POETRY READINGS

THEATRE:

EDITORIAL

Welcome to the June, 2007 Cervena Barva Press Newsletter.

I would like to thank Mary Curtin for asking Červená Barva Press to take part in the Somerville Open Studios. It was a fun way to continue the two year anniversary of the press. Thank you to all the readers who read for me on the trolleys. You made it such a special event. A really huge thank you goes to the trolley drivers Sheila and Russ. You both were the best! I hope all of you enjoyed the pictures that were posted on the website.

Červená Barva Press has an intern for the summer months, Jennifer Riley. She is a student at Simmons College in Boston. It is wonderful to have her be a part of the press for this summer.

Now, on a very sad note. The Boston area lost a very special poet, Sarah Hannah. I first met Sarah last year when I read with her and other poets at the launching of the new issue of Ibbetson St. I liked her right away and thought her poetry was amazing. Since that time, I talked to her a few more times at poetry readings. I was very saddened to hear this news. Her first book came out by Tupelo Press and her second one by the same press called, Inflorescence, will be released in September. Sarah taught at Emerson College in Boston. A special service will be planned at Emerson College in the fall. My thoughts go out to her family, friends, students, and the many people her life has so beautifully touched.

Susanne Morning's chapbook, Land of the Morning Calm, will be released by Červená Barva Press next week.

Interviewed this month are:

• Jamie Cat Callan
• Kazue Daikoku (By Denis Emorine)
• William R. Mayo
• Jean Monahan
• Susanne Morning

Raves to the following authors

Outpost-A Collection of Poems by Abbott Ikeler
Ibbetson St. Press
$16.50
To order: http://www.lulu.com/content/876211

November, (chapbook) by John Minczeski
$14.00

You, Dear Reader, (chapbook) by Marian Kaplun Shapiro

To order:
Finishing Line Press
P.O. Box 1626
Georgetown, KY 40324
http://www.finishinglinepress.com

Players in the Dream, Dreamers in the Play by Marian Kaplun Shapiro
To order: http://www.plainviewpress.net

Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic by Roger Sedarat
Hardcover: $24.95
Paper: $12.95
To order:
Ohio University Press and Swallow Press
http://ohioswallow.com/bookinfo.php?book_id=9780821417744

Call for submissions

The Istanbul Literature Review is seeking quality submissions of poetry, fiction, essays, and articles. You must follow guidelines that are stated on the website.

The summer issue will be out soon. Etkin and Guluzar have been busy getting it ready. This will be the first issue out since Etkin asked me to take over as editor. Miles Tepper, my assistant editor, has worked hard with me reading the many manuscripts. Again, I must say how grateful I am to Etkin Getir for everything. He is a gem!
http://www.ilrmagazine.net/

Louis Elliot and Gloria Mindock will be reading on June 7th.

Thank you to Sandee Storey, Dorothy Derifield, Sharon Touw, and Carolyn Gregory.
Hope to see you there!

WORD ON THE STREET @ Sweet Finnish Bakery, Jamaica Plain (centre)

WHEN: Thursday, June 7th, 6:30 - 8:00 pm
WHERE: Sweet Finnish Bakery, 761 Centre Street

POET FEATURES: LOUIS ELLIOT & GLORIA MINDOCK

Come enjoy a little bit of Greenwich Village in the middle of JP with terrific poetry, lots of open mic time, baked goods & coffee. . . Guaranteed: You will NOT be disappointed. . .

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED To the launching of Gothic Calligraphy
Poems by Flavia Cosma
THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 2007, 6.30 PM

Published by Červená Barva Press, Somerville, Massachusetts

Presented by George Elliott Clarke, Charles Siedlecki and Krzysztof Zarzecki

The Toronto Writers’ Centre
101 Yorkville Avenue, Suite 200, Toronto
Tel. (416) 975-5172
Email md@writerscentre.ca

Free admission

INTERVIEW WITH JAMIE CAT CALLAN

Write a bio.

Jamie Cat Callan grew up in Stamford, Connecticut and graduated from Bard College in 1975 with a degree in literature. She went on to get an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College and an MFA in Screenwriting from U.C.L.A.'s School of Film and Television. Over the past twenty years, Jamie has taught writing, worked in the international division of cosmetic company Estee Lauder, and served as a script developer for the actress Meg Ryan's production company at Paramount Pictures. Jamie has published five books and won numerous awards for her fiction, nonfiction and screenplays.

Jamie began her writing career as a young adult novelist. At age 26, Jamie received a New York State CAPS grant and published her first book, Over the Hill at Fourteen, which sold almost half a million copies and went on to become a Scholastic Book Club selection.

Most recently, Jamie's writing has appeared in The New York Times Modern Love Column, The Missouri Review, American Letters & Commentary, and Best American Erotica. Her essays on beauty and fashion appear regularly in Bliss Magazine.

The Writers Toolbox, her kit of writing exercises and games based on 25+ years of teaching creative writing has just been released by Chronicle Books. Writers Marketplace has dubbed it "Julia Cameron's The Artists Way meets Whose Line is it, anyway?"

Library Journal says her relationship book Hooking Up or Holding Out (Sourcebooks 2006) is "empowering and enlightening….not your mother's dating book. Highly recommended."

Jamie's literary awards include The Samuel Goldwyn Award in Screenwriting, The New York State Council on the Arts Grant, First Prize in the Writers Digest Fiction Competition (twice), a Connecticut Commission on the Arts Grant, and the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award, as well as fellowships to the Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts International Fellowship, the Ragdale Foundation, The Djerassi Foundation, The Edna St. Vincent Millay Foundation and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation.

Jamie teaches writing at Wesleyan University's Graduate Liberal Studies Program. She also teaches writing workshops at Grub Street in Boston and through Media Bistro and NYU.

Describe the room you write in.

