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

12/1/08

Gary Fincke: Bloomsburg: 12/9/08

Tuesday, Dec 9, 7:30 PM: The River Poets will feature poet Gary Fincke on Tuesday, 12/09 at Phillips Emporium, 10 East Main Street in Bloomsburg.

Gary Fincke is the author of a new poetry collection, The Fire Landscape. Garrison Keillor chose a poem from the new book to read in August on National Public Radio. Fincke is Professor of English and Director of the Writer's Institute at Susquehanna University.

Open Reading to follow with the suggested theme: playing with fire. Then, the winter holidays begin. MC: Kevin Clark.

Matthew Shindell, Paul Siegell, Kirstin Kashock: Philadelphia: 12/07/08

Sunday, December 7, 3 PM: Big Blue Marble Bookstore (551 Carpenter Lane, Philadelphia) presents a poetry reading by Matthew Shindell, Paul Siegell, and Kirstin Kaschock.

Matthew Shindell was born in Phoenix, Arizona, but now lives and writes in La Jolla, California. Shindell received an MFA in poetry from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop (2001). He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the History of Science and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego, where he is writing a biographical dissertation about the American chemist and Nobel Laureate Harold C. Urey. Shindell holds a BS and MS in Biology and Society from Arizona State University.

Paul Siegell is the author of Poemergency Room (Otoliths Books, 2008) and the e-chap JAM> (ungovernable press, 2008). Paul is a staff editor at Painted Bride Quarterly, and has contributed to The American Poetry Review, MiPO, BlazeVOX, Coconut, Shampoo and other fine journals. Paul's site, ReVeLeR @ eYeLeVeL, may be found at paulsiegell.blogspot.com.

Kirsten Kaschock's first book of poetry, Unfathoms, is available from Slope Editions, and another is upcoming from Ahsahta Press. She is currently a Ph.D. student in dance at Temple University. Other poems from The Dottery have been published, or accepted for publication in the following journals: American Letters & Commentary, Jubilat, Denver Quarterly, Typo, Coconut, Columbia Poetry Review, CutBank, Sentence, and Lit.

11/1/08

The Beards Anthology: Philadelphia: 11/21/08

Friday, November 21, 6 PM: Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents The Beards Anthology

"At first, The Beards seem like a most unlikely group of people to come together. The Administrator. The Angry Poet. The Hippie-Chick Feminist. The Postman. The Skateboarder. The Artist. The Political Activist." - Aleathia Drehmer (Editor)

"At the last minute I was asked to publish this great anthology of amazing poetry. Initially I felt as if I were dancing on the grave of a dead friend, but decided that this is an important volume of work. These writers best characterize a rising trend of excellence from the underground. Each poet brings a unique and dynamic vision." -Jack Henry (Publisher)

Throughout the history of literature, there have always been literary movements comprised of friends. I believe the beat movement would be a perfect example of that. That is all we, The Beards are. We were all friends online and met for the first time when we were all asked to read in June 2008 at the Connecticut Beat Poetry Festival. There we stayed in the same hotel, and got to know each other very well. Jacob and Katie did not stay with us, but they spent a lot of time in our hotel room. It was like the perfect storm, we all banded together against a common enemy, and just had fun. The locals loved us and news traveled fast of the antics of The Beards. Two weeks later The Beards minus two all performed in Kansas City for the Offbeat Pulp/Kill Poet Summer Accident. There was quite a buzz growing about The Beards.

For more information: www.beardspoetry.com

Sascha Feinstein: Williamsport: 11/21

Friday, November 21, 5-8 PM: Sascha Feinstein

Sascha Feinstein will be signing copies of his most recent book, Black Pearls: Improvisations on a Lost Year at Otto's Bookstore, 107 W Fourth Street in Williamsport.

"Sascha Feinstein’s passion for the creative arts and his memories of the heartbreaking loss of his mother entwined to become the book Black Pearls. In the spirit of jazz improvisation these essays are governed by theme and variation more than by strict chronology, each essay repositioning riffs and choruses of personal experience within the wider cultural landscapes of literature, painting, and music. The project began as an exploration into the archeological nature of memory, but it matured into a far more complex evocation of personal identity."

[from the publisher's website; more information may be found here.]

Sascha Feinstein is a poet, essayist, and editor. It was during his college years that he discovered the crossovers between jazz and poetry, and a life’s love was forged. In addition to works of poetry—his collection Misterioso won the Hayden Carruth Award—Feinstein is the author of Jazz Poetry: From the 1920s to the Present and Ask Me Now: Conversations on Jazz and Literature. He is also the coeditor, with Yusef Komunyakaa, of The Jazz Poetry Anthology and its companion volume, The Second Set. He teaches in the MFA Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts and at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Sarah Dowling, Chris McCreary, Aaron Kunin: Philadelphia: 11/20/08

Thursday, November 20, 7 PM: Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents a poetry reading by Sarah Dowling, Chris McCreary, and Aaron Kunin.

Sarah Dowling's poetry has appeared in Cue, Descant, EOAGH, and How2.

Chris McCreary is the author of two books of poems, Dismembers and The Effacements.

Aaron Kunin is the author of Folding Ruler Star, Secret Architecture, and a novel, The Mandarin.

For more information: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/112008.html

Ervene Gulley Memorial: Bloomsburg: 11/20/08

Ervene Gulley, chair of the Bloomsburg University English Department, colleague, and friend, passed away on July 25, 2008. Please join us for an evening of words and music in celebration of her life.

Ervene! A Celebration
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Carver Hall
7:00 p.m.

All are welcome. Reception immediately following.

A Bloomsburg University scholarship has been set up in memory of Ervene and her mother, Helen Arthur Gulley, a BU alumna. Please call the Development Office at 389-4525 if interested in making a contribution.

Oni Buchanan: Bucknell: 11/18/07

Tuesday, November 18, 7PM:

Oni Buchanan will read from her poetry in Bucknell Hall, on the campus of Bucknell University.

Buchanan is the author of What Animal (Georgia) and Spring Illinois), which was selected by Mark Doty for the 2007 National Poetry Series. Buchanan is also a concert pianist, has released three solo piano CDs, and actively performs across the U.S. and abroad. She lives in Boston, maintains a private piano teaching studio, and serves as an online poetry mentor for the Anna Akhmatova Foundation.

The annual Drew Darrow Memorial Poetry Reading is cosponsored by the Writing Center.

Brian Brodeur, CA Conrad, Jeffrey Ethan Lee: Philadelphia: 11/16/08

Sunday, November 16, 2 PM: Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents poets Brian Brodeur, CA Conrad & Jeffrey Ethan Lee.

Brian Brodeur is the author of Other Latitudes, winner of the University of Akron Poetry Prize, and So the Night Cannot Go on Without, which won the White Eagle Coffee Store Press Poetry Chapbook Award.

CA Conrad is the son of white trash asphyxiation whose childhood included selling cut flowers along the highway for his mother and helping her shoplift.

Jeffrey Ethan Lee's poetry book, identity papers, was a 2007 Colorado Book Award finalist. He is the senior poetry editor for Many Mountains Moving and teaches creative writing at West Chester University.

For more information: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/111608.html

Hanoch Guy & Ashraf Osman: Philly: 11/11/08

Tuesday, November 11, 6 PM: The Moonstone Poetry Series at Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents Hanoch Guy and Ashraf Osman.

Hanoch Guy spent his childhood and youth in Israel. A bilingual poet in Hebrew and English, Hanoch is an Emeritus professor at Temple University. He has published poetry in Genre, Poetry Newsletter, Tracks, the International Journal of Genocide Studies, Poetry Motel, Visions International and several times in Poetica where he won an award. He has just published three poems in Hebrew and English in the magazine: In other words.

Ashraf Osman is a practicing architect who's been living and working in Philadelphia since 2002. Born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon during the war, Ashraf came to the United States in 1998 to pursue his graduate studies at Syracuse University. His poetry has been featured in the Mad Poets Review, Schuylkill Valley Journal and Islamica magazine, and has been selected for inclusion in several anthologies including Queering Language, Outside Voices 2008 Anthology of Younger Poets, and The Other Voices International Project. Ashraf has been engaged in poetry blogging since 2002. His poetry blog, called arch.memory, has been featured on Blinq, the blog of the Philadelphia Inquirer; voted amongst the Best of the Web Blogs for poetry, and he was selected as one of 100 Blogging Poets on the web. In addition to his blog, Ashraf maintains a website of Philadelphia poetry links and calendars called PhillyPoetry.com.

