Editorial	New Sins Press Book Contest
Interview with Julia Carlson	Interview with Marc Jampole

Massachusetts	Portsmouth, New Hampshire	Rhode Island
New York	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Chicago, Illinois
California	Seattle, Washington	Canada

Story Time for Grown-Ups! InterAct Theatre Company's Writing Aloud Continues With The Art of Losing

Červená Barva Press Reading Series Pierre Menard Gallery (Harvard Square) 10 Arrow St. Cambridge, MA All readings: 7:00 PM Reception to follow Free Coordinators: Gloria Mindock, editor of Červená Barva Press and Mary Bonina   Wednesday, March 19th Doug Holder Doug Holder was born In Manhattan on July 5, 1955. A small press activist, he founded the Ibbetson Street Press in the winter of 1998 in Somerville, Mass. He has published over 40 books of poetry of local and national poets and over 20 issues of the literary journal "Ibbetson Street." Holder is a co-founder of "The Somerville News Writers Festival," and is the curator of the "Newton Free Library Poetry Series" in Newton, Mass. His interviews with contemporary poets are archived at the Harvard and Buffalo University libraries, as well as Poet's House in NYC. Holder's own articles and poetry have appeared in several anthologies including: Inside the Outside: An Anthology of Avant-Garde American Poets (Presa Press) "Greatest Hits: twelve years of Compost Magazine (Zephyr Press) America's Favorite Poems edited by Robert Pinsky. His work has appeared in such magazines as: Rattle, Caesura, Home Planet News, Istanbul Literature Review, Sahara, The Boston Globe Magazine, Poesy, Small Press Review, Artword Quarterly, Manifold (U.K.), The Café Review, the new renaissance and many others. He holds an M.A. in Literature from Harvard University. Recently Holder was a guest of the "Voices Israel" literary organization, and conducted workshops and read from his work in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv (Zoa House), and Haifa. His two most recent collections of poetry are: "Of All the Meals I Had Before," (Červená Barva), "No One Dies at the Au Bon Pain" (sunnyoutside) He holds an M.A. in Literature from Harvard University. Jared Smith Jared Smith is a prominent figure in contemporary poetry, technology research, and professional continuing education. Having earned his BA cum laude and his MA in English and American Literature from New York University, he spent many years in industry and research. Starting in 1976, he rose to Vice President of The Energy Bureau, Inc. in New York; relocated to Illinois, where he became Associate Director of both Education and Research for an international not-for-profit research laboratory (IGT); advised several White House Commissions on technology and policy under the Clinton Administration; and left industry in 2001, after serving as Special Appointee to Argonne National Laboratory. Jared's seventh volume of poetry, The Graves Grow Bigger Between Generations, is being released May 1st, 2008 by Higganum Hill Books in Connecticut. Previous books include: Where Images Become Imbued With Time (Puddin'head Press, Chicago, 2007); Lake Michigan And Other Poems (Puddin'head Press, Chicago, 2005); Walking The Perimeters Of The Plate Glass Window Factory (Birch Brook Press, New York, 2001); Keeping The Outlaw Alive (Erie Street Press, Chicago, 1988); Dark Wing (Charred Norton Publishing, New York, 1984); and Song Of The Blood: An Epic (The Smith Press, New York, 1983). His first CD, Seven Minutes Before The Bombs Drop, was released by Artvilla Records in 2006, with original music performed by David Michael Jackson and Andy Derryberry. His second CD, Controlled By Ghosts, was released by Practical Music Studio in combination with CD Baby in October 07, with music by alternative jazz composer Lem Roby. Jared has published reviews of the works of such major contemporary poets as Ted Kooser, C.K. Williams, and W.S. Merwin, as well as several craft interviews, including one with Ted Kooser that was translated into Chinese for republication in Taiwan and Mainland China. Jared's work has also been adapted to stage in both New York and Chicago. Jared Smith's poems, essays, and literary commentary have appeared in The New York Quarterly, Confrontation, Spoon River Quarterly, Kenyon Review, Bitter Oleander, Small Press Review, Greenfield Review, Vagabond, The Smith, Home Planet News, Bitterroot, Rhino, Ibbetson Street Press, Wilderness House Review, After Hours, Poet Lore, The Pedestal, Second Coming, The Partisan Review, Somerville News, Coe Review, U.T. Review, The Iconoclast, Trail & Timberline, and many others. Jared has served as a member of the Screening Committee and on the Board of Directors of The New York Quarterly under founding Editor William Packard, as well as being a current member of its Advisory Board under Raymond Hammond; as coordinator of readings at two Greenwich Village coffee shops in the 70s; as a Guest Columnist for Poets magazine and Home Planet News under Editor Don Lev; as Guest Poetry Editor for two issues of The Pedestal under Editor John Amen; and as Poetry Editor of Trail & Timberline. Elaine Terranova Elaine Terranova is the author of four books of poems, Not To, New and Selected Poems (Sheep Meadow Press, 2006) which was a runner-up for the Poetry Society's William Carlos Williams Award, The Dog's Heart (Orchises Press, 2002), Damages (Copper Canyon Press, 1996), and The Cult of the Right Hand, winner of the 1990 Walt Whitman Award (Doubleday, 1991). Her poems have appeared in magazines such as The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, The Virginia Quarterly Review and in the anthologies, A Gift of Tongues, Blood to Remember: American Poets write about the Holocaust, and Articulations: The Body and Illness in Poetry. Her work has been part of The Poetry Society's Poetry in Motion project. Her translation of Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press (1998) and was produced at the University of Kansas. She has received a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, a National Endowment in the Arts Fellowship in Literature, and two Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grants and was honored by The Pennsylvania Center for the Book for her poem, "River Bathers." She won the Anna Davidson Rosenberg competition in 1992 and has been Banister Writer in Residence at Sweet Briar College and a Fellow at Bread Loaf. She is a writing specialist at the Community College of Philadelphia and a faculty member of the new Rutgers, Camden, Graduate Creative Writing Program.

 

---

New Sins Press Book Contest

Be sure to enter this contest!!!! They do beautiful books. I'm listing this contest again in this newsletter to remind you!

New Sins Press Book Contest

2008 Full-length Poetry

Book Contest GUIDELINES

READING PERIOD/DEADLINE: March 1 through May 1, 2008. (No mss. will be read outside the reading period!)

SASE: All manuscripts will be recycled. SASE for contest results only.

ENTRY FEE: Free (must follow guidelines)!

MANUSCRIPT: Manuscripts need NOT be anonymous. Two copies of manuscript--each copy of the manuscript must be sent to a different address (listed below). Single spaced, no staples, bound with clip or manila folder, no photos or images with manuscript. No email or electronic submissions accepted. Page limits: 50-60 pages with acknowledgments, title page, etc. (final book subject to editing). Once submitted, manuscripts cannot be altered until final decision; the winning manuscript must be sent on a disk/CD. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, and you may submit more than one manuscript; please inform us if a manuscript is accepted elsewhere. New and established writers are both welcomed to this contest. Press isn't invested in religious or form poetry. We are open to new and challenging ideas with emphases on inclusivity and craft.

Published authors include: Barbara Hamby, Richard Collins, Exia, Amy Yanity, Julie Parson-Nesbitt, Diane Williams, Thomas Vaultonberg, etc.

JUDGES: New Sins publishers and editorial board.

RESULTS: Author receives 50 copies.

