Take a Moment & read This Poem

Kaveh Bassiri's poem, "How to Build a Bomb," has been published in VQR. It's one of my favorite poems. Take a minute & read it here.

Winter Mix

New York City finally got hit with all the snow the rest of the East Coast has been dealing with. I had to teach my Eng 101 course today but then the school closed for its afternoon classes, so after I had two student conferences I headed home to enjoy a grilled cheese and some coffee.

The weather is the perfect complement to the new Winter 2009/2010 issue of Free Verse which contains a special spotlight on New England poets edited by Chris Tonelli. I'm thrilled to say I have two excerpts from a couple of longer poems. I'm also happy to be in the company of two of my manuscript workshoppers- Dan Magers & Kaveh Bassiri & the my other "crew" ColdFront Mag is well represented too with poems by John Deming, Jackie Clark and DJ Dolack. There's a ton of other great poets and essays to be read as well so head on over and check it out here.

Saturday Where It's At

Real Poetik Update

Sampson Starkweather has poems up on Real Poetik & there has been a changing of editors so get your submissions ready.
Dear readers,

Happy summer. I'd like to share some news with you: I'm delighted to announce that two new editors, the wonderful poets Lily Brown & Claire Becker, yes: Claire Becker & Lily Brown, will now conduct your weekly encounters with RealPoetik. It's been an honor sending poems your way for three years (some of them yours!), & reading your comments and submissions. I send hugs and take a bow. I hope you'll keep in touch: write to me at anabobo@gmail.com, visit me at www.nightcommute.org, and look for my book due out from Tarpaulin Sky Press in the fall. I'll be reading on with you, so let's see what Lily & Claire have in store for us:

[exit Ana Bozicevic]
[enter Lily Brown & Claire Becker]:

We're excited to be taking over editorial duties at RealPoetik and look forward to building on the work Ana and previous editors have done. The poems published as emails in RealPoetik are able to go virtually anywhere--read on your phone on the train, aloud to your dog, on a braille display; or printed out and scribbled on; deleted; or replied to. Through email and the RealPoetik blog, we will bring you poems straight from the physical world, where real-live poetry communities won’t be superseded anytime soon. We're dedicated to publishing poems that are engaging, challenging, and aesthetically diverse. We look forward to this new endeavor and would love to hear from you at any time!

Lily & Claire

About the Editors:

Lily Brown holds an MFA from Saint Mary's College of California. Her first book, Rust or Go Missing, is forthcoming from Cleveland State University Poetry Center. She lives in Chicago and in Athens, where she is a Ph.D. student at The University of Georgia.

Claire Becker lives in Oakland and teaches high school at the California School for the Blind. She is the author of the chapbooks Untoward, from Lame House Press, and Get You, from Duration Press. She holds an MFA from Saint Mary's College of California and an Education Specialist Instruction Credential from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

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RealPoetik
realpoetik.blogspot.com
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If you can make it tomorrow be sure to catch Kaveh's reading. His poems are beautiful and he's a great reader!
Bryant Park Reading Room

Tuesday, July 14
7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Kaveh Bassiri
Patrick S. Donnelly
Richard Tayson

11 W. 42nd St.
(behind the New York Public Library
between 40th and 42nd Streets & Fifth and Sixth)

Special Solidarity Reading

from Kaveh Bassiri

Dear Triptych Readings friends,

Some of you may know that I'm Literary Arts Director of the Persian Arts Festival, which has a Shab-e She’r, Persian Poetry Night, at Bowery Poetry Club. In solidarity with the struggle for democracy in Iran, the Persian Arts Festival, the Association of Iranian American Writers, ArteEast, and The Translation Project are hosting a gathering of writers to bear witness to the courage and aspirations of millions of Iranians and to condemn the repression against peaceful protestors. We have many wonderful readers, such as Cornelius Eady, Luis Francia, D. Nurkse, and Eleanor Wilner, along with Iranian-American writers Amir Parsa, Roger Sedarat, Dalia Sofer, and Said Sayrafiezadeh. They will be reading from Iranian resistance literature, classical to modern, to poems about the current events. The evening will also include live musical performances and will be streamed on the Bowery Poetry Club’s site (www.bowerypoetry.com). We hope you can join us and share in our support for this historic struggle.



Literature of Resistance:
An Afternoon in Solidarity with the Iranian People

Saturday, July 11, 2009
2:00-5:00 PM
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery (btwn Houston & Bleecker)