I write in a room that doesn't face Waquoit Bay. I cannot see Martha's Vineyard from my office window. I say this because from my living room, I look out on Waquoit Bay here on Cape Cod, and yes, I see Martha's Vineyard from my deck. My writing digs have not always been so lovely. I have written on a Formica table in the kitchen, on a desk crowded into a small space in a New Haven living room where I had to hide my files underneath the dining room table. I once wrote in a corner of an apartment in North Hollywood that was devastated by the Northridge Earthquake.

Perhaps I now write from the one room in our house that doesn't face the water, because so much beauty and luxury would be just too distracting.

My room has a long desk/counter space that was built by a woman who lived here before me. She is a scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (like my husband) and she built this space to write her Ph.D. on. Sometimes I feel her influence, but mostly not, because these days the room is filled with hot pink boxes and books on love and creativity and all things girly, such as feather boas, and rhinestone tiaras, images of cats and the Eiffel Tower.

Discuss your new book, Hooking Up or Holding Out: The Smart Girl's Guide to Driving Men Crazy. Why did you decide to write this book?

I've always been a fan of self-help books and I adore relationship/romance books. I collect vintage books on etiquette, fashion and marriage. I wrote Hooking Up or Holding Out as a response to Norrie Epstein's edition of Dorthea Langley Moore's 1929 book The Technique of the Love Affair. I love that book! It's smart and funny and wise and written for first wave feminists, flappers--who are not so different from our third wave feminists, when you think about it. I saw that there was nothing out there to help young women (and not-so-young women) navigate the tumultuous waters of love and sex and romance in this hook up culture.

When I was researching the Hooking Up or Holding Out, I noticed that there are a tons of books out there for men on how to get laid, but most of the books for women are about understanding and communicating and being honest. I'm not suggesting women start playing games like the guys out there, but I am suggesting, we wise up a bit and take back the power of our desirability to get what we really want--not just in the moment, but in the long-run.

You wrote 3 novels for a younger audience. Name this and talk about your experience writing them.

I wrote and published three novels for young adults through New American Library in the 1980's--
Over the Hill at Fourteen
The Young and The Soapy
Just Too Cool

I actually kind of fell into the work. In 1980, I won a New York State CAPS Grant for an autobiographical novel about my teen years. My editor at NAL, loved the narrative voice, but thought the story was too dark for the YA market. And in those days (this is before wonderful books like Janet Fitch's White Oleander or Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones) they just didn't envision how a 16-year old could be the protagonist of an adult novel. Even Catcher in the Rye was considered young adult fiction!

So, in this climate (Brooke Shields was very big at the time, having just starred in Louis Malle's film "Pretty Baby") I was commissioned to write a novel about a 14-year-old model. The book was a huge success, sold tons of copies, and got fan mail from all over the country--I owe a lot to my NAL editor, Cindy Kane. We were both in our early twenties (practically teenagers ourselves) and she really knew a thing or two about plot and structure and the narrative arc. I still use the things she taught be this very day. She's now a senior editor at Harper Collins and has gone on to edit some fabulous books, but I knew her when she was just starting out.

Once I wrote Over the Hill at Fourteen with Cindy's editorial help, the next book The Young and the Soapy, came fairly easily, and I got to write about one of my favorite subjects--soap operas. When I do school visits, I love to tell the kids about how hard it is to be a writer, how exhausting is it and then I'll say, "to write this book, I had to get up every morning and do my research--sit in front of the t.v. all day, eating bon bons and watching As the World Turns!"

I wrote my third and last young adult novel, Just Too Cool during the mid-80's when punk rock was really blossoming in New York City. It was a strange time for me, because my daughter had just been born a few months before. I woke up every morning at 5 a.m. and wrote, and then I worked during the day at the incredibly glamorous Estee Lauder where everyone dressed as if they were going to a cocktail party and then one night a week I would go out to these wild punk clubs with my agent at the time, Merrillee Heifitz from Writers House. She was great fun and we would hang out at CBGB's, The Pyramid Club, Limelight and all these East Village hole-in-the-walls that are mostly gone now. Just Too Cool has been re-issued thanks to the Author's Guild Back-in-Print program. It now has a new cover that my daughter designed.

Another book you wrote, The Writer's Toolbox, is exercises and approaches in writing. Discuss this book.

The Writers Toolbox is actually a kit of writing games with a book inside of it. The games include tactile writing prompts that I developed from 25+ years of teaching creative writing. I was particularly inspired by my studies in right brain theory with the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and refined the games over the years to create a box that can be used in writing workshops or even improv acting classes.

The Writers Toolbox has just been released from Chronicle Books, so I'll be traveling about hosting free writing workshops to celebrate the launch.

You have an extensive background in teaching. Talk about this. What do you try to teach your students? What do you like to teach?

I started teaching while an undergraduate at Bard College in the 1970's. They had a program where they sent students to Mattewan Prison for the Criminally Insane. My friend Iris and I taught poetry to the inmates. It was an amazing experience and truly changed by life and definitely made me see teaching writing in a whole new way. After college, I won a New York State CAPS grant and as part of the grant, I taught at Mid-Orange Correctional Facility and then spent many years teaching at psychiatric hospitals in New York City. I taught writing at Payne Whitney, Bellevue and Columbia-Presbyterian. I was in my early twenties and this experience shaped me as a writer and a writing teacher. I received an MFA from Goddard in Creative Writing and another MFA in screenwriting from UCLA, but all the while, I vowed that when I taught I would use a gentler technique, rather than the tough love you often get in MFA programs. I'm very sensitive (I've been known to run out of writing classes in tears), so when "Writing from the Right Side of the Brain" or fiction or screenwriting (my three favorite areas--I teach in a style that assumes everyone is just as sensitive as me. But truly, it works. I believe that when writers feel safe and nurtured, they feel free to take literary risks and go into dark and complicated places. I like to serve as a loving and caring guide--and this has worked with a wide range of students--from Yale University upper level classmen to children at risk to senior citizens, cowboy poets, art school students to MFA candidates. I've been called The Earth Goddess of the Creative Writing Classes and you know, I kind of like that.

