Archive for the ‘Readings’ Category

Anyone in the Southern California area should go here on June 17th (wednesday)

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

La Mesa, California, in Grossmont Center’s Barnes and Noble at 7:30 for the “Third Wednesdays” poetry reading on 6/17/09 featuring Steve Kowit (Author of the wonderful writing ‘textbook’ “In the Palm of Your Hand” as well as great books of poetry and prose) and Terry Hertzler (publisher of Caernarvon Press and a great poet, and though I haven’t read any of his prose yet I’m sure its also very good). They’re both really great poets, and there’s an open mic afterward too for more local flavor. I just may have to clear my throat a few times and try reading again. Anyway, go to this reading if you’re anywhere in the area at all. If you’re in a poetry reading or writing class you can probably even talk your teacher into giving you some extra credit for going and writing a little essay about it.

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A little reminder of amazing online resources for writers

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

Contest deadlines:

Poets and Writers
New Pages

Literary Magazines to browse for submissions:

Duotrope
New Pages

MFA research:

The Speakeasy forum (Poets and Writers’ website)
The MFA Blog (Tom Kealy’s)
Suburban Ecstacies (Seth Abramson’s)

Audio poetry:

Poets.org

There are tons, and tons of great online resources for writers of all kinds. You just gotta sift through a lot of “writing is emotion and therefore perfect just as it is” types of people, but there are definitely a lot of great sites out there. This post was mostly for the publishing minded, but tons of poets now have blogs, some poetic, others more like a public diary.

For your enjoyment: “Birthday” by Henri Cole (for your ears)

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

Here is an audio recording of Herni Cole reading his poem “Birthday” from a couple years ago. I liked it best when I listened to it with my eyes closed. The last image… no spoilers for that minute or so, and you know what, I’m not even posting the poem. No cheating. Even subconsciously, meandering eyes scanning ahead without you even realizing. Listen to the words in the exact order they were intended. Ch, ch-ch-ch, check it out.

For your enjoyment: Jennifer L Knox reading from her books Drunk by Noon and A Gringo Like Me

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

This reading took place at Florida State University, and is quite entertaining. I just reread her poem “The Laws of Probability in Levittown” again, in the Blue Billy Collins (2006) Best American Poetry. Check, check, check, a check it out.

For your enjoyment: An audio sample from Mark Vonnegut’s intro to “Armageddon in Retrospect”

Sunday, May 4th, 2008

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and his famous signature

Click here now. (audio file)

Kurt Vonnegut is sort of a religion to me, and if I didn’t have so much school to blame it on, I could very likely commit Hari Kari for not knowing about Armageddon in Retrospect, a collection of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s new and uncollected writings. Mark relates a few anecdotes from his introduction the posthumous book. Never has an egg metaphor been so sad. Learn a little bit about American literature, listen to this excerpt. Then buy his books and read them all (but don’t start with Galapagos. You need to work your way up to that tremendous, but very odd novel). I’m a huge fan of Bluebeard, Player Piano, and Cat’s Cradle, and Siren’s of Titan too, but I’d say read one of the other three I mentioned first. Plus, if you don’t care which edition you get, pretty much all of the books I listed can be found for about $1. So spend the ten dollars that would use to buy a burger (without tip) at Chili’s, and get three books that will make you laugh a minimum of ten times, as well as have interesting and imaginative plots. Do it. Go Vonnegut.

A reading of The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams.

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

Here is the poem.

The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams

so much dependsThe Red Wheelbarrow: So much depends upon it.
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

——

OK, I’ll break this down via form, and meaning. Not to say this is what was intended by Mr. Williams, but this is how I’m looking it, so take it as you will.

——

Form: Syllabically the poem is structured, line by line: 4/2 - 3/2 - 3/2 - 4/2. That’s only 22 syllables total. Remember that. The middle two stanzas break a compound word at the line break, without a hyphen. Very short poem, very tightly structured.

——

Meaning: OK, it’s imagistic. It’s minimalistic. The last three stanzas set the scene. We see the red wheelbarrow, that it is out in the rain, and that there are chickens. So much depends upon the words “So much depends / upon” in this poem. You can bring literary theory about the symbolism of rain, or color theory with the red, but in my mind those are less important. The first stanza, that’s another story. Why would so much depend upon a wheelbarrow? What do we know about, well, anything, in the universe of this poem, but what do we know of the location, the world? We know there are chickens and a wheelbarrow. Where would you find those two things? A farm is my guess. Why would so much depend on the wheelbarrow? What is a wheelbarrow to a farmer? A necessity. A farmer needs a wheelbarrow to complete his tasks, maintain his livelihood, his very life. Thus, so much depends upon a red wheelbarrow glazed with rainwater beside the white chickens.

(artwork by Ann Altman)

T.C.Boyle reads, for your enjoyment, “Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

This audio clip is from The New Yorker, yes, the Atlantic, I mean, New Yorker. *Giggle* OK, enough foolishness. This is a cool little podcast, TC Boyle answers a couple questions, then reads the great short story. Not sure why, but since I re-read the story again a couple years back, I can’t help but picture Anders as the film critic Mr. Farber from Lady in the Water. Enjoy.