Sapphire: Bloomsburg: 3/18/08

Tuesday, March 18, 7 PM: Poet and novelist Sapphire will give a reading in Kehr Union, Ballroom 1 & 2, on the campus of Bloomsburg University.

Sapphire is the author of two books of poetry, Black Wings & Blind Angels and American Dreams. Her novel, Push, was published in 1996 and won the Book-of-the-Month Club Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association's First Novelist Award. Sapphire's poetry and prose have appeared in numerous journals and publications, including The New Yorker, The Black Scholar, and The New York Times Book Review.

This reading is free and open to the public.

Ellen Dore Watson: Bucknell: 3/18/08

Tuesday, March 18, 4 PM: Ellen Doré Watson will give a poetry reading in the Willard Smith Library of the Vaughan Literature Building on the campus of Bucknell University.

Ellen Doré Watson serves as Director of the Poetry Center at Smith College and poetry editor of The Massachusetts Review. She is the author of four books of poems, including We Live in Bodies, Ladder Music (winner of the New England/New York award from Alice James Books) and, most recently, This Sharpening. Her poems have appeared widely in literary journals, including American Poetry Review, Tin House, and The New Yorker. In 1998, Library Journal named her “One of 24 Poets for the 21st Century.” Among her honors are a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist’s Grant, a Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award, and an NEA Translation Fellowship. Watson has translated a dozen books from the Brazilian Portuguese, including The Alphabet in the Park: Selected Poems of Adélia Prado, and also co-translates contemporary Arabic language poetry with Saadi Simawe. She makes her home in Conway, Massachusetts.

The new Writers Up Close series brings to campus poets who also work in arts administration. Each poet speaks on his or her area of editorial/administrative expertise as a guest in Shara McCallum's course on arts administration, then presents a poetry reading in the Willard Smith Library.

This event is free and open to the public.

G C Waldrep: Bloomsburg: 3/11/08

Tuesday, March 11th – at 7:30 pm SHARP at Phillips Emporium.
River Poets Feature: Award-winning poet G.C. Waldrep.
Open Reading after. MC: Dick Sweeney.

G.C. Waldrep’s books of poems are Goldbeater's Skin and Disclamor; he is also the author of two chapbooks, The Batteries (New Michigan Press, 2006) and One Way No Exit (Tarpaulin Sky, 2008). His poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, Gettysburg Review, Boston Review, New England Review, Georgia Review, Colorado Review, American Letters & Commentary, Tin House, New American Writing, and other journals. His work has received awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Society of America, the North Carolina Arts Council, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Waldrep teaches creative writing and directs the Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets.

Jon Thompson & Justin Vitiello: Philadelphia: 3/11/08

Tuesday March 11, 6pm - The Moonstone Poetry Series presents Jon Thompson and Justin Vitiello.

Jon Thompson is an associate professor of English at North Carolina State University, where he teaches courses in twentieth century literature. In addition to his publications in poetry, he has published Fiction, Crime and Empire (University of Illinois Press, 1993). He also edits Free Verse: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry & Poetics and is the editor of Parlor Press's new poetry series, Free Verse Editions.

Justin Vitiello was born in New 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.

Hosted by Justin Vitiello; open reading to follow.

Poetry Contest: Pocono Armchair Review

The Pocono Armchair Review, a new online journal, is running a poetry contest:

Prize: $50 and publication in the Review.
Fee: Only $1. Send check to address below, or send via PayPal to editor e-mail below.

Please send poems as part of the body of your e-mail (no attachments, please) to editor@poconoarmchairreview.com. Paper submissions should be sent to:
The Pocono Armchair Review, 203 West Hazard St, PO Box 4, Summit Hill PA 18250.
Please type submissions, with a one-inch margin, double spaced, one side of the paper only.

Entry deadline: April 30, 2008.

Click here for general submission guidelines.

Barbara Crooker & David Brooks: Pottsville: 3/8/08

Saturday, March 8, 1:30-4:30 PM: Barbara Crooker and David Brooks will read at All Things Good, 209 West Market Street in Pottsville.

