JoyFace Studio, NE Minneapolis, October 2014
Night 2015 and New Year's Day 2016, Austin (and January 2015)
Fourteen thousand writers are coming to the city. I assuage my social anxiety by organizing like a stone cold nerd, which sometimes means making lists and looking at the lists. Just in case our paths should cross, here's a list of five places I’ll be reading, writing, curating, or tabling during the AWP conference.
THURSDAY, April 9th 1:30-3:00: Poetry Tarot at the Rain Taxi booth 701 6:00-10:00: TV Party! A Public Access AWP Offsite Event featuring poets from Brooklyn Arts Press, Hanging Loose, Nightboat Books, Penguin Poets, Ping Pong, and Swerve Directions and deltails on the fb invitation: https://www.facebook.com/events/1543411022594152/ FRIDAY, April 10th 5:00-7:30: Gluek's Restaurant & Bar (16 N. 6th Street, Minneapolis) 15 at 5 o'clock!! Offsite AWP reading by poets from Alice James Books, Nightboat Books, and Organic Weapon Arts. Hosted by Mead Magazine. We're offering food and free drinks for the first 40 people to arrive! Readers include: Cathy Linh Che, Jane Mead, Mary Ann McFadden, Phil Metres, Cecily Parks, Kazim Ali, Gracie Leavitt, Paula Cisewski, Stephen Motika, Brandon Som, Michael Bazzett, francine j. harris, Michael Lee, Rachel Mckibbens, Jane Wong 9:00-11:00: Patrick’s Cabaret (3010 Minnehaha Avenue South) Rain Taxi Presents: A Literary Tribute to Grant Hart & Husker Du Join us as writers from near and far gather and pay tribute to Minneapolis-based songwriter Grant Hart and seminal band Hüsker Dü. Writers include John Beer, James Brubaker, Paula Cisewski, Maria Damon, Matthew Derby, Michael Fournier, Tim Horvath, Laurie Lindeen, Daniel Mahoney, Hoa Nguyen, Constance Squires, Justin Taylor, Joel Turnipseed, and maybe a surprise guest or two. Then we’ll have a short conversation with Grant Hart about his most recent album, The Argument — a critically acclaimed concept album based on William S. Burroughs’s treatment of John Milton’s Paradise Lost — and the influence of literature on his music. The evening will conclude with a short set of music by Hart; local brews, snacks, and swag will be on hand throughout for this special, not to be missed event. Details & Tickets: http://www.raintaxi.com/rain-taxi-awp/#friday SATURDAY, April 11th 11:00-1:00: I’ll be at the Nightboat Tables (1026-1028) with all the amazing books AND the amazing Gabriella Klein and her beautiful new book, hoping you’ll come say hello. On Tuesday, April 7th, at 3:00 p.m., I will be a member of a panel for the Sixth Annual Normandale Writers' Conference called Too Cool For School: How to Tap Into the Twin Cities Literary Community with Stephanie Wilbur Ash, Beth Mayer, Sherrie Fernandez, and Jay Peterson.
Then, on Thursday, April 9th, I'm helping to curate this wonderful, free AWP Offsite event: TV Party! Featuring Brooklyn Arts Press, Hanging Loose Press, Nightboat Books, Penguin Poets, Ping Pong, and Swerve DOORS at 6:00, READING at 7:00 This entire event will be filmed for future airing on MTN! MTN Studios are NEWLY in the Thorp Building at 1620 Central Avenue NE. Do not believe any map that tells you otherwise! www.mtn.org EASY BUS RIDE: take a northbound #10 bus from 2nd Avenue South at the Convention Center to Central Avenue NE & 18th. Featuring brief readings by: 7:00 Daniel Borzutzky Fred Schmalz reading Jenny Browne John F. Buckley Melissa Buzzeo Jackie Clark 7:30 Julia Cohen Thomas Devaney Joanna Fuhrman Eugene Gloria Caroline Hagood 8:00 Nathan Hoks Paulo Javier Vincent Katz Gabriella Klein Susan Lewis Shelley Marlow 8:30 Dawn Lundy Martin Ted Mathys Rose McLarney Pablo Medina Sharon Mesmer Joe Pan 9:00 Joanna Penn Cooper Martin Rock Broc Rossell Lauren Russell John Sakkis 9:30 Erika Jo Brown William Stobb Orlando White Robert Wrigley Keith Taylor REFRESHMENTS Drinks and snacks available at the event! Diamond's Coffee, in the adjoining building, offers coffee, wine, beer, tea, and small foods. Good restaurants with full bars three short blocks north: Maya Cuisine: https://www.facebook.com/MayaCuisine The Mill NE: http://themillnortheast.com/ Join Mizna at local independent bookstore, Magers and Quinn to celebrate the two newest issues of our literary journal. Readings from local authors, and a special group reading of "#civilpoem," a community response to the firing of Professor Steven Salaita by University of Illinois for his so-called "uncivil" Tweets.
