your april annogram

Warm Greetings

Hello everyone. I hope this annogram finds you safe, at home, and well—working remotely or diving into a creative project. Here’s a virus overview from a doctor on the frontlines here in New York; an Israeli video on how it spreads; ways to safely bring food into your home; and a heads up that national crises increase domestic violence. This guided focusing meditation can help introduce some calm.

Poetry Month

April is the time we celebrate poetry, and I am grateful for work in Presence 2020, Bewildering Stories, Heat the Grease We’re Frying Up Some Poetry (Gnashing Teeth Press), and acceptances in S/Tick, Mother Mary Comes To Me (Madville Publishing) and What But the Music (Gelles-Cole Publishing).

Bishop in Key West

As reported by Poets and Writers, the Key West Literary Seminar (KWLS) has purchased Elizabeth Bishop's former residence in Key West, Florida. The site will become a public literary venue as well as KWLS headquarters. Arlo Haskell, executive director of KWLS, says the timeless residence still “feels like Elizabeth Bishop’s house.” 

Planet Word

An interactive museum dedicated to words and language is planned to open this year in Washington, DC. Planet Word will focus on the spoken, sung, and written word—such as a 22-foot-tall Word Wall with 1,000+ voice activated words,lighting up and explaining their arrival in the English language. The 51,000-square-foot site will be inside the historic Franklin School in the heart of DC.

Fav San Antonio Artists

"Lungs of the Earth"
by Lucia LaVilla-Havelin

Congratulations to textile artist Lucia LaVilla-Havelin on her recent exhibit at Aanna Reyes Gallery. Lucia creates needlework on canvases such as “Lungs of the Earth” to raise environmental awareness.

"Amazon Parrot" by Linda Simone

Kudos too to watercolorist Linda Simone on exhibiting at Kapej Gallery. Linda combines watercolor and ink on recycled tea bags for a gorgeous, antique-like patina—which you can see  @teabagartsa on Instagram. 

New Releases

Heath Brougher, ed. Concrete Mist Press Anthology (Concrete Mist)

Kevin Crookes, Snoff the Sloth (Independently Published)

Carrie Greenlaw, Dark Garnet (L+S Press)

Kerrin McCadden, Keep This to Yourself (Button Poetry)

Pedestal 85.2

Kevin Pilkington, Playing Poker with Tennessee Williams (Black Lawrence Press)

Jean-Luc Pouliquen, Itinéraire poétique en étoile (Independently Published)

Martina Reisz Newberry, Blues for French Roast with Chicory (Deerbrook Editions)

Geoffrey Woolf, Fontaine’s Golden Wheel Fortune Teller and Dream Book (Dos Madres Press) 

Creative Opportunities

Bob Heman

Catholic Literary Arts is sponsoring a poetry contest; submit by April 30

Clown War, aka CLWN WR, edited by poet Bob Heman, enjoys an archive that goes back to 1974
 
The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts is open for submissions.

Matter Press will send a free book if you are quarantined: email your snail mail address to matterpress@comcast.net

Morning Mahopac Writers Group and Business of Writing and Publishing Group via Zoom; email johnmac13@gmail.com

One-on-One Poetry Workshop with Arthur Vogelsang

Pedestal Magazine call for poems around “laments for the earth” or “songs of resilience”

Poetry Spoken Here is launching Open Mic of the Air; send five-minute or less audio recording of your poems and it will edit into podcasts

Rhino poetry and reviews for your reading pleasure

Blender Cornmeal Waffles

Here’s comfort food that’s easy to make—three large waffles:

1 egg

3/4 cup organic or plant-based milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup organic all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons sugar

Preheat waffle maker. Place ingredients in blender. Cover and mix at med-high speed until dry ingredients are moistened. Do not over-blend. Pour 1/2 cup batter over grids. Close waffle maker gently and bake until steam no longer escapes, about 3-5 minutes. Remove waffle with a fork and serve.

Online Poetry Events (EST)

Christina Rau

April 4, Noon, Susanna Case on her book Body Falling, Sunday Morning (Milk and Cake Press)

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0pc-yprjsjIRqbczjUvsSskdjNjumg5A.

