Archive for September, 2009

Two distinguished poets, Anne Waldman and Jan Beatty, have appeared in consecutive weeks at the University of Nebraska as part of the 2009 Reynolds Series of Writers.

Waldman kicked off the Reynolds season on September 9th with a resounding performance of many of her well-known pieces, mixing in some new, yet-to-be published work, all with her trademark libretto style and full-stage theatrics.

Waldman concluded the reading with the title piece from her collection Manatee/Humanity, complete with ambient soundtrack accompaniment. In front of a capacity crowd in the UNK Studio Theatre, Waldman discussed Naropa, her work, her career and the time she spent with Allen Ginsberg.

Asked by an audience member about the mix of creative imagery and American historical events in her poetry, Waldman reflected, “I go to poetry for a sense of history. Poetry reflects the times.”

Pittsburgh poet and radio host Jan Beatty visited on September 16th and was no less riveting with readings of many of the urban-flavored poems from her latest book, Red Sugar. Following the reading, Beatty discussed many of her own philosophies on writing, as well as the hard-edged reputation much of her work has earned.

“The last thing you want in a poem is shock value,” she said. “You have to earn your way, and the words have to earn their way. There has to be a reason for them to be on the page.”

Allison Hedge-Coke, author of Blood Run, Off-Season City Pipe, and Dog Road Woman, among many other works, is the Reynolds Chair of Poetry at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and the architect of the reading series, which will welcome Sam Hamill to campus on October 6th.

–Rick Marlatt

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Issue Four of Saltgrass has been published and can be purchased at the Saltgrass Web site for $5. The site features sample poems, and the issue features work by Laura Solomon, G.C. Waldrep, Cecily Iddings, Anne Boyer, Ben Mirov, Ish Klein, Claire Hero, Hugh Merwin, Jason Bredle, Karla Kelsey, Lisa Ciccarello, Danielle Pafunda, Brett Price, Genya Turovskaya, Maureen Thorson and Ron Rash.

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All-everything Irish poet Seamus Heaney and All-reverb U2 guitarist The Edge are among many who are attempting to persuade the Irish government to reverse a 2008 decision to reject a new European Union governing agreement, reports Bloomberg.

The Lisbon Treaty, which will be revisited Oct. 2, would give the European Parliament greater say in policymaking, according to Bloomberg. And Irish Times poll published last week suggests that supporters of the treaty lead opponents by 48 percent to 33 percent.

Other supporters include the Irish soccer and rugby teams, as well as Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary.

This just in: The Edge likes to use delay on his guitar.

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The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s reading series “Poems & Pints” will return this fall according to the council’s Web site. The series, stationed once again in the Nichols Room at the Frances Tavern in downtown Manhattan, will kick off on October 6 with a reading by Jill Bialosky and Susan Wheeler.

The series, featuring the always effervescent blend of poets and beer, attracted some real crowds last time around. Poets included Anna Rabinowitz, Rosanna Warren, Paul Muldoon, Mark Strand, Edward Field, Vijay Seshardri, Katy Lederer, D. Nurkse, Sophie Cabot Black and Sharon Olds. LMCC has made selected audio available here.

This fall’s lineup includes Peter Cole and Robert Polito on November 3 and Ron Padgett and Katha Pollitt on December 1.

I attended the February 3 Dana Goodyear/Matthew Zapruder reading. Goodyear read first and the place was completely packed, to the extent that many were left to listen outside of the closed doors. After Goodyear finished, there was an intermission where people refreshed their empty glasses and some among the huddled masses actually left, freeing up some space for those of us that were crammed and sweating. Some of us were lucky enough to snag seats and others leaned on the wall while Zapruder wowed the audience by reading mostly from his forthcoming book, Come On All You Ghosts.

LMCC works with artists by sponsoring workshops and awarding grants.