One of your degrees comes from the UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television. How has this helped you with your writing? Do you write screenplays? I'm sure you learned character and plot development. Discuss your experience there.

My MFA in screenwriting has helped me tremendously! Screenwriting and television writing is all about plot and structure. When I teach fiction I find that most writers know very little about plot. Most fiction writing classes talk only about character, theme, language and imagery, and basically ignore plot. I think there's this mistaken belief that plot is somehow dirty or beneath literary writers. I like to show how the most poetic or experimental writer can make their stories stronger by considering the uses of plot and structure.

Yes, I wrote many screenplays while at U.C.L.A., won lots of awards, e.g. The Samuel Goldwyn, and ended up working in script development at Paramount Pictures for the actress Meg Ryan. It was an amazing experience!

Who are you reading now?

Entre Nous, How to Dress like a French woman, Madame Bovary.

List some of your favorite writers.

I love Philip Roth. Lorrie Moore. Julia Cameron. Natalie Goldberg. I always return to my old favorites--Jane Austen, Colette, Fitzgerald, Hemingway.

What are you working on right now?

French Women Don't Sleep Alone. A book about how French women find love.

Any last comments

Well, just this: If you're reading this, and struggling as a writer, hang in there. Keep writing. Send out your work. Make friends in the writing community. Remember that 50% of writing happens when you're not at your writing desk. There are stories unfolding right now while you're on line at the CVS. Just because you're not home writing, doesn't mean you're wasting your time, your story is happening right in front of you. Finally, open your heart.

INTERVIEW WITH KAZUE DAIKOKU
BY DENIS EMORINE

First of all, who are you, Kazue?

I am a publisher, an editor and a translator. Sometimes I work on web design as an editor and if it's needed I arrange and mix the sound for audio works and photo movies. I am also in charge of the books distribution, sales promotion, shipping, accounting, stock control ……, I do anything I can when needed.

I studied music and ballet for over ten years, and I worked in an advertising business as a copywriter and an editor for a long time, so I am now using all the skills I have cultivated in my life.

Why did you create "Happano" a bilingual (Japanese-English) publishing house, in 1999? Is it well-known in Japan?

I had something to say, although I didn't know exactly what it was. It's difficult to express it in a few words. I felt I had to do something to express myself. And I was looking for an alternative way, a way different from all the others in Japan, not just in literature.

In 1999 I found two kinds of technology: one is the web on the internet as a place to express something, the other one is on demand printing system to publish a small amount of book in paper.

I learned much about small publishing, on demand printing system and non-profit publisher from A Small Garlic Press, an independent and non-profit poetry publisher in Chicago. Our first publication "tenement landscapes / New York apaato gurashi" (English language haiku written by Paul David Mena) is the translation of their book. We published this book not only in Japanese but also including the original English text. I thought having both languages in the same page was interesting, and it could also interest readers. I intended to reveal all the text to the readers.

I had an intention and got the means to make it real, then I started a publisher on the internet with a few friends.

Happano became known little by little among people who are interested in an alternative way of thinking in the fields of publishing, language, visual art, etc.. Our activities and publications have been introduced at the galleries of book stores (in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya), and sometimes even by commercial magazines. Even so, we are still and will always be an independent publisher which works mainly on the internet and sometimes publishes in paper but only up to 500 copies. I think the most important thing for Happano is to convey our intentions and ideas, how we see the world, to people who are looking for some alternatives, through our works. I don't think we are doing things that the majority of people are interested in. We are aware of it.

Is it difficult for a woman nowadays to do such a thing in Japan?

No, I don't think so. Many women are working in unique, alternative ways in Japan. I sometimes work with them in some projects.

As a publisher, explain your choices. Are you open to all authors in the world or only Japanese and English speakers?

We are open to all authors, and all languages. I am much interested in works written in non-English language, but unfortunately I only understand Japanese and English, so being translated into these languages is important for me to start working. On the other hand I am also interested in English works by non-English speakers, called transborder literature. I can work on contemporary literature from many countries in Asia, South America, West Africa, and many other places only if the authors write in English. I am much interested in Chinese or Korean literature for example, but unfortunately I can't understand them and connect directly with them unless they are written in Japanese or English.

What about the business, I mean selling the books in Japan and other countries?

It depends on the publications. Some books are selling very well and we reprinted some of them. Some books are selling very slowly. But having both kinds of books (selling well or not) is important for us. We have planted seeds of our intentions in the ground, they are the buds (coming out of all this). We sell our books in the USA, Spain, Sweden, etc. In this case I don't care too much about sales themselves, I am satisfied with sharing our books with people from different countries.

I know you are also a translator. What are the main problems to translate English into Japanese? Do you have a staff for other languages?

I don't feel the difficulties of translation are problems, actually. I used to think in that way before, but not anymore. I think the most important thing of translation is to convey what I receive from authors to people who can't read the originals. I believe that basically all translators do their best to translate works properly.

We have a few collaborators (they are usually writers) and if we ask them to translate, if they like the work, they will help us with their language abilities. We have Italian, French, Russian, Yiddish, Ainu, Swedish, Romanian, Bengali…. writings on our website. The more collaborators we have, the bigger variety of works we can have.

Are you in touch with other publishers?

Yes, independent publishers in Japan and sometimes in other countries. We published an art book with a Swiss publisher two years ago. I am sometimes asked to be interviewed by domestic publishers.

Are you also a writer?

Hummm, I don't think so. I do write sometimes when I think I need it, but I'm not a writer, I just write when I have an idea in mind.

Are there many publishers in Japan? What kind? Are there many readers for poetry, short stories… for example?

There are many publishers in Japan: very big commercial ones, independent small ones, publishers of book stores, art galleries, cosmetic companies, and even a bathroom facility company has its own publisher, which has a very high quality, actually, and etc. Recently artists or designers, photographers, poets, etc sometimes start their own publishers, this is a new movement.

There are many kinds of readers of all kinds of books in Japan. But, at the same time, I feel literature, especially translation works from other languages, are not read more than before. Easy-to-read books are recently selling well and getting more popular.

