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| Collage by Deborah Coulter |
Valentine’s Day
The gifts have already arrived— “Vermont Without Delilah,” appears in the current A Common Thread, and “Lost in Woodside” will appear in the upcoming San Pedro River Review. Of course, chocolate never hurts and that’s why you’ll find my favorite cake recipe below. In addition, thanks to all who have volunteered to write Amazon and Goodreads reviews for Face Painting in the Dark (Dos Madres Press, 2014).
Hochman’s Habeas Corpus
Congratulations to poet Cindy Hochman on the publication of Habeas Corpus (Glass Lyre Press, 2015). Glass Lyre is offering it at $12 with no shipping costs; e-mail publisher@glasslyrepress.com
with your name and postal address. For a signed copy, e-mail the author at
poet2680@aol.com, purchase one and come hear her read at the Green Pavilion on February 25 at 7 p.m.
poet2680@aol.com, purchase one and come hear her read at the Green Pavilion on February 25 at 7 p.m.
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| Meredith Trede |
Trede Opens 2015 Poetry Series
Award-winning
poet Meredith Trede began the 2015 Hudson Valley Writers Center poetry
series last night, joined by Joshua Mehigan.
Open Mic Night for poets, prose writers, musicians, comedians, singers
and all other performers, takes place Friday, February 20, at 7:30 p.m.; and an Evening of Poetry & African Music with Bob Holman & Papa Susso, Friday, February 27, at 7:30 p.m.
Sosin on Radio
Liberty and Russia
Former director of Russian broadcast planning at Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Gene Sosin, will present “How Radio Liberty in Russia Helped Win the Cold War"
on Wednesday, February 18, at 3 p.m., at the Memorial United Methodist Church in White Plains. For more information, call
914-319-1609.
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| John Berryman |
Berryman at 100
On Saturday, February 26, a celebration
of John Berryman (1914-1972) will feature readings,
panels and a reception with April Bernard, Henri Cole, Cornelius Eady, Rachel Hadas, Saskia Hamilton, Cathy Park Hong, A. Van Jordan, Robin Coste Lewis, Edward
Mendelson, Patrick Rosal, Evie Shockley, Daniel Swift, Kevin Young, and Rachel Zucker.
Free, at Barnard College; see Poets House information.
Lives in Ruins
Marilyn Johnson will read from her new book, Lives in Ruins: Archeologists and
the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble (Harper,
2014) at the Scarsdale Public Library on Monday,
March 9, at 7 p.m. For a more metaphorical
approach, be sure to read Archeology (Flutter Press, 2014) by Pushcart-nominated poet Linda Simone.
Sweetheart of a Chocolate
Cake
The secret to this deep, satisfying and
not-too-sweet cake is a beet and a tablespoon or two of coffee—from Cook Yourself Thin (Hachette Books, 2009).
1/4 cup finely ground almonds
1 beet, peeled and finely grated
Frosting
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray an 8-inch spring-form
pan with cooking spray. In small bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, ground
almonds, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
Using standing or handheld mixer on medium speed, beat eggs and
sugar for four minutes until pale and fluffy. On low speed, beat in beets,
followed by dry ingredients. Add buttermilk and coffee. Beat until smooth. Pour into pan, place in
middle of a hot oven and bake for 30 minutes. Test with toothpick; it should
come out clean. Bake additional 5 minutes if needed.
Cool 10 minutes or so in pan, unmold onto cooling rack and then
cool on wire rack. To make icing, prepare a double boiler. Combine all
ingredients and gently stir until chocolate is smooth and mixture thickens. With
cake on wire rack, pour icing liberally over top of cake and let it drip down
sides. Transfer onto plate or cake stand for serving.
America’s Creative Class
William Giraldi’s New Republic review of Scott Timberg’s The Killing of the Creative Class (Yale
University Press, 2015) packs a wallop. Do you agree with this assessment? Thanks to Jay Shulman for sending this to me:
Let’s forget about starving artist for a moment and get
right to a more accurate, and ominous, conjugation: The artist in America is
being starved, systemically and without shame. In this land of untold
bounty—what is usually called, in a kind of blustering spasm, the richest
empire on earth—the American creative class has been forced to brook a historic
economic burden while also being sunk into sunless irrelevancy. When it came to
artists, Comrade Stalin knew all about a bounty of a different sort—he stuck it
on the heads of those whose pens and brushes might transgress against his
galactic hubris. Remember Osip Mandelstam’s quip about how Mother Russia
reveres her poets enough to murder them? Well, with our consummate lack of
reverence, we in America kill our poets in quite another way: We ignore them to
death.
ʼRound the Net
Thanks and congratulations to the following people for
achievements and/or links:
Paul Dickinson
Russell, novelist, on his upcoming fantasy story, The Will of the Magi, and his publisher’s
podcasts that track his process creating it.
Jay Shulman, music archivist,
for noting the passing of songwriter Don Covay (“Chain of Fools”), pioneering talk show host Joe Franklin, poet and lyricist Rod McKuen, and Laugh-In announcer Gary Owens.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you and yours….
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