DECISION TIME: Winner will be notified 2-4 months after deadline.

MAIL MS. COPY #1 TO: New Sins Press, Attn: Arroyo/Sheldon, 3925 Watson Avenue, Toledo, OH 43612.

MAIL MS. COPY #2 TO: Dan Nowak/Stacia Fleegal, Editors, 1615 South 20th Street Apt. D, Lincoln, NE 68502.

REMEMBER: Typed, single-spaced manuscript, SASE (to address #1 only!) for results, manuscript need NOT be anonymous, no entry fee, two copies of manuscript--each copy of the manuscript sent to a different address (listed above).

DEADLINE: May 1, 2008.

---

INTERVIEW WITH JULIA CARLSON

Write a Bio.

I was born in Winchester, Massachusetts. I have two brothers and a sister, a daughter and two grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews. I have a large extended international family. I did Philosophy at Boston University as an undergrad and then Linguistics at a University in France. Later on I got my Masters in Clinical Social Work from Boston University. My day job is Senior Clinician at a methadone treatment program in Boston. Very interesting work. I plan on retiring to a villa on the Sicilian coast. Somehow.

Describe the room you write in.

I will write in any room or cafeteria or bar or park bench [and often do] as long as there isn't anyone I know in it. I find people distracting, although I am not above people watching. I've never been able to understand how Henry Miller could write the way he did, in a room full of people talking and drinking and screwing. If I'm at home, I will sometimes put on music, but only instrumentals. If there are lyrics, forget it. Coltrane is good, so is Chet Baker. Sometimes when I write I drink. That can be fun. At home I write on the computer, but if I'm out I write in pencil in a lined notebook. I always carry a pencil sharpener with me.

Talk about your new chapbook, The Turn of the Century (Cloudkeeper Press, 2007).

I wanted to do a chapbook for a while and I put it on my list of things to do. It was one of my goals for 2007. I gave a lot away and I sold a few.

Discuss the cover art for your chapbook:

The guy that did the cover is Karl Stevens; I love his comic, "Whatever", which is in the Boston Phoenix every week. Well, first, I wrote him a fan letter, that was even before I had stuff together for the chapbook, which was then published in the Phoenix. [Doug Holder was happy because I signed the letter as Editor from the Wilderness Lit. Review, so it was free PR. Can't argue with that.] At first I didn't want any art on the cover, just the title. But, powers greater [and more saavy] than I convinced me I should have artwork - so, Karl came to mind. Because I was totally sure I would love anything he did. So, I emailed him and asked if he would draw me a gothic castle. He quoted a price and I told him to go ahead. About a month later he showed up at my house with this awesome drawing. He looks kinda like Buddy Holly, black hair and those thick black glasses. A very attractive young man. Why I asked for a castle was a mystery to me - it just came to mind - until I saw the proof and reread the title poem, which has references to vine-strangled fortresses and dungeons. Funny, Huh? It was totally unconscious.

Music is a big part of your life. How has this inspired your writing?

I love music and can't imagine not having music in my life. My earliest musical memory was my mother playing piano, she could play a pretty mean double barreled boogie woogie. And her being a debutante from Toledo, Ohio! My Dad loved music and I remember him blasting Bartok, Mozart, and others… The first record I ever bought was Joey Dee and the Starlighters at the Peppermint Lounge. The Twist. In another life maybe I would have been a musician, but you know what, not a rock star, I'm really not outrageous enough for that. I play the mandolin but I'm only a beginner. Music is something I can't ignore- it is a universal language. If you can play music, you can communicate with anyone in any country in the world. You'll never be lonely or bored!

You lived for a while in Nashville, TN. What was that experience like for you?

Living in Nashville made me face up to my Yankee heritage. It made me realize that in this country, people from the Northeast are still pretty well hated, for a variety of reasons. And in Tennessee, the blood is in the ground, some are still fighting the War of Northern Aggression, as it is called. They have not yet forgiven that. It made me realize that people can take generations to get over being invaded, conquered, beaten. You see this all over our sad planet - Bosnia, Darfur, Kosovo recently, Iraq, the European countries that were invaded during the 2nd World War, and so on and on and on. The other thing I learned in Nashville is that there is nothing, but nothing, that soaks up alcohol at 3 AM like biscuits and gravy. I had a writing gig covering the Nashville "new music" scene for SouthEast Performer - I was on the noon to 3 AM work schedule and ended up in various all-night joints after shows…

What was the poetry scene like there?

I can't say I know what the scene was, but I'm sure there was one. Vanderbilt University is in Nashville, so there must be poets. There was one guy, Michael Brown; he was the Poet-in-Residence at the Hume-Fogg High School (incidentally, the same High School that Betty Page graduated from). I thought that was so cool, that a high school had a poet-in-residence. And his writing was really good, at least I liked it! I used to read at one open-mike venue, it was at the Villager Tavern. There was always dart-throwing or pool going on in the back, and a bunch of regulars at the bar, who weren't always glad to see you. So you had to really speak up. It was a great experience.

For two years, you edited fiction for the Wilderness House Literary Review. You just recently resigned. Discuss what editing was like for you and why after two years, you resigned.

I know it isn't because of the other editors because we all know each other very well. I've known Irene Koronas, the Poetry Editor, since 1976. We met in a writing class; I was immediately impressed by her sassy attitude and knew we would be friends! When I moved back to Boston from Nashville in 2005, she told me about these poet and writer guys she was meeting with on Saturdays. So after hearing about that for a few months, I showed up. I was thinking, gee, maybe I'll meet a boyfriend! I didn't, but I met some really cool people. At the first meeting I was introduced to Doug Holder, Steve Glines, Tomas O'Leary, Harris Gardner, I think Affa Michael Weaver was there, Walter Howard…. It was very lively. I remember that I read Anorexia - at that time people were bringing poems to read. Later on I met Gloria Mindock, Lo Gallucio, Ann Carhart, Molly Watt, Barbara Thomas, Debra Priestly, Martha (what's her last name?). Shortly after I started going, the topic was this new start-up literary review and Doug and Steve started going around the table asking who wanted to get involved - I remember Steve saying to me, do you want to be the fiction editor? So I said, uh, OK. It was a leap of faith on their part because they didn't even know me!

Being an editor was really interesting - because I got to see what other people were writing. I liked being able to read something and let the person know it would be accepted. I liked the idea that I could have some influence, albeit very minor, about someone getting into print.

I really wanted to find more time to work on my own writing in the last year and had been thinking about resigning for the past 6 months, but I only got around to it at the end of the year. Once I picked the winner for the Chekhov Contest that was it. Steve was fabulous to work with, very professional and mellow, and the new fiction editor, Tim Gager, is, I think, particularly well suited and will do a great job.

What are you working on now?

I'm putting together a second chapbook, which I want to publish in the next few months, and then a book. I find time to write a murder ballad here and there. But my main objective is to write every day. That's my dream life, where I would actually have time to do that.

You are part of a writing community in the area called Bagel Bards. Talk about the importance of this community of writers for you.

What a group! Bright and shiny poets and writers! I find it very stimulating to listen to their conversation and comments. I feel so lucky to know any and all of them, and I have been so impressed by the commitment they show to their art. It ain't easy. You know, many people think poets are just wacked-out lunatics! Or weirdo-depressives! I am here to tell you otherwise - without poets, language is only a dim ordinary sliver on our tongues. Poetry sings the pain and the pleasure of our world and everything in it. And especially of the grit that gets stuck in our eyes…

Any last comments?