CFS: Washington Prize

ANNOUNCING 28TH ANNUAL WASHINGTON PRIZE COMPETITION

The Word Works announces its 28th annual Washington Prize competition, offering $1,500 and publication for a volume of original poetry by a living American writer. Previous winners of the Washington Prize include Prartho Sereno (the 2007 winner for her book Call from Paris), John Surowiecki, Richard Lyons, Carrie Bennett, Ron Mohring, Fred Marchant, and Enid Shomer.

Send manuscripts of 48 to 64 pages between Jan. 15 and March 1, 2008, inclusive. Please do not send manuscripts before Jan. 15 or after March 1. Author’s name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and signature should appear on the title page only. Please include a table of contents containing the manuscript title, as well as a cover letter containing your bio and publication acknowledgements. Biographical and publication information must not appear anywhere in the manuscript except the cover letter, which must be detachable from the rest of the manuscript. Use a binder clip to fasten the manuscript. No manuscripts will be returned, but please include a self-addressed, business-sized envelope for notification of contest results.

The winner will be selected by July 1, 2008, and all entrants will receive a copy of the winning book when it is published in January 2009. The entry fee is $25 U.S., by check drawn on a U.S. bank only and made payable to The Word Works. Mail manuscripts to:

Steven B. Rogers, Director
Word Works Washington Prize
3201 Taylor St.
Mt. Rainier, MD 20712

The Word Works is a non-profit literary organization devoted to the dissemination of the best contemporary poetry. It publishes books of poetry in collectors’ editions featuring original artwork. It also sponsors programs such as the Joaquin Miller Cabin poetry reading series in Rock Creek Park and the Cafe Muse Literary Series in Chevy Chase, Md. The Word Works celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2004, and has sponsored the Washington Prize since 1981. For more information about The Word Works and the Washington Prize, please visit http://www.wordworksdc.com/.

Dan Waber: Scranton: 2/29/08

Friday, February 29, 8:30 PM: Poet Dan Waber will read from his new book, Echolalia, at Anthology New & Used Books, 515 Center Street (2nd floor) in Scranton. You can read about (and order) Dan's book by clicking here.

Sascha Feinstein: Bloomsburg: 2/26/08

Tuesday, February 26, 7:30 PM: Poet Sascha Feinstein will give a reading of his work in the Schweiker Room of the Andruss Library on the campus of Bloomsburg University.

Dr. Feinstein, a professor of English at Lycoming College and co-editor of The Jazz Poetry Anthology, will give a campus workshop discussing the making of jazz poems earlier in the day.

The reading is free and open to the public.

John Hoppenthaler: Bucknell: 2/26/08

Tuesday, February 26, 4 PM: John Hoppenthaler will give a poetry reading in the Willard Smith Library of the Vaughan Literature Building on the campus of Bucknell University.

John Hoppenthaler is the author of two books of poetry, Lives of Water (2003) and Anticipate the Coming Reservoir (2008). His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly Review, McSweeney’s, Southern Review, and other magazines, and in several anthologies. A reviewer, essayist, and interviewer, he is editor of the literary journal Kestrel. Hoppenthaler served for several years as personal assistant to the novelist Toni Morrison. A regular faculty member at the West Virginia Writers Workshop and Writers at the Beach, he is assistant professor of English at East Carolina University.

The new Writers Up Close series brings to campus poets who also work in arts administration. Each poet speaks on his or her area of editorial/administrative expertise as a guest in Shara McCallum's course on arts administration, then presents a poetry reading in the Willard Smith Library.

This event is free and open to the public.

Poetry Residence at Bucknell: 2/23 deadline

Philip Roth Residence in Creative Writing

Named for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Bucknell graduate and initiated in the fall of 1993, the Philip Roth Residence in Creative Writing offers an emerging writer four months of unfettered writing time during Bucknell's fall semester, without formal academic obligations. The Residence is designed to grant the writer time to complete a first or second book. The resident presents a public reading of his or her work and otherwise constitutes a literary presence on campus during the fall. Providing lodging on campus, an office in the Stadler Center for Poetry, and a stipend of $4,000, the Residence is awarded to writers of prose (fiction or creative nonfiction) and poets on an alternating basis.

The Stadler Center is currently accepting applications from poets for the 2008-09 Philip Roth Residence. The Residence will extend from late August 2008 through mid-December 2008. The application deadline is February 23; click here for application instructions.

