Dear annogrammers, In this
summer heat, some news to keep you cool! Translation, Moby-Dick (yes, again), great-great
grandmother Mary Eugenie and our connection to John Singer Sargent; Rick
Wakeman, and Ancient Aliens. How about a cold Cherry Cola? We have that too.
Enjoy the fizz.
Alparegho, Like-nothing-else
Thanks to everyone, especially Cole
Swensen, who attended the launch of Alparegho,
Like-nothing-else (Beautiful Days Press)
. Hélène Sanguinetti
read live from Arles and, during our Q&A, literary scholar John Stout
translated. Poet Mary
McCray wrote an
excellent recap, 158 people have viewed it on YouTube, and Asymptote
published a
fantastic review.
Women in Translation
 |
Hélène Sanguinetti
|
August is Women in Translation Month, and to
celebrate, I will give a talk, “Discovering Translation,” at the Smithtown
Nesconset Library on August 20 at 7pm. I’ll share how to get started in literary
translation, guide everyone in an easy translation exercise, and then read from
Alparegho,
Like-nothing-else (Beautiful Days Press).
And
speaking of translation, you can find mine of Jean-Luc Pouliquen’s
poem, “We Must Let Childhood,” in Presence
2025.
Moby-Dick Marathon
As a reader in the annual Moby-Dick
Marathon at the Sag Harbor Jermain
Library, I had no idea what I would be asked to read. Fortunately, it
was a passage on a whale sighting—with Flask and Stubb shouting orders to the
scrambling sailors. I did my best to incarnate those characters, or at least
wake up my audience. Heave-ho, mates!
Mary Eugenie Gregory
 |
The family store in Sacramento,
today the Sacramento VisitorCenter |
Yep, that’s my great-great
grand- mother (1838-1898). Imagine my surprise to
find her on YouTube speaking beyond the grave! And
then to learn that the City of Sacramento named a
park after her last year. Wonders never cease. The city wanted
to honor the economic contributions of Gold Rush-era women, and Mary Eugenie,
according to her friend Leland Stanford
(1824-1893), was “a better businessman than me.”
Grand Central School of Art
 |
John Singer Sargent
(1856-1925) |
Mary Eugenie’s grandson, Julius
Gregory (1875-1955), designed the Grand
Central School of Art in 1922. He had the terminal’s east wing roof raised
in order to install skylights. He must have known John Singer Sargent, one of the school’s three founders—which leads me to
Sargent and Paris
If you’re a New Yorker, or live
in the area, you have probably seen this blockbuster Met
exhibit once if not two or three times. “How was it?” I asked one
Manhattanite who replied, “Crowded.” For deeper insight, register for Beth
Gersh-Nesic’s talk on July 17 at 4pm through the Zoom host, Alliance Française USA,
here
Rick Wakeman at the Paramount
 |
| Rick Wakeman |
This former Yes keyboardist
nimbly played a grand piano or three-stacked synthesizers, tapping into “Catherine of Aragon” and “Jane Seymour” from The Six
Wives of Henry VIII, “Yessonata,” a blend
of the Yes canon; and tributes to Bowie, Lennon, and McCartney. While hampered
by arthritis, Wakeman
hilariously flexed a self-deprecatory wit regarding his weight and ex-wives. A
great evening with a mesmerizing prodigy.