Shit, ain't I said enough already?!?

 

---

INTERVIEW WITH MARC JAMPOLE

Write a bio

Marc Jampole is the author of Music from Words, published in 2007 by Bellday Books, Inc. His poetry has been published in Mississippi Review, Oxford Review, Janus Head, Main Street Rag, Ellipsis, Wilderness House Review and other journals. Over the years, four of Marc’s poems have been nominated for The Pushcart Prize. More than 450 articles he has written on various subjects have been published in magazines and newspapers. Marc has worked professionally as a filmmaker, television news reporter, university instructor in French and German, options trader, advertising executive and writer. When he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he won the scholarship for the outstanding student. He also earned a Masters or Arts at the University of Washington and conducted independent research at the University of Berlin, Germany, on a Fulbright Fellowship. Born in New York City, Marc now resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Where is your favorite place to write?

I have an office on the second floor of my home in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. My computer sits in front of three windows which look directly at two magnificent maple trees. Everything in the office is arranged to meet my writing needs: a bulletin board and filing cabinet to my left; a sturdy printer within arm's reach; a pile of audio CDs (as I have not yet switched to iPod), a large desk space to spread out stuff. Often during the day I gather stray thoughts that I write down on slips of paper, which I pile on my desk when I get home from wherver I've been, and begin to sort through whenever I sit down to write creatively--generally for at least a few hours a day.

What writers inspire you?

Among poets, Wallace Stevens and T.S. Eliot above all, although I also have learned a lot from H.D., Plath, Dickinson, Pound and Hopkins. What inspires me about all of them are two things:
1. The way each, in his or her own way, uses sound to create the emotional meaning of a poem, much like background music does in a movie.
2. The way each can inject two or more levels of meaning into a poem.
Among non-prose writers, I love the great French novelists, especially Stendhal and Flaubert. Stendhal may have written the first novel about the "knowledge worker," The Red and the Black, in which the tragic hero Julien Sorel escapes from the rural squalor of his home town only because of his intellectual abilities, specifically the fact that he has a photographic memory. Julien's ambitions, loves, rise and fall represent a chilling object lesson for writers, graphic designers, lawyers, accountants, professors, engineers, social workers, physicians, nurses and so many other knowledge workers struggling today to put food on the table while maintaining their ethical standards in what has become a hard, cruel world.
Inspiring writers: I can't forget Dante, Cervantes, Joyce, Twain, Proust, Joseph Heller, on and on.

How would you define your poetry?

The thing people always notice immediately about my poetry is the musicality, which I achieve through a variety of tactics, including repetiition, use of both regular and irregular metrics, internal rhymes, variations on theme, emjambment, assonance, aliteration, alteration of natural stopping points and dissonance. I want the sound qualities in my poetry not only approach the status of music, but that the music conveys an emotion that underlies the narrative of the poem. Because I will frequently change meters from line to line or create irregular meters, I think of the music I make with words as "jazzy," but my poetry does not qualify as "jazz poetry" if you use Rexroth's classic definition, and besides, what you label it is not important.

Another striking characteristic of my work, one that that distinguishes it from most other contemporary poetry, is the dissociation of the voice from the poet. It is very rare that the speaker in one of my poems is me or my alter-ego, and just as rare that the poem is autobiographical in the sense of telling a story about my life. For example, some of the speakers in Music form Words include a man with advanced Parkinson's disease; the composer Arnold Schoenberg; John Coltrane on his death bed; a pine tree that dominates the woods of Squaw Valley. Sometimes, there are two or more speaker's in a poem; for example, "The Death Song of Lenny Ross" is told from a total of seven distinct voices. I love to explore the inherent tension when the narrator(s) of a poem is not the author, and may in fact, disagree with the author. How does the author then make his or her point, while expressing the reality of the dissociated narrator? It's a central question in much of literary history, and I love exploring at least a few of the infinitude of answers in my poetry.

Please talk about your new book, Music from Words (Bellday Books). For me, this book was brilliant!

Music from Words has five parts, each of which explores a different kind of musicality in poetry: The first part, Operas and Arias, contains stories sung by one or more of the characters in each poem. Part two is called Love Songs, which is fairly self-explanatory. The poems in part three, Abstract Music, are word equivalents to some of the more intense, weird music of the 20th century, like Charles Ives or John Coltrane. The poems in Protest Rock reveal my take on social issues, while the last section, Songs of Self, are first-person confessions of the self, but usually not of my "self."

How does music/rhythmn connect with your words. Explain your process.

Sometimes I write simple narratives, sometimes in a very abstract way. But in all cases, I want the poem to sound musical, and for the music to convey a specific emotion or emotional ride. So even when people don't understand the abstractions, they can say, this poem is beautiful or this poem makes me feel something:sad, happy, nostalgic, angry, disillusioned, ecstatic, horny, hungry or... That's my goal in every poem, which doesn't mean I always achieve it.

Sometimes I start with an idea, sometimes with a word, sometimes with a phrase that is inherently musical, like the name Joe Venuti, which serves as a mantra in "July Fourth." For example, in my reading I came across the stylites, who were early Christian aesthetics who lived for years on top of tall columns in the middle of the Syrian desert around the time of St. Augustine. I had a whimsical thought that a stylite is a state of mind that could flourish in other belief systems, and decided to write a rant from the point of view of an atheistic styilite; the result: "Confessions of an atheistic stylite." In another book I read I discovered the rafflesia, the largest flower in the world, and a parasite that sucks its life from the liana vine. My crazy mind imagined all the couples I know in mutually parasitical relationships, and I mean that in a good way--each symbolically feeding upon the other to fulfill basic needs, including the need to feed upon and be fed upon. So I thought I would describe the relationship between the rafflesia and liana from the point of view of a liana who, in the middle of the poem assumes the role of rafflesia. Thus the idea for "Liana ro raflesia."

Once I have an idea, I do a lot of research to make sure my facts are right. For "Ghost," which is an indictment of the U.S. worldwide torture gulag, I read thousands of pages of reports by peace organizations, the U.S. government and journalists, searching for realistic details I could use to build the nightrmare within a nightmare that is "Ghost."

I won't begin to put words on paper until I know the point(s) of view that will tell the poem's story. I think carefully about the language the voice or voices would use, and consciously look for ways to put music into that voice. I consider the question, "What is the music playing in the head of this person?" Then I try to use words and meters that convey that music. Perhaps it's through repetition of key phrases, or maybe a type of metric pattern or a certain approach to diction.

Rewriting is essential. It is in the rewrite that I can work on the musical details--changing words to improve the musicality. I also can work on the overall musical and emotional structure, which means the flow of feelings I expect readers to experience as they move through the poem. It is usually in rewrite that I create this flow of feelings.

One last word on process: I never know if I'm done with a poem until I cut something out that I love or think is beautiful. It is only then that I know that the poem has escaped from my ego to become its own thing.

How long were you working on this body of work?

Music from Words is my first book, so of course, so a few of the poems are as old as 20 years. But about three-quarters of the book was written between 2004 and 2006.

Discuss the importance of writing and reading experimental poetry in today's society.

