Dear Denver,

Hi Friends,

This is to invite you to Mathias Svalina's book release party coupled with a Bad Shadow Affair reading THIS Saturday, featuring Maureen Owen, Steven Karl, and J. Mae Barizo, and Mathias Svalina. We'd love love love to see you there. Love.

Here is the info:
Saturday August 13th
730pm
Lost Lake Lounge | 3602 East Colfax | Denver, Colorado

Bios:
Maureen Owen (born July 6, 1943 in Graceville, Minnesota ) is an American poet, editor, and biographer. She has served as the Program Coordinator and Acting Director of the Poetry Project at St Mark's-in-the-Bowery, New York City, where she has also taught workshops in writing and magazine production. She has published many books including American Rush: Selected Poems, AE [Amelia Earhart], Hearts in Space, Imaginary Income and Zombie Notes.

Born in Toronto, J. Mae Barizo was shortlisted for Canada's 2008 Robert Kroetsch award for Innovative Poetry and Ahsahta Press's Sawtooth Poetry Prize. She has received an International Publication Award from Atlanta Review, and was an Editor's Prize finalist for Spoon River Poetry Review. As a prize winner in the William Stafford Award, she was published in Rosebud. Her work has also appeared in Baltimore Review, Boxcar Poetry Review, Sink Review, Atlanta Review, among others. She has work forthcoming in Prairie Schooner and Bellingham Review. She is the author of
two chapbooks, "The Concert Review" and "The Marble Palace."


Mathias Svalina is a co-editor of Octopus Books and Octopus Magazine. He is the author of Destruction Myth and the newly released I Am A Very Productive Entrepreneur.

Steven Karl is the author of the chapbooks, emissions/ of (H_NGM_N, 2011), (Ir)Rational Animals (Flying Guillotine Press, 2010) and State(s) of Flux w/ Joseph Lappie (Peptic Robot Press, 2009). He has poems in or forthcoming from EOAGH, With +Stand, pax americana, Taiga, Jellyfish and collaborative poems with Angela Veronica Wong in Super Arrow. In one way or another, he is involved with Sink Review, Cold Front Magazine, Borough Writing Workshops and Stain of Poetry. He sometimes blogs at stevenkarl.blogspot.com.

Sawako, J.Mae, Rob, & Chris Enter A Room & Awe Begans

I had an idea, probably three years or so ago when I curated the Teachers & Writers reading series to have Sawako as a reader. She was never able to make it from the West Coast to NYC. Emails, postal mail, & friendship continued. Last year she was going to be at AWP, but again the traveling, the distance, proved not so. So when I found out she would be in New York briefly (2-3 days) I immediately set about to schedule a reading. I also wanted J.Mae Barizo & Chris Martin to read with Sawako. Mae & her husband generously offered the use of their beautiful apartment which made the reading much more intimate and cozy-- it also helped with the little ones (Marina & Ada) as bars tend to not be the most baby-friendly.

Chris Martin read first, delighting us with new poems which he referred to as "hymns." He finished off his reading with an acapella rap. Yep, dope.

J.Mae Barizo read her poems to the accompaniment of musician Rob Moose's( Anthony & the Johnsons) guitar. The music & poems fit perfectly & everyone seemed transfixed including Anne Carson- who was kind enough to stop by & support poetry & music & her fellow Canadian (J.Mae).

Sawako Nakayasu closed out the evening. It was my intention to get her set-list for Coldfront but in my awe & consumption of wine, this did not happen. She read two titles then would ask the audience which they wanted to hear. The first group of poems were "ant" poems. She said they were old poems, but for most us they were "new" poems. She followed this up by reading a few translations from Time of Sky // Castles in the Air by Ayane Kawata (which Sawako translated).
Sawako closed her set out by reading from the immensely popular book, Texture Notes, if you haven't read this book, definitely do!

Then after the readings people mingled, ate bread & cheese, & drank wine. It was a great night & we were all lucky to hear Sawako, J.Mae, Rob, & Chris.

Special thanks to J.Mae, Wolfram, & Lila without whom the reading would not have happened.

