your new year's annogram

Happy Start to New Year

Really thrilled to have one poem upcoming in Presence 2020, two in Women’s Studies Quarterly, three in Hunnybee; that “How to Handle Criticism” appears in The Winnow, and that Gnashing Teeth has published Heat the Grease – We’re Frying Up Some Poetry. Thanks also to Darrell Laurant for interviewing me on The Hero (Chax Press, 2018), and to Bateau Lit and Tentacular editors for publishing more translations.

Translation for Writers

L-R: Ann Lauinger, Beth Gersh-Nešić,
and yours truly talk translation
at Hudson Highland Poetry Series

As you can read above, translating opens a lot of doors. Poet Ann Lauinger, art historian Beth Gersh-Nešić, and I downloaded insider tips at the respective Hudson Highlands and Sundays with George Poetry Series this fall. If you, your book club, or literary organization would like insights on getting into the booming field of literary translation, please reach out via my blog or website.

Poetry at Curley’s Diner

Poet and Curley's Proprietor
Eleni Begetis Anastos and me

I had the best time at Curley’s Diner in Stamford. Thanks to host Ralph Nazareth for inviting me to read my poetry and translation, and to Rolf Maurer for this outstanding introduction, “Listening to the Lyre of Hope and Love in the Underworld of the Atomic Age.” The Curley’s, aka PoemAlley, group is a bunch of diehard poets, including the likes of Ed Ahern, who comment on one another’s work Tuesday nights at 7pm. All are welcome!

Lovrien Price Gregory

Lovrien Price Gregory
New York Sun - 1925

Many of you have met my grandmother on these pages: a classically trained artist who studied in France on scholarship. She first illustrated turn-of-the-century fashion covers, then became one of the first female cartoonists, and later, interior muralist for homes designed by spouse Julius Gregory. 

While portraiture was her adult focus, late in life she opened to abstract expressionism—producing breath-taking nudes in shards of vibrant color. I seek a home for her work. If there’s a museum or archive that could benefit from this spectacular provenance spanning the 20^th century, please let me know.

Suffragettes Invade Central Park

Meredith Bergmann works on
her sculpture

Lovrien was a proud suffragette who, wearing white, marched up Fifth Avenue. She would love to know that Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton will appear in the first statue of female historical figures in Central Park. The non-profit Monumental Women promoted the sculpture by Meredith Bergmann to be unveiled in August—the 100th anniversary of US women’s suffrage.

Friends Scoop Top Awards

Regi Claire

Congratulations to novelist, poet, and short fiction writer Regi Claire on winning first prize in the Women’s Poetry Competition for her amazing poem on grief, “(Un)certainties.” The prize was given by the Poetry Book Society, a UK organization TS Eliot founded in 1953. 

Alison McBain

We also salute Alison McBain, fiction writer, cartoonist, and blogger, on winning gold in the Literary Classics International Book Award for her YA fantasy, The Rose Queen (Fairfield Scribes, 2018). Woo-hoo! More to come, we are sure!

New Releases

Susanna H. Case, Body Falling, Sunday Morning (Milk and Cake Press, 2019)

Sandi Gelles-Cole and Kenneth Salzmann, Eds. What Remains: The Many Ways We Say Good-bye (Gelles-Cole Literary Enteprises, 2019)

Chen Du, Pilgrimage (Dead Mule, 2019), and Successful Personal Statements (Bookbaby, 2019)

Meg Lindsay, Notes from a Caregiver (The Poetry Box, 2020)

John F. McMullen, World War II Baby and Other Poems (Local Gems Press, 2019)

Tracie Morris, Who Do With Words (Chax Press, 2019)

The Pedestal 85

Jean-Luc Pouliquen, Dans le miroir des livres (Publié Indépendamment, 2019)

D Kathryn Pressman, Where the Light Gathers (Delphine Books, 2019)

Creative Opportunities

Augury Books Open Reading Period for poetry manuscripts, January only, $10 fee

John C. Hart Memorial Library, Yorktown Poetry Workshop, fourth Wednesdays, 6pm

Hudson Valley Writers Center Open Mic Nights 7:30-9:30 third Fridays

Oscar Wilde

Lyrics of Mature Hearts Anthology, submit 3-6 poems on love and aging to mcneil_bob@yahoo.com by January 31

Mahopac Library, Poetry Workshop, second Wednesdays, 6:30pm (second floor); Writers Group, every Thursday, 6:30pm (third floor)

Norwalk Library, 2^nd Floor, Poetry Workshop, first and third Mondays, 6:30-8:30pm

Paraclete Press Inaugural Poetry Prize, submit 60-75 page manuscripts by January 30

Ann Starr

Poems, hybrid work, and brief manifestos on ecopoetics; submit by January 31 to ecopoetics2020@gmail.com 

The Poetry Institute Reading Series Open Mic (New Haven), third Thursdays, 7pm

Refiction Magazine, free online fiction writer’s magazine with resources and tools

Starr Review, New Edition, subscribe for art reviews by art connoisseur Ann Starr

Uncommon Hours: An Online Course About Designing the Writing Life with Carolyn Flynn

Chilaquiles

My American hybrid of the classic Mexican dish—great any time of day—and you probably have the ingredients on hand. Serves two. Tastes best if eaten while wearing PJs. Olé!