Let's talk about the fragments on your website. What is it exactly? Could you explain us?

We had this project several months after we started Happano. I wanted to have various kinds of writings on our Happano website. I mean, we didn't want to pay attention only to professional writers' works, but also to non-professional writing. I thought it would be interesting to show on our website fragments of letters, diaries, and other works written by everyday people for private reasons, because these works were also important for art and life in general, and we didn't have many chances to be in touch with them. Recently, we can find many blogs on the web and therefore it's easy to access to such sort of writing.
* Fragments: http://happano.org/pages/fragments/index.html

In Europe, we often hear that Japan is completely under the American cultural and economic domination since the end of the Second World War, especially with the English tongue. What is your opinion?

Yes, it's true, but at the same time it's not. I think it's not that simple. We are or, at least it seems to me, like to be under the American politics, and may have a deep connection with American economic matters. One of my friends says Japan is the 51st state of America.

But regarding the cultural matter, it's much more complicated. We have been influenced by many different cultures and countries from long time ago. Not only from America. Japanese people have enjoyed and loved various kinds of music, for example: chanson and French pops from France, canzone from Italy, flamenco from Spain, tango and bossanova from Latin America, hula from Hawaii and sometimes country music from America. We are very familiar with all of them. Not only music, but also literature, philosophy, architecture, fine arts, food, fashion…. Of course in Asia we were much influenced by China and Korea in letters, craftworks, customs and manners, literature and thoughts too.

I don't think all English words we use everyday in Japan (e.g. strange English messages on T-shirts or a lot of naming of products and apartments) can prove an American dominance in the culture of this country as a whole. It's true that English is the most familiar language to Japanese people as we learn it for six years at school. But in fact, most of Japanese people cannot speak English at all. They don't speak English like Swedish or Dutch people. The Japanese feel English is very different from their language. Not only the language but also the way of thinking.

Any last comments?

It's not easy to express all my thoughts in a few lines, as it may not be easy for the English speakers to understand what I meant, but I hope they can get some of my ideas. And if you readers are interested in our works, please have a look at our new publication which will be published in June, called "Town Dream / Dream Town --- Murals by Yukari Miyagi." This is a photograph and drawing book on the temporary walls in Hiroo, Tokyo.
http://www.happano.org/towndream_E.html

INTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM R. MAYO

W. R. Mayo is the publisher of Poesia, a quarterly of poetry and poetry reviews that originated out of Fayetteville, Arkansas and is the president of Delta House Publishing Company established in 2003. Delta House is also known as Indian Bay Press that publishes other independent publications of poetry and unrelated texts.
Its website address is http://www.IndianBayPress.com.

You are a lawyer by trade. Why poetry, and why Poesia?

I began writing poetry at a difficult time of my life perhaps as a way to work through it, and the romance of law if there is such a thing had long since left me. At the time Northwest Arkansas did not have an independent publication of poetry and poetry reviews apart from the University there, and I thought it was something both the community and I narcissistically needed. A long, painful and nightmarish relationship had ended, and in a sense Poesia saved me. As you know, publishing poetry is generally not a paying proposition, and is an expensive hobby, but has thus far been worth it.

When did you first begin writing poetry?

Not until much later in my life, say shortly before 40. Most everyone has some poetry in them, and it usually takes some catalyst to bring it out.

Such as?

It is different for everyone. I can only speak for myself. Poetry does not come to me freely. I cannot even say what brings inspiration to me, however it seems to surface only when I am drunk or depressed. I have not written much poetry lately.

What is your opinion of the state of poetry? Is it dead?

Poetry is not dead, nor even dying although its demise has been a popular subject over the last fifty years. Its audience certainly seems to be shrinking, and for the independent small press there is a constant battle to keep poetry from becoming a mere academic exercise. Once our post graduate educational institutions began attempting to make poetry a profession, the culture surrounding poetry by its nature has limited its audience.

Do you think that MFA programs can influence a career or teach how to write poetry?

From a positive standpoint, for those who wish to remain in academia it is essential. Without it one will not be allowed to join the club. On a personal level or from the standpoint of personal achievement in poetry that does not require public acclamation, I don't believe it has much impact. MFA programs in a sense have damaged literature for the general public. Poetry has been made a business. Poetry at one time was written simply to be read and enjoyed. Perhaps even the joy of writing it was the purpose. Who needs to be taught how to read contemporary poets, write poetry or taught how to make love? This act of performing autopsies upon dead and living poets to demonstrate to earnest students what the poem really means is only so much fashion much like the participation of most of those involved in so- called American art and culture. It has become a self-perpetuating circuit of self- adulation and pandering. For one who participates in this pseudo-intellectual masturbation to take an honest assessment of what they are paying for would be to require them to admit that for all of their education, time and effort, it has been misspent. If you want to accept that it broadens the scope of your educational experience so be it, but does it make a poet? No.

What does make a poet?

That which lies within you. I travel a fair amount, and if you want to kill a conversation, bring up poetry while you are on a plane talking to the person seated next to you. If however, you place a book of poetry in you lap, and say nothing, the person next to you will start a conversation with you with poetry as the subject. This happens frequently, and I invariably ask if that person has written poetry. Rarely has the answer been no, however far too frequently I am told that they no longer write because some academic criticized their work in a destructive manner, and the desire to write left them.

What other cultural obstacles do you currently see for poetry?

Well, it is not sexy enough. I don't mean by content, but by appearance. The state of American culture and art is such that it attracts a crowd more interested in appearance than content. Take a look at any performing arts center, and they sponsor as much social activity around their events as the events themselves. This I suspect is to placate the donor crowd who otherwise would have little interest in being there if it were not for the society created by the events. Can you imagine a crowd in black tie and furs sipping red wine from plastic cups at a poetry reading?

Your publications seem to have a focus on poetry in translation as well. What place does foreign poetry have in the United States?

