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Christopher Luna by Alisha Jucevic for the Columbian

Christopher Luna by Alisha Jucevic for the Columbian
Christopher Luna by Alisha Jucevic for the Columbian

Friday, September 17, 2010

Brittany Baldwin, Barbara Drake, and Barbara LaMorticella at St. Johns Booksellers Saturday, September 18/Joann Ferias and Cindy Williams Guitterez on KBOO's Talking Earth Monday, September 20

From Barbara LaMorticella barbala@teleport.com


Barbara