant Records and has published several full length collections of his poetry and prose. Quatroche was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His latest release is expected this summer. You can view his website at www.rubbereden.com.

Timothy Gager is the author of seven books of short fiction and poetry. Two poetry chapbooks, These Poems are not Pink Clouds (Propaganda Press) and this is where you go when you are gone (Cerena Barva Press) were released in 2008. He hosts the Dire Literary Series in Cambridge, Massachusetts every month and is the co-founder of Somerville News Writers Festival. His short stories have appeared in Twelve Stories, Word Riot, Skive, Dogzplot, Six Sentences, 55 Word, The Binnacle, Scene Boston, Thieve’s Jargon, Long Short Story, The Smoking Poet, Zygote in My Coffee, Slurve, Poor Mojo’s Almanac, Tuesday Shorts, VerbSap, Long Short Story, The Smoking Poet, Write This Magazine and Further Fenway Fiction. His poetry has appeared in The Blood Orange Review, The Fox Chase Review, Night Train, Poems for All, Right Hand Pointing, GUD, Boston Poetry Journal (Bad Ass Edition), Edifice Wrecked, Blue Print Review, Barnstorm, Lit Up Magazine, Hobart, The Long Islander, Spare Change, Delmarva Review, High Horse, Third Lung Review, Poesy XXIV and The Ibbetson Street Journal. He has had over 150 works of fiction and poetry published since 2007 and has four times been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Timothy is the current Fiction Editor of The Wilderness House Literary Review, the founding co-editor of The Heat City Literary Review and has edited the book, Out of the Blue Writers Unite: A Book of Poetry and Prose from the Out of the Blue Art Gallery. A graduate of the University of Delaware, Timothy lives in Dedham, Massachusetts and is employed as a social worker.

Call for performers: Downington: 7/19/09

passing this along:

Victory Brewing Company announces its third annual performing arts extravaganza, The Victory Collaborative, on Sunday July 19th! Calling local singers, songwriters, poets, spoken word poets, classical musicians, theatrical performers—come share your work! We are also looking for artists to showcase their paintings, graphic arts pieces and photography to be displayed on the stage.
  • Date: July 19th 2009
  • Time: 2-4 PM
  • Location: VBC Restaurant Beer Hall, 420 Acorn Lane, Downington PA 19335

There are only twelve slots available, any interested performers please email Christine Yurick at christiney01@gmail.com with the following information:

  • Name and contact information
  • Talent
  • Brief description of performance, whether song, music, poem, etc. and proposed length of performance
  • If you are a poet or a theatrical performer, please send a sample of your work for review
  • Samples of artwork for visual artists
  • Please remember: no profanity, and no graphic lyrics or literature. Participating artists will receive a free beer and pint glass!

For more information and to see pictures from last year’s event, please click here: http://www.victorybeer.com/V_event.html

Last call for PA chapbooks: The Keystone Chapbook Prize

Click here for guidelines to the Keystone Chapbook Prize, sponsored by Seven Kitchens Press. The postmark deadline for this year's competition is Wednesday, July 15th. Authors published so far in the series are Harry Humes, Deborah Burnham, Lisa Sewell and Katherine Bode-Lang.

Fox Chase Open Mic: Philadelphia: 7/14/09

The Fox Chase Review and The Blue Ox Bistro present

The Fox Chase Reading Series
2nd Tuesdays Poetry Open Mic
July 14, 2009
7pm to 9pm
Host: Diane Sahms-Guarnieri

Please join us for the “2nd Tuesdays Poetry Open Mic” at The Blue Ox Bistro located at Rhawn St. and Oxford Ave in the Fox Chase Section of Philadelphia. Come early to sign up and enjoy the great atmosphere of The Blue Ox Bistro, excellent menu and ten rotating drafts on tap. Sign up early for the open mic by emailing us at foxchasereadingseries@yahoo.com

Transportation: Our venues are located one block from the Septa Fox Chase Station. The station is 15 minutes from Market East Station via the R-8 in Center City. If you take the R-8 to “2nd Tuesdays Poetry Open Mic” save your receipt- The Blue Ox Bistro will pay your fare! The Fox Chase Bus Loop also services the 18 and 24. There is free parking behind the Bistro.

JoAnne Growney: DC area: 7/6/09

Long-time Pennsylvania poet JoAnne Growney will read in the Word Works' Cafe Muse Series on Monday, July 6, at 7:30pm.

The Cafe Muse Series is held at the Friendship Heights Village Center, 4433 South Park Avenue in Chevy Chase, MD. Classical guitar by Mike Davis begins at 7 pm; featured readings start at 7:30pm. Open poetry mic follows.

Other events in this series:
  • May 4: Judy Neri & Anne Harding Woodworth
  • June 1: Wayne Miller & Eric Pankey
  • July 6: sculptor Mark Behme & poet JoAnne Growney
  • August 3: Luis Alberto Ambroggio & Yvette Neiser Moreno

Hosts: Adele Steiner & Laura Goldberg. For directions, call 301-656-2797.

The Word Works web site can be found at http://www.wordworksdc.com/.