Readings are from two issues of Mizna: Prose, Poetry, and Art Exploring Arab America. Volume 15, Issue 1--"Eating the Other," focusing on the politics of food; and Volume 15, Issue 2--a selection of proceedings from the recent RAWI + Mizna literary conference, held at Open Book in September 2014. "Mizna is an organization devoted to promoting Arab-American culture, providing a forum for its expr...ession. We value diversity in our community and are committed to giving voice to Arab Americans through literature and art." Live readings, food, and drink. Catering generously donated by Zakia Deli --- This event is free and open to the public. Six months? Maybe time for a post. Here are two journals and an anthology in which I have recently felt giddy about seeing some of my new work included: 1. CONDUIT #25: Failing Famously 2. Water-Stone Review's Issue #17 3. Privacy Policy: The Anthology of Surveillance Poetics Please support these gorgeous publications!   Here is the link to JoyFace's May newsletter, with information on our Solar Arts Building Art-a-Whirl studio featured artists and the amazing poets scheduled throughout the weekend in our Poetry Fort! Plus, info on registering for May's writing workshop offerings and our sincere gratitude.
Thursday, May 1st
7:00 P.M. Solar Arts Building, second floor common area Space, the human heart, or is the idea of a final frontier a myth in itself? Join local writers perform creative work that will shed light on the subject. Featuring SEE MORE PERSPECTIVE Alison Morse Paula Cisewski Chris Title Lynne Kuechle Peter Stein Paige Riehl SEE MORE PERSPECTIVE has been described as a “Chicago Institution”, “Walking creativity”, “The hardest working, most unjustly slept on artist in the Twin Cities”, and “Everything I love about hip hop”…This award winning hip hopper is a Twin Cities Native, Chicago transplant, MC, Poet, Producer, Engineer, Visual Artist, Actor, Educator, Thinker, Lover and one hell of a cook. He is a recipient of the 2012/13 VERVE Grant from Intermedia Arts which he’s used to create an exciting new album of spoken word poetry called ‘The Cosmos According to Your Closed Eyes’. He was also a semi-finalist in the “Forever Saint Paul Challenge for teh Million Dollar Idea to Make Saint Paul Great”. Alison Morse Alison’s poems and stories have been published in the Water~Stone Review, Natural Bridge, Rhino, Opium Magazine, and mnartists.org, among other places; and her work won a Tiferet Fiction Award in 2012. From 2011-13, she was a writer for the Women Peacemakers Program at the Joan Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice in San Diego. She also teaches English and runs TalkingImageConnection, a reading series where poets and prose writers respond to visual art in Twin Cities galleries. The next TIC reading, on April 19th, will be at the Soap Factory. She loves the smell of coffee and the energetic community-building of Cracked Walnut. Christopher Title lives and teaches in the Twin Cities area where he also produces Barbaric Yawp, a monthly open mic reading series (barbaric.weebly.com). His work has appeared in Rock Paper Scissors, Asphalt Sky, Konundrum Engine Literary Review, Cartier Street Review, and Sleet Magazine. Lynne Maker Kuechle is a fiscal year 2013 recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature; and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Maker Kuechle was a 2011-2012 creative nonfiction winner in the Mentor Series at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. She is at work on a memoir/series of essays about her lifelong fascination with figure skating. Paula Cisewski’s Paula’s second poetry collection, Ghost Fargo, was selected by Franz Wright for the Nightboat Poetry Prize. She is also the author of Upon Arrival (Black Ocean), of the chapbooks How Birds Work and Two Museums, and the co-author, with Mathias Svalina, of Or Else What Asked the Flame. Her poems appear regularly in literary magazines such as South Dakota Review, A Handsome Journal; H_NGM_N; Forklift, OH; failbetter; Everyday Genius; We Are So Happy to Know Something; BOMB; and REVOLUTIONesque. Peter William Stein is a native Minnesotan and a father of four sons. His poems have been published in Edge