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.