Ewuare Osayande: Philly: 11/3/08

Monday, November 3, 6 PM: Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents their Pre-Election Poetry Bash featuring Ewuare X. Osayande.

Poet and activist Ewuare Osayande will read poetry and offer a political analysis not found on the networks the night before this historic presidential election. Join us for a night of poetry, politics and progress as we raise our spirits with an eye on making history.

10/1/08

Halloween Poetic/Performance Bash: Philly: 10/31/08

Friday, October 31, 9 PM: Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents the first annual Halloween Poetic/Performance Bash BLAM! Poetic Arts Performance Project, featuring
Hal Sirowitz, Bob Holman, CA Conrad, Adam Meora, Rick Szybowski.

Produced by Adam Meora; hosted by Debra Morkun & Adam Meora.

$10 cover includes candy. Part of the proceeds go to Philabundance.

Costume Dance Party to follow.

Rick Szybowski was born on October 23, 1975, hasn't died yet and lives to compose, teach and perform music.

Adam Meora is the founder of Poetic Arts and Performance Project, a project based in Philly to bring a home to the poetic/collaborative/activist arts and to be housed at the University City Arts League beginning in November. The Poetic Arts Project's goal is to promote the poetic arts while raising money for charities and performing outreach in our community. He has been featured for his poetic performance in Philadelphia at the Tin Angel, Robin's Bookstore, Green Line Cafe, Milk Boy Cafe, Blue Marble Books and more. He has recently been published in The Bathroom, The Fridge Door, The Mad Poets Journal and has work upcoming in The Fox Chase Review. He is managing editor for NakedHowl.com, an online literary journal. Bob Holman said about his poetry performance, "He broke all rules of decorum." He plans to show off his hairy chest at this reading too. He is also known as DJ Naked Meora.

CA Conrad's childhood included selling cut flowers along the highway for his mother and helping her shoplift. He escaped to Philadelphia the first chance he got where he lives and writes today with The PhillySound poets. Soft Skull Press published his book Deviant Propulsion in 2006. Jack Kimball's FAUX Press recently published his new series of poems (Soma)tic Midge (samples from this new work can be seen in listenlight, MiPOesias, Sawbuck and COCONUT#9). The Book of Frank is forthcoming in late 2008 from CHAX Press. A selection of The Book of Frank was translated into German by Berlin poet Holger, and a bilingual chapbook is now available from Carrie Hunter's YPOLITA Press. A collaboration with poet Frank Sherlock titled The City Real & Imagined: Philadelphia Poems, will be coming out in early 2009 from Factory School Press.

Bob Holman - Recently dubbed a member of the "Poetry Pantheon" by the New York Times Magazine and featured in a Henry Louis Gates, Jr. profile in The New Yorker, Holman has previously been crowned "Ringmaster of the Spoken Word" (New York Daily News), "Poetry Czar" (Village Voice), "Dean of the Scene" (Seventeen), and "this generation’s Ezra Pound," (San Francisco's Poetry Flash). From Slam to Hiphop, from performance poetry to spoken word, Bob Holman has been a central figure in the reemergence of poetry in our culture. The series he produced for PBS, The United States of Poetry, features over sixty poets including Derek Walcott, Rita Dove, Czeslaw Milosz, Lou Reed and former President Jimmy Carter, as well as rappers, cowboy poets, American Sign Language poets, and Slammers. USOP lives on as an anthology from Harry Abrams Publishers (in its second printing), a home video from KQED, and soundtrack CD from Mouth Almighty/Mercury Records, a label Holman co-founded. He has appeared widely on TV: "Nightline," "Good Morning America," "ABC News Magazine," MTV's "Spoken Word Unplugged," and "The Charlie Rose Show," among others. The NEA has announced major preproduction support for his new poetry media project, the World of Poetry, worldofpoetry.org, the world's first digital poetry anthology.

Hal Sirowitz is the recipient of a Frederick Delius Award and The Susan Rose Recording Grant for Contemporary Jewish Music. Hal Sirowitz is the author of three books of poems, including Mother Said, My Therapist Said (Crown). Mother Said will be released on CD with music composed by Alla Borzova, sung by Paul Sperry. John Flansburgh of the rock group, They Might Be Giants, has recorded him for Hello Records, and the group spoke about him during their Mother's Day interview for NPR's Studio 360. Garrison Keillor has read his work on NPR's Writer's Almanac. Sirowitz has performed on MTV's Spoken Word Unplugged, PBS's Poetry Heaven, and NPR's All Things Considered. Awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a 2003 New York State Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, Sirowitz is also the best selling translated poet in Norway, where Mother Said has been adapted for the stage and has been made into animated cartoons. Hal is the former Poet Laureate of Queens, New York. He has a poem in Garrison Keillor's anthology, Good Poems, in Poetry in Motion from Coast to Coast (W.W. Norton), in Poetry After 9/11 (Melville House Publishing) and in 110 Stories: Writers Respond to 9/11 (NYU Press). He worked for 25 years as a special education teacher for the New York City public schools. Hal is married to the writer Mary Minter Krotzer.

Leslie Ann Mcilroy: Bloomsburg: 10/29/08

Wednesday, October 29, 7PM: The Big Dog Reading Series presents poet Leslie Anne Mcilroy, in a collaborative performance with guitarist Don Bertschman, in The Hideaway, Kehr Union Building, Bloomsburg University. Mcilroy will read selections from Liquid Like This (Word Press, 2008), the latest book from this Pittsburgh-based poet, writer, and editor. Mcilroy won the 1997 Slipstream Poetry Prize for her chapbook Gravel and the 2001 Word Press Poetry Prize for her book Rare Space.

“In Liquid Like This, she intensifies her talent for seeking and seeing both sides of truth, bridging the beautiful and the profane. Like Tom Waits’ baby sister and Neruda’s granddaughter, her new gritty narratives seduce as easily as they caution; soothe as easily as they trouble,” writes poet Terrance Hayes.

This event is free and open to the public. Call 570-389-4881 for information.

Allison Wittenberg: Philly: 10/28/08

Tuesday, October 28, 6 PM: Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents poet Allison Wittenberg.

Hosted by Justin Vitiello. Open reading to follow.
Thursday, October 23, 6 PM: Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents poets Christopher Casamassima, Ryan Eckes, and M. Magnus.

Christopher Casamassima is the Literary Arts Director at Towson ARTS Collective, and professor of English at Towson University - both in Baltimore. To shoulder a maternal metaphor, he has authored two books of poetry, the Proteus [Moria Books], and Joys : A Catalogue of Disappointments. His third book, Ore, is currently under production, and will contain thousands of appropriated lines from everyone between Aesop and Zukofsky, except his own, which have been dashed against the rocks or sold to his students.

Ryan Eckes lives in South Philadelphia. His poetry can be read in XConnect, Fanzine, Cue: A Journal of Prose Poetry, PhillySound, and in his chapbook when i come here (Plan B Press, 2007). He has an MA in creative writing from Temple University, where he currently teaches. Click here to visit his blog.

M. Magnus' book Verb Sap is out this fall from Narrow House of Baltimore. Much of this work, along with a few newer and older pieces, can be heard on his online radio show "MMm... Utterance" at blogtalkradio.com, ongoing throughout 2008. Magnus lives and writes in Alexandria, Virginia.

Mia Leonin: Bucknell: 10/21/08

Tuesday, October 21, 7 PM:

Mia Leonin reads from her poetry at Bucknell Hall on the campus of Bucknell University.

Leonin is the author of two books of poetry, Braid and Unraveling the Bed, both from Anhinga Press. A travel memoir is forthcoming from University of Arizona Press. She has received grants and awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, the Florida Arts Council, and the NEA/Annenberg Institute on Theater and Musical Theater. Leonin teaches creative writing at the University of Miami and writes extensively on theatre, dance, and culture in Miami.

This reading will be shared with Eduardo Corral.

Eduardo Corral: Bucknell: 10/21/08

Tuesday, October 21, 7PM:

2008 Philip Roth Resident Eduardo Corral will read from his poetry in Bucknell Hall on the campus of Bucknell University.

Corral’s poems have appeared in Black Warrior Review, Indiana Review, The Nation, Ploughshares, and Poetry Northwest. His work has been honored with a “Discovery”/ The Nation award and residencies from the Hall Farm Center, the MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo. He was the 2007/08 Olive B. O’Connor Fellow in Creative Writing at Colgate University. Corral holds degrees from Arizona State University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. As the 2008 Philip Roth Resident, he is spending the fall semester at Bucknell.

