Tuesday, June 03, 2014

your june annogram


We begin June with this wondrous photo taken by a friend at a wedding in Australia.  If ever I needed an image of muses, it would be these young women in sparkles fluttering against a strong offshore breeze.  May your muses move with the wind too!

Our winged Dodge and a sweet donkey

Do you remember cars with push-button gears, plaid-fabric bench seats and chrome fins?  My poem, “At the County Airport,” recalls such space-age designs.  To my delight, Main Street Rag has accepted it for a car-themed anthology.  I’m also thrilled that issue 46 of Sugar Mule features two of my poems.  Thanks again to guest editor Alyse Knorr.

Karin Miller
Anthology awards / readings

Congratulations to editor Karin Miller, whose Cancer Poetry Project 2 (Tasora Books, 2013) was named Best Poetry Book of 2013 at the Midwest Book Awards Gala on May 15 and is a National Indie Excellence Award finalist.

A Slant of Light (Codhill Press, 2013) has won First Prize in the 2014 USA Book Awards for Anthology and the 2014 da Vinci Eye Eric Hoffer Book (Cover) Award; and is a finalist in the 2014 Beverly Hills International Book Awards for Anthology, 2014 NextGeneration Indie Book Awards in Women’s Issues, and 2014 International Book Awards in Chick Lit/Women’s Literature.

Martin Espada
Hear fantastic poets from St. Peter’s B-List (Ave Maria Press, 2014) on Wednesday, June 11, 6-8:30 pm, read at Poets House, 10 River Terrace, NYC, across from Battery Park.  Poets include Kate Daniels, Martin Espada, Brett Foster, Gerry LaFemina, Jamison Lee, Susan L. Miller, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, Susanna Rich, Nicholas Samara, and Lauren Schmidt.

The Widow’s Handbook (Kent State University Press, 2014) continues readings: June 5, 7 pm, Iona Senior Services, 4125 Albemarle St NW, Washington, DC;  June 7, 2 pm, Swarthmore College, Trotter Hall 301; June 8, 7 pm, Stonehenge Studios, 3508 SW Corbett Ave., Portland, OR; June 10, 2 pm, East Castle Place, 2505 E. Bradford Place, Milwaukee, WI; June 26, 7 pm, Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main Street, Concord, NH,  and July 9, 11 am, Shorewood Senior Resource Center, 3920 N. Murray Ave, Shorewood, WI.

Petra Lewis
Petra Lewis at WORD

WORD - A Caribbean Book Fest will celebrate Caribbean-American Heritage Month on Sunday, June 8, 2 – 8 pm, at Medgar Evers College, 1650 Bedford Avenue, in Brooklyn.  Petra Lewis, author of The Sons and Daughters of Ham: Book I, A Requiem, will join 35 writers from 18 countries celebrating the storyteller in all of us.

Dianalee Velie Poetry Workshop

Dianalee Velie
If you’re in southwest New Hampshire this summer, you can join the Monday Night Poetry Group the second Monday of the month at 7 pm, at the Newbury Library .  Poet Dianalee Velie encourages everyone to come, listen, or read.  Next session Monday, June 9.  All levels welcome. 

Paul Harding
Canaan Meetinghouse Reading Series

In the same NH neighborhood, stop by these readings which feature nonfiction writer Douglas Bauer and author Sue Miller on July 10, poet Jeffrey Harrison and novelist Deb Harkness on July 17, natural historian Bernd Heinrich and novelist Rachel Urquhart on July 24, author Abigail Carroll and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Paul Harding on July 31. Readings start at 7:30 pm at the Meetinghouse, Canaan Street, Canaan, NH.

New books

Tanya Chernov is delighted that her anthology, The Burden of Light (Smashwords, 2014), is live on Amazon.

Dancing Girl Press announces a new chapbook, Borrowed Logic, by Alison Stone.

Petra Lewis announces that the EBook version of her novel, The Sons and Daughters of Ham: Book I, A Requiem, is live on Amazon.
James Dean
Mindmade Books has published Bernat Manciet’s Ode to James Dean in a bilingual edition translated by Pierre Joris and Nicole Peyrafitte.  This 1958 hallucinatory meditation on the actor’s death, captures “brutal, sharp, abrasive, wily, loutish, irascible, burning, rash, fighting, aggressive” qualities that Manciet (1923-2005) prized as a major latter 20th-century Occitan writer.