Magazine, Kerouac’s Dog Magazine, the Planet Formerly Known as Earth, and has participated in various reading series in the Minneapolis area. His writing is influenced by his studies in philosphy. His first full length collection of poetry entitled Auto-Bio and other works are available on his website www.pwilliamstein.com. Paige Riehl Paige’s poetry chapbook titled Blood Ties is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in summer 2014. Her poetry has also been published in many publications such as Meridian, Potomac Review, South Dakota Review, and Nimrod International Journal. Poets Jude Nutter and Oliver de la Paz selected her as a winner of the 2012-2013 Loft Mentor Series in Poetry in Minneapolis. She won first place in the 2011 Literal Latte Prize for Poetry and also was a semi-finalist for the 2011 Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry. This is a reading for the CW festival 2014, 25 readings on an almost daily basis in a different space with a different cast of voices, featuring storytellers, poets, slam poets, Creative Non Fiction writers and even the odd musician Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1468498133364247/ How nice of Sarah Fox to have tagged me in this kind of question chain game.
What is the working title of the book? My last book, Ghost Fargo, came out a couple years ago. Since then, I’ve been working on three main projects; the most finished thing, the thing that’s just recently starting to see others’ eyes, is this project which is now called The Threatened Everything. Where did the idea come from for the book? Every poem seems to be oeneric and/or ekphrastic. I became a single mother to my son at an age when many people are giddy to drink in bars with their own IDs. When he recently became an adult, my sense of identity fractured. Myths and dreams and art helped, so I wrote from them. What genre does your book fall under? Poetry. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition? Each of the sections is a different manifestation of a self and should be a connected short. 1. In the opening poem, Kimsooja would play herself, and Christopher Walken would play Martin Heidegger. I’d do my best to support them by playing the minor character of myself. And the baby spiders. 2. I’d like Isabella Rosellini to be the lead in Because of the Curses. With her glass beer stein legs from Guy Maddin’s movie The Saddest Music in the World. I’ll be the gaffer. 3. In Empty Next Syndrome, twin broken mothers Nancy Botwin (Mary Louise Parker’s character on Weeds) and Mother Theresa work it out! I’ll do their stunts. 4. River Sonnets: Shirley MacLaine, but she’s not acting. I’ll be craft services. 5. Field Guide for Austerity and Surroundings: Brit Marling from Another Earth. 6. The voices of Baubo and Ame-no-Uzume, two goddesses of laughter, dictated The Laughing Club. They’re fierce and riotous and raunchy, and should be summoned to play themselves. The characters from all the other sections make cameos. I’ll be the props mistress. Fun! I did NOT expect to spend the most time on this response! What is the one sentence synopsis of your book? Burst forth with me/ in this narrow vista/ of the threatened everything. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript? 3 years? 5 years? 23 years? I’m not sure. I’m a ruminator. Who or what inspired you to write this book? My son. Jack Walsh. The shitty warmongers. Kimsooja. Alison Morse. Nightmares. Blessings. Osama bid Laden. My physical person. 100 Thousand Poets for Change. Forests. Texting deaths. Laughter. Incomprehensible freedom. Searching for a solid reason to keep living. Enormous love. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? What piques the interest of others is almost never what I expect! Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? What a mystery! Now, it's my turn to tag five people!There's a good chance you've already been tagged. Let me know! John Colburn Brenda Iijima Paige Ackerson-Kiely William Waltz Rauan Klassnik |
About this:It's my second attempt at blogging; my first was here. And the blog archive for one of my former reading series, the Imaginary Press Reading Series, is here. Archives
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