This reading is shared with Mia Leonin.

Pam Brown, Ron Silliman, Magdalena Zurawski

Sunday, October 19, 4PM: Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents poets Pam Brown, Ron Silliman and Magdalena Zurawski.

Pam Brown lives in Australia and is co-editor of Jacket magazine. She has published many books and chapbooks including Text thing (Little Esther Books, 2002) and Dear Deliria (Salt Publishing, 2003) which was awarded the New South Wales Premier's Prize for Poetry in 2004. She collaborated with Seattle-based Egyptian poet Maged Zaher on a collection of poems called farout library software (Tinfish Press, 2007). Her most recent book, True Thoughts, was published by Salt Publishing in September 2008. Her next collection, Authentic Local, is forthcoming from Papertiger Media in 2009. Click here to see her blog.

Ron Silliman's long awaited collection The Alphabet will be available for sale and for signing. He is the author or editor of twenty-six books of poetry and criticism, among them The Age of Huts (compleat), Tjanting, ABC, Demo to Ink, Paradise, R, What, Woundwood, and the memoir Under Albany. He edited the landmark poetry anthology In the American Tree, and he has received a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, two Fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, and three arts commission grants from the state arts councils of California and Pennsylvania. His widely read Silliman's Blog, a daily journal devoted to contemporary poetry and poetics, has become a major force in online literary criticism.

Magdalena Zurawski was born in Newark, NJ in 1972 to Polish immigrants. Her work has been published in American Poet: The Journal of the Academy of American Poets, The Poetry Project Newsletter, Rattapallax, Talisman, and other magazines. She lives in North Carolina where she is working on her PhD at Duke University. The Bruise is her first novel and won the Ronald Sukenik Innovative Fiction Prize. Click here to visit her blog.

Leonard Gontarek & Arlene Ang: Philly: 10/19/08

Sunday, October 19, 1pm: Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents poets Leonard Gontarek and Arlene Ang.

Leonard Gontarek is the author of St. Genevieve Watching Over Paris, Van Morrison Can't Find His Feet, Zen For Beginners and Deja Vu Diner (Autumn House Press, 2006). His poems have appeared in The Best American Poetry, Joyful Noise! An Anthology of American Spiritual Poetry, American Poetry Review, Blackbird, BlazeVox, Pool, Fence, Field, and as a tattoo. He has been nominated five times for the Pushcart Prize. A Pew Poetry Finalist, he received poetry fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts in 1994 and 2004. He conducts poetry workshops at The University City Arts League, Robin's Bookstore, The Kelly Writers House and in the Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership. He coordinates The Last Word Bookshop Reading Series and The Green Line Poetry Series.

Arlene Ang is the author of The Desecration of Doves (iUniverse 2005) and Secret Love Poems (Rubicon Press 2007). Bundles of Letters Including A, V and Epsilon (a book of poems written with Valerie Fox) was recently published by Texture Press. She serves as the poetry editor of The Pedestal Magazine and Press 1. She received the 2006 Frogmore Prize. Ang's poems have appeared in many journals, including Parameter Magazine, Stand Magazine, Envoi, Painted Bride Quarterly, Diagram, and Unpleasant Event Schedule. She lives in Spinea, in Italy.

Jack DeWitt - book launch: Kingston: 10/17/08

Friday, October 17, 8:15 PM: Paper Kite Press Studio & Gallery presents a book launch and reading by Jack DeWitt.

"There are only a few people working in this utterly unadorned, unsung blue-collar vein, and Jack DeWitt is the master of the genre." --Stephen Berg.

443 Main Street, Kingston, PA.

Jim Warner: Bloomsburg: 10/14/08

October 14, 7:30 PM: The River Poets will feature poet Jim Warner on Tuesday, 10/14 at Phillips Emporium, 10 East Main Street in Bloomsburg.

Jim Warner earned degrees in Psychology and English. He performs across the northeast, and is the long-time host for the Wilkes-Barre Barnes & Noble Poetry Series. Jim's work has appeared in various journals including HazMat Review and Word Riot, in the anthology In the Arms of Words: Poetry for Disaster Relief (Sherman Asher), and on numerous buses, phone booths and bathroom walls. Jim's first full length collection, Too Bad It's Poetry, was released in the fall of 2007 by Paper Kite Press. Jim Warner currently lives (with an oversized record collection) and works in Wilkes-Barre as Assistant Director of Graduate Creative Writing Programs at Wilkes University.

After a break, there will be an open reading.
MC: Tara Holdren.

Sally Bliumis-Dunn, Diane Lockward, JC Todd: Philly: 10/14/08

Tuesday, October 14, 7:00 PM: Poets Sally Bliumis-Dunn, Diane Lockward and JC Todd will give a reading at The Blue Grotto, 3500 Lancaster Ave in Philadelphia. All three poets are published by Wind Publications. Sally will read from Talking Underwater; Diane will read from What Feeds Us; JC will read from What Space This Body.

This event is sponsored by Mad Poets Society.

Check out Diane's web site by clicking here.

Tree Riesner & Guillaume Stewart: Philly: 10/14/08

Tuesday, October 14, 6pm: Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents poets Tree Riesner and Guillaume Stewart. More information to follow.

Group reading: Philly: 10/13/08

Monday, October 13, 6pm: Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents a group reading: Avanti Popolo "Columbus Day" Reading Featuring Eight Poets:

Co-moderators: Al Taconelli and Rosemary Cappello
Readers: Maria Fama, Mary Ann Mannino, Rob Marchesani, Emiliano Maartin, Linda Pizzi, and Tad Tuleja.

Inspired by the book Avanti Popolo: Italian-American Writers Sail Beyond Columbus, edited by The Italian-American Political Solidarity Club ($14.95 Manic D Press). Italian American writers celebrate their hidden history in a literary tribute to fighting social injustice. With the current anti-immigrant sentiments filling up newspaper front pages, these writers respond with thought-provoking works that focus on breaking from mainstream tradition. On Columbus Day, instead of celebrating conquest, these poets and writers acknowledge those who stood up for justice and have fought for the rights of all immigrants, regardless of heritage. With new work by Diane di Prima, Kim Addonizio, James Tracy, Michael Cirelli, Michael Parenti, Thomas Centolella, and many others.

Anthology release reading: Philly: 10/12/08

Sunday, October 12, 4pm: Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents a group reading: State of the Union: Political Poems for Our Times.

Readers will include CA Conrad, Dan Featherston, Ish Klein, Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Bill Marsh, Frank Sherlock and Nathaniel Siegel.

This reading is in honor of a new anthology published by Wave Books, State of the Union: 50 Political Poems, edited by Joshua Beckman and Matthew Zapruder (Wave, $14.00). Readings will be in the spirit of the anthology: "From rough optimism to sharp criticism, fifty American poets present new work dissecting the current political climate in America. Wide-ranging writers bring their bold and urgent voices to this collection, which includes the work of John Ashbery, Lucille Clifton, Terrance Hayes, Eileen Myles, [the late] Reginald Shepherd and John Yau, among many others."

Related to the anthology and counting down the last fifty days until the election, this blog might be of interest: http://poetrypolitic.com/

Jack Veasey: Camp Hill: 10/09/08

Jack Veasey will be featured October 9 at the Crimson Frog Coffeehouse.

Veasey has published eight volumes of poetry, and his poems have appeared in the journals Painted Bride Quarterly, Experimental Forest, Fledgling Rag, and the anthology Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania (2006). Veasey has been a journalist, editor, arts administrator, musician, writing teacher, and public radio host. He's produced two plays which were shown in Philadelphia and Lancaster. As a journalist, he's written hundreds of articles, conducting interviews with such as David Lynch, Laurie Anderson, George Carlin, and Joan Baez.

Jack Veasey writes poetry concerning the working class and individuals alienated as a consequence of economic class, race, and sexual orientation. He's studied with a number of poets, including Etheridge Knight, Alexandra Grilikhes, and Ted Berrigan.

David A. Warner, writing in The Philadelphia City Paper, says: "Jack Veasey's poetry lets you know from the outset that the poor are the people he sings about, and that's that. His strongest poems are spare, sympathetic portraits that reveal whole histories of loneliness in small details. These are deceptively simple, surprisingly resonant poems." An open reading will precede Veasey's performance. The Crimson Frog is located in the Cedar Cliff Mall. For more information: 761-4721.

three poems by Karen Lillis

PA Poet news:

Karen Lillis has three poems published at The Fifteen Project, an online journal. There's also a review of The Second Elizabeth, her forthcoming novel of poetic prose, here.