Photos from the Eleven Eleven Reading

Your Tuesday & Wednesday, Thankyou

d.a. levy lives. Tues., July 27, 6:00 p.m. sharp, free.
ACA Galleries: 529 W. 20th St., 5th Flr. NYC.
Featuring:
J. Mae Barizo,
Suzanne Gardinier,
me
Amy King
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
In NYC? Join LIT Magazine and powerHouse books for an evening of literary refreshment, complete with a fine selection of readings from our LIT 18 contributors, and peruse the shelves of one of New York’s finest art & photography publishers. With readings by Eduardo Jiménez Mayo reading on behalf of Rafael Pérez Gay, Traci O Connor, Mike Young, and Nate Pritts. Wednesday, July 28, 6:30-8:30 pm. powerHouse Arena, 37 Main Street (corner of Water & Main St.) DUMBO, Brooklyn. For more information, please call 718.666.3049.

Who Wants Pie?

I have to say, I definitely needed these last few days off. I caught up on grading & read A LOT of Dostoevsky's Demons, which I'm teaching over at CSI.

In addition to Dostoevsky, I read Farrah Field's Rising, which I'll blog on more later, but it is definitely a damn impressive book. I'm left smitten.

On Thursday, my friend Czar Hohl was sick so instead of heading to Harlem for Thanksgiving I went over to Hong-An's in Williamsburg. Her & her bf prepared the best vegetarian/vegan feast I've ever tasted.

Upon leaving it was still a nice evening so myself, Deep Disco, Sandy & her bf, Francis, decided to walk over the Williamsburg bridge. 'twas nice.

Friday, I met up with Veronica for a minute to sample her sweet potato pie & pick up a copy of her chapbook( All The Little Red Girls), which I blogged about a few days ago.

Pie & poetry are/were both stupendous.

Saturday Lila came back from upstate & we went over Czar's for a post-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving. More food. More drink. More wit. More fun.

Sunday Lila & I were lucky enough to catch the wonderful poet, J.Mae Barizo, doing her day job, which is a violinist at Carnegie Hall. It was a 2'oclock show so we arrived early & ate bagels in Central Park then met up with J.Mae who gave us a backstage tour. The the performance began & she, along with the rest of the orchestra, were completely enchanting.

Now it's back to Demons.

DoomsDayYouNow!

Doomsday Film Festival & Symposium
Sunday, October 25, 2009
12:30pm - 2:00pm
DCTV
87 Lafayette St. (between Walker & White)
New York, NY

• Selections from The Animatrix | Shinichiro Watanabe & Mahiro Maeda, U.S., 2003 (feat. The Second Renaissance Parts 1 & 2, A Detective Story, Kid's Story)

Panelists:
• Bob Fingerman, author and comic artist
• Hilary Florido, comic artist
• Matt Hawkins, journalist
• Justin Taylor, author
• John Joseph Adams, editor of Wastelands, The Living Dead and Seeds of Change
• Jonathan Maberry, author of Patient Zero, They Bite and Doomwar

Readers:
• Jeremy Schmall, poet
• Sommer Browning, poet
• Emily Brandt, poet
• Alex Cuff, poet
• Martin Rock, poet

Limited Edition copies of The Apocalypse Anthology of Poetry edited by Sommer Browning will be available for sale from Flying Guillotine Press.


About the festival:
The 2009 Doomsday Film Festival explores our collective obsession with the Apocalypse in film, art, and culture.

From raptures, plagues, meteorites, nuclear holocausts, aliens, zombie attacks, ecological catastrophe, and cybernetic revolt to the 2012 doomsday predictions, the Festival will touch upon all possible permutations of our collective demise.

We'll be screening films from across the board, with works ranging from premieres to established classics to rediscovered gems. On the schedule for the 2009 Festival are nuclear fallout cartoons, early '60s atomic parables, '80s zombie punk, award-winning independent shorts, and much more.

The event will incorporate a panel-based symposium featuring authors, artists, and all manner of experts on the End of Days. We plan to tackle the Apocalypse in all its forms, and hope you'll join us for the ride!

http://www.doomsdayfilmfest.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A Canadian Invasion!

Nick Thran (Insomniac Press)
J. Mae Barizo (Fields Press)
Moez Surani (Wolsak & Wynn)


8PM, Oct. 26
Unnameable Books
Neighborhood: Prospect Heights
600 Vanderbilt Ave
(between Dean St & St Marks Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11238
(718) 789-1534


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Join us for a wonderful reading by Myung Mi Kim (author of Penury, Commons, DURA, The Bounty, and Under Flag), Jena Osman (author of Essay In Asterisks and The Character) and Tony Tost (author of Complex Sleep and Invisible Bride). We are also celebrating the publication of Myung Mi Kim's new book, Penury.



