The Collagist and Lines+Stars

Thanks to Alice Maglio for her outstanding review in The Collagist of The Hero (Chax Press, 2018), my translation of Hélène Sanguinetti’s fourth book. Alice takes a deep and remarkable dive into “this collection [that] vibrates, slithers, and undulates—the language itself echoing various natural elements with which it is so obsessed.”

I am equally grateful to James Lee Lord Parker, who reviewed Free Ferry, for also rendering such an evocative take on The Hero in Lines+Stars. “The Hero will leave you worn down and breathless,” he writes. “More importantly, it will leave you wanting more.” My gratitude to both Alice and James for engaging so intelligently with this book.

Faire Vivre La Poésie

Jean--Luc Pouliquen

French poet Jean-Luc Pouliquen kindly includes me in his new book of interviews, Faire Vivre La Poésie (2019). The chapter is taken from his book co-authored with Beth S. Gersh-Nesic, Conversation Transatlantique (2018). He also mentions me in an interview on French TV. Merci, Jean-Luc! We’re working hard to make poetry live on both sides of the Atlantic!

Words in Concert

Thanks to poet Michael Baldwin for compiling Words in Concert (2019), a poetry anthology which benefits the Fort Worth Symphony. I am proud my poem “Boléro” found a home in this book as well as a poem by longtime friend Meg Lindsay. You’ll support poetry and music by purchasing this fine volume.

More Publications

Poet Janet Kaplan’s tasty literary journal, AMP, includes my translation from Hélène Sanguinetti’s And Here’s the Song; and nice to see work by poetry pal Meredith Trede. Soon you’ll see another translation from same Sanguinetti book in Columbia Journal. I am equally honored that “Early Thunder, Atlanta” appears in the “Family Bed” issue of Tamara Sellman’s VitaminZZZ.

Johnny A at the Turning Point

Johnny A
Photo by Michael Cefola

Johnny A, who has performed with bands such as the Yardbirds and J. Geils, brought his solo act to The Turning Point in Piermont this spring. What was extraordinary is his live Fractal FX2 recording and mixing of multiple tracks which he then seamlessly incorporates with his own exquisite finger work. The transcendent set included the Hollies’ “Bus Stop,” Stones’ “Play with Fire,” Bad Finger’s “Day after Day,” Cyndi Lauper’s “Time after Time,” Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home,” and Beatle melodies. A must-see for guitar and classic rock aficionados.

National Poetry Month

A whirlwind…talking about life as a poet at Edgewood School, appearing on the JohnMac Radio Show and One-on-One with Vin Dacquino, inaugurating the Hudson Highlands Poetry Series, and sharing the podium with Kristin Prevallet, Margo Taft Stever, and George Kraus at the last spring Sundays with George Poetry Reading. Wow! Thank you everyone.

Free Ferry Ferries On

My gratitude to Dr. George Kraus for reading with me from Free Ferry (Upper Hand Press, 2017) at the Shames JCC in Tarrytown. Most people read Free Ferry more than once, as did one of my blurbistas, Sarah Lawrence Professor Emeritus Ray Peckaukus:

Rereading Free Ferry, I’d forgotten Eurydice was the daughter of the sun god Apollo. Crucial words appear on page 55 in the scientific undercurrent running along the bottom of each page: fission bombs delivered destruction rated in thousands of tons of TNT; fusion weapons in millions of tons. Yet this power is the source of the sun's energy ("sustained reaction") which sustains life on this planet. So far we’ve had the wisdom not to use this understanding to eliminate our kind. May it always be so! Keep writing.

Westport Library Grand Re-Opening

So honored to open the new writers room at the Westport Library on June 23^rd! I will help lead a poetry workshop 2-3pm, and there will be a fiction workshop 3-4pm. Many thanks to Alison McBain and Ed Ahern of the Fairfield Scribes for inviting me to this special event.

Maureen Pilkington’s This Side of Water

Maureen Pilkington

Congratulations to Maureen Pilkington on her first short story collection, This Side of Water (Regal House, 2019). Catch Maureen reading with her brother, award-winning poet Kevin Pilkington, at Bank Square Books in Mystic on June 6, at 6:30pm. She will also sign books at Elm Street Booksin New Canaan on July 11 at 6pm. Can’t make any dates? Read this Antioch Review interview with Maureen.

Happy Birthday, Walt

Walt Whitman
(1819-1892)

Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819 and his birthplace in Huntington, Long Island, is celebrating with multiple events. For starters, you can purchase Poets to Come: The Whitman 200th Birthday (Local Gems Press, 2019), which features annogram poets Ed Ahern, John McMullen, and Linda Simone. Or listen to New Yorkers do homage to the Old Gray Poet by their reciting of “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.”

Cabaret Night at St. James the Less

On June 8, 7-10pm, enjoy mezzo-soprano Dakota Martin and pianist Keiji Ishiguri in "Bewitched, Bothered, & Bewildered” at St. James the Less Church. Classic jazz and Broadway standards illustrate how love often leaves us in one of these states, if not all at the once. Hors d'oeuvres, light dinner, dessert, wine, and soft drinks will be served. Seniors (65) and juniors (35 and under): $50; all others $75.

Marjorie Tesser

Hudson Highlands Poetry Series

Thanks to poet Mary Newell for drumming up a new poetry community in Putnam County. In April, I was honored to launch a new reading series with Mary and a dozen exceptional poets. This month, Kathleen Ossip, Kristin Prevallet, and Marjorie Tesser will read June 15 at 1:30pm at the Desmond Fish Library in Garrison.

Chill Bucket Stages You Can’t Take It With You

James Stewart and Jean Arthur in the
movie You Can't Take It With You (1937)

Westchester’s new theater troupe, Chill Bucket Productions, will stage a reading of Kaufman and Hart’s classic 1936 comedy, You Can’t Take It With You, on June 22nd at 8pm. The performance, which will take place in the 100-seat chapel of St. James the Less Church, features more than a dozen area actors. Parking is limited and donations are requested to support the fledgling theater company. For advance tickets, go here.

New Releases

Adrian Silbernagel, Transitional Object (The Operating System, 2019)

Edward Ahern, Irregular Images (Fairfield Scribes, 2019)

Lynn Clague, Up Close and Nuclear (2019)

Jacqueline Gojard, Pablo Picasso and André Salmon : The Painter, the Poet and the Portraits, translated and edited by Beth S. Gersh-Nesic and Jacqueline Gojard (Za Mir Press, 2019)

Cindy Hochman and Bob Heman, The Number 5 is Always Suspect (Presa Press, 2019)