your golden light of august annogram

Best American Poetry

Good news! This month The Best American Poetry Blog highlights my Illuminations interview with J. Chester Johnson, and Sophie Chouinard reviews Face Painting in the Dark (Dos Madres Press, 2014) in Cahoodaloodaling. In addition, Earth’s Daughters accepted my poem, “Royal Quiet DeLuxe,” and my interview with memoirist Sarah Bracey White will appear next month in the Southern Literary Review.

The energized blues-rock of Little Games

Little Games is developing quite a following--please stay tuned for future gigs. The band features vocalist/guitarist Michael Cefola, bassist Larry Schwartzman, drummer Tommy Vinton, and guitarist/vocalist Don LaSala.  Speaking of blues, Michael highly recommends this collection of interviews with B.B. King in the latest Guitar Player.  


View from the Chair and New Mobility

Maggie and Jim Sinocchi

A great gift in my career has been working closely with members of the disabilities community—although “disabilities” hardly describes professionals whose talents far exceed my own. In View from the Chair, Jim Sinocchi faces some end-of-life planning most of us avoid; and in New Mobility, Jim Barry recalls one spring when he got “hammered.” I adore both Jims, and now you can get to know them too.



Eric Greinke and Dolly

Poets in Review

Thanks to Eric Greinke for including his review of Hence this cradle (Seismicity Editions, 2007) in Poets in Review (Presa Press, 2015). Hence is my translation of the second collection by French contemporary poet Hélène Sanguinetti. Eric’s essay joins many notable reviews he has written over two decades. 

Brilliant Blunders at Iona

Astrophysicist and cosmologist Mario Livio will speak at the Murphy Center auditorium at Iona College in New Rochelle on Thursday, September 10, at noon. The talk will focus on “Brilliant Blunders,” major errors committed by such luminaries as Darwin, Einstein and Pauling, in describing the evolution of Earth, human life, and the universe as a whole. Free. Directions here.

1.5 Million Black (Wo)Men Missing

A panel, “More Than a Protest Novel: Connecting the Dots - 1.5 Million Black (Wo)Men Missing,” will take place Tuesday, September 15, 2015, 6:30 – 10:00 p.m., at The New School’s Lang Center. While looking at policy initiatives and antiviolence solutions, this free event will consider the deaths of Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, and Charleston victims. Book-signing of Petra Lewis’s Sons and Daughters of Ham (PEL Press, 2014) follows. 

A Fast Niçoise

Oh, the lowly can of tuna!  Soon drenched in mayo and hidden in rye. Redeem your modest can of tuna with this one-serving recipe which is both healthful and tasty:

1 5 oz. can albacore tuna in water (avoid brands with soy in ingredients)

1 handful of baby spinach or mixed greens

10 Kalamata pitted olives

1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive (EVO) oil

Place greens in bowl and top with olives.  Drain water from tuna can and break up tuna over greens. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and EVO.  Toss and enjoy!

’Round the Net

Congratulations and/or thanks to the following:

Regi Claire

Editor Rachel Adams on latest issue of Lines + Stars

Poet Joel Allegretti on Rabbit Ears (NYQ Books, 2015) launch scheduled for December 14, 6:30 p.m., at Bowery Poetry Club

Poet John Amen on his upcoming reading tour through New Mexico and New York

Novelist Regi Claire on chairing the Scottish PEN/Amnesty International Imprisoned Writers Series at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Artist Deborah Coulter for her Visual Play blog
Feminist Studies on their Multimedia Issue (available through JStor)

Hans Hofmann, The Gate

Art historian Beth Gersh-Nesic for this last call to see murals by Hans Hofmann

Translator Ann Gwin for noting that two Hugo Awards went to translated work

Poet and editor Cindy Hochman on the latest issue of First Literary Review-East

Actor Tony LoBianco on offering acting and coaching lessons

Poet Mary Ladd McCray on 10 Ways to Be a Better Poetry Reader

Poet Kevin Pilkington on Michael Dennis’s review of Ready to Eat the Sky (River City
Publishing, 2004)

Linda Simone at the Twig

Tech guru Justin Simone for 29 Incredibly Useful Websites You Wish You Knew Earlier

Poet Linda Simone on her Archeology (Flutter Press, 2014) book-signing at San Antonio’s Twig Book Shop and Tina Tocco’s book review in First Literary Review-East

Music archivist Jay Shulman for this article on Groucho Marx’s passion to master guitar

The brouhaha over Go Set a Watchman (Harper, 2015) has died down.  Some have read it; others, like me, have not.  Happily for all, the controversy revisited the profound impact of To Kill a Mockingbird, as well as the movie, upon the American imagination.  The week that Watchman appeared, the journal Still Crazy published Neal Whitman’s poem which he generously shares here:

Our Kind

“I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.”

        -- To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (1960)

It was an old town,

a tired old town.

In rainy weather,

its streets turned to red slop.

It felt hotter then.

It inspired her to write one book.

Just one.

Mary Badham, Gregory Peck
in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

On his movie script,

Gregory Peck wrote:

Fairness

Stubbornness

Courage

Love

Until next time,

Ann