–Steven Karl

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Stanley Plumly has been named Poet Laureate of the state of Maryland, reports the Associated Press. Plumly’s book Old Heart (reviewed here by Mike McDonough) was nominated for the National Book Award in 2007, but lost to this Robert Hass book.

Plumly, author of nine books of poetry, has served as a distinguished professor at the University of Maryland since 1998. Over the years, his work has been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Paris Review and American Poetry Review.

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Noam Chomsky

Language is our medium of expression, and languages and dialects come in as many flavors as people do. While most people recognize that it is useful to have a standardized language for public communication, schools and so forth, when humans start making laws which punish or fine people for the way they speak, it is a red flag; I should not be fined if I want to say “ain’t,” and a school child should not be caned for speaking Welsh.

Slovakia has recently passed a law which has the potential to oppress thousands of people by imposing enormous fines for “‘misusing‘ language.” An electronic petition is being distributed which objects to this law. Hundreds have already signed it, including many very well known linguists such as Noam Chomsky (MIT), Guglielmo Cinque (Venice) (whose book I have written about on Coldfront in the past), Hagit Borer (USC), Andrew Nevins (Harvard University), among many others.

In the course of human history, it  has not been uncommon for oppressive forces to to make laws prohibiting the use of some language or dialect of a language. This allows them, essentially, to legally penalize people for being of their ethnicity. For example, it is common to severely punish school children for speaking the wrong language, often before they ever would have had the chance to learn the “right” language. (See this site for examples of oppression against Kurdish students.)

You may see the list of petition signatures here, and you may read the petition itself (and, if you like, sign it) here. I would like to encourage anyone who has not looked into this interesting and important issue, especially those who are skeptical about its importance, to read any of the articles linked above and/or any of the many, many interesting pieces written on the issue.

–Jim Wood

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There is still time to donate to Push Ups for Poetry, Poet and Black Ocean Editor Janaka Stucky’s fundraiser for Poets House. Stucky’s unorthodox blend of the physical and the metaphysical is similar to a Walk-a-Thon; sponsors are to pledge a dollar (or cent) amount per push-up. He will perform his task tomorrow, Saturday Sept 26. 

Stucky has been training for more than a month, and says he has already managed to do 175 push-ups in a single workout.

In a recent post at the Pushups for Poetry blog, Stucky says that he has raised $1,600 so far. Most of this support has come from “people who don’t actively publish poetry.” 

When a poet’s book comes out, he notes, very often “only a few hundred people read it and then it gets lost in the avalanche of other books that year.” He continues, “who cares enough to archive it for future generations? Poets House.”

Poets House, located in Manhattan, archives thousands of new poetry titles every year and comprises the single most thorough collection of poetry in the country. Stucky says he decided to raise money for Poets House because it is “a well-run foundation, with an exceptional amount of integrity.”

Poets House recently moved further downtown to Battery Park City, where it will enjoy at least 60 years of rent-free archiving and event-holding.

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Heather McHugh has won a $500,000 “genius” grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Recipients receive the “no strings attached” award over the course of five years, according to the foundation’s Web site.

McHugh, who was born in San Diego in 1948, has been a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in the past. According to the Academy of American Poets, other honors have included “two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Award, a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, and, in 2006, one of the first United States Artists awards. From 1999 to 2006 she served as a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets, and in 2000 was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. For over 20 years, she has served as a visiting faculty member in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, and since 1984 as Milliman Writer-in-Residence at the University of Washington in Seattle.”

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The third issue of Fou has been published online and can be found here. It features a devastatingly charming lily pad click-feature as well as work by Samuel Amadon, Erik Anderson, Cynthia Arrieu-King, Joshua Beckman, Christopher DeWeese, DJ Dolack & Allison Titus, Claire Donato, Noah Falck, Jessica Fjeld, Alina Gregorian, Richard Jones, Caroline Knox, Rebecca Loudon, Ben Mirov, Alexis Orgera, Tomaž Šalamun, Morgan Lucas Schuldt, Peter Jay Shippy and Bianca Stone.

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