MONDAY, OCT 26, 2009 7:00 PM
Triptych Readings
(pairing established and emerging writers)

MYUNG MI KIM
JENA OSMAN
TONY TOST

11th Street Bar

510 East 11th Street (between Avenues A & B)
Closest subway stop is the L at 1st Ave.
other close stops include L at 3rd Ave and Union Square (N, R, W, Q, 4, 5, 6).

Admission is FREE.

Visit our website for poems, more about our readers,
and upcoming readings: www.triptychreading.com

Bio for the readers:

Myung Mi Kim is Professor of English and a core faculty member of the Poetics Program at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is the author of Penury, Commons, DURA, The Bounty, and Under Flag. Kim was awarded The Multicultural Publisher's Exchange Award of Merit for Under Flag. She also received a fellowship at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, awards from the Fund for Poetry, a Daesan Foundation Translation Grant, and the State University of New York Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity. The anthologies in which her work has appeared include American Poets in the 21st century: The New American Poetics, Moving Borders: Three Decades of Innovative Writing by Women, Premonitions: Kaya Anthology of New Asian North American Poetry, Making More Waves: New Writing by Asian American Women.

Jena Osman's books of poetry include The Character, An Essay in Asterisks, and the forthcoming The Network (winner of the 2009 National Poetry Series). An excerpt from "Public Figures," her continuing project on statuary in Philadelphia, can be found in the online journal HOW2 (vol. 3, issue 1). She co-edits the ChainLinks book series with Juliana Spahr and teaches in the Creative Writing program at Temple University.

Tony Tost is the author of Complex Sleep (Iowa 2007), World Jelly (Effing 2005) and Invisible Bride (LSU 2004). He is currently writing a book on Johnny Cash's first American Recordings album for Continuum's 33 1/3 series of books on classic record albums, and is also completing a new poetry manuscript called Consequence. Poems and prose have recently appeared in Hambone, Open Letter, Mandorla, Talisman, American Literature, Colorado Review and Effing Magazine, and are forthcoming in Cannibal, Ping Pong and The Yale Anthology of Younger Poets. He lives with Leigh and Simon in Durham, NC, where he is a doctoral candidate in the Department of English at Duke University.

Saturday Where It's At

France/London/Brooklyn-- Words Everywhere

Cerise Press, an online journal based in the United States and France, builds cross-cultural bridges by featuring artists and writers in English and translations, with an emphasis on French and Francophone works. Co-founded by Fiona Sze-Lorrain, Sally Molini, and Karen Rigby in 2009, Cerise Press hopes to serve as a gathering force where imagination, insight, and conversation express the evolving and shifting forms of human experience. Check out the first issue here
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Issue 13 of London's OneEdit is up and it features Emily Critchley's "Homage to Cathy Wagner.

Also if you haven't checked out OneEdit before be sure to read some of the super-smart reviews here
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
How about some b-sides with a nice mix of my fave poets Steinberg and Barizo? Check out the flip side to At-Large Magazine's A-side here. Oh, and this At-Large officially crushes the streak of Steinberg & I being published in tandem. I guess nothing last forever.

A Week In WhatHaveYous

I have micro-reviews of J.Mae Barizo and Sam Starkweather's chapbooks here.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There are new reviews up on TPS
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jackie Clark reviews Justin Marks here
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CHRISTIANE CELLE and CLIC GALLERY
present a reading of new work by


MAX BLAGG

In conjunction with the exhibition and newly published catalog "Jeannie Weissglass, New Paintings"


Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 7 pm
Clic Gallery, 255 Centre Street
RSVP to info@clicgallery.com




Max Blagg was born in England and has lived in NYC since 1971. Long recognized as an influential performer and highly respected writer on the New York literary scene, his work has appeared in numerous magazines, including Bomb, Shiny, Interview, Village Voice, Night, Verbal Abuse, Bald Ego, and Open City.

Max was recently a co-editor of the legendary arts and literary magazine, Bald Ego, with Glenn O'Brien.

He is on the visiting faculty of both the New School and SVA in New York City.

His most recent publications include “Don’t Look Back” a collaboration with Jack Pierson, “Marine - Ten Poems” catalog text for Alex Katz, “Things A Man Should Know”, with illustrations by Hugo Guinness.