Red Glass Books is beside itself with joy to announce the publication of CafĂ© between wars, a chapbook by Karen Garthe and designed by Janet Kaplan.  Available from the author—please email her at macminch2@gmx.com for details.

Calls for work

Red Booth Review is accepting poems on celebrity and art and photos on isolation through June 30.  Include 4-10 poems within an email and/or 3-5 digital images no greater than 720px.   See current issue for editorial preferences in poetry.

Watercolor by Isabelle Fuller
Beatrix Potter Redux

Thanks to artist Isabelle Fuller for sharing this delightful spring watercolor which pays homage to classic Beatrix Potter illustrations.

Racoco on the go-go

SOAK: A torrent of AcTS and Training molded by LEIMAY at CAVE will take place June 19 at 8 pm. Racoco Productions will show a new collaboration with visual artist Stephanie Beck and composer Lynn Wright, Paper Work, which charts ideas of "progress," territorial expansion, discipline, and disorder.

Beck and
Racoco will follow up this premiere with an installation and series of performances at Harlem’s Chashama Performance Space, 1351 Amsterdam Avenue. The installation will be open to the public Saturday, June 21, from 3 - 9 pm, Sunday from noon - 8 pm, and Monday from 10 am - 9 pm.

Benefit Harp Concert

On Sunday, June 15, at 4 pm, harpist David Holton and flutist Pamela Sklar will perform, accompanied by tenors Michael Hull and Robert Puleo at Trinity St. Paul’s Church in New Rochelle.  This benefit will raise funds to send David Holton to the Philippines as part of the Episcopal Church Young Adult Service Corps. Reception to follow concert.  Suggested Donation:  $15.

Send Sam to Ghana

Sam Russell, a recent Trinity College graduate with an economics degree, is going to volunteer in Ghana where he will help WomensTrust improve their operations, focus on micro lending to women to eliminate poverty, and raise awareness how scholarships can improve life for girls.  Help Sam get to Ghana by contributing to his IndieGoGo campaign.
Cool Ginger Limeade

When the heat rises, I thirst for something delicious.  I created this recipe as an alternative to chemical- and high fructose-sugar-laden ginger ale. Ginger has an astringent quality that cleanses the digestive system, and lime is alkaline to counteract acidity.  Great after a big meal!
1 cup bottled natural spring water
1 quarter-size quarter-inch slice of ginger root, peeled
1/2 lime
2 Tablespoons (more or less to taste) organic raw honey

This refreshing drink calls for a strong blender.  Combine water and ginger root in blender and process on the highest setting about a half minute.  Using a tea strainer over a tall glass, strain the ginger water into the glass.  Rinse out the blender to make sure it is free of any ginger. 
Return the ginger water to the blender and squeeze the juice of one-half lime into blender.  Add two tablespoons of raw honey.  Blend again on high.  Pour back into glass.  The drink will be a lovely cream color and develop a foamy head.  Drink right away.  Serves one.

Round the Net

American Literary Translators Association list-serve for this article on publishers fighting Amazon

Translator Jeffrey Angles for sharing this article by the great Persian translator Dick Davis on translating Hafez
Contemporary poets discuss  poetry
hosted by UPenn Prof Al Filreis
Professor Al Filreis for sharing this early greeting from his celebrated teaching assistants preparing for September’s ModPo class

Belated birthday wishes to Gary Glauber, whose poems “Anthem” and “Refrain” appear in The Citron Review; and has three more poems in The Blue Hour, and two in East Jasmine Review, purchasable at the East Jasmine Review Store.

Writing mentor Robert McDowell for letting us know about his new workshop, Flash Writing for Fantastic Exploration, starting June 11—to register, email rmcdowell@mind.net 


The Offbeats
Congratulations to Jay Shulman (second, right) of the Offbeats, especially guitarist Michael Cefola (far left), on another tremendous Night of Rock benefit for the Scarsdale Teen Center

Thanks to Linda Simone for alerting us to the passing of the beloved civil rights activist and poet, Maya Angelou

Congratulations to Ellen Steinbaum on her guest entry on The Best American Poetry Blog

Thanks to filmmaker Frank Vitale for sharing Episode 5 of the Metropolis Organism and this fascinating look back at his role in the PBS children’s program, Shining Time Station

Maya Angelou
We close this annogram with a Maya Angelou quote, “All great achievements require time.”  Angelou overcame racism, poverty, and sexual assault, only to find a higher purpose in civil rights activism and powerful poetry and prose.  All it took was time.  Eighty-six years of extraordinary courage—which annogram celebrates today.

Until next time,