In terms of promoting universal understanding, poetry in translation serves an important role in helping us recognize that the people of the world have more in common that what separates us. Shared foreign poetry illustrates that everyone is inspired and affected by the same feelings of love, longing or betrayal and the array of emotions we share. Translated poetry is tricky business however for unless translated well, the poem can arrive stillborn with the original poet's force and rhythm evaporated. We need more independent publishers such a Cervena Barva Press to promote this important avenue for understanding.

What advantages in terms of perspective do you see for the poet who lives in another country?

The principal one is the broadened experience and exposure to a culture you will not find at home that I believe helps any writer. Also, I have found publishers in other countries more receptive to my work than in the United States. Despite the current unpopularity with Americans abroad, I have yet failed to find anyone wanting to hold me personally responsible for our government's failings. I live in Brazil although I return to States frequently for business and family. Everywhere I have been people are still interested in engaging in conversations with Americans, and curiously wanting to know our perspective.

Where have you been published outside of the country?

I have had poetry published in Portugal, Italy, Spain, Argentina and Brazil. Most recently one of your contributors, Flavia Cosma, a Romanian born Canadian was kind enough to translate my poetry that was accepted by the Romanian publication, Nordal Literar. Flavia is a great poet in her own right aside from her translations.

Was your bi-lingual poetry collection titled Being Love by Jay Ross well received?

Yes. Northwest Arkansas has a large Hispanic population, and Jay's poetry was well translated into Spanish by a Bolivian translator, Patricia Mass Anez. The use of a native speaker who also has a passion for poetry as the translator I feel made for a seamless weaving of the two works. Nothing seems to have been lost in the translation. It also brought Jay Ross and I together from a business standpoint that has resulted in great benefit to Indian Bay Press. In the beginning I was serving as both Publisher and Editor, and it had simply become too much. I was so impressed by his work and his approach to poetry I ask if he would consider joining Indian Bay Press as the Editor. He has added a perspective that I did not have, and I feel his contribution as Editor has broadened our audience.

What do see for the future of Poesia?

Frankly, I don't know. As you know it is very difficult for a small independent press without non-profit status to make it financially. I have purposely chosen to not go that route although the free money would be nice. I don't wish to exchange my freedom to shoot my mouth off in some editorial or in an interview such as this for fear of offending some donor or campus don who has some influence over the flow of money. It is an expensive hobby as I have mentioned. Unless someone else is willing to approach me to take up my sword, I guess I will continue until the money runs out. Can you loan me a five for coffee?

INTERVIEW WITH JEAN MONAHAN

Bio

I grew up in a small town in CT and graduated from Bates College in Maine. After a summer working on a farm in Maine I migrated toward Boston, where I had always wanted to live. I worked and took night classes at Harvard for a few years before enrolling in the Creative Writing Program at Columbia University. I am the author of three books of poetry: Hands (Anhinga Press 1992), Believe It or Not (Orchises Press 1999), and Mauled Illusionist, published by Orchises in January, 2006. I taught English in China between 1988 and 1989 and have traveled widely, including Russia (a solo trip made in 1984), Egypt, New Zealand, Great Britain, Europe, and various places in the U.S. and Canada. I briefly taught poetry at MIT after being laid off from my job in the dot com world. I live in Salem, MA, with my daughter and run a web site for North Shore Medical Center.

Describe the room you write in.

Most of the poems in Believe It or Not and many from Mauled Illusionist were written in my East Cambridge apartment, where I lived for 10 years. It was a tiny alcove adjoining my bedroom, with a window to my right, out of which I watched blizzards, thunderstorms, 4th of July fireworks and night clouds (from my kitchen window I watched planes taking off and landing at Logan.) My current study in Salem is a separate room with a single window, out of which I can see cars slide up and down the steep hill. The walls in my study are painted the color of clover and are adorned with a large piece of bright pink silk I brought back from southern China.

What writers inspire you? Why?

I read primarily non-fiction for entertainment and as grist for the mill. Poetry that inspires me is musically deft and structurally sophisticated. I am most inspired by poems that deploy irony, humor sliced with sorrow, and mastery of metaphor.

Do you write everyday? What is your writing process?

When I wrote regularly it was always on Mondays. I worked 40 hours a week but was able to keep it to a 4 day work week. My process involved working for a full day on a single poem (with many breaks of course), working through the opening attempts until I arrived at a place where the language and approach was fresh and surprising and I wasn't completely in command of where the poem was headed. In other words, a quasi-meditative state. Sometimes I knew at the outset what the title was; sometimes I knew how the poem ended. Once I had an exciting conceit to work with and had arrived at a first draft, I would then record myself saying the poem aloud, making refinements based on how the poem worked on the aural level. For the rest of the week I edited the poem in my spare time, sometimes working and reworking a single line or lines many times. The poem was completed when it worked aurally, visually and conceptually.

Discuss your books, Hands (Anhinga Press), Believe It or Not (Orchises Press), and your recent book, Mauled Illusionist (Orchises, 2006).

My first book, Hands, grew out poems I wrote while at Columbia. Part of the requirement for receiving the Masters of Fine Arts degree was the completion of a book-length manuscript. I assembled some 48 pages of poetry, which later became the foundation for Hands (several of the poems in the initial collection had to be jettisoned, additional poems were written, and what felt like an endless reshaping of the flow of poems in the sections, as well as the title.) The poems in Hands reflect my evolving sense of self, my relationship to my family and the larger world. The seven years between the publication of Hands and Believe It or Not were intensely lived and challenging in some respects. The book Believe It or Not marked a dramatic shift in voice and a much darker, more incisive world view. Although there are some deeply serious poems in Believe It or Not there are also several humorous pieces, as well as pieces that are a mixture of both modes. Many of the poems in Mauled Illusionist were written on the heels of Believe It or Not, and there followed several different versions of potential manuscripts, including an assembly called Dreaming of One and one called 18th Century Zebra. It was very frustrating to be a finalist in several poetry contests but not be published. Eventually Orchises Press agreed to publish it. By that time the book had changed again, due to an influx of new poems. Mauled Illusionist was actually a merger of two separate manuscripts.