That's a very thorny question that begs the broader question of the role of all poetry in today's society. First to the general role of poetry in society: there is none right now in the broadest sense, even though there are more people writing poetry than ever before, and writing in a wonderfully diverse array of styles. But other than other poets, not many people are reading poetry, just as there are not many people reading serious fiction or history. Our society treats poetry like a relic of past times, and I mean really ancient times. I believe this situation-the marginalization of poetry--is temporary, but I don't know the events that will change it.

There are several special roles that experimental poetry plays, can play and/or should play. One is similar to the role of the scientist, to seek new knowledge, in this case, knowledge in how words can be put together to convey meaning and create pleasure. One gloomy example: much of what we consider part of the standard language of television commercials originated in either Joyce or the Dadaists. Another role of experimental poetry is to provide the pleasure of a word adventure, at least for those adventurous enough to set aside preconceived notions of the relationship between words and meaning. Finally, like experimental music or painting, experimental poetry jolts the reader into reevaluating how he or she views the world; it's like an intellectual coaster ride, or perhaps like putting the mind through a mental decathalon. In other words, it's good for people's mental and emotional well-being to read and hear experimental poetry, even if they don't understand all of it. Wallace Stevens said that one should view modern poetry as one does modern art--sometimes you don't understand it, but you know it's beautiful.

Talk about some other media you've been involved in. How does this work in regards to your poetry?

First the facts: I have worked professionally as a filmmaker and television writer/reporter. When I was a a bit younger, I managed a rock group and produced some jazz group recordings. I have taught both German and French language, which I bring up because to my mind, every language is its own medium. I have also written hundreds of articles for magazines and newspapers and done a lot of commercial writing, such as TV and radio commericals, websites, corporate training videos and brochures (and I will add in defensive parentheses that in the marketing stuff, I never sold my soul, refusing to work on any projects that go against my fairly liberal political and social beliefs).

I have learned from my work in all these media. For example, I learned a lot about point-of-view from filmmaking. One central concern in filmmaking is where to place the camera, which is really a point-of-view decision. As you move the camera, you change the point-of-view of the narration, sometimes abruptly, but often in subtle ways that the viewer doesn't even notice. Filmmaking also taught me many lessons on how images can be ordered to create meaning Luckily, these lessons were conveniently described for me (and anyone else!) before my birth by the Russian filmmaker Eisenstein in his essays collected in English as Film Form and The Film Sense.

I recently wrote an article, still unpublished, about what poets can learn from other art forms. Here is what I said about painting, an art form I have studied extensively, but never practiced:

The painter’s vision can be brought to the page in words, but not by mere description. A poem that faithfully describes a painting is not necessarily written in the poetic equivalent of the style of the painting. Instead, the poet must find word-thoughts similar to the depiction processes inherent in line, color, imagery, depth of field, point of view, stroke, media and the relationship of these elements to each other.

Here are how four principles of painting translate into poetry:
The limited palette: The limited palette exists in virtually every art form, but is identified most commonly as a defining element of style in painting, e.g., Picasso’s “Blue” period or Pollack’s action painting. But a string quartet or the limited vocabulary of the voice speaking a poem are also attempts to limit the palette as a means of expression. Limiting the palette in any art form should not limit the emotional scope of the content. Let’s look at the limited palette as the range of rhetorical tropes engaged by the writer, similar to how the tessitura of a singer defines the general range of a voice part, the part of the register in which most of the tones of a voice part lie. The full range of emotional expression can expand or contract in its sensual manifestations to fill any tessitura, or any palette.Look at Picasso’s “blue” period in which he demonstrates a wide range of expression within a very limited palette of colors. Composers have used the four instruments of the string quartet to express a range of emotion at least as wide as that expressed by a full symphonic orchestra. In a bloodless Racine drama in which characters speak a sparse and stilted vocabulary of less than one thousand very proper and sanitary words, even the nuance of verb conjugation becomes an element of expression. When we see the story unfold exclusively through the eyes of Benjy, a mentally retarded man in The Sound and the Fury, we are viewing reality through his limited thought palette, and yet we manage to understand a full range of emotional states felt by the characters in the narrative.

Cubism: The underlying thought process of Cubism is to break a physical reality into pieces and then present each of those pieces from a different point of view. The idea is to capture the post-Einstein physical world, i.e., the reality of the 20th century, which requires multiple points of view. For example, “Imaginary landscape with 29 birds” in Music from Words develops the Cubist principle as the syntax of the poem, fragmenting descriptions of 28 different Audubon prints and one Brancusi sculpture into parts and then reordering those parts to present a heightened Cubist reality of them.

Collage: Collage in painting is the juxtaposition of different media or different pieces of the same media. The painter glues bits of newspaper stories, photographs or soccer tickets onto a painted canvas that may include colliding styles or a combination of different painted materials. In a real sense, collage in painting, as practiced by virtually all painters from the Dadaists to Larry Rivers and beyond, is similar to sampling in hip hop music. You can see painterly collage in much of Ezra Pound, or, closer to my home, in a number of poems in Music from Words, such as “Remember the fool in the rain” and “Dreams of old men.”

Simultaneity: Many painters have tried to capture multiple moments of a process on a canvas for simultaneous viewing. Duchamp’s “Nude descending a staircase” is the classic example of this attempt to capture movement in time on the canvas. In the composition, Duchamp depicts motion with successively superimposed images. I would assert that to achieve the same effect in poetry, you have to create a written page that can be read in more than one direction, that is, can have two word realities that seem to be merging into each other or co-existing in the same space. Simultaneiety in poetry thus tends to have some element of calligraphy in it. Ready examples from Music from Words include “Source of all” and “Pascal’s Triangle.”

You lived in NYC and then moved to Pittsburgh. Why the change? What is the poetry scene like in Pittsburgh?

Since I left New York in the middle of high school, I have lived in Miami, Milwaukee, Seattle, Berlin (Germany), San Francisco and Pittsburgh, plus spent large amounts of time in Los Angeles, Syracuse and New York. I kind of drifted from place to place for a long time, having many adventures and getting to know many people with diverse backgrounds, cultures and aspirations. I moved to Pittsburgh as part of a decision to settle down someplace and get serious about my creative writing. If an old woman-friend I was visiting had lived in Boston or Washington instead of in Pittsburgh, I would probably have ended up one of those places.

On many levels the poetry scene is very vibrant in Pittsburgh. Two or three nights of most weeks you can hear non-university poets read at a bar, coffee house or art gallery. There are several lively small presses, plus the University of Pittsburgh and CMU presses. Pittsburgh offers both open workshops, plus some fairly exclusive ones. There seems to be more interaction between university-based poets and community-based poets in Pittsburgh than in most places, which has to be a good thing. But just as the population of Pittsburgh is much older than that of Boston so is the universe of people who write or care about poetry also much older in Pittsburgh. The other interesting contrast with Boston is that virtually all of the poets in Pittsburgh write in a very conservative, mainstream vein in which there is a unity between the narrator and the poet and the subject matter is mostly autobiographical. My sense is that while mainstream poetry may dominate the Boston poetry scene, the Boston poetry community is generally more open to experimental poetry than Pittsburgh's.

Any last comments?

Thanks for the opportunity to articulate some of my thoughts about poetry and the writing process.

 

---

MASSACHUSETTS READINGS:

 

(These readings current as of March 1, 2008 go to the Readings page to see updated listings!)