Susan Gardner: Philly: 10/06/08

Monday, October 6, 6pm: Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents poet Susan Gardner, author of Box of Light/Caja de luz (Red Mountain Press). For more information, see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/100408.html.

Susan Gardner illuminates relationships and meaning from her environment, both human and natural. Her lyric poems, written in both English and Spanish, bridge the gap between the two languages with an unrivaled clarity and poeticism. "Moving between languages is moving between cultures," explains Ms. Gardner. "The poems are cousins rather than twins."

"Gardner’s poetry employs a loose, conversational cadence and open, precise language," says Red Mountain Press publisher R.D. Ross. "Her work reminds us of tanka and haiku in its choice of subject matter, musical feeling, and forceful simplicity of image." Black line drawings reminiscent of Asian calligraphy illustrate the concepts of Box of Light, transforming the words and images into a complete visual and auditory experience.

Susan Gardner is a painter, poet, and photographer. A native of New York, she now lives in Santa Fe. Other works include Stone Music: The Art and Poetry of Susan Gardner and Intimate Landscapes.

J.C. Todd & Alex Hartman: Camp Hill: 10/02/08

J.C. Todd and Alex Hartman are featured performers at the Crimson Frog's Poetry Thursdays series on Thursday, October 2, from 7-9PM.

Philadelphia poet J.C. Todd is author of What Space This Body (Wind Publications 2008), and two chapbooks, Nightshade and Entering Pisces, both from Pine Press. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, The Paris Review, and Prairie Schooner, and on Verse Daily. Awards include two Leeway Awards for Poetry, a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Poetry Fellowship, and fellowships to Schloss Wiepersdorf arts colony in Germany and the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators in Sweden. She has edited translation features on Lithuanian, Latvian and Slovene poetry for The Drunken Boat and is a visiting lecturer in Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College.

Alexandra Hartman's Ethos is an experimental concept in music and poetry performance that fuses Louis J. Porsi Jr.'s soulful electric bass guitar rhythms with Hartman's topical and confessional spoken word poetry and prose. Hartman has been involved in poetry and independent film for the past decade. She recently earned a master's degree from Goddard College in embodiment studies and film; much of her poetry focuses on the body, and bodies that "disobey" by not conforming to societal norms.

Porsi is a multi-talented instrumentalist. He studied studio recording engineering and sound at Los Angeles Valley College. His musical endeavors span forty years and two coasts.

The Almost Uptown Poetry Cartel hosts Poetry Thursdays, a weekly reading series at the Crimson Frog. An 7pm open reading will lead into the Todd-Hartman extravaganza. The Crimson Frog, 1104 Carlisle Road, Camp Hill, PA, is located in the Cedar Cliff Mall. For more information: 761-4721.

9/1/08

Kristin Palm & Ethel Rackin: Philly: 9/30/08

Tuesday, September 30, 6pm: Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents poets Kristin Palm & Ethel Rackin.

For more information, see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/093008.html.

Kristin Palm's book, The Straits (two long poems about Detroit, her former hometown), was published this year by the serendipitously named Palm Press. Her writing has also appeared in various journals, including Boog City, Chain, There and Dusie, the anthology Bay Poetics (Faux Press, 2006), and numerous magazines and newspapers. She writes regularly for Metropolis magazine and its blog, POV (www.metropolismag.com/pov). Kristin lives in San Francisco.

Ethel Rackin's poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Colorado Review, Volt, Court Green, and elsewhere. She has taught creative writing at Penn State's Delaware County campus, Haverford College, and the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts. She is currently a doctoral candidate in English at Princeton University.

Adam Zagajewski: Bucknell: 9/23/08

Tuesday, Sept 23, 7pm: Poet Adam Zagajewski will read at Bucknell Hall.

Poet, novelist, essayist, and memoirist Adam Zagajewski is one of the most well known and highly regarded of contemporary Polish poets. A native of Lvov, a largely Polish city that became part of the Soviet Union shortly after his birth, Zagajewski was a major figure in the Polish New Wave literary movement of the 1970s and of the anti-Communist Solidarity Movement of the 1980s. His most recent books in English are Eternal Enemies and Without End: New and Selected Poems, both from FSG. Zagajewski teaches at the University of Chicago and spends part of the year in Krakow, Poland.

Earlier on Tuesday, at 4pm, Zagajewski will give a Q&A session in the Willard Smith Library in the English Department of Bucknell's campus.

David Mura [fiction]: Philly: 9/22/08

Monday, September 22, 6pm: Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents writer David Mura, reading from his novel Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire. For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/092208.html.

"There is no writer that dives deeper (or more bravely) into the chasm that is the human heart. [David Mura's] first novel is a tour de force: luminously written and by turns crafty, tough, wise, and joyful." - Junot Diaz

Ben Ohara is the sole surviving member of his family. A troubled and brilliant astrophysicist, Ben's younger brother has mysteriously vanished in the Mojave Desert. His father, one of a small group of WWII draft resisters (known as the No-No Boys) during the internment of Japanese Americans, committed suicide when Ben was young. And his mother, whose wish to escape the past was as strong as his father's ties to it, has died with her secrets. Now struggling to support his wife and children and under pressure to complete his historical study, "Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire," Ben realizes that the key to unlocking the future lies in reassessing the past. As Ben vividly recalls a childhood colored by the tough Chicago streets, horror movie monsters, sci-fi villains, Japanese folktales, and TV war heroes, he begins to understand the profound difference between coming of age and becoming a man. And by retracing his brother's footsteps and returning to the site of the Heart Mountain Internment Camp, Ben uncovers a truth that has the power to set him free.

An acclaimed memoirist, poet, and playwright, David Mura is one of America's most insightful cultural critics. His memoirs, Turning Japanese and Where the Body Meets Memory, along with his poems, essays, plays, and performances, have won wide critical praise and numerous awards. Visit his website at http://www.davidmura.com/.

Katarzyna Newcomer & Barbara Torode: Philly: 9/22/08

Tuesday, September 22, 6pm: Moonstone Poetry Series at Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents Katarzyna Newcomer & Barbara Torode.

For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/092308.html.

[DC area]: Sandra Beasley & Susan Settlemyre Williams: 9/15/08

[not a PA listing, but Word Works events deserve our support]

Monday, September 15, 7:30 PM: Poets Sandra Beasley and Susan Settlemyre Williams will read at the Friendship Heights Village Center, 4433 South Park Avenue, Chevy Chase, MD for the Cafe Muse Literary Series.

SANDRA BEASLEY won the 2007 New Issues Poetry Prize for her book Theories of Falling, selected by Marie Howe. Her poems have appeared in Slate, 32 Poems, Blackbird, Best New Poets, Online Writing: The Best of the First Ten Years, and the Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel (Second Story). She is an editor for The American Scholar in Washington, D.C.

SUSAN SETTLEMYRE WILLIAMS’ first full-length collection, Ashes in Midair, won the 2007 Poetry Book Contest from Many Mountains Moving, selected by Yusef Komunyakaa. She also has a chapbook, Possession, out from Finishing Line Press. Her poems have appeared in Mississippi Review, Shenandoah, Sycamore Review and Best New Poets 2006. She is book review editor and associate literary editor of Blackbird.

Café Muse opens at 7 pm with classical guitar by Michael Davis. Our sponsor, the Village of Friendship Heights, will offer free refreshments. Adele Steiner hosts, and the evening concludes with a brief open mic reading from audience members. The Center is a 5-minute walk from the Western Avenue exit of the Friendship Heights Metro stop. Call 301-656-2797 for directions.

The Word Works is a nonprofit literary organization publishingcontemporary poetry in artistic editions and sponsoring public programs for over 30 years. More info can be found at http://wordworksdc.com/

STILLWATER Music & Poetry Festival: 9/13 & 9/14

The second annual Stillwater Music & Poetry Festival will take place on September 13 & 14; please click here for full details and schedule on their web site.

**UPDATE: Yeah, I mistyped the link. It's fixed now.**

Scranton Poem Opera: A Benefit for Jen Diskin: 9/12/08

[passing this along]

Friday, September 12, 7 PM: Craig Czury's Scranton Poem Opera will be presented at the AFA Gallery, 514 Lackawanna Avenue, Scranton. This event is sponsored by Mulberry Poets & Writers and the AFA Gallery.