April 5, 2pm, Ceremony and Reading, Christina Rau named Walt Whitman Birthplace Poet of the Year

https://www.facebook.com/events/173529373945304/

Charles Alexander

April 5, 4-5:30pm, "As We Keep Our Distance" with Laurel Peterson, Van Hartman, Jane Ormerod

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/502610098

April 5, 5pm, Lit Balm: An Interactive Livestream Reading Series
with Jonathan Penton, Larissa Shmailo, Marc Vincenz

April 8, 8-9pm, launch of Geoff Woolf's Fontaine's Golden Wheel Fortune Teller and Dream Book https://zoom.us/j/703950105

Charles Alexander and Eli Goldblatt on the Chax YouTube channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxUXE-_zgL8acZC6-K2obzg?view_as=subscriber

Distāntia Remote Reading Series 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvvXC1Q4IwxV7Ve6h1026cg

ʼRound the Net

Sarah Bracey White (far right)
with fans at AWP

Poets Ed Ahern and John McMullen on work in The Creativity Webzine

Memoirist Sarah Bracey White for selling all her copies of Primary Lessons (CavanKerry) at AWP

Poet and Open Mic Host Bill Buschel on the perks of being a pirate

Author Kevin Crookes on his new YouTube channel for kids

Art Historian Beth Gersh-Nešić for her fantastic article on Degas (1834-1917) and salute to Notre Dame as we near the April 15^th anniversary of its burning

Poet Cindy Hochman on having work appear in the new Concrete Mist Press Anthology (Concrete Mist)

Heller Levinson

Poet Heller Levinson on editing Alligator Zine (Belgium) and praise from the Los Angeles Review

Poet and artist Meg Lindsay on recent painting exhibit, “Mostly New,” at the Irvington Library

YA Novelist Alison McBain on her debut novel The Rose Queen (Fairfield Scribes) becoming a Wishing Shelf List finalist

Poet Mary McCray for sharing this look into the new world of mega-online meetings

Poet John McMullen for this article on the never-ending poem

Poet Ralph Nazareth for reminding us of one of the most timely and poignant lines in poetry

Poet Jean-Luc Pouliquen on being featured on the January 9, 2020 and June 6,  2019 broadcasts of Les poètes

The New York Public Library for Books You’ve Always Meant to Read

Jorge Luis Borges
(1899-1986)

Poet Christina Rau on being named the Walt Whitman Birthplace Poet of the Year

Musician Larry Schwartzman for sending us this roundup of 2020 poetry reads

Poet and artist Linda Simone for the story behind Good Night Moon

Scholar Ilan Stavans for this animated short on Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)

Writer Alison Stine on the financial and physical barriers to AWP attendance

Filmmaker Frank Vitale on his film, “The Erotic Fire of the Unattainable”, at the Sarasota Film Festival

Poet Neal Whitman and photographer Elaine Whitman on respective work in Immagine e Poesia (Italy)

Special thanks to Dr. Steve Guggenheim, Marie Morris RN, Bill Buschel, and Barbara Dickinson for the sharing the helpful virus-related videos above

Some Indoor Treats

Christopher Kimball

Billboard.com has an online guide to its list of live-streamed music, and past shows

Christopher Kimball's Milk Street is offering free cooking courses through the end of April

2,500 museums can be visited virtually courtesy this article shared by Beth Gersh-Nešić

Nike dropped subscription fees for its NTC Premium services that stream 185+ workouts

Coursera is offering Yale’s popular course, The Science of Well-Being, for free

(C)Ovid and Metamorphosis

Ovid (43 bce - 17 ce)

What a bizarre few weeks! I was finishing The Metamorphoses while life around me seemed to transform. An old school salesman shook my hand after a purchase, and I thought, “He’s not afraid,” then “Is that my last handshake?” Rome faces a plague at the end of Ovid’s volume of beloved and often disturbing myths. The oracle instructs elders to bring back Asclepius, the god of medicine, from Greece, and the city recovers. Could part of our cure be here already—slowing down, spending time with family, focusing on immediate needs, and savoring fresh air outdoors? Something profound is shifting, sprouting feathers, growing wings. Hold on, keep connected, and wait for whatever takes shape.

Be safe, be creative!

Until next time,

Ann

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