 

NEW ENGLAND POETRY CLUB presents
KATHLEEN AGUERRO, PHILIP BURNHAM and IRENE KORONAS

Reading from new books, introduced by Gloria Mindock
Monday March 3rd 7 pm at Yenching Library

Yenching Library
Harvard University
2 Divinity Ave
off Kirkland, near Memorial Hall
free and open to the public

 

---

CHAPTER AND VERSE

Wednesday Evening, March 5, 2008, 7:30 pm

Featuring:

AFAA MICHAEL WEAVER, poet, playwright, short fiction writer, and translator, is the author of ten volumes of poetry. His tenth collection, The Plum Flower Dance, Poems 1985-2005, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Earlier volumes include Talisman (2000) and Ten Lights of God. Afaa Weaver has recently been featured in articles in Poets and Writers magazine and The Boston Globe.

GLORIA MINDOCK is the editor and publisher of Červená Barva Press and the Istanbul Literary Review, an on-line journal. Her poetry collection, Blood Soaked Dresses, was recently published by Ibbetson Street Press and was featured in an article in The Boston Globe. Gloria Mindock has also published two chapbooks and has appeared in several anthologies.

JUDY KATZ-LEVINE's most recent book of poems is Ocarina (Tarsier/Saru, 2007). She is also the author of When the Arms of Our Dreams Embrace, Collected Poems (Saru, 1991). Judy Katz-Levine has been the recipient of a grant in poetry from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and her work has appeared in many journals and in the anthology on women and baseball, Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend.

Suggested donation: $5.00
Free refreshments served after the reading
For information email dorothy.derifield@gmail.com
or wileysister@yahoo.com or call 617-325-8388

Loring-Greenough House
12 South Street,
Jamaica Plain Centre
Jamaica Plain, MA

---

The Bay State Underground,
March 6th, 2008

The Bay State Underground
Sponsored by Boston University,
The Writers’ Room of Boston,
and AGNI Magazine

236 Bay State Road
(BU East T-stop on the Green Line)

Dear friends,
In anticipation of April, and national poetry month, the Underground is going to show some love to the writers of fiction, and non-fiction, with our first “prose-only” reading!

Our Featured Performers:

Sam Spieller: Sam attended the University of California at Davis. He is currently at work on an MFA here at Boston University. His work in both fiction and poetry has received the highest awards in the most trivial of contests, and he looks forward to continuing this dubious tradition for many years.

Roman Sturgis: Roman is a student of fiction at Boston University. He looks forward to seeing his books on the shelf next to Sam's.

Judy Bolton-Fasman: Judy is at work on a family memoir called 1735 Asylum Avenue. Her book reviews and essays have appeared in the Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post and the New York Times. She is a weekly columnist for the Jewish Advocate where she writes about life with her partner Ken and their wonderful children Anna and Adam.

As always, I’ll be opening the doors (and the refreshments) at 7:00 p.m.,
and the reading will start around 7:30.

See you there!
Yours,

William Delman
Director
The Bay State Underground

---

Out Of The Blue Gallery

EVERY MONDAY NITE,
Stone Soup Poetry (Host: Chad Parenteau), a 35 year old venue, $4, sign up to be a feature - call Bill Perrault at 978-454-7423.
Starts at 7:30PM and don't forget to sign up!
Recorded on local t.v. station.

Upcoming Stone Soup Features
Out of the Blue Gallery

Stone Soup Poetry Series
Out of the Blue Gallery
Host: Chad Parenteau

---

DIRE LITERARY SERIES /Out of the Blue Gallery/
1st Friday- Cambridge, MA

5, 15 MINUTE OPEN MIC SLOTS AT 8 PM,
SIGN-UP AT 7 PM
FOLLOWED BY FEATURES

---

USUALLY the 3rd FRIDAY of the MONTH!
NOLA’s TIGH FILI POETRY & OPEN MIC, $5, 8PM, Host: Nola, poems/prose.

---

OPEN BARK meets @ the Out Of The Blue Art Gallery,
106 PROSPECT ST.
CENTRAL SQUARE, CAMBRIDGE.
OPEN MIC STARTS @ 8:15pm, FEATURE @ 9:00pm
SIGN-UP AT 8:00pm
Come and perform or listen!

Open Bark Features @ the Out of the Blue Art Gallery:

March 8: Harris Gardner & Lainie Senechal

March 15: Laurel Lambert

April 5: David Surette

April 19: Julia Carlson

April 26: Christine Korfhage

May 3: David Sirois & Richard Moore

May 17: Tam lin Neville

May 24: Julia Carlson

June 7: Barbara Bialick

June 21: Lisa C. Taylor

3-5 dollar donation @ the door

Feature info: Mike Amado, spokenwarrior@verizon.net

---

1st SUNDAY of the MONTH!
DEMOLICIOUS POETRY, $5, 2PM, Host: John, experimental poetry.

Out Of The Blue Art Gallery
106 Prospect Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
phone: 617-354-5287

 

---

Newton Free Library Poetry Series

Newton Free Library
330 Homer Street
Newton, MA

Director: Doug Holder

Newton Free Library/ 2007-2008
The Newton Free Library Poetry Series meets the second Tuesday of each month ( September, October, November, February, March and April) at 7PM. Open Mic follows feature. One poem per poet.

Features

March 11, 2008

Susan Owen

Moira Linehan Ounjlian

Barbara Helfgott Hyett

April 8, 2008

Fred Frankel

Lois Ames

Deborah DeNicola

---

SQUAWK COFFEEHOUSE PRESENTS:
A Tribute night to Leonard Cohen

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Bring your favorite song or poem
$3.00 donation
9 pm @ Harvard Epworth Church in Harvard Square

Please contact Lo Galluccio at Lo747@hotmail.com for advance sign up!

********************************
www.logalluccio.com

---

Wake up and Smell the Poetry:
Honoring Writers of Poetry, Song and Spoken Word
With host Cheryl Perreault

Saturday, March 15th 10:30 am-12:30 Featuring bg Thurston, Dorothy Stone and Nancy Hewitt

HCAM TV Studios 77 Main Street Hopkinton, MA

Cost: Free admission
Handicap accessible
Open mic to follow.
For more information: www.hcam.tv

---

The Eighth Annual Robert Creeley Award Reading

John Ashbery
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 7:30 pm

R.J. Grey Junior High Auditorium
16 Charter Rd.
Acton, MA

John Ashbery has won nearly every major American award for poetry. His collection A Wave (1984) won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1975) received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award; and Some Trees (1956) was selected by W. H. Auden for the Yale Younger Poets Series. His most recent volumes include Your Name Here (2000), Chinese Whispers (2002), Where Shall I Wander (2005), and A Worldly Country (2007). A former Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets, Ashbery is currently the Charles P. Stevenson, Jr., Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College.

