Thomas Devaney & Mike Cohen: Philadelphia: 1/31/09

Date: Saturday, January 31
Time: 2 PM
Location: 3 Sisters Corner Café, Philadelphia

The Fox Chase Reading Series kicks off the 2009 season with featured poets Thomas Devaney and Mike Cohen on January 31, 2009 at 2 PM. The series is sponsored by 3 Sisters Corner Café in Fox Chase, Mad Poets Society and The Fox Chase Review. 3 Sisters Corner Café is located at 7950 Oxford Ave. (corner of Loney and Barnes), Philadelphia, Pa. 19111.

Thomas Devaney is the author of A Series of Small Boxes (Fish Drum, 2007) and The American Pragmatist Fell in Love (Banshee Press, 1999). Devaney has worked with the Institute of Contemporary Art (Phila) on a number of site specific, multi-sensory projects, including “No Silence Here, Enjoy the Silence” for the Locally Localized Gravity show (2007) and the performance “The Empty House” at the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site for The Big Nothing exhibit (2004). Devaney is a Senior Writing Fellow in the English Department at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mike Cohen has authored two collections of poetry, Poet’s Pilgrimage and For Reading Out Loud, both awaiting discovery and broad dissemination (perhaps posthumously). Mike’s work has appeared in the Schuylkill Valley Journal, Philadelphia Daily News, Mad Poets Review, and Poetry Forum Anthology. He has presented public readings in various bookstores, coffee shops, and libraries. Mike’s current project is the Poetry Aloud And Alive program at the Big Blue Marble Book Store in West Mt. Airy, Philadelphia.

This event is free and open to the public.

Applications due soon for Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets

Please share this information. If you know a student who qualifies, please encourage him or her to apply. If you can write a letter of recommendation, please offer to do so.

In 2009, the Stadler Center for Poetry will conduct the twenty-fifth annual Seminar for Younger Poets. Held for three weeks in June, the Seminar provides an extended opportunity for undergraduate poets to write and to be guided by established poets. Staff and visiting poets conduct writing workshops and offer lecture/discussions, present readings of their own work, and are available for individual conferences. In the past, such poets as Robin Becker, Denise Duhamel, Linda Gregg, Terrance Hayes, James Harms, Mary Ruefle, Gerald Stern, David St. John, Michael Waters, and Kazim Ali have served as visiting poets. Numerous readings provide the participants with the opportunity to hear and be heard by their peers. Applicants compete for ten places in the Seminar, all of which come with fellowships. Fellowships include tuition, housing in campus apartments, and meals. Accepted students are responsible only for their travel to Bucknell and a modest library deposit. A limited number of travel scholarships are available on the basis of need.

For the 2009 Seminar, visiting poets Kwame Dawes and Dana Levin will join director G. C. Waldrep and staff members Deirdre O'Connor, Erinn Batykefer, and K. A. Hays.

The dates of the 2009 Seminar will be Sunday, June 7, to Sunday, June 28. The postmark deadline for applications is Friday, January 30. Click here for complete application guidelines and here for a program FAQ.

John Updike: 1932 - 2009

SHILLINGTON

The vacant lots are occupied, the woods
Diminish, Slate Hill sinks beneath its crown
Of solvent homes, and marketable goods
On all sides crowd the good remembered town.

Returning, we find our snapshots inexact.
Perhaps a condition of being alive
Is that the clothes which, setting out, we packed
With love no longer fit when we arrive.

Yet sight that limited our truth were strange
To older eyes; the town that we have lost
Is being found by hands that still arrange
Horse-chestnut heaps and fingerpaint on frost.

Time shades these alleys; every pavement crack
Is mapped somewhere. A solemn concrete ball,
On the gatepost of a sold house, brings back
A waist leaning against a bucking wall.

The gutter-fires smoke, their burning done
Except for, fanned within, an orange feather;
We have one home, the first, and leave that one.
The having and leaving go on together.

River Poets planning session: Bloomsburg: 1/27/09

Tuesday, Jan 27, 2009: The River Poets will hold their planning session (for 4/09 to 9/09): 6:30 PM food; 7 PM meeting at Panera's.

Kudos: Elizabeth Bodien

Congratulations to Elizabeth Bodien, whose manuscript, Plumb Lines, has been published by Plan B Press. You can order a copy of Elizabeth's chapbook here.