1 tablespoon organic unsalted butter

6 pasture-raised large eggs

salt, pepper, and a touch of nutmeg

1 block cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

1 green pepper, grilled, peeled, and cut into thin slices (optional)

2-3 handfuls of unsalted, non-GMO tortilla chips

your favorite red salsa

chopped fresh cilantro, organic sour cream, guacamole or avocado (optional)

Melt butter in large frying pan. Beat eggs; add some water or milk as preferred, and seasonings. Pour eggs into hot pan. Add green pepper, sautéed onion, or steamed spinach or swiss chard—or not. Sprinkle half of cheese over top, followed by tortilla chips, and rest of cheese. Tip pan and lift one edge of eggs with a spatula to help chilaquiles solidify. Lower heat so they do not burn. Once eggs are dry, remove from heat, drizzle with salsa and other toppings, slice like a pie, and serve.

Tip: Always buy block cheese. Bags of shredded cheese come with something called cellulose, basically plastic. Also, to rid store-bought tortilla chips of that stale taste, spread chips on cookie sheets and broil for a few seconds until sizzling and golden at the edges—watch so they don’t burn!

Poetry / Literary / Art Events

Upstream Gallery, Renewal, Small Works Show, January 2-26; reception, January 5, 2-5pm

Alliance Française de Greenwich, Byram Shubert Library, January 7, 5pm, Art Historian Beth Gersh-Nešić on “When Modern Art Came to Paris: Immigration and Assimilation,” free and open to the public

HVWC, January 24, 7pm, Sigrid Nunez and Jim Tilley, $10

It’s a little quiet in January, don’t you think?

ʼRound the Net

Choreographer Rachel Cohen

Greenburgh Arts and Culture Executive Director Sarah Bracey White for this interview of art teacher Stephanie Rosen by high school senior Katie Weber

HVWC Open Mic Host Bill Buschel for André Rieu’s version of “Auld Lang Syne”

Choreographer Rachel Cohen for improv classes at Action Theater and new work last fall at the Construction Company

American author A. N. Devers for opening in London’s Soho the Second Shelf Bookshop to preserve and promote literature written by women

Poet and translator Chen Du for a poem in Levitate, essays in Hamline Lit Link and Dead Mule, translations in The Bare Life Review, Columbia Journal, Lunch Ticket, and River River; and translation of poems by Charles Alexander in Yan River (China).

1916

Poet Forrest Gander for this poetry translation event, kindly shared by his friend Heller Levinson

Art Historian Beth Gersh-Nešić for presenting at the André Salmon Colloquium at the University of Turin (Italy) a paper on Salmon’s support of women artists at the 1916 Salon d’Antin where Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon was also first exhibited

Poet Gary Glauber on winning a James Tate International Poetry Prize, on work in Parentheses (France), The Chachalaca Review, and Sheila-Na-Gig; and for his chapbook The Covalence of Equanimity forthcoming from SurVision Books

Poet Cindy Hochman for her review of Francesca Bell’s Bright Stain (Red Hen Press, 2018) in Pedestal 85

Maureen Pilkington and her brother
poet Kevin Pilkington

Poet J. Chester Johnson on his NPR interview on the Elaine Race Massacre (1919) and new memorial

Poet Heller Levinson on selections from Seep in Silver Pinion

Poet Rolf Maurer for penning “Ann Cefola: Listening For The Lyre Of Hope And Love In The Underworld Of the Atomic Age”

Yorktown Poet Laureate John McMullen on his 300^th radio show, and for this skewering of an MFA workshop taken by Jane Austen

Marcel Proust

The New York Public Library for 2019’s top checkouts and best books

Author Maureen Pilkington for this great review of This Side of Water (Regal House Publishing, 2019) 

Poet Natalie Safir on her essay in What Remains: The Many Ways We Say Good-bye (see New Releases)

Poet Linda Simone for this great article on reading Proust and on her essay in What Remains: The Many Ways We Say Good-bye (see New Releases)

Art connoisseur Ann Starr on her review of the Ditchling Museum in Starr Review, New Edition

My late bloom is still here, although somewhat dry, bringing in its winter energies to nourish roots—which is what we do in these quiet times of transition, one year to another, one closed creative project to the bud of a new one. May you rejoice in your creative destiny as it unfolds, one green shoot at time.

Until next time,

Ann