Ancient Aliens Live
Creative Opportunities
 |
| Photo by Unseen Studio |
The
Cypress Review, fiction, poetry, art, photography, by July 21
Fictive
Dream, short stories, by August 25
Putting
the World in Focus, Maine Media Workshop with Kevin Pilkington, July
14-18
 |
| Photo by Marcus Dall Col |
Making
Space for the Light, sexual assault survivor anthology, by July
31
Sense and
Sensibility, haiku on vacation/holiday theme, by July 22
Writing
Dragons Hanoi, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, by August 3
New and Recent Releases
A Meditation on Longing, a film
by Frank Vitale (2025)
Cagibi 25
Ann Cefola, trans. Alparegho,
Like-Nothing-Else by Hélène Sanguinetti (Beautiful Days Press)
Suzanne Cleary, The Odds (New
York Quarterly Books)
First Literary Review-East
Eric Greinke, Anthropoetics (Independently published)
 |
| Ed Jordan mentors colleagues in Holding Up the Sky (2025) |
Holding Up the Sky, a film
by Bob Nesson (2025)
Nathalia Holt, The Beast
in the Clouds (Atria/One Signal)
Jerry T. Johnson, Bad Fruit (Gnashing
Teeth Press)
Edward McCann, Ed., Well Said
Well Read (Writers Read Press)
The Notre Dame Review 59
The
Pedestal 96
Presence
2025
Kevin Roy, The Mortician’s Son
(Lines+Stars Press)
Margo Taft Stever, Bareback
Rider (Broadstone Books)
July+ Events – ET
 |
| Linda Simone |
Ongoing, the Waring (TX)
Market Gallery, exhibit featuring work by watercolorist Linda Simone, and
painters Vera Smith and Laura Lopez
July 10, 11am-3pm, The New
Dawn Foundation,“Untying
Our Tongues: Languages, Literature, and Our Own Writing,” with
Lisa Schantl who will lead discussion and writing in a historic waterfront
location; register here
July 10, 6pm, The Calandra Italian-American Institute, open
mic followed by Cathy Gigante-Brown and Mike Jurkovic
 |
| Kevin Roy |
July 12, 6pm, Atomic Books
(Baltimore), Lines+Stars launch of Kevin Roy’s The
Mortician’s Son
July 13-14, 11am-6pm, Governor’s
Island, The New
York City Poetry Festival
July 17, 4pm, Alliance Française USA, “Sargent
and Paris and the Gilded Age,” a talk via Zoom by art historian
Beth Gersh-Nesic, PhD; register here
July 19, 3pm, Studio
Theatre in Exile at MoCA, “Poetry as Identity,” panel discussion
featuring Sarah Bracey White, Elizabeth Burk, and Edward Currelley
July 19, 6pm, Boston
Marriott Burlington, Speculative
Writing Open Mic at Readercon
34
hosted by Christina M. Rau
 |
| Christina M. Rau |
July 20, 1:30pm, The
Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Boathouse, A Persistence of Cormorants
Poetry Series, Mary Newell and others
August 20, 7pm, Smithtown
Nesconset Library, Ann Cefola on “Discovering Translation,” an
informal workshop and reading from Alparegho,
Like-nothing-else
Monthly Workshops and
Readings
Use this link and
scroll to listings
Old-Fashioned Cherry Cola Recipe
This comes from my favorite store
on the planet, the Vermont
Country Store—where you can find the syrup and concentrate
needed for this nostalgic recipe:
8 oz. plain seltzer or sparkling
watercola syrup, to taste
Simple syrup or stevia, to taste
Make it a float with a scoop of
cherry or vanilla ice cream!
ʼRound the
Net
 |
Madame Chassagne and
Captain Verlay in The Art of Crime |
Translators Chen Du and Xisheng
Chen on two translated Yan An poems, translator interviews, and audio in The Notre Dame Review
Musician and songwriter Brian
Eno on “What Art
Does”
Art historian Beth Gersh-Nesic
on her review of the French television series, L’Art du
Crime in Bonjour
Paris
 |
| Richard Hague |
Poet Heller Levinson on his upcoming chapbook, toward a reduced philanthropy (The Bodily Press), book Crossfall (Black Widow Press), poems in Word for/Word, and being a recent LitBalm feature
 |
The Bride, oil painting
by Meg Lindsay |
Poet and artist Meg Lindsay
on having three
poems in The Monterey Poetry Review, and an oil painting,
“The Bride,” in an international juried exhibit at the Cape Cod Museum of Art
Poet Mary McCray for sharing
this flashback of the Geico Caveman (John Lehr) reminiscing in Intro to
Anthro with 2 Humans
 |
| Photo courtesy The Free Press |
Yorktown Poet Laureate John
McMullen for this
article on “How Catholicism Got Cool”
 |
Dos Madres Press Publisher
and poet Robert Murphy |
Filmmaker Bob Nesson on the
release of Holding
Up the Sky, a documentary project to advance reforms for
incarcerated and returning citizens
Poet Mary Newell on her
recent LitBalm reading
Poet Jean-Luc Pouliquen on
my translation of his poem, “We Must Let Childhood,” in Presence
2025, and for introducing us to the artist Bertille
de Baudinière
Bassist Larry Schwartzman
for this clip
of Buddy Guy and Junior Wells
Poet and artist Linda Simone
on curating “On the Square,” a multi-artist exhibit of 14 x 14-inch urban etchings,
at Kapej
Gallery & Café, October - January
 |
| Frank Vitale |
Filmmaker Frank Vitale on
his newest film, A
Meditation on Longing, latest installment of The
Metropolis Organism film series, and new blog
Poet and playwright Sarah
Bracey White on her essay, “Counterpoint,” in Well Said
Well Read (Writers Read Press)
Have a beautiful summer, everyone!
Until next time,
Ann
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