An autobiographical book of stories, Ticket Out, is forthcoming.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
yardmeter editions presents: poets Brenda Iijima & Daniel Lin,
multimedia artist Craig Foltz & jeweler/sculptor Kristin D'Agostino.

yardmeter editions is an events series that brings together artists,
writers, playwrights & other creative types in an informal setting in
the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY.

:: Friday, June 19, 2009: 7:30pm
:: location: yardmeter studio
:: 267 douglass st, brooklyn, ny

Brenda Iijima's forthcoming works include revv. you'll--ution
(Displaced Press) & If Not Metamorphic (Ahsahta Press). She writes
about animal-ability. Present work deals with animals used as
surrogates by humans (other animals). She runs Portable Press at Yo-Yo
Labs & lives in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.

Kristin D'Agostino is the side-project-queen of
participatory/dialogic/littoral/interventionist jewelery in New
Zealand. As she sees it jewelery is about relationships, so why stop
at the object? Why not make a relationship for her objects to live
within? She is actively recruiting North American participants for her
first bi-hemisphere, co-owned, brooch project called Rare Fungal
Behaviour & would very much like to see brooches popping up, like
ghosts, around the five Burroughs. You can find more information here
www.rarefungalbehaviour.blogspot.com.

Craig Foltz is a writer and multi-media artist who lives on the slopes
of a dormant volcano in Auckland, New Zealand. This one is not a test.
If I understand the meaning of the word correctly. He is the author of
The States, from Ugly Duckling Presse, & you can see his work at
www.craigfoltz.com.

Daniel Lin has a chapbook, Tinder, from Nightboat Books, & has
recently published poems in Unsplendid, Notre Dame Review & The Jewish
Quarterly. He was a N.Y. Times Fellow at NYU & a Tennessee Williams
Scholar at Sewanee Writers’ Conference. He co-edits Love among the
Ruins, which will publish limited-edition chapbooks & an online
journal.

:: directions
from Union St (R / M trains): walk north three blocks on 4th Ave &
turn left on Douglass
from Atlantic / Pacific: walk south on 4th Ave for seven blocks & turn
right on Douglass

:: http://www.yardmeter.blogspot.comm

A Chapbook & A Reading

http://scantilycladpress.blogspot.com

Basil King

Wow, this has felt like a long semester & since it's coming to a close, I've been spending my time grading papers & sleeping badly. Such as it is; such as it goes. So far I only have two classes for the summer so the hustle continues.

On Friday after teaching at College of Staten Island I headed over to Williamsburg to catch J.Mae Barizo's reading. Good stuff. Then I went to a going away party which also included readings by Amy Lawless & Alex Smith. Although I didn't stay out too late I still felt tired for all of Saturday. I managed to make it to the Whitney ISP, then have vegetable dumplings with friends, then head over to a belated bday party for Rich. After that I took the train over to Prospect Heights.

This morning I had a banana peanut-butter sandwich for the first time. I also had some mango. & a dark chocolate bar with mint and rosemary essence. I wandered through Chinatown & bought basil, brown beech mushrooms, garlic, an onion, & tomatoes. Tonight I'll make a pasta with cream sauce using the bought ingredients + a little bit of lemon rind. Or so I think. I actually don't feel like doing dishes. Or cooking. & then doing more dishes. Right now I'm eating salted plantain chips & trying to put off cooking until at least 9.

Mae for May

EARSHOT!

Friday, May 8th @ 8 PM
@ Rose Live Music
Hosted by Nicole Steinberg
$5 + one free drink

Featuring:

Laura Sims (Stranger, Practice, Restraint)
J. Mae Barizo (The Concert Review, The Marble Palace)
Lee Taylor Gaffigan (The New School)
Peter Moysaenko (New York University)
Kaitlyn Greenidge (Hunter College)

Rose Live Music is located at 345 Grand Street in Brooklyn, between Havemeyer and Marcy. Visit their website for directions: http://roselivemusic.com.