You taught English in China. How long did you do this for? What was this experience like for you? What was your biggest challenge?

I taught English to 100 students at Xi Dian Da Xue (university) in Xi'An China for somewhat less than a year. It was 1988-89, and that June after I left was when students marched on Tiananmen Square. It was a riveting, formative year. Everything about the experience was in equal measure challenging and rewarding. I had never lived in a third world country before and it was fascinating and heartbreaking, exhilarating and stupefying to see how completely differently life was lived in another part of the world. I could take nothing for granted and as a result every minute of every day was interesting. I traveled a lot, made wonderful friends with my students, learned a bit about teaching, and came to love China very much. I learned to speak and read a small amount of Chinese and understood more about the culture, history and personal strengths of my students, who faced adversity every day as part of their regular lives at university. We had no heat in the classrooms in winter, which meant I was teaching in temperatures around 10 degrees (courtesy of the broken windows). Electricity shortages would last all weekend, and there were water shortages (no hot water for showers for over a month); across the country there were coal and rice shortages. There was dissatisfaction in the air and small strikes were staged at some of the local universities. My biggest challenge was that I had been given almost no information about the students I was about to teach and therefore was unable to prepare for the teaching the summer before I left. I ended up sometimes using materials I had brought with me for my own entertainment (books and music, for example), and also developed strategies along the way in order to bring some life into the dull textbooks they expected me to use.

What things do you try to teach students about writing?

When I work with students on the subject of writing poetry, I try to get them to grasp the craftsmanship involved, as well as the necessity of ingenuity and surprise. I try to share with them ways they can engineer the unusual and unexpected into a line and into a perspective for the whole poem.

What are you working on now?

My last few years have not allotted me any free time or free mental space for writing poetry (single motherhood and working full time). Very recently though I have taken steps to try to break this spell and get back into writing. I am working on a series of poems based on fables.

INTERVIEW WITH SUSANNE MORNING

Write a Bio

New Zealand, clean green and the pearl of the Pacific is my home. I was raised in the dense tropical bush where parrots, wood pigeons and peacocks entertained me by day, possums and owls sang to me at night. Nature has always been my solace, my church.

Just recently I bought a house back in the same area. Cottages that were selling for a dime back then are now going for the price of a diamond mine. Oh hindsight I wish I had bought a house when I was 5 years old.

I was bought up in a very strict Baptist home. After an early marriage and a late divorce, I set off on some serious self-discovery. This led me into a decade of painting, house renovating, fashion design, make-overs and styling in the wonderful city of Wellington. Wellington (location and production of Lord of the Rings which I assisted in) is full of creative beings. Soya milk drinks with Spirulina hits ( Spirulina is a plant algae, famous in NZ, like a natural Red Bull substitute) colored our lips while we dissected plays, films and books in one of the many cafes Wellington is known for. My fascination with other cultures started with my immigrant mother and the indigenous people of New Zealand (I remember at 7yrs old, standing on a chair in class performing a Maori War dance for the class "show and tell" wearing a grass shirt and coconut cups).

So far I have visited 30 countries, prayed with Tibetan monks on The Great Wall of China, talked to survivors from the Cambodian Kymer Rouge, yodeled in Austria, got lost in Venice (oh to be lost there for ever), and collected a souvenir kiss from each country ( in Switzerland, I nearly forgot and had to accost a handsome man at the border!) Having a goat herder in the northern tip of Vietnam offer to take me to Market to find a husband was one of the most unusual offers I've had. Sadly at 42, my prospects were a little dim as most prospective brides in the hill tribes were married and mothers by 13.

I am currently living in Korea (now my 7th yr). This experience has proved to be the antithesis of New Zealand, a country who has never seen war, worships trees and was the first country to give woman the vote (we have and have had for the last decade a woman Prime Minister). By contrast, Confuscian Korea (as expressed to me just yesterday by a Korean man), is man first, children second, woman last. In the Korean version of The Titanic, the woman go down with the ship. It is a country torn by war, and still under threat by Nuclear North Korea. A country of tenacity who rebuilt itself in 50 yrs, (historically one of the fastest to do so), after the annihilation of the Japanese occupation/pillage and soon after the North Korean attack. It is a land of gentle people whose doors have only been open to the West in the last decade. It has been a place of spiritual revelation for me, untold stories and secret gardens.

Describe the room you write in.

The room I write in is small, but not so tiny as my last apartment, which was almost the size of a generous bathroom (yes the entire apartment). Being a hoarder this has been a huge lesson in downsizing, especially being raised in a country where we had so much space we had to shout across the house to hear each other (consequently you will find many New Zealanders know how to whistle loud and long.)

My current room overlooks skyscraper apartments, winding roads packed with concrete rundown houses and car parks. A few pot plants, my pollution battle strategy, stand by a little wilted after combating the toxic yellow dust that comes from China every spring. I am surrounded by a phone, fax, exercise machine, t.v., and a wall of colorful scarves and pillows( I bought back from Thailand). Small postcards by Mattise, Kandinsky and other Fauvists, litter the cracks in the wall. Beside me is a cup of ginger tea and my lunch of seaweed soup.

You are from New Zealand. Why the move to S. Korea?

South Korea was initially a stop over on the way to Paris. Only after I did a world tour did I realize I would need more funding and returned here. My job here also gives me the time to write and support myself. Plus there is also the bizarre and unexpected element that appealed to my adventurous side. Korea is a buried treasure chest of untold stories. I have dirt under my fingernails and calluses from working the soil to free these gems.

How long have you been living there?

7 years. Any film producers out there who want to do a version of Seven Years in Tibet in Korea?

Has this different environment away from home influenced your writing?

Living here as certainly influenced me and consequently my writing. I have met people who have lived through extraordinary circumstances to achieve their goals, odd ex-pats like myself (odd is good), and have had a lot of my cultural and value system challenged. It's a Buddhist culture, fortune tellers, past lives, ancestral worship and Shamans. I had to change my class once because a student had seen a ghost there. The department secretary who reassigned a new room, took it in the same context as if I had ordered new textbooks.