For further information, contact www.actonmemoriallibrary.org or 978-264-9641

---

 

---

THE POETRY SERIES AT THE BROCKTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

BROCKTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
304 MAIN STREET
BROCKTON, MA.
508 580 7890

Saturday March 22nd
12:00-2:00 workshop Danielle Legros Georges
2:15 -3:15 open reading
3:30 - 5:00 feature's

The workshop, venue and refreshments are free. See the web http://thinkworks.com/BrocktonPoetrySeries/

Features
Julia Lisella
David R Surette

The venue is free, the seating comfortable and and we provide refreshments. Come join us.
website http://thinkworks.com/BrocktonPoetrySeries/

If you are interested in featuring or have a suggestion for a feature contact millerfrank12@yahoo.com
April is Poetry Hosts Showcase
May features- Gail Mazur and John Skoyles

---

Cambridge Cohousing Presents
THE FIRESIDE READING SERIES
Fall 2007 – Spring 2008

Tuesday March 25 7:30 PM
Gail Mazur and Danielle Legros George

Tuesday April 29 7:30 PM
Tom Daley and Julie Rochlin

Tuesday May 27 7:30 PM
The Jamaica Plain Carpenter Poets

Refreshments are served before and after each reading, starting at 7 PM

Note: The Walden St. bridge is under construction. Cambridge Cohousing is located just north of Porter Square at 175 Richdale Ave. From Massachusetts Ave., turn onto Upland Rd. Take the first right onto Richdale. Cross Walden St. and proceed to 175 Richdale Ave. Cambridge Cohousing is a complex of yellow buildings. Walk through the main gate to the Common House. For further information or instructions, please contact Molly Lynn Watt, 617-354-8242, mollywatt@comcast.net, or Jenise Aminoff, 617-576-2004, jenise@alum.mit.edu or go to http://www.cambridgecohousing.org/fireside/index.html

---

La Luna Caffé

Friday March 28 - 7:00 PM

A reading of women's work
Lo Galluccio

Danielle L. Georges
Coleen T. Houlihan
Isabella Ruggerio Du Mond
Sole Nazaire

Reader Bio's

La Luna Caffé
403 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

---

POETRY : THE ART OF WORDS

Poetry readings @ The Plymouth Center for the Arts
11 North Street, Downtown Plymouth, MA (off 3A)

HOSTED BY MIKE AMADO
Mike Amado is a performance poet from Plymouth. He published his first volume of verse in 2006. His work has appeared in many magazines and online journals. In 2008, two chap books are slated for release. He has featured at over 20 poetry venues in MA and R.I.

When:
EVERY 1st SUNDAY OF THE MONTH,
1:00 to 3:00pm
BEGINNING APRIL 6TH

Our first feature will be:
David Surette
David will be reading from his latest book:"Easy to Keep: Hard to Keep In. "Surette is also the author of three collections, "Malden", "Good Shift", and "Young Gentleman's School." Surette is co-host of the Poetribe Reading Series in East Bridgewater, Mass. More info: www.davidsurette.com

Doors open @ 12:30, Program begins @ 1:00
Entrance on Spooner Alley.
More info: spokenwarrior@verizon.net

Directions: From Rte 3, get off at exit 6A to Rte 44 East (Samoset) to Plymouth Center.
Take right at lights onto Rte 3A (Court St). Approx 1/3 mile, take left on North St.
There is a public parking lot across the street.

---

The Boston Poetry Slam Downstairs at the Cantab Lounge

738 Massachusetts Ave,
Central Square, Cambridge, Mass
(617) 354-2685
Email: cantab@slamnews.com
(http://www.slamnews.com/)

Wednesday, 8 pm open mike; 9:30 pm feature; 10:30 pm slam
Hosted by: Slammaster Simone Beaubien
Co-hosts: Dawn Gabriel, Ryk McIntyre, J*me, Adam Stone.
$3 at the door
Please Note:
*****18+ everyone must have a photo ID*****

---

Lizard Lounge Poetry Jam Sunday Night!

Cambridge Common
1667 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
$5 Cover
Every Sunday Poetry Slam: 8:00 pm
Feature: 9:30 pm
Open Mike: 10:30 pm

---

PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE:

Stone Pigeon Reading Series

Doug Holder and Dave Surette to read in Portsmouth, NH March 10

As always, The Stone Pigeon takes place at Breaking New Grounds in Portsmouth, on the second Monday of every month from 7 to 9PM. The format will consist of two featured readers followed by an hour-long open mic.

If you know anyone interested in poetry that might want to attend or maybe even read during the open mic portion, please pass this message along. Breaking New Grounds has been very supportive of everything, and I'm sure they would love to see this thing grow as much as I would. They just ask that we keep things age-appropriate and clean, so bear that in mind when passing this along or if you plan on reading at the show, as a feature or during the open mic.

For more information refer yourself or a friend to The Stone Pigeon website,
http://www.stonepigeon.com

Need help finding Breaking New Grounds?
Google Map Directions Here!
Or call Breaking New Grounds at (603) 436 - 9555

2008 Calendar

(subject to change!)

The Stone Pigeon website also includes directions to the show, in case you need them.

Doug Holder:
http://www.ibbetsonpress.com
http://dougholder.blogspot.com
http://authorsden.com/douglasholder
http://somervillenewswritersfestival.com
http://yahoogroups.com/group/ibbetsonstreetpressupdate

---

RHODE ISLAND:

GOT POETRY LIVE

Hosted by Tony Brown
Every Tuesday starting at 7:30 PM

Reflections Cafe
8 Govenor St, corner of Wickenden St
Providence, RI 02903-4429
(401) 273-7278
(http://www.gotpoetry.com/)

---

NEW YORK READINGS:

 

 

Asbestos Arts Group Readings

Asbestos Arts Group Open Mic
Back Fence Bar
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 @ 3 pm.
155 Bleecker Street (btwn Broadway & 6th Ave)
New York NY
Jonathan Clark + Open
$5 suggested contribution, $3 min.
Handicap accessible? Yes.
Robert Dunn, emcee
dunnmiracle@aol.com

---

Asbestos Arts Group Open Mic
Back Fence Bar
Sunday, March 9th, 2008 @ 3 pm.
155 Bleecker Street (btwn Broadway & 6th Ave)
New York NY
Brian Spaeth + Open
$5 suggested contribution, $3 min.
Handicap accessible? Yes.
Robert Dunn, emcee
dunnmiracle@aol.com

---

Asbestos Arts Group Open Mic
The Vault
Thursday, March 13th, 2008 @ 8 pm.
90-21 Springfield Blvd,
Queens Village, NY
Gabriel Levicky + Open
$5 suggested contribution, no minimum.
Handicap accessible? Afraid not (it’s somebody’s house).
Robert Dunn, emcee
dunnmiracle@aol.com

---

Asbestos Arts Group Open Mic
Back Fence Bar
Sunday, March 16th, 2008 @ 3 pm.
155 Bleecker Street (btwn Broadway & 6th Ave)
New York NY
TBA + Open
$5 suggested contribution, $3 min.
Handicap accessible? Probably.
Robert Dunn, emcee
dunnmiracle@aol.com

---

Asbestos Arts Group Open Mic
Back Fence Bar
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008 @ 3 pm.
155 Bleecker Street (btwn Broadway & 6th Ave)
New York NY
Easter Special: Allan David Goldschmidt + Open
$5 suggested contribution, $3 min.
Handicap accessible? Probably.
Robert Dunn, emcee
dunnmiracle@aol.com

---

Asbestos Arts Group Open Mic
Back Fence Bar
Sunday, March 30th, 2008 @ 3 pm.
155 Bleecker Street (btwn Broadway & 6th Ave)
New York NY
Rick Johnson + Open
Charles J. Butler, guest emcee.
$5 suggested contribution, $3 min.
Handicap accessible? Probably.
Robert Dunn, emcee
dunnmiracle@aol.com

---

PASSWORDS:
Robert & Jean Hollander
on The Divine Comedy

Wednesday, March 19, 6:30pm

The renowned translating team Robert Hollander (author of Dante: A Life in Works) and poet Jean Hollander act as “latter-day Virgils” guiding us through Dante’s fourteenth-century masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, their own translation of which has been hailed as “a touchstone for generations to come.”