Frank Bidart, Matthea Harvey, J.Mae Barizo

Featured Poets:	Frank Bidart, Matthea Harvey, J.Mae Barizo
May 27, 2009, 7 p.m. 11th Street Bar, 510 East 11th Street (between Avenues A & B), Manhattan, NY
Join us for an extraordinary event featuring exceptional poetry and classic music. Frank Bidart's recent book, Watching the Spring Festival, is a finalist for Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He will be reading with Matthea Harvey, whose recent book, Modern Life, won the Kinsley Tufts Poetry Prize, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book; and J. Mae Barizo, author of two chapbooks, The Concert Review and The Marble Palace. They will be sharing the stage with the American String Quartet, one of the world's finest quartets, who will be playing works by Webern, Bartok, and Beethoven. (Doors open at 6:30 PM) Frank Bidart is the author of many collections of poems, including In the Western Night: Collected Poems 1965-90 and Desire (1997), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critic's Circle Award. His honors include the Bollingen Prize in American Poetry, Wallace Stevens Award given by the Academy of American Poets, Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Foundation Writer's Award, the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Shelley Award of the Poetry Society of America. Matthea Harvey is the author of Sad Little Breathing Machine (Graywolf, 2004) and Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form (Alice James Books, 2000). Her first children’s book, The Little General and the Giant Snowflake, illustrated by Elizabeth Zechel, is forthcoming from Tin House Books. Matthea is a contributing editor to jubilat, Meatpaper and BOMB. She teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence and lives in Brooklyn. Born in Toronto, J. Mae Barizo was shortlisted for Canada's 2008 Robert Kroetsch award for Innovative Poetry and Ahsahta Press's Sawtooth Poetry Prize. In 2007 she received an International Publication Award from Atlanta Review, and was an Editor's Prize finalist for Spoon River Poetry Review. As a prize winner in the William Stafford Award, she was published in Rosebud. Her work has also appeared in Baltimore Review, Boxcar Poetry Review, Sink Review, Atlanta Review, among others. She has work forthcoming in Prairie Schooner and Bellingham Review.
Sponsored by Triptych Readings and American String Quartet
Info:	(212) 505-FISH kaveh@triptychreading.com http://lepoissonrouge.com/events/view/67

Orr floating in a river without an oar

I've been reading comments about Orr's article on "greatness" since Saturday. Greatness is a difficult one because Orr's idea of what is "great" is different than my idea or your idea of what is "great," however, I think ambition is a bit more palatable. I'm not sure which contemporary poets Orr is reading-- but I can think of a ton of poets that Orr is NOT reading if he thinks that greatness & ambition will pass away with Ashbery.

Y-A-W-N.

Ken Kesey once said that he believes a man should be as big as he has it in him to be. Now let's remove the gendering of that comment and simply say a human should be as big as a human desires to be. I strive for "bigness," yeah I like to get my B.I.G. on-- often times it fails, but the inner-tune remains the same. The biggest problem with Orr's essay is that "greatness" seems to be engendered as "male." While not surprising, it does explain why he thinks greatness will die with Ashbery- we're surrounded with astounding works of "greatness," "ambition," and poems that live large aka "B.I.G." but Orr is not reading any of it-- which is his lost. I suggest he spends less time looking for "greatness" in Barnes & Nobles and supports small presses. Who knows, he just might stumble upon some inspiration.

Here's a list of other bloggers' thoughts:

Amy King
Barbara Jane Reyes
Justin Taylor
J.Mae Barizo
Cooper Renner
John Emil Vincent
Niina Polari
Reb Livingston

I think ultimately that the Orr article is worthy because it has generated some serious dialogue and many poets have taken up the challenge to not let him define us or our ambition.

Children Amassed

A new week already! Last week started out rather busy with a potluck on Tuesday then Thanksgiving on Thursday, but I hardly managed to leave the house on Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday. I had and still have a ton of grading to do as my three classes are winding down.

Sunday, I finally left the apartment to see my friend, J.Mae, play violin at Carnegie Hall. This was the program:

New England Symphonic Ensemble

Stern Auditorium, Sunday, November 30, 2008 at 8:30 PM

Program Details

New England Symphonic Ensemble
John Rutter, Conductor
Alexandra Costin, Piano
With participating choruses

GRIEG	Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16
JOHN RUTTER	Mass of the Children

It was pretty good and I surprised myself by really getting into Mass of the Children. There's something about so many voices joined in chorus.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This week will be busy with work and then towards the end of the week there's the usual engagements of birthdays, dinners, etc. I think the Small Press Fair is in town this weekend? I'll look into it and post a blog later this week with details. I'm sure there are readings happening this week, but for the life of me I can't think where or when they are.

Are You a Dom or Sub or Both?