Other differences in the environment that were conspicuous to me on my arrival were eating dog, whale and wriggling squid, the cultural normalcy of eating with your mouth open and slurping, drinking as a cultural pastime, (late, lots and most nights) and the worship of pigs (revered as symbols of financial favor).

Who are some of your favorite writers?

There are a lot of American authors/poets I enjoy, Yusef Komunyakaa and Ellen Bass' work, Arundhati Roy's original prose like style ( The God of Small Things) and just recently I read a very interesting collection of poetry in the latest Atlanta Review issue from Iraq. The collection was bought together at much risk to the poets themselves and is a poignant reflection on life there. However as I am a New Zealander and you may not have interviewed a "kiwi" before, let me mention a few Kiwi authors.

I have just finished reading a book called "Here at the End of the World" by Lloyd Jones which takes the reader through NZ to Buenos Aires. Described as a sensual literary work (by national award review), the intense feelings left me wanting more. I had to ring my empathetic gay surrogate "husband" to process it after I had finished reading it, such was my emotional reaction. Glenn Colquhoun is a popular NZ poet, his accessible work is about patients written from a doctor's experience. Jan Fitzgerald and Owen Bullock are a couple of other gifted NZ writers I enjoy as well.

Oh yes and I must mention lately I have fallen in love with the works of the creative and "terrifying" talent of Llya Kaminsky, a Russian deaf poet who lost his hearing at four years old and started seeing voices instead.

You teach at a university in S. Korea. Which one? What things do you try to teach your students? What are some challenges you face?

I have taught at a few universities and colleges here in Pusan, the second biggest city in South Korea. I try to teach my students to have more of an international approach to life, and encourage them to travel. Being bought up in a homogonous society, they are not aware of other cultures. I try to teach them the benefit of diversity.

I also try to raise the self esteem and aspirations of the female students. In a culture that actively discourages female independence, (not long ago it was illegal for a female to travel abroad alone), it is expected the female employee will resign upon marriage, bear children and stay home. I try to teach other life models they can choose from. Women here receive 30% less pay for the same job, and statistically outstrip the men in qualifications and performance yet are still denied equal opportunities in the workplace.

As a single woman pursuing my dreams, I try to role model other options. I teach the male students that an egalitarian society benefits everyone. Having an economic partner in marriage is a bonus and would help with the financial stain Korean men feel and aid in reducing the consequential depression and drinking binges.

What is the writing scene like in S. Korea and in New Zealand. Any favorite hang-outs?

Its very small in South Korea, I rely on a few contacts back home to give me feedback by email. NZ is small too but packed with creative genius. There are many times I miss the café hangouts and the creative sessions that we have over cheese, wine, and in winter in front of a burning fire. I think because we are an island, small population and a relatively new country, we have learnt to be multi-skilled and are original.

You also are a painter and designer. How long have you been painting? Do you ever use written words on any of your paintings?

I have been painting for about 15 years. Mostly abstract expressionism, fauvist style, art in the house that would wake you with a jolt in the morning. I have done exhibitions in Korea and back home.

I sell a lot of work to the ex- pats here which is quite exciting to think it is being hung around the world. Some of my friends call me Crazy Suzy. In winter if I am in a painting mood, you can find me on the roof of the apartments, big quilt on the floor, paints placed between all the heating and water pipes, splashing away like a frenzied composer.

Sometimes I used words but usually I let the canvas speak to the soul. Sometimes I bless the canvases, ask they will reach the right owner (the Shaman thing is rubbing off on me)

On your Website gallery, I have seen many of your paintings. They are absolutely beautiful. What painters influence you?

I love the fauvists. This is a French word meaning wild ones, it was given to describe the new unscripted images the pioneering artists who were the social catalysts.

I fancy in a past life, I drank and painted at the Moulin Rouge which may account for my in explainable passion for France and the feeling I must one day go there and live.

How do you find time to balance teaching, painting and writing?

Sometimes I don't, I take a lot of vitamins, eat healthy, and cram in life. My creative mind has trouble realizing it works within a finite body and is continually pushing me with yet another "brilliant idea" I must try. I do a lot of telephone relationships and email. Sometimes my friends stage interventions and take me out.

Červená Barva Press recently published your chapbook, Land of the Morning Calm. Please talk about these poems.

I have been writing these poems over the last several years. They are all poetic screensavers of my journey here. I have tried to make them accessible so people can pick up the story behind each one and get a feeling for this unknown culture. The poems reflect my experiences, touching, humorous and at times bewildering. I'm currently seeking a publisher for my next book Morning Calm, a continuation of this theme.

Any last comments?

I think as poets, we are observers, recorders of life, and for myself the question "why" hovers constantly on my pursed lips. Often prayers are written on tiny pieces of paper and tied to temple trees, tangled bows of hope. Poetry is my prayer.

TEMPLE PRAYERS

White coiled leaves
cling to winter limbs.
Like piles of dirty laundry
traffic skidmarks
past eight lanes of agitation,
soils the air.
She soothes the bark.
Remembers whitewashed prayers
hanging from a temple tree,
bleached butterflies inscribed with hopes
fluttering in the breeze.
And monks, dressed in hymns of spring
who gently set them free.

EVENTS:

McIntyre & Moore Booksellers
hosts author
Tom Clark

reading from his recently published
Encountering Naturalism: A Worldview and Its Uses

Wednesday, June 6, 7:30 pm

(Somerville, MA) McIntyre & Moore Booksellers hosts Tom Clark reading from his Encountering Naturalism: A Worldview and Its Uses. On June 6, 7:30 pm, at McIntyre & Moore Booksellers, 255 Elm St. in Davis Square, Somerville, near the Red Line. Free and open to all; wheelchair accessible. Light refreshments will be served. 15% book discount on store inventory for all those attending* [*discount available for day of event only]. For information call McIntyre & Moore Booksellers (617) 629-4840 or log onto www.mcintyreandmoore.com.