Jennifer Diskin is scheduled to receive a bone marrow transplant in a couple of months. She'll need to stay close to the hospital for three months, and will require live-in help as the transplant will compromise her immune system. She needs help with these expenses.

Jennifer told us, "Without the transplant, the Hodgkin's will return."

Craig's Scranton Poem Opera is free, and AFA's door will be wide open to the public. We hope you will attend whether or not you want to make a donation to Jennifer's cause. We just wanted to give you a heads-up and encourage you to put some cash in your wallet to give. Jen is a remarkable poet and human being. We all want her to be well again.

The Scranton Poem Opera is a multi-voice poetry performance in four movements; it has also been staged by the City Theater Company for its 1998 10-Minute Play Festival in Wilmington, Delaware.

Czury says, "Unlike classical opera, the poem opera is a reminder that the human voice speaking poetry is its own music, a language that implodes upon the stage we carry around inside us."

Tara Holdren: Bloomsburg: 9/9/08

Tuesday, September 9, 7:30 PM: Poet Tara Holdren will be the featured reader at the River Poets monthly event in Phillips Emporium, 10 East Main Street in Bloomsburg. An open reading will follow; this month's theme is circles.

Tara will read poems from her collection Circumnavigation, available from Paper Kite Press (copies may be available after the reading). While some poems focus on the feminine experience, others are projections into other voices or characters. Poems from this collection have appeared in Watershed, won honorable mentions in annual Mulberry Poets' contests, and been featured in The Daily Item.

Ray Garman & Justin Vitiello: Philly: 9/9/08

Tuesday, September 9, 6pm: The Moonstone Poetry Series at Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents poets Ray Garman & Justin Vitiello. Open reading to follow.

For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/090908.html

Ray Garman is a poet and photographer, an activist and an entrepreneur. A resident of Hong Kong and Philadelphia, Ray has read and performed his works around the world including at Robin's Bookstore (Philadelphia), The Bowery Poetry Club (New York), The Nuyorican Poets Cafe (New York), Neither Nor (New York), The Knitting Factory (New York), Shakespeare & Company (Paris), City Lights Bookstore (San Francisco), The Fringe Club (Hong Kong), St. Marks Poetry Project (New York), La Mama Theater (New York), The Cafe (Nairobi), Burning Man (Black Rock City) and in such cities and villages as Beijing, Shanghai, Hanoi, Hoi Chi Minh City and along the Hoi Chi Minh Trail, among others. Ray Garman is a father and an explorer. He is a graduate of Haverford College. Visit Ray's website at: http://www.raygarman.com/.

Justin Vitiello was born in New York City in 1941. After his B.A. in English and Spanish at Brown University (1963), he spent a year in Madrid as a Fulbright Scholar. He attended the University of Michigan, staying ten years (1964-73) to do a doctorate in Comparative Literature. His work as an activist has shaped his life and writings, notably with Danilo Dolci in Sicily and the USA, the nonviolent movement in Italy and India, the anti-nuke mobilization in Rome and Philadelphia, and the Wobblies (the Industrial Workers of the World) - everywhere. Since 1974, he has taught Italian and Comparative Literature at Temple University in Philadelphia and Rome, focusing his creative, political and scholarly writings on America, Italy and Spain. His books of poetry published are: Vanzetti's Fish Cart, subway home, and Suicide of an Ethnic Poet. Visit Justin's website at: http://www.justinvitiello.net/.

Carmen Gillespie & Harold Schweizer: Bucknell: 9/2/08

Tuesday, Sept 2, 7pm: Bucknell professors Carmen Gillespie and Harold Schweizer will read their poetry at Bucknell Hall.


Carmen Gillespie is an associate professor of English at Bucknell University. She is a scholar of American, African American, and Caribbean literatures and cultures and a creative writer. Her articles and poems have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including, most recently, Essence magazine. She is the author of A Critical Companion to Toni Morrison (2007) and has a contract for another book on the life and works of novelist Alice Walker. In 2005, Carmen was the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship for Excellence in Poetry. She is a Cave Canem Fellow and a Fulbright scholar and has received awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.
"Undertaker August: Hamilton, Ohio, 2005":
The Jordans built the black funereal home
and brought generations to rest
on the colored side of Greenwood Cemetery,
pewed plots arched and silent witness
to the fall.

Trees tear maple leaves,
skein asphalt crates, and shawl
the bent-shouldered downtown, its
signs failing like dime store makeup
to mask cracking age:
“Free check cashing.”
“No credit check required.”

Mrs. Dukes’ and Mr. Moss’
fences gate only littered refuse
and autumn’s sodden sun
delineating absences—
neighborless plotless places,
like hollow spaces scarring a mouth
when teeth go bad.



Harold Schweizer is John P. Crozer Professor of English at Bucknell University. His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The American Poetry Review, and New Orleans Review. His new book On Waiting was published by Routledge in the spring of 2008.

from "Of Movements and Signs":
. . . Movements of the body are
illegible because they are made
across almost impassable distances;
most of them remain unseen like
the swinging of branches or the bending
of lilies under the rain or ash,
acorn and oak leaves wafting
in scaled clumps deep
in the current of the river or
the rising of the cold of the earth—

If seen they are merely thought of
as the movements of matter (the bending
of flowers, the turning of
the hand); many of them are
purposeful and explicable, to which
category belong even the intimate
adjustments we make when we cry
and shift slightly in a chair,
although each movement (the
utilitarian gait being the most
singular), if decipherable, would be
utterly revealing— . . .

8/1/08

River Poets planning meeting: Bloomsburg: 8/26/08

Tuesday, August 26: The planning meeting for the River Poets takes place at Panera Bread, near Buckhorn. Those meeting for dinner should arrive by 6:30; meeting after.

New release: Deborah Burnham's STILL


Deborah Burnham's Still: #2 in the Keystone Chapbook Series. Now available from Seven Kitchens Press.

Deborah Burnham lives in Philadelphia and works as a lecturer in English and writing at the University of Pennsylvania. Her book, Anna and the Steel Mill, won the first book prize from Texas Tech University Press. Her new manuscript, Simplified to Blue, is in circulation.

Noel Sloboda's SHELL GAMES released

Just released: Noel Sloboda's Shell Games has just been published by Sunnyoutside Press. Click here to order, here for a sample poem, here for blurbage, and here to listen to an interview c/o Keyhole Magazine.
Noel Sloboda lives in Pennsylvania, where he serves as dramaturg for the Harrisburg Shakespeare Festival. He has taught both high school and college, and currently works at Penn State York, where he has earned awards for teaching and advising.

7/1/08

Le Hinton, Khalil Murrell & Bridget Talone: Philly: 7/17/08

Thursday July 17, 6:30pm: Robin's Bookstore, 108 S 13th St in Philadelphia, presents poets Le Hinton, Khalil Murrell, and Bridget Talone.

Le Hinton is the author of the chapbook Cultivating Darkness and two book-length collections of poetry, Waiting for Brion (2004) and Status Post Hope (2006).

A Temple University graduate, Khalil Murrell taught high school English in Los Angeles and Philadelphia, and now coordinates the Poetry-in-the-Schools Program for the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. His work has been published in several journals and, in his spare time, he enjoys working with high school students in Camden, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia.

Bridget Talone was born in Ardmore, PA, raised in Wayne, PA and studied creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She is currently the Poetry Festival Assistant with the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival but will be leaving in the fall to pursue her MFA at the Iowa Writers Workshop.

Click here for more information.

5th Annual Philadelphia Ethnic Poets Reading: 7/13/08

Sunday, July 13, 2pm: Robin's Bookstore, 108 S 13th St, presents the Fifth Annual Philadelphia Poets Ethnic Voices Reading, featuring Ashini J. Desai, Elliott Levin, and Andy Macera, followed by an Open Mic.

Click here for more information.

River Poets: Bloomsburg: 7/8/08

Tuesday, July 8, 7 pm: The regular July reading for River Poets takes place July 8th in Bloomsburg Town Park at the pavilion just NW of the lagoon. This will be an Open Reading. Show up at this earlier time (7:00) with some good poems, and enjoy good company. BYOBeverages. Dave Barsky is MC.

George Drew & Allen Hoey: Philly: 7/8/08

Tuesday, July 8, 6pm: Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents poets George Drew and Allen Hoey.