Nance Van Winckel: Bucknell: 1/20/09

Date: Tuesday, January 20

Time: 7 PM

Location: Bucknell Hall, on the campus of Bucknell University

Nance Van Winckel will give a poetry reading on 1/20 in Bucknell Hall. Van Winckel is the author of five books of poetry, most recently No Starling (University of Washington). Among her many honors and awards are two NEA Fellowships, a Pushcart Prize, two Washington State Artist Trust Awards, and awards from the Poetry Society of America, Poetry, and Prairie Schooner. Her work has appeared widely in journals and magazines. She has also published three collections of short stories. Van Winckel teaches in the MFA programs at Eastern Washington University and at Vermont College. As Bucknell’s 2009 Poet-in-Residence, she will teach a poetry workshop during the spring semester.

This event is free and open to the public.

Call for resources: Bucks County/ Doylestown

Dear Folks:

I've received a request for a list of meeting dates for readings and groups in the Bucks County/Doylestown area. Can anyone help? Please post here if possible, or e-mail me [ron dot mohring at gmail dot com].

Many thanks.

G Emil Reutter's Blue-Collar Poet now available

Stonegarden.net Publishing is now accepting pre-orders of G Emil Reutter’s latest release, Blue Collar Poet: Selected Poems, 1994-2008.

What others say about the poetry of G Emil Reutter:

"Reutter’s poetry has the keen ability to focus on people in a variety of situations, and to add his own unique twist to each poetic experience.”- Diane Sahms-Guarnier, Poetry Board Editor, Philadelphia Stories Magazine

“The stench of cigarette ash and the resinous swell of pines are as much a part of these moments as the wise and careful worry, the sharp memories, and quiet hope.”- Louis Mckee, Publisher, One Trick Pony Magazine

"His work reflects a love of life and a concern for humanity; it is the epitome of the idea that with every single moment we learn something about ourselves.”—Eileen D’Angelo, Editor, Mapoets Review

“Always ready to tell the truth and shame the devil, he can take you places from the road to the barroom and so many stops between.”- Vincent Quatroche, Professor, Fredonia State University

River Poets event: Bloomsburg: 1/13/09

Tuesday, Jan 13, 7:30 PM: Come join the River Poets' annual start-up party at Phillips Emporium, 10 East Main Street in Bloomsburg. Plan to wear a hat (and other clothing, too), it conserves energy. Prizes will be awarded for the prettiest, weirdest and warmest headwear. Bring your oddities (books, CDs, videos, gadgets) for a white elephant sale to help River Poets stay afloat financially. Open Reading. MC: Susan Brook.

Heather Thomas: Harrisburg: 1/08/09

Thursday, Jan 8, 7 PM: Heather Thomas Kicks Off The Poetry Cartel's Return to Midtown.

The Almost Uptown Poetry Cartel is pleased to celebrate its 10th anniversary by returning to Midtown Harrisburg, with an inaugural reading for Poetry Thursdays at the Cartel's new home, the Reel Cafe in the Midtown Cinema, at 7 pm, on Thursday, Jan. 8. Berks County Poet Laureate Heather Thomas will be the premier featured reader.

Thomas, an award-winning poet, is professor of English at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of seven books of poetry, including Blue Ruby (FootHills Publishing, 2008). Resurrection Papers (Chax Press, 2003) was translated into a bilingual edition and published in Argentina. The Fray, an art and poetry collaboration, was created with artist Barbara Schulman. Her poems appear in anthologies including Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania and in more than 30 print and online journals. Thomas has garnered awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Gertrude Stein Awards in Innovative American Poetry, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

The weekly reading series, Poetry Thursdays, began in a long-gone coffehouse on Third Street in 1999. A lot has changed since then, and the Midtown area has recently become a very lively cultural center. And the Cinema is right in the thick of things! In 2009, we'll also soon feature performers like Rick Kearns, Jennifer Hill-Kaucher and Dan Waber. Also-- Craig Czury, Maria Thiaw, and Harrisburg's self-proclaimed ambassador of poetry, Keith Snow. Featured poets generally begin reading at 8, after an hour of open mic which begins at 7pm. Marty Esworthy and Julia Tilley host the long-running series.The Midtown Cinema's Reel Cafe is at 250 Reily Street, Harrisburg. For more information: 717 909-6566.

Kudos: Karen Weyant

Congratulations to Karen Weyant, whose chapbook Stealing Dust is now available for preorder from Finishing Line Press (click on the "new releases" page and scroll down by author last name).