NYPL Mulberry Street Branch
10 Jersey Street
(bet. Lafayette & Mulberry Streets, one block south of Houston Street)
Admission free

 

CO-SPONSORED BY
The New York Public Library

---

Poets House Reading and Signing Series

Late March (Date is coming)
Jean and Robert Hollander

Poet's House
72 Spring Street, 2nd floor, between B'way and Lafayette
New York, NY

Cost: free
Handicap accessible
refreshments served

---

LALITA JAVA READINGS
3rd THURSDAYS 7-9 PM

HOSTED BY DOROTHY F. AUGUST

Lalita Java
210 East 3rd St.
(Btwn. B & C)

---

92nd Street Y Reading Series

92nd Street Y Reading Series

Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street
New York, NY

 

---

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:

 

Manayunk Art Center

All Manayunk Art Center programs are on a Sunday and begin at 3 pm.
The Manayunk Art Center is located at 419 Green Lane (rear), Philadelphia, PA
Phone at the center is 215-482-3363.

MARCH 2, 2008:
LOCAL POETS AND THEIR NEW BOOKS: ALEXANDER LONG, ROBERT ZALLER, TREE RIESENER and J.C.TODD

---

APRIL 6, 2008:
SCHUYLKILL VALLEY JOURNAL SPRING READING: WRITERS IN CURRENT ISSUE WILL READ IN AFTERNOON PROGRAM

---

MAY 4, 2008:
EMERGING VOICES: AUTUMN KONOPKA, MEL BRAKE, NIAMA LESLIE WILLIAMS and JIM MANCINELLI

---

"Poetry & Prose & Anything Goes with Dr. Ni"
(radio show; internet radio)

Address: (Dr. Ni's local address) P.O. Box 15095
City and State: Philadelphia, PA 19130-9998
Contact person and or URL/information: Dr. Niama L. Williams; www.internetvoicesradio
Date, time, price: Every Tuesday, 8-9 p.m. EST
$35/guest/appearance on show
Readers: International internet radio listeners
Other appropriate info: (station owner's address):
Ms. Lillian Cauldwell
P.O. Box 2344 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-2344;
734-332-5902.

Dr. Niama L. Williams
P. O. Box 15095
Philadelphia, PA 19130-9998
http://www.lulu.com/drni
http://www.blowingupbarriers.com

---

1ST FRIDAYS ON VINE
Hosted by Aziza Kintehg

Every First Friday of the Month

Be part of an Art Extravaganza * Spoken Word * Music Freestyle * Open Mike

Jose Sebourne Graphic Design
1213-15 Vine Street Philadelphia PA 19107
7-10pm $5.00 Cover

Contact info:
The Gallery - (215)564-2554
Aziza Kintehg(215)668-4500
Email: azizalockdiva@...

or check out the website: www.Josesebourne.com

---

Chicago, Illinois:

 

American Perspectives: Robert Pinsky

THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 6:00 PM

Fullerton Hall
The Art Institute of Chicago
111 South Michigan Avenue
Free Admission.

---

American Perspectives: Peter Sacks on Edward Hopper

THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 6:00 PM

Fullerton Hall
The Art Institute of Chicago
111 South Michigan Avenue
Free Admission.

---

Poetry Off the Shelf: Mary Oliver

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 6:30 PM

Rubloff Auditorium
Art Institute of Chicago
280 South Columbus Drive
$10, $8 for students, free for members and SAIC students, faculty and staff
Ticket proceeds benefit the Poetry Center of Chicago

---

Poetry Off the Shelf: Lorna Dee Cervantes and Rigoberto González

THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 6:00 PM

Center on Halsted
3656 North Halsted Street
Free Admission.

---

American Perspectives: Four Saints in Three Acts

THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 6:00 PM

Fullerton Hall
The Art Institute of Chicago
111 South Michigan Avenue
Free Admission.

Four Saints in Three Acts, the opera collaboration of composer Virgil Thomson and writer Gertrude Stein, is examined through production slides, musical excerpts, professional actors, and art commentary.

American Perspectives is a yearlong alliance among the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Poetry Foundation designed to explore how artists, composers and writers influenced one another to an unprecedented degree in 19th- 20th-century America.

---

Poetry Off the Shelf: Charles Simic

SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 4:00 PM

Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
Harold Washington Library Center
400 South State Street
Free Admission

---

American Perspectives: Frank Bidart

THURSDAY, MAY 1, 6:00 PM

Fullerton Hall
The Art Institute of Chicago
111 South Michigan Avenue
Free Admission.

---

American Perspectives: Edward Hirsch

THURSDAY, MAY 22, 6:00 PM

Fullerton Hall
The Art Institute of Chicago
111 South Michigan Avenue
Free Admission.

---

SEATTLE WASHINGTON:

 

Judith Skillman Readings:

March 13th, Thursday: It’s About Time/The Writer’s Craft Reading Series

Judith will address “The Fine Art of Revision”

Ballard Branch Seattle Public Library (new location)
5614 22nd Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107
206-684-4089
More information: http://www.judithskillman.com/ | eahelfgott2@comcast.net | 206.684.4063

---

CALIFORNIA:

 

Judy Joy Jones Upcoming Events

Judy Joy Jones
The Bones of the Homeless
second printing release date;
February, 2008
joy@creationisbliss.com

---

March 14th, 2008 7:00 pm

Danilos Bakery's Bao Necci
516 Green Street-North Beach
San Francisco, CA
March 14th, 2008
Music: Laura Nimr

---

APRIL 10th, 2008 7:30 pm

Modern Times Books
Book Signing
888 Valencia Street
San Francisco, California
April 10th, 2008

---

Anthony Russell White Readings

There will also be two Winter dates with details to be announced later:

March
I’m reading with CB Follett & Susan Terris:
Poetry Center San Jose
Location to be announced later

March
I’m reading with Daphne Crocker-White & CB Follett & Susan Terris:
Sonoma Ashram
1087 Craig Avenue (west of downtown off Arnold Drive)
Sonoma, CA
(707) 996-8915

Copies of my books will be available at all the readings, and by mail from me.

---

Canada:

 

Margot Van Sluytman, Poet, Calgary, Alberta
Upcoming Workshops and Readings 2008

Margot Van Sluytman, Poet, Calgary, Alberta
Award Winning Expressive Writing Facilitator
403-454-5334
www.MargotVanSluytman.com
www.Palabras-Press.com
www.Dance-With-Words.com
to dance with words, is to be nourished~Margot Van Sluytman

Upcoming Workshops and Readings 2008

University of Alberta St. Stephen's College, Edmonton, AB
February 2008 (Date to be Announced)
Reading and Workshop

---

Spiritual Directions, Calgary, Alberta
Workshop Series from January 2008 - June 2008
403-210-2802

---

May 2-3, 2008
Queenswood Centre, Victoria, BC
Honouring Your Unique and Vital Voice: Write Your Fire
In this expressive writing workshop, award winning facilitator, Margot Van Sluytman, will inspire you to enter the depth of your soul, the wells of your heart, unearthing your unique voice and vision via your pen, as you come to dance with your words, with your unique and fierce, and fabulous fire.

