your june moon annogram

New poetry website

I am thrilled to announce my new website, www.anncefola.com.   If you’re a new poet, interested in translation, or would like to read an essay on Whitman or Millay, take a peek under “Toolkit.”  You can also visit “What’s New” to find out my latest poetry forays. 

Thanks to novelist Terry Dugan, memoirist Sarah Bracey White and poet Linda Simone for brainstorming website strategies over raspberry pancakes one fine morning; web designers Dan Gregory and Linda Lee for creating the site; and Linda Simone and Michael Cefola for exquisitely artful photos.

Now in November

My new blog, Now in November, brings together all 30 of my poems from the Pulitzer Remix project, with Depression-era photographs.  The blog has been been viewed nearly 300 times and poet Deborah Hauser has highlighted it on her website.  I am still haunted by Now in November, a sleeper of a novel which should be required American lit in high school, college and beyond.

Big Bang Poetry

Thanks to poet Mary Ladd McCray for interviewing me on Big Bang Poetry.  Mary asked great questions, and I hope you’ll enjoy our conversation.  Mary has her own reasons to celebrate—her long-awaited poetry book, Why Photographers Commit Suicide (Trementina Books, 2012), is an Indie Excellence Award finalist.  And she also completed a breath-taking 30 poems in 30 days for the NaPoWriMo Project last month.  Congratulations, Mary!

Spotlight on Translators

Thanks also to Lisa Carter for interviewing me on her May 22, 2013 Intralingo blog.  Lisa, a translator, writer and editor, is owner of Intralingo Inc., winner of the Alicia Gordon Award for Word Artistry in Translation and an International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award nominee.  In the interview, I shamelessly ask—or dare—publishers to consider the poetry of the ever-adventuresome Hélène Sanguinetti (right) and thank Lisa for the chance to speak about translating Hélène’s work.  Look for a sample in the January 2014 online eleven eleven.

Welcome Pulitzer Remixers

A bonus of the Pulitzer Remix experience has been getting to know the many talented participants.  Congratulations to Peter Cole Friedman for work in Petrichor Machine and forthcoming in Emerge Literary Journal in June; Gary Glauber on his poem in Emerge Literary Journal; Deborah Hauser on her recent reading at Bluestockings in New York;  Reiser Perkins, editor of Otis Nebula, on the journal’s first poetry book prize (below); Sheila Sondik for her gorgeous prints and paintings; Neal Whitman for poems in The MacGuffin and Poems Found in March, a chapbook of his Pulitzer Remix work.  Hello to Seth Crook, Vicki Hudson, S.E. Ingraham, Margo Roby, Scott Stoller, and Kara Synhorst.

Otis Nebula Poetry Prize

Otis Nebula announces its first poetry book contest.  Donald Revell (right) will judge the winning entry and one runner up. The winning volume will be published in a 100-copy print run and as an ebook; runner-up as an e-book. Winner will receive $250 and 10 copies of her book/ebook; runner-up, $50 and 10 e-book copies. Submit typed 40-100 page manuscripts before June 15, 2013 with $15. For complete guidelines and to submit online, go here.

Learning to See Pot Luck and Poetry Party

Come to this fun event sponsored by the Greenburgh Arts and Culture Committee on Wednesday, June 26, from 5:30 – 8 p.m., at the Greenburgh Public Library.  Learning to See is the late Brenda Connor Bey’s legacy project, and this party will in part commemorate Brenda (left).  Participants in former Learning to See Workshops may bring a poem or two and read them—e-mail bracey0114@aol.com if you’d like to do that prior to the event.

Meg Lindsay Poetry and Paintings
Poet and artist Meg Lindsay will exhibit both her poetry and paintings at the Gregory James Gallery, 93 Park Lane Road, New Milford, CT, from June 22-July 21.  The opening reception will take place Saturday, June 22, from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.  Congratulations, Meg!

Sarah Lawrence 48-Hour Donation Blitz
I just saw my best friend from my undergraduate days at Sarah Lawrence last weekend.  What a fantastic education we enjoyed—one-on-one studies with our professors, small classes, incredibly mind-stretching conversations—truly like a graduate-level experience.  If you believe in progressive education and/or liberal arts, make a donation by tomorrow, Thursday, June 6.  If 41 more people donate, a trustee will donate $75,000!   Give here.  You can track the results on Facebook.

'Round the Net

Thanks to the following for sending great links and/or books:

· Novelist Terry Dugan for this article on Good Writing vs. Talented Writing

· Lakota Advocate Cindy Dunne for letting me know that Lakota Children’s Enrichment is reaching young Pine Ridge writers.

· Poet Eric Greinke for Listen to the Landscape (Erdmans, 2006), haiku by Linda Nemec Foster and images by Dianne Carroll Burdick--the kind of book that made me slow down and appreciate the superb marriage of poetry and art.

· Linda Nemec Foster for her recent interview about her new CD on Michigan Public Radio

· Eric again for his upcoming volume of new and selected works, For the Living Dead (Presa Press, 2013), which I love for its French influences found deep in the Michigan woods.

· Iyengar yoga teacher Nancy Kardon for this interview with Thich Nhat Hanh.

· Poet Amy King for a call for 1-3 ecopoems from Poets for Living Waters.

· Screenwriters John McCray and John Lehr for this hilarious trailer for their Hulu comedy series.

· Oxford American for this visit to Tiny Town.

· Poet Kevin Pilkington for letting me know about his new and informative website.

· Poets & Writers for this timely and moving 2005 graduation speech and video of same by David Foster Wallace.

· The Shelter Reform Action Committee for this petition to reform New York City’s notoriously deadly animal shelters.

· Arts lecturer Jay Shulman for recommending Too Bright to Hear, Too Loud to See by Julian Garey (Soho, 2013) and recalling the WMCA Radio Good Guys.

· Memoirist Lou Spirito and his pit-bull mix Tanner on their book Gimme Shelter hitting no. 2 on The Malibu Times nonfiction best-seller list.

· Sarah Bracey White for advance notice that her memoir, Primary Lessons (CavanKerry, 2013) is now available for pre-order from Amazon.

· Pultizer Remixer Neal Whitman for sending me his new chapbook, Poems Found In March, a collection of his poems based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning March (Penguin, 2006) by Geraldine Brooks.

Have a wonderful summer!

Ann