I recently read Nick Courtright's blog Tier 3 and his thoughts on submissions sent my own mind wandering. I think it's a good post- gets one to think about ego, the role of poems kept or shared, and the intrinsic vs extrinsic nature of writing/creating. The comments are definitely worth checking out as well.

One of the things Courtright touched on was the "act of submission or submitting" and the fact that he feels dread-- you know that feeling like he's doing something wrong. I think this is because of the nature of the word itself. Submission is to put yourself or poems to the will of another in hopes of approval/reward. This is why Subs and Doms consist of a subsection of sexual deviance (deviance here conveys a good thing as the act of deviance is compared to the moralistic right). There are those that have a burning need to be dominated and this domination, in turn, results in pleasure, and there are those who get off on the dominating i.e. control every emotion/physical action/reaction. My assumption is that Courtright prolly doesn't visit or desire to spend much time with Doms and to take it out of the sexual realm-- he prolly doesn't even surround himself with a bunch of bossy, demanding friends which is why he feels such dread when it comes time to submit. He toys with the thought of hoarding all of his poems so that they are discovered and published only after his death ala Dickinson. This, appears to me my friends, as the ultimate form of control- the easiest way to keep him-- which the creative process is a manifestation of. Once he's dead then something greater than life has taken over and his hands are clean.

Yet, like a lot of us, Courtright does submit. He gives in to the unpleasantness of it all and fills out those SASE, folds those poems, writes those cover letters, attaches his document and hits send. Why? Simple because he reads and respects the journals and wants to be included (no matter how painful the process) in the ongoing conversation that each journal puts forth. Most of us not only find an ego-pleasing thrill to see our names in print or on screen, but an even greater thrill when we recognize and respect the company we are included in. Certainly when Sink Review published my poems I was even more excited when I realized that I was included with J. Mae Barizo, CA Conrad, Julia Cohen/ Mathias Svalinas, and Nicole Steinberg (who edits LIT, which is a journal I once read for).

So this leaves me with a few questions:

What if journals came up with another name? Something other than submission? A name not so easily rooted in binaries of Master/Slave context? Would those that dread submitting feel better? (& you have to dread submitting- not getting rejected- there is a huge distinction between the two)

For the poets that also edit journals does this give you a chance of ultimately evening out your Dom/Sub tendencies, therefore keeping a harmonious ying/yang effect?

Should I be doing something better with my Saturday morning like drinking coffee and eating breakfast and having real-life interactions?

Brooklyn Pigs & Manhattan Roofies

I'm not reading at this// this is more of a hangout and paaaarty sorta affair.... I will TRY to make it into BK for this at some point in the evening
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Academy of American Poets Presents:

Poetry From the Rooftops. Join us for our final reading of the summer. Step out of the flow of traffic and hear these three poets "bare their brains to heaven":

Oni Buchanan, Darcie Dennigan, and Abraham Smith
Tuesday, August 5
6:30 p.m.
FREE
Email rsvp@parks.nyc.gov to reserve your free ticket.

Location: Rooftop of The Arsenal Building, Central Park, 64th Street at 5th Avenue.

Rain Venue: In case of rain, readings will be moved inside The Arsenal Building.

Sponsored by the Academy of American Poets, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and Poets & Writers

---

About the Readers:

Oni Buchanan's second poetry collection, Spring, was selected by Mark Doty as a winner of the 2007 National Poetry Series, and is forthcoming from the University of Illinois Press. Her first collection, What Animal, was published by the University of Georgia Press in 2003. Buchanan is an accomplished concert pianist and maintains a private piano studio in Boston.

Darcie Dennigan's first collection, Corinna A-Maying the Apocalypse, was selected by Alice Fulton for the Poets Out Loud Prize published by Fordham University Press in 2008. She is a recipient of the 2007 Discovery /The Nation poetry prize. Dennigan lives in Rhode Island.

Abraham Smith is the author of Whim Man Mammon, recently published by Action Books. A 2004 Writing Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center, he is originally from Ladysmith, Wisconsin.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Apparently they are already saying this is full so if you haven't rsvp'd come at your own risk...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I had a mad fun night with deep disco yesterday & got a super-AWESOME (that capitalization is for David Lehman-peep his poem in Coconut) acceptance letter from No Tell Motel, which is super exciting 'cause it 's one of my regular reads and I was just telling J.Mae that recently I have only gotten rejection letters/emails.