Chestnut Hill College Poetry Festival: Philly: 2/22-23

Chestnut Hill College Poetry Festival

February 22, 2008, 7 PM to February 23, 2008: Chestnut Hill College, 9601 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia.

Friday evening will feature a performance by musician Shawn Germain, who released his debut album titled "A Neverending Season" in 2007. Following his performance, there will be an open mic for poetry readings and music. On Saturday evening, three poetry readings will be dedicated to William Walker, Ph.D., senior vice president of the College, on the occasion of his retirement in June. The speakers for Saturday nights poetry readings will be Eli Goldblatt, John Ebersole, and Elizabeth Pearson.

For more information, call 215-248-7001 or contact chcapply@chc.edu

Heather McNaugher & Kirk Nesset: Pittsburgh: 2/22/08

Friday, February 22, 8 PM: Heather McNaugher and Kirk Nesset will read their work at the Most Wanted Fine Arts Gallery, 5015 Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh. This event is part of the Pot Luck Readers Series; suggested donation is $5 (or bring a dish).

McNaugher is the author of the forthcoming Panic & Joy; Nesset is the winner of the 2007 Drue Heinz Literature Prize.

Kevin Clark: Bloomsburg: MOVED to 2/20/08

Kevin Clark's "Love & Other Silly Notions" will be featured at the February 20th River Poets reading, Tuesday evening at Phillips Emporium (Bloomsburg).

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.

A short Open Reading will follow (MC: Emeka Obiozor).

For this and other River Poets events, see their website here.

[Note: This event was rescheduled due to yucky weather on the 12th.]

Eavan Boland: Bucknell: 2/19/08

Tuesday, February 19, 7 PM: Poet Eavan Boland will give a reading in Bucknell Hall on the campus of Bucknell University.

Eavan Boland is the author of nine collections of poetry, including Against Love Poetry (2001), The Lost Land (1998), An Origin Like Water: Collected Poems 1967-1987 (1996), and, most recently, Domestic Violence (2007). Among her many awards and honors are a Lannan Foundation Award in Poetry and an American Ireland Fund Literary Award. She is a professor of English at Stanford University, where she directs the creative writing program.

This event is free and open to the public.

Event to honor Michael Wurster: Pittsburgh: 2/19/08

Michael Wurster has fostered poetry in Pittsburgh for over 30 years, teaching, advising, and conducting a free monthly open workshop. Most recently he co-edited Along These Rivers, a collection of poems by Western PA-based poets, in connection with Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary. His students, friends, and colleagues are honoring Michael. They'll present him with a belated valentine: a tribute volume, Stories About Time. True to Wurster's big-tent approach, the book, edited by Ziggy Edwards and Arlene Weiner, has poems from A (Amenta) to Z (Zdrale). Lynn Emanuel writes the preface. Other authors include Ed Ochester, Arlan Hess, Jan Beatty,and Richard St. John.

The presentation/reading will take place Tuesday, February 19, at 7:00 pm, at the Te Cafe in Squirrel Hill (Pittsburgh), 2000 Murray Avenue. The Te Cafe regularly hosts poetry. Specialty teas and other beverages and tasty light suppers are available.

update: Watershed released

The inaugural issue of Watershed: The Journal of the Susquehanna is out, and contains poems by Richard Brook, Emily Grosholz, Steven Good, Kevin Clark, Marjorie Maddox, JoAnne Growney, James Najarian, Chad Schell-McGaw, Gary Renzelman, Tara Shoemaker Holdren, Shanna Wheeler, Lynell Jones, Todd Davis, and Sandra Kohler.

For more information about Watershed, contact editor Jerry Wemple at river@bloomu.edu.

update: Betsy Wheeler: new chapbook

Betsy Wheeler, who held the Stadler Fellowship at Bucknell, announces the release of her new chapbook: Start Here, published by Small Anchor Press. Betsy is the copublisher, with Dean Gorman, of Pilot Books.

update: Heather McNaugher interview

Karen Lillis, who's just joined our PA Poets roster, has interviewed Heather McNaugher on her small press blog. You can read the interview here.

update: Karen Lillis: 3 poems

Karen Lillis has three poems in SALiT Magazine.