Most of us have a worldview, an overarching context for life that helps to shape our beliefs, goals and actions. Tom Clark’s Encountering Naturalism (c2007) introduces readers to the science-based worldview known as naturalism – a comprehensive and fulfilling alternative to faith-based religion.

Clark explores how naturalism applies to our personal lives, social policy, ethics and spirituality. By understanding and accepting our complete connection to the natural world, naturalism provides a secure foundation for human flourishing, an effective basis for achieving our purposes and addressing our deepest concerns. We don’t need belief in the supernatural to sustain us. Nature, it turns out, is enough.

Tom Clark is founder and director of the Center for Naturalism (www.centerfornaturalism.org) and creator of Naturalism.Org, among the Web’s most comprehensive resources on scientific naturalism and its applications. He also hosts the very popular Davis Square Philosophy Café in Somerville. His new book Encountering Naturalism: A Worldview and Its Uses is available in paperback on Amazon www.amazon.com/Encountering-Naturalism-Worldview-Its-Uses/dp/0979111102/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-3985380-2822316?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175611363&sr=8-1 .

McIntyre & Moore Booksellers
www.mcintyreandmoore.com
On the Red Line, in the heart of Davis Square
Greater Boston's best source for scholarly used books
Open for browsing 7 days a week until 11 pm

--submitted by marycurtinproductions
c/o Mary Curtin
PO Box 290703, Charlestown, MA 02129
marycurtin@comcast.net
"dedicated to staging insightful entertainment, particularly in non-traditional venues"
www.marycurtinproductions.com

McIntyre & Moore Booksellers
hosts a reading of
Ibbetson Street Press: 21st Issue
followed by an open mic

Sunday, June 10, 5:00 pm

(Somerville, MA) McIntyre & Moore Booksellers hosts a reading of Ibbetson Street Press: 21st Issue, followed by an open mic. Sunday, June 10, 5:00 pm at McIntyre & Moore Booksellers, 255 Elm St. in Davis Square, Somerville, near the Red Line. Free and open to all; wheelchair accessible. Light refreshments will be served. 15% book discount on store inventory for all those attending* [*discount available for day of event only]. For information call McIntyre & Moore Booksellers (617) 629-4840 or log onto www.mcintyreandmoore.com.

The Ibbetson Street Press will celebrate the release of its literary journal "Ibbetson Street 21." The press was founded in 1998, by Doug Holder, Timothy, Richard Wilhelm and Dianne Robitaille, and started publishing from its home on (33) Ibbetson Street in Somerville, Mass, later moving several streets down to 25 School Street in the same city.

Since its inception the press has released over 30 books of poetry from local and national authors, and 21 issues of the journal "Ibbetson Street." Ibbetson Street is listed in the "Index of American Periodical Verse," and won several pics of the month from the "Small Press Review." Many of the journals and books published over the years are archived at Harvard, Brown, Buffalo, Yale, university libraries, as well as "Poet's House" in New York City.

For more information on the press, visit www.ibbetsonpress.com.

McIntyre & Moore Booksellers
www.mcintyreandmoore.com
On the Red Line, in the heart of Davis Square
Greater Boston's best source for scholarly used books
Open for browsing 7 days a week until 11 pm

--submitted by marycurtinproductions
c/o Mary Curtin
PO Box 290703, Charlestown, MA 02129
marycurtin@comcast.net
"dedicated to staging insightful entertainment, particularly in non-traditional venues"
www.marycurtinproductions.com

WORKSHOPS

Writers’ Workshop to Celebrate 20 Years

The University of Massachusetts Boston will host and celebrate its 20th annual Writers’ Workshop in June. Sponsored by the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences and the Creative Writing Program, the workshop offers two weeks of instruction in poetry, fiction and prose nonfiction from June 18-29.

A diverse and notable faculty conducts two-week and one-week sessions for aspiring writers. Among this year’s faculty are Bruce Weigl, Macdara Woods, Fred Marchant, Larry Heinemann, and Demetria Martinez. Visiting faculty will include Grace Paley, Carolyn Forché and Sam Hamill.

To apply, interested writers should send a letter of interest, writing samples and a $25 non-refundable deposit payable to the
William Joiner Center to:
T. Michael Sullivan
William Joiner Center
UMass Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA 02125.

Tuition for the workshop is $400 ($220 for one week).
Interested writers should e-mail michael.sullivan@umb.edu
or call 617-287-5850.
Applications may be submitted on line as well at: www.joinercenter.umb.edu

POETRY READINGS

(These readings current as of June 1st, 2007- go to the Readings page to see updated listings!)

MASSACHUSETTS READINGS:

Jabberwocky Bookshop

Jabberwocky Bookshop
at the Tannery
50 Water Street
Newburyport, MA
978/465-9359

Readings

June 2007

Friday, June 1, 2007 7:00 PM
Joe Hurka
Description: Jabberwocky Bookshop is thrilled to welcome Pushcart Prize winning local author, Joseph Hurka, for...
More info on this event

Friday, June 8, 2007 7:00 PM
Susanna Moore
Description: Jabberwocky Bookshop is thrilled to host internationally acclaimed and bestselling author, Susanna...
More info on this event

Friday, June 15, 2007 7:00 PM
William Martin
Description: Jabberwocky Bookshop is proud to welcome New York Times bestselling novelist, William Martin, for ...
More info on this event

Friday, June 22, 2007 7:00 PM
T.D. Thornton
Description: A journalist for the Boston Globe and The Racing Times, Thornton delivers a compelling portrait of th...
More info on this event

Saturday, June 23, 2007 7:00 PM
Linda Greenlaw
Description: Swordfish boat captain Linda Greenlaw, author of many books on the sea, heads out into new territory...
More info on this event

Friday, June 29, 2007 7:00 PM
Stacy Mitchell
Description: Stacy Mitchell is here to persuade us to buy local!...
More info on this event

July 2007