---

June 22-June 26 2008 - Sorrento Retreat Centre, Sorrento, BC
Contemplative Waiting~Write Into the Heart of Your Spiritual Journey

---

July 2008 Writing and Healing Workshop
Ontario
Dates and Venues to be Announced

---

~Recognition and Books: Palabras Press~

Normandi Ellis, Foundation for the National Association for Poetry Therapy
"Margot, You are a worthy recipient, of the Seeds of Joy Award, from the Foundation for the National Association for Poetry Therapy, for your work in facilitating growth experiences through experiential workshops in writing and healing voice here in the US and in Canada."

Diarmuid O'Murchu, Member of the Sacred Heart Missionary Order, Social Psychologist, and author of: Quantum Theology, Reclaiming Spirituality
"I thought many times of Thomas Merton as I read through Margot Van Sluytman's poems, in Contemplative Waiting: Write Into the Heart of Your Spiritual Journey: the contemplative waiting becomes an awakening in which the sacred breaks through even in the mundane and ordinary."

Brenda Peddigrew, Ph.D. - University of Alberta on Palabras Press
"It has been a powerful awakening for me simply to work with Palabras Press. To be in a milieu where poetry is highly valued, where the personal poetic voice is honored, and where the art of words is seen as a way of healing, has heightened my own connection with the inner world of passion and purpose. Palabras Press is a hidden gift to the world, which is beginning to be seen for all that it can give back."

---

THEATRE:

Story Time for Grown-Ups!
InterAct Theatre Company's Writing Aloud Continues
With The Art of Losing

Philadelphia, PA - On Monday, March 24 at 7:00 p. m., InterAct Theatre Company's ninth season of Writing Aloud continues with The Art of Losing, an evening of three moving stories that explore the dual nature of loss: heartbreak and grief, as well as triumph and redemption. Three writers explore how loss plays out in three very different lives.

---

ABOUT The Art of Losing

---

Presented on Monday, March 24, The Art of Losing features three penetrating stories about people dealing with loss. Whether we're talking about car keys, weight, consciousness, money, loved ones, or the big game, every life includes loss. Three writers provide strange and sensitive windows into the ups and downs of losing.

The Art of Losing is the fourth program in the 2007-2008 season of InterAct Theatre Company's award-winning series Writing Aloud, featuring works by contemporary writers read aloud by Philadelphia's best actors. Tickets for the performance, held at 7:00 p. m. on the mainstage at The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street, are $15.00 for general admission or $10.00 for InterAct subscribers. Seating is limited, so advance reservations are recommended and can be made by calling 215-568-8079. Discount subscriptions and group rates are also available. A reception with refreshments will follow the performance.

The March 24 Writing Aloud opens with "Shell Game with Organs," written by Jacob M. Appel (of New York, NY) and read by Lenny Haas. "Shell Game with Organs" depicts a middle-aged magician struggling with his ailing girlfriend, his aging mother, and his ornery best friend, Houdini the parrot.

"Losing in General," written by Randall Brown (of Wynnewood, PA) and read by Allen Radway follows a young boy breaking free from the vicious cycle of his mother's promiscuity and father's mental illness, to go root for the Washington Generals, destined to lose to the Harlem Globetrotters.

Finally, "The Tennis Partner," written by Alix Olin (of Easton, PA) and read by Neill Hartley, traces a son's teenage heartbreak and a father's terrible backhand, the ache of losing loved ones and the pain of being on the losing team.

---

ABOUT THE WRITING ALOUD PROGRAM

---

Founded by David Sanders, Writing Aloud was established in 1999 to present diverse voices in contemporary fiction by the region's best writers, read on stage by professional actors. Quickly establishing itself as the region's premiere reading series, Writing Aloud has attracted sold-out audiences, has been featured in special broadcasts on WHYY-FM public radio, and is a recipient of Philadelphia Magazine's 2001 "Best of Philly" award. This season, Rebecca Wright takes over the directorship with hopes to spend the coming season building upon the program's strengths and taking a fresh look at how it can be even better.

---

ABOUT INTERACT THEATRE COMPANY

---

InterAct Theatre Company, lead by Producing Artistic Director Seth Rozin, is one of the nation's leading centers for new writing in theatre, introducing important contemporary writers to audiences through its world premiere stage productions, developmental residencies, and Showcase of New Plays. The Writing Aloud program extends InterAct's mission of cultivating and presenting diverse artistic voices into the realm of short fiction.

---

UPCOMING WRITING ALOUD EVENTS

---

The Art of Losing is the fourth program in InterAct Theatre Company's 2007/2008 season of Writing Aloud. It will be followed by Comings and Goings on April 28, 2008, featuring stories by Patrick Madden, Nancy Cathers Demme, Christine Flanagan and Amina Gautier, to be read by Tom McCarthy and Bev Appleton, among others. The final Writing Aloud performance will follow in June.

Writing Aloud presents The Art of Losing, Story Time for Adults,
complete with a Wine and Cookies Reception

SCHEDULE: *** ONE NIGHT ONLY! ***
Monday, March 24, 2008 at 7:00 p. m.

THEATRE: InterAct Theatre Company, 2030 Sansom Street at The Adrienne

BOX OFFICE: InterAct Theatre Company, 215-568-8079

TICKET PRICES: $15 general admission seating
$10 for InterAct Theatre subscribers
Discounts available for seniors, students and groups

WRITERS: Jacob M. Appel: "Shell Game with Organs"
Randall Brown: "Losing in General"
Alix Olin: "The Tennis Partner"

DIRECTOR: Rebecca Wright

READERS: Lenny Haas: "Shell Game with Organs"
Allen Radway: "Losing in General"
Neill Hartley: "The Tennis Partner"

PRESS INFORMATION: David Golston, Director of Marketing & PR, 215-568-8077

TICKET INFORMATION: InterAct Theatre Company, 215-568-8079

SYNOPSIS:
On Monday, March 24, InterAct Theatre Company's ninth season of Writing Aloud continues with The Art of Losing, an evening of three moving stories about heartbreak, grief, triumph, and redemption. The Art of Losing is the fourth program in the 2007/2008 season of InterAct Theatre Company's award-winning series Writing Aloud, featuring works by contemporary writers read aloud by Philadelphia's best actors. Tickets for the performance, held at 7:00 p. m. at The Adrienne at 2030 Sansom Street, are $15.00 for general admission or $10.00 for InterAct subscribers. Seating is limited, so advance reservations are recommended and can be made by calling 215-568-8079.

Rebecca Wright
Director, Writing Aloud
InterAct Theatre Company
2030 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-568-8077
www.interacttheatre.org
www.myspace.com/interacttheatrecompany

---

---

SIGNUP FOR THE NEWSLETTER:

If you would like to be added to my monthly e-mail newsletter, which gives information on readings, book signings, contests, workshops, and other related topics...

To subscribe to the newsletter send an email to:
newsletter@cervenabarvapress.com with "newsletter" or "subscribe" in the subject line.

To unsubscribe from the newsletter send an email to:
unsubscribenewsletter@cervenabarvapress.com with "unsubscribe" in the subject line.

---

Index | Bookstore | Submissions | Newsletter | Interviews | Readings | Workshops | Fundraising | Contact | Links

---

Copyright © 2005-2008  ČERVENÁ BARVA PRESS - All Rights Reserved