Speaking of J.Mae she'll have poem(s) forthcoming in Prairie Schooner. J.Mae and Veronica Wong workshopped at least two of the poems that I just got accepted. These two poets are LEGIT and speaking of V. super excited/envious that she'll have poems in Denver Quarterly. Big ups to J & V.

Liam Rector reciting Emily Dickinson

http://poetrymattersnow.org/poetry/liam-rector-a-poem-of-letting-go/

Thanks to Poetry Matters Now for posting this & Richard Scheiwe for telling me about this.

Big-eye George says to "read some reviews"

I have two new reviews published on Sink Review. One for a poet on Action Books, the other a poet on Ugly Duckling Presse.

Dan Magers (one of the Sink editors) has a review of Sam Starkweather's chapbook.

Check them out here: Sink Review

Debbie Yee reviewed Dan Mager's chapbook here: {bee + spool}

Zoland has four new poetry in translation reviews here: zolandpoetry.com

Slight Process by Zhang Er here: CutBank

& how about a mini-interview with Sink Review editor, Richard Scheiwe over on [helix]

& They Just Don't Stop

So you already know about the huge reading for tomorrow (Saturday, May 17) but Sunday and Monday have some pretty nice readings going on too!

JOIN US FOR A READING AT PARK SLOPE'S 440 GALLERY!

Kaveh Bassiri, J. Mae Barizo, and Alex Smith

WHEN: Sunday, May 18th from 4:30-6:00 pm

WHERE: 440 Gallery, 440 Sixth Avenue (at 9th St., F to 7th Ave.)

CONTACT: Dan Magers at daniel.magers@gmail.com

Admission Free

Kaveh Bassiri

Kaveh Bassiri was born in Iran and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in his early teens. He has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, where he was the Editor of the 2006 issue of its graduate literary journal, Lumina. He is also the co-curator of the poetry series, Reading Between A and B, in the East Village.

J. Mae Barizo

Born in Toronto, J. Mae Barizo was shortlisted for the 2008 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. In 2007 she received an International Publication Award from Atlanta Review, and was an Editor's Prize finalist for Spoon River Poetry Review. Her work has also appeared or is forthcoming in the Baltimore Review, Sink Review, Nimrod, Atlanta Review, Bellingham Review, Boxcar Poetry Review and the Antietam Review, among others. Her poetry chapbook, "The Concert Review", is forthcoming in 2008.

Alex Smith

Alex Smith was born in Washington, DC. He received his BFA from Pratt Institute and his MFA from the New School. His stories have appeared in Eleven Bulls, Facsimilation, Black Ink Horror and Pig Iron Malt. Recently he completed a novel titled An American Coward. Alex teaches English at John Jay College and lives near Union Square.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond

This event is scheduled for Monday, May 19th - 7:00 PM

With editor Ravi Shankar
And poets Sarah Gambito, Timothy Liu, and Vijay Seshadri
In a time when so much of the American understanding of Asia and the Middle East is rooted in politics, we need a broader knowledge of the artistic offerings of the region. In Language for a New Century, editors Tina Chang, Nathalie Handal and Ravi Shankar have assembled an exhaustive selection of poems from fifty-nine different countries and territories in this vast and often nebulous region, grouped thematically rather than geographically for a varied, rich and experiential portrait of the so often over-simplified East. Join poets Timothy Liu, Sarah Gambito and Vijay Seshadri along with editor Ravi Shankar for a reading and a discussion on the proliferation of poetics and limitations of identity politics around the world.

McNally Robinson, 52 Prince Street

Big Up Big City

March 19, 2008, 6 p.m.
BigCityLit Poets
The Cornelia Street Café
29 Cornelia Streetb/t Bleecker & West 4th)New York, NY
Cover $7 (includes one house drink)

Featuring poets from the current issue: J. Mae Barizo, Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Margo Berdeshevsky, Patricia Brody,Marion Brown, Chelsea Bunn, Robert Dunn, Allen C. Fischer, Nancy Haiduck, Victoria Hallerman, Elena Kondracki, Donald Lev,Stephen Massimilla, Susan Maurer, D. H. Melhem, Philip Miller, Lynn Patmalnee, Ron Price, Larissa Shmailo, Joanna Solfrian, Meredith Trede, Barry Wallenstein and Alison Woods.