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

3/1/06

Christopher Southgate: Bucknell: 3/29/06

Poet Christopher Southgate will give a reading at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, March 29, in Bucknell Hall on the campus of Bucknell University.

[PERSONAL NOTE: I gave a reading with Chris a few years ago, also in Bucknell Hall. He's a delightful poet and a warm, engaging individual.]

Li-Young Lee: York College: 3/29/06

posted from the York College website:

Award-winning poet Li-Young Lee will give a poetry reading on Wednesday, March 29, at 7 p.m. in the MAC Recital Hall at York College [click
here for directions to campus].

Born to exiled Chinese parents, Lee’s maternal grandfather was China’s first republican president and his father was physician to Communist leader, Mao Tse-tung. Lee’s parents avoided political persecution and escaped to Indonesia after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. There Li-Young Lee was born and spent most of his childhood traveling through Hong Kong and Japan before finally arriving in the United States in 1964.

Lee attended the University of Pittsburgh, University of Arizona and the State University of New York at Brockport. He has also taught at many universities including the University of Iowa and Northwestern University. Li-Young Lee currently resides in Chicago and is one of the few full-time poets in the United States.

Li-Young Lee is the author of three books of poetry, including his most recent, Book of My Nights. His award-winning books include the Delmore Schwartz Memorial winner, Rose; the American Book Award winner, The Winged Seed: A Remembrance; and the 1990 Lamont Poetry Selection, The City in Which I Love You.

Karla Kelsey: Suquehanna University: 3/27/06

reposting from the SU website:

SELINSGROVE, (Pa.) – Karla Kelsey, visiting assistant professor of English and creative writing at Susquehanna University, will read from her recently published book, Knowledge, Forms, the Aviary, at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 27, in Isaacs Auditorium of Seibert Hall. This reading is free and open to the public. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.

Knowledge, Forms, the Aviary was originally written as Kelsey’s doctoral dissertation at Denver University and won the prestigious Sawtooth Poetry Prize last year. Her award includes a publishing contract with Ahsahta Press, which released the first pressing of the volume in January. Acclaimed poet Carolyn Forché, who judged the 2005 Sawtooth Award, described Kelsey’s work as “a masterful debut…at once philosophical and political.”

Inspiration for Kelsey’s Knowledge, Forms, the Aviary stems from Plato’s Theaetetus, in which Socrates compares knowledge to an aviary, a bird carrying knowledge that its owner can freely choose. “This vision is horrifying because the knowledge-birds are tapped and the knower ‘plucks them down’ to use them. The mind as a thing that ‘uses’ the world seems like a very skewed and limited sense of being,” Kelsey writes.

This is Kelsey’s first published book of poetry. She is also the author of the chapbook Little Dividing Doors in the Mind (Noemi Press, 2005). She has been published in several journals, including The Boston Review, Verse, 26, and others. From 2003-2005, she was the associate editor of the Denver Quarterly.

Kelsey attributes her attachment to form to the 14 years she spent as a dancer. “The training and rigors of classical ballet have been fundamental to the writer and person that I am. …When you grow up spending hours inspecting the forms that you make in the mirror as you are making them, you realize the extent to which the act of dancing does not equal the image created by the dancer; rather, it is more.”

Kelsey is currently in her first year of teaching in the creative writing program at Susquehanna University. She teaches introductory and advanced classes in poetry and the Editing and Publishing class, which is aimed at giving students practical experience in working with the publishing of literary journals.

Kelsey’s more recent work includes a project for which she has collaborated with her husband, Peter Yumi. Yumi is a visual artist and musician. Together, the two have combined her poetry and his music, which Kelsey hopes to share at the reading.

George Held: York, PA: 3/25/06

Poet George Held reads in the Poetry Brew Series in York, 7:30 PM on March 25, at Sparky & Clark's, 284 West Market Street.

Coming up in the series:

Apr 8 - Jackie Sheeler /Angelo Verga
Apr 22 - Native Sun and the DriFish
May 13 - Marty Esworthy /Christian Thiede Spotlight: Sue Taylor

Gerald Stern: Lycoming College: 3/23/06

Poet Gerald Stern will read at Lycoming College in Williamsport at 7:30 PM Thursday evening, March 23 in Shangraw Performance Hall of the Mary Lindsay Welch Honors Hall.

Click
here for a campus map. Click here for driving directions to Lycoming College.

Common Wealth Reading: Bloomsburg: 3/22/06

Several contributors to a new anthology featuring poems about Pennsylvania will read at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 22, in Multipurpose Room B, Kehr Union at Bloomsburg University.

Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania was edited by Jerry Wemple, an associate professor in the Bloomsburg University English Department, and Marjorie Maddox, director of the creative writing program at Lock Haven University. The book, published by Penn State Press, received favorable reviews in The Philadelphia Inquirer and numerous other publications. Among the readers for the event are award-winning poets Harry Humes (a BU alumnus), Sandra Kohler, and JoAnne Growney (a former BU faculty member). Several recent alumni who either contributed a poem to the book or who served as editorial interns will also take part in the reading.

Click
here for general directions to Bloomsburg University.

Click
here for a map of the lower campus showing the Kehr Union building.

Maurice Kilwein Guevara reading CANCELLED

from the Chatham College website, 3/20/06:

Poetry reading by Maurice Kilwein Guevara cancelled

By Amanda Kennedy, Public Relations Specialist
Pittsburgh, PA - (March 20, 2006) … A poetry reading with Pittsburgh native Maurice Kilwein Guevara, sponsored by Chatham College’s Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program on Wednesday, March 22, 2006, at 8:00 p.m., has been cancelled. For more information contact Sheryl St. Germain at 412-365-1190 or SStGermain@Chatham.edu.

Gregory Djanikian, Stacey Waite: Penn State: 3/21/06

Last minute post:

Poets Stacey Waite and Gregory Djanikian will read and sign free posters of their poems at the PA Center for the Book's annual Public Poetry Project event. Posters will also be available with poems by Gerald Stern and Terrance Hayes, whose work was also selected for this year's series.

Time: 7 PM
Location: Pattee Library,
Penn State University Campus

UPDATE: here's the Penn State Press release, which includes information on how to get copies of the posters:

Fifth annual poetry reading celebrates Public Poetry Project

The fifth annual An Evening of Pennsylvania Poets: Readings in Celebration of the Public Poetry Project will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 21, in Foster Auditorium, 101 Pattee Library, on Penn State's Unviersity Park campus. The event will be followed by a reception in the Charles W. Mann Jr. Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library.


The Public Poetry Project focuses on poets with a connection to Pennsylvania and displays the poetry in public places to make it a part of the daily lives of a greater number of people. Since the project began in 2000, 32 poems have been printed and placed in public places throughout Pennsylvania. Poets featured in the 2006 Public Poetry Project poster series will read poems and be available at the reception to sign copies of the posters featuring their poems. This year's posters were designed by Wilson Hutton and will be available at no charge at the presentation.

The 2006 Poetry Poster series includes Gregory Djanikian, Terrance Hayes, Gerald Stern and Stacey Waite. The project is under the direction of Steven L. Herb, librarian and director of the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, and is supported by the University Libraries, the English Department in the College of the Liberal Arts, and Paterno Family Librarian for Literature William S. Brockman. The readings and reception are open to the public.

Anyone who would like to be added to the mailing list to receive the posters each year should contact Jennifer Spence at jla2@psu.edu or (814) 863-5472. For more information, visit http://www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/activities/ppp/index.html or contact Steven L. Herb at slh18@psu.edu via e-mail.