George Drew was born in Mississippi and raised there and in New York State, where he currently lives. He is the author of two collections of poetry, most recently The Horse's Name Was Physics, from Turning Point Press; a third, American Cool, will be published by Tamarack Editions in 2009, and a fourth, The Hand that Rounded Peter's Dome, will be released by Turning Point in 2010.

Allen Hoey's first collection of poems, A Fire in the Cold House of Being, was chosen by Galway Kinnell for the 1985 Camden Poetry Award; subsequent volumes of poetry include What Persists, Provençal Light, The Precincts of Paradise, and Country Music.

Click here for more information.

6/1/08

Seminar for Younger Poets: Bucknell: 6/28/08

The Bucknell Younger Poets will present their final reading on Saturday, June 28. 7:30pm [NOT 7:00] in Bucknell Hall.

The annual Seminar selects 10-12 undergraduate poets from a national pool of applicants to attend the Bucknell campus and participate, free of charge, in a three-week poetry program. This year's staff are Erinn Batykefer, K A Hays, Deirdre O'Connor and G C Waldrep. Guest poets are Tracy K Smith and Kazim Ali.

This reading is free and open to the public.

Oscar Wilde Award: deadline 6/27

The postmark deadline for the annual Oscar Wilde Award is June 27. Read full details by clicking here.

Bill Wunder: Philly: 6/26/08

Thursday, June 26, 6pm:

Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents Bill Wunder, author of Pointing at the Moon (Wordtech).

For more information, see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/062608.html.

Adrienne Su: Camp Hill: 6/26/08

Thursday, June 26: Adrienne Su will be the Almost Uptown Poetry Cartel's featured reader at the Crimson Frog Coffeehouse, 1104 Carlisle Road, Camp Hill.

Adrienne Su is author of two poetry books, Middle Kingdom (Alice James) and Sanctuary (Manic D). A third verse collection, Having None of It, is scheduled for January publication by Manic D Press. Su, poet-in-residence at Dickinson College in Carlisle and director of the school's creative writing program, received a National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowship last year. Her residencies include The Frost Place, Robert Frost's homestead, in New Hampshire, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Adrienne Su's poems have appeared in numerous poetry journals, including the anthologies Best American Poetry 2000, The New American Poets and Asian-American Poetry: The Next Generation.

A 7pm open reading will precede the feature presentation, which begins at 8 o'clock. The Crimson Frog is located in the Cedar Cliff Mall. For additional information: 761-4721. The cartel's Michael Lear-Olimpi will host.

Michele Belluomini & Cathleen Miller: Philly: 6/24/08

Tuesday, June 24, 6pm:

The Moonstone Poetry Series at Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents
Michele Belluomini and Cathleen Miller. Hosted by Justin Vitiello; open reading to follow.

For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/062408.html

Kazim Ali: Bucknell: 6/23/08

The Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets will present a reading by guest poet Kazim Ali on Monday, June 23, 7pm in Bucknell Hall. Also reading will be six of the twelve Bucknell Younger Poets.

This reading is free and open to the public.

Jerry Wemple: Shikellamy State Park: 6/21/08

Saturday, June 21, 2-4pm: Bloomsburg poet Jerry Wemple will read his work at the Shikellamy State Park Overlook as part of the Friends of Shikellamy State Park Summer Solstice Celebration. Wemple will be joined by singer/songwiter Jessica Jellen. For more information on this and other scheduled events, click here.

A.B. Spellman: Philly: 6/20/08

Friday, June 20, 6pm:

Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) will sponsor a poetry reading by A.B. Spellman, author of Things I Must Have Known (Coffee House Press).

"A.B. Spellman writes with the ease and fluidity of his favorite jazz musician John Coltrane blowing his horn. The poems slide from the page and sometimes knock you down with their grace, insight and rhythm. This is a book and a writer to savor." -Jane Alexander

For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/062008.html

Tracy K Smith: Bucknell: 6/12/08

The Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets will present a reading by guest poet Tracy K Smith on Thursday, June 12, 7pm in Bucknell Hall. Also reading will be six of the twelve Bucknell Younger Poets.

This reading is free and open to the public.

River Poets: Bloomsburg: 6/10/08

Tuesday, June 10th, 7:30pm: The River Poets will have their June reading at Phillips Emporium, Bloomsburg. The featured readers are Marlin Wagner and Kathy Dobash. MC: Mary Lou Wagner. Theme: Two, each his own.

Marlin Wagner is a photojournalist whose photo undercuts (that's actually an actual term for what most people call captions, actually) have morphed into Haiku verse. These he may lay upon those who choose to ignore this warning and attend the June session of River Poets.

Kathy Dobash is an artist from Hazleton. Read more about her at www.myspace.com/kathydobash.

Erinn Batykefer, Katie Hays, Deirdre O'Connor, G C Waldrep: Bucknell: 6/10/08

The Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets staff will read their work on Tuesday evening at 7pm in Bucknell Hall. Readers are Erinn Batykefer, K A Hays, Deirdre O'Connor, and G C Waldrep.

This reading is free and open to the public.

Ryan Eckes/ Kristine Grow/ Joyce Meyers: Philly: 6/10/08

Tuesday, June 10, 6pm:

Moonstone Poetry Series at Robin's Bookstore presents Ryan Eckes, Kristine Grow, and Joyce Meyers. Hosted by Justin Vitiello; open reading to follow.

For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/061008.html

Samantha Barrow Presents: Philly: 6/9/08

Monday, June 9, 7pm:

Poetry at Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia): Samantha Barrow presents Monica McIntyre, Maleka Fruean, CA Conrad, Victoria Pearson, and Gweny Love.

Samantha Barrow Presents is a loosely seasonal event curated by Samantha Barrow. This is the kickoff event, woo hoo!

For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/060908.html

update: Karen Lillis

Karen's poem "Wooden Splinter" appears in the current (summer) issue of Avatar Review (click to read the poem).

Karen has also started a LibraryThing catalog of many Pittsburgh small press items, including poetry books, chapbooks, literary journals, as well as other formats like comics and zines:

Click here to check it out!

MPWA Regional Poetry Contest Reading: Scranton: 6/7/08

Saturday, June 7th, 7:30pm:

The seventh annual MPWA Regional Poetry Contest will present their work at AFA Gallery, 514 Lackawanna Ave., Scranton PA. You are invited to attend. The cost is 4 dollars for non-winners and the general public, and 2 dollars for MPWA (Mulberry Poets and Writers Association) members.

The First Place winner, Tara Shoemaker Holdren, will be on for 12 minutes; Second Place Karen Beebe for 10, and Third Place Paula Gannon for 8 minutes. After an intermission, Honorable Mention poets will present their poems.

PARKING: Because of construction in the vicinity of AFA Gallery, you will not be able to park on Lackawanna Ave. But around the block and in the Steamtown Parking Garage there will be ample parking. The street meters are not enforced on Saturday evening.

MPWA's 30th Season is supported in part by PA Partners in the Arts (PPA), the regional arts funding partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency. PPA is administered in this region by The Scranton Area Foundation.

Review: Peter Krok's Looking for an Eye

Follow this link to read Donald Riggs' review of Peter Krok's Looking for an Eye in the summer 2008 issue of Per Contra.

Click here to read more about the book at the FootHills Publishing web site.

5/1/08

Reading of Elizabeth McFarland's poems: Philly: 5/27/08

Tuesday, May 27, 6pm: Moonstone Poetry Series is honored to have Dan Hoffman and Elaine Terranova present Over the Summer Water by Elizabeth McFarland.

Elizabeth McFarland (1922-2005) brought poetry into the lives of millions. As poetry editor of The Ladies' Home Journal from 1948 to 1962, she published some 900 poems by authors like Maxine Kumin, Randall Jarrell, W.H. Auden, John Updike, Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Marianne Moore. While much of what she published is not considered the best work of those poets, she tended to select their most accessible, uplifting poems and turned many of the top poets of her day into household names. She also published 70 of her own poems. Hoffman thought of herself as writing and publishing poetry that appealed directly to readers' emotions. She was dismayed by both the modernist tradition, whose lyrics reflected T.S. Eliot's injunction of impersonality, and by the confessional school that became increasingly popular in the later 50's, free verse by poets like Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton, which represented what Hoffman considered tabloid topics, like sexual abuse, insanity, alcoholism and suicide. Focusing primarily on domestic subjects, the poems Hoffman published were essentially conservative; they were designed to affirm rather than to disturb the reader's life and to illuminate the beauty rather than to reveal the horror or emptiness of the everyday. By the time she left L.H.J. in 1962, the style of poetry she favored was out of vogue, and poetry itself disappeared from women's magazines.

Throughout her life, however, she continued working quietly on her own verses--one of which her husband is having inscribed on a plaque under a cherry tree in a favorite grove on the Swarthmore campus. The poems in Over the Summer Water are gathered by her husband, Daniel Hoffman, whose preface illuminates their distinctive lyric virtues and her exceptional editorial career.

Elizabeth McFarland's poetry will be read by Dan Hoffman and Elaine Terranova, who will also discuss her life and works.

Dan Hoffman served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1973 to 1974 (now called the Poet Laureate) and is a Chancellor Emeritus of The Academy of American Poets. From 1988 to 1999 Hoffman was Poet in Residence at St. John the Divine, where he administered the American Poets' Corner. Until 1996, Hoffman was Felix E. Schelling Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania.

Elaine Terranova, the author of three books of poems, The Cult of the Right Hand, which won the Walt Whitman Award, Damages and The Dog's Heart. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, and Prairie Schooner. Her awards include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She lives in Philadelphia and teaches writing at the Community College of Philadelphia.

Kevin Clark & Richard Kahn: Pottsville: 5/17/08

Saturday, May 17th, 1-4 PM: Richard Kahn & Kevin Clark will read their poetry at All Things Good, 209 West Market Street in Pottsville. [Click here for an online event schedule.]

Richard Kahn studied at the prestigious Institute of the Open Road, graduating by not distinguishing himself any more than absolutely necessary after having taken classes in the lower classes of five continents. He was generously endowed with many chairs as he hitchhiked about. Bloomsburg University then filled in some of the many missing pieces in his education, and then Bucknell filled in a few more. He teaches at an upriver institution for law flouting juveniles who live by far harsher rules. Richard Kahn sometimes feels like a poet, and he likes the feeling. He hopes the feeling will last even though he knows that it is in the nature of feelings to come and go.

Kevin Clark is a Pittsburgh-born poetry and fiction writer; he currently teaches English at Luzerne County Community College. Kevin performed his multimedia, interactive "Love and Other Silly Notions" last February for an audience in Huntingdon, PA. The project explores love's frailties and flirtations, as well as its fantasies and fulfillments.

Richard Kahn: Bloomsburg: 5/13/08

Tuesday, May 13, 7:30 pm: Richard Kahn is the featured poet at the River Poets reading at Phillips Emporium, Main Street in Bloomsburg. [See his profile in the May 17 posting.]

Barbara Daniels & Therese Halscheid: Philly: 5/13/08

Tuesday, May 13, 6pm:

Moonstone Poetry Series presents Barbara Daniels and Therese Halscheid.

Barbara Daniels' book, Rose Fever, will be available in March 2008 from the Cherry Grove imprint of WordTech Press: http://www.cherry-grove.com/. She received two Individual Artist Fellowships from New Jersey, completed an MFA in poetry at Vermont College, and was awarded a full fellowship from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation to the Vermont Studio Center.

Therese Halscheid was awarded a 2003 Fellowship for Poetry from New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She has three poetry collections, Powertalk (1995), Without Home (Kells, 2001) and Uncommon Geography (Carpenter Gothic, 2006). Her writings, poetry and prose, have appeared in numerous magazines, including Rhino, New Millennium Writings, Faultline, and 13th Moon. She teaches creative writing in varied settings, including Atlantic Cape Community College, NJ, as well as being a visiting writer in schools through NJ State Council on the Arts. She is poet-in-residence for the Camden County Cultural & Heritage Commission and coordinates their poetry series: An Evening of Poetry at the Hopkins House. She has been an artist in residence at Acadia National Park, ME, and has received a Dodge Fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center, June 2005.

Hosted by Justin Vitiello, followed by an open reading

4/1/08

National Poetry Month Reading: Bethlehem: 4/26/08

Saturday, April 26, 11am - 10pm:

The Moravian Book Shop in Bethlehem celebrates National Poetry Month with their Poetry Day, an all-day lineup of poetry readings. Here's the complete schedule:

11am-12noon: Lynnel Jones
12noon-1pm: Barbara Crooker
1pm-2pm: Ann Michael
2pm-3pm: Ann Borger
3pm-4pm: Art Freeman
4pm-5pm: Elizabeth Bodien
5pm-6pm: Matthew Hittinger
6pm-8ish: Open mic (open to guest poets and the public)
8pm-10pm: Open mic at Wired Gallery and Cafe (about a block up Main St)

Location: 428 Main Street, Bethlehem. Click on the bookstore link above for more information.

Kristine Grow, Maria Raha, Joyce Meyers: Philly: 4/24/08

Thursday, April 24, 6pm:

At Robin's Bookstore, 108 S 13th St, Philadelphia, Plan B Press presents Kristine Grow, Maria Raha, and Joyce Meyers.

For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/042408.html

Paula Closson Buck: Bucknell: 4/22/08

Tuesday, April 22, 7 PM: Paula Closson Buck will give a poetry reading in Bucknell Hall on the campus of Bucknell University.

Closson Buck is the author of two books of poems, The Acquiescent Villa (1998) and Litanies Near Water (2008), both from LSU Press, as well as poems in such journals as Antioch Review, Denver Quarterly, Gettysburg Review, Ohio Review, and Shenandoah. She has recently completed a first novel, "Drinking with Ptolemy.” Closson Buck is the editor of West Branch, a biannual journal of contemporary writing published at Bucknell. She teaches creative writing at Bucknell.

This event is free and open to the public.

Ice, Jane Ormerod, Brant Lyon: Philly: 4/22/08

Tuesday, April 22, 6pm:

The Moonstone Poetry Series at Robin's Bookstore (108 S 13th St, Philadelphia) presents Ice, Jane Ormerod and Brant Lyon, three poets published in A Cautionary Tale: Seven New York Performing Poets. Hosted by Justin Vitiello; open reading to follow.

For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/042208.html

Enid Shomer: Susquehanna: 4/21/08

Monday, April 21, 7:30 PM: Poet Enid Shomer will give a reading in Isaacs Auditorium of Seibert Hall on the campus of Susquehanna University.

Enid Shomer is the author of the poetry collections This Close to the Earth, Black Drum, and Stars at Noon: Poems from the Life of Jacqueline Cochran; her books of fiction include Tourist Season and Imaginary Men. She edits the Univeristy of Arkansas Press Poetry Series.

This reading is free and open to the public.

Global Aphasia

It’s like a two-way street, the hospital speech
therapist explains, drawing lanes with arrows

and curves. Information swerves in through the ears;
replies arrive in the mouth The brain is the driver.

“Okay okay okay,” Mother answers without delay
when asked about the food, her health, this task.

This “automatic response,” a kind of static, relieves
the silence she emotes like a high-frequency note

of distress. “Brush your . . . ?” “Suitcase,” she rushes to fill
in the blank, shaking her head as you would to free the ink

in a ballpoint pen. “Tie your . . . ?” Mother’s eyes roll.
“Suitcase?” she pleads. At the root of “perseveration,” the name

for this odd repeating of words, is the word “persevere,”
that hopeful bird which sits on my chest with its head

snaked under a wing and its talons digging in as she shakes
more and more suitcases loose from her mind. One shines

on her finger, one barks like a dog. O singer with your one-word
song, you knew I was there but not for how long, so all

day you conjured up luggage, all afternoon you lured my bags
from the thicket of thought and picked at the locks of my visit.

: Enid Shomer, Black Drum (1997)

Robert Zaller, Marion Cohen, Andy Macera, Beth Phillips Brown: Philadelphia: 4/20/08

Sunday, April 20, 2 PM: Robin's Bookstore, 108 S 13th St in Philadelphia:

Philadelphia Poets presents a reading in honor of the winners of the Second Annual John and Rose Petracca & Family Award.

Rosemary Cappello, Editor, will emcee, and the participating poets will be Robert Zaller, Marion Cohen, Andy Macera, and Beth Phillips Brown.

For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/042008.html

Dan Featherston & Bill Marsh: Philadelphia: 4/19/08

Saturday, April 19, 6PM: Robin's Bookstore, 108 S 13th St in Philadelphia, presents poets Dan Featherston and Bill Marsh.

Dan Featherston books of poetry include The Clock Maker's Memoir, United States, and Into the Earth.

Bill Marsh is co-founder of Factory School, a learning and production collective committed to hi-stakes cultural work in the form of book publishing, education design, and action-research consultation.

For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/041908.html

Deidra Greenleaf Allen, Daniel Godston, Chris McCreary: Philly: 4/18/08

Friday, April 18, 6PM: Robin's Bookstore, 108 S 13th St in Philadelphia, presents poets Deidra Greenleaf Allen, Daniel Godston, and Chris McCreary.

Deidra Greenleaf Allen's poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Aurelian, Mad Poet's Review, Poetry Miscellany, Puerto del Sol, Schuylkill Valley Journal of the Arts, West Branch, and Wind Magazine.

Daniel Goldston teaches poetry to young people through The Center for Community Arts Partnerships and Snow City Arts Foundation.

Chris McCreary is co-editor of ixnay press and the author of the books Dismembers and The Effacement.

For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/041808.html

Annual Student Reading: Bucknell: 4/18/08

Friday, April 18, 7 PM:

Each year the Annual Student Reading gathers the winners of Bucknell’s two undergraduate creative writing contents for a formal reading in Bucknell Hall. The Stadler Center / West Branch Literary Prizes, judged by a recent contributor to West Branch magazine, award first and second place cash prizes in poetry and prose. The Julia Fonville Smithson Memorial Prize, established in the memory of a Bucknell graduate who died in 1977, awards one prize each in poetry and prose.

This event is free and open to the public.

Art Is Not Enough/Poetry Isn't Sufficient: Kingston: 4/18/08

Fri, April 18, 6-8pm:

Art is Not Enough/Poetry Isn't Sufficent: An international art event inspired by the work of Clemente Padín. We've received a hundred pieces of art in response to the theme "Art is Not Enough/Poetry Isn't Sufficent" from all over the world: the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Japan . . . you get the idea. All works offered for sale through the gallery at $10 each, with all after-expenses proceeds to be donated to Heifer International (http://www.heifer.org/). The exhibit is on display through May 14th. Gallery hours are Sundays noon until 5 or by appointment.

Paper Kite Press Studio & Gallery, 443 Main St, Kingston PA
http://www.wordpainting.com/

Eleanor Wilner: Philadelphia: 4/17/08

Thursday, April 17, 6 PM:

Robin's Bookstore presents Session #4 of their Writers on Writing Series, featuring poet Eleanor Wilner. 108 S 13th St, Philadelphia.

Want to be a Writer? What does it take? What is the writer's life like?
Find answers to these questions with 12 professional writers over the next 12 months. A $25.00 contribution to Moonstone and pre-registration is required for each session.

We are now able to offer you the chance to listen in on this presentation on our website for only $10.00. Register online: http://www.robinsbookstoreonline.com/ or download the registration form.
Seating is limited.

This month's session features poet Eleanor Wilner.

"Wilner . . . has a deep and heroic belief in the transformative power of language and myth. She paddles her surfboard outside the reef where most poets stop; she rides the big waves." - Tony Hoagland

For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/041708.html

Spanish/English Poetry Reading: Bucknell: 4/16/08

Wednesday, April 16, 7:30 PM:

You are invited to attend the annual bilingual poetry reading sponsored by the Spanish Department. This year's theme is "Poesía y Canto" - "Poetry as Song." The event will be held in Bucknell Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 16th, and is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Professor Alice Poust.

Toby Olson: Philadelphia: 4/16/08


Wednesday, April 16, 6 PM:

Robin's Bookstore presents An Evening with Toby Olson. 108 South 13th St, Philadelphia.

Toby Olson has a new novel, Tampico (University of Texas Press), and a new book of poetry, Darklight (Shearsman Books).

"Nothing can detract from Mr. Olson's ability to conjure gorgeous prose passages that celebrate the healing powers of friendship, the pleasures of love and lovemaking, and the inborn mystery and beauty of things in this world." --New York Times Book Review

For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/041608.html

Contest DL: April 15 postmark: Mulberry Poets & Writers Association

The Mulberry Poets & Writers Association (MPWA) announces its Seventh Annual Regional Poetry Contest. The overall winner of the contest will receive a $150 cash prize. Two other winners will share $150 in cash prizes -- $100 for 2nd place and $50 for 3rd place. Several poets will be recognized with an Honorable Mention. Judges will be Dr. Richard Brook, Jim Warner, Jennifer Diskin, Susan Jaffer, and Jerry Grealish.

The postmark deadline is April 15, 2008. Winners will be notified by May 15, 2008. All winners will be invited to present their poetry at a public reading on or about Saturday, June 7, 2008 at the AFA Gallery, 514 Lackawanna Ave in Scranton. All winning poems will be published in the 2008 edition of The MPWA Journal. For further information, contact the contest coordinator, Richard Aston of Wilkes-Barre, at 570-829-3163 or by e-mail at astonrj@yahoo.com.

Contest Rules:
~Open to former and current residents of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
~Each entrant is limited to a maximum of three poems.
~The entrance fee is $2 for each poem submitted.
~An individual may win in only one of the first, second, or third place categories. If more than one of his or her poems rank in a winning category, only the highest will be counted for that person.
~Each poem must be original and unpublished.
~Each poem should be typed on 8½ x 11" paper, single spaced, except for intentional spacing. Each new poem should start on a new sheet of paper. If it exceeds one page, please staple the pages together. Each poem should take a maximum of 3 pages.
~List the title(s) of your poem(s) in a cover letter including your name address, email, and phone. If untitled, use the first several words.
~Do not put your name on the poem.
~Keep a copy of your poem. Submitted poems will not be returned.
~Send submissions and check to: MPWA Poetry Contest; PO Box 468; Scranton, PA 18501

update: Berks Bards

Just added under "PA Poetry Links" is the blog for Berks Bards. Please check out their blog for a long list of Poetry Month readings and events!

Barbara DeCesare: Wilkes Univ: 4/15/08

Barbara DeCesare
Tuesday, April 15th ~ 7:00 PM

Kirby Hall Salon, Wilkes University

~ Free and open to the public ~
Sponsored by the Allen Hamilton Dickson Fund.

Barbara's second collection of poetry, Silent Type, is available from Paper Kite Press: http://www.wordpainting.com/shop.shtml

"Barbara DeCesare is one of the most exciting and original poetic voices in the Mid-Atlantic region. I'd follow her voice anywhere." —Richard Peabody, Editor, Gargoyle Magazine

Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Larry Kearney & Frank Sherlock: PhillySound: 4/13/08

Sunday, April 13, 4pm - PhillySound at Robin's Bookstore presents Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Larry Kearney, and Frank Sherlock. 108 South 13th St, Philadelphia.

Rachel Blau DuPlessis is a poet and feminist literary critic living in Swarthmore, PA, and teaching at Temple University. Larry Kearney has published nine books of poetry and lives in Larkspur, California. Frank Sherlock is the author of Ready-To-Eat-Individuals.

Hosted by C.A. Conrad.

For more information see: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/041308_4.html

Doug Arnold & Liz Stanley: Pottsville: 4/12/08

Saturday, April 12 ~ 1 pm - 4 pm: Doug Arnold & Liz Stanley will read their poetry at All Things Good, 209 West Market Street in Pottsville. [Click here for an online event schedule.]

Doug Arnold's poetry has most recently appeared or is forthcoming in The Literary Review, The Sulphur River Literary Review, Psychopoetica (University of Hull-UK), Mad Poets Review, and The Pedestal. His first chapbook, Playing in Most of the Keys, was published by Finishing Line Press. His essay, “Reading Kay Ryan's Poetry,” appeared in the Schuylkill Valley Journal. Doug was formerly president of an advertising agency he founded and has written columns for the Philadelphia Business Journal and The Reading Eagle.

Liz Stanley completed her B.A. in English at Gettysburg College, and a Master's degree at Bread Loaf School of English, Middlebury College, Vermont. She attended the Bread Loaf Writers conference, and taught English at Governor Mifflin Junior High School, Shillington, PA, where John Updike grew up. Since 1998 Liz Stanley has hosted the Bruce H. Stanley Memorial Poetry Series at Reading Area Community College, "Poetry @ 6," featuring local, regional and national poets, sponsored by the Foundation for RACC. She is currently on the board of directors of Berks Bards, a volunteer community organization that promotes the living art of poetry in Reading and Berks County, and sponsors monthly poetry readings at City Espresso in Reading, poetry events during the Literary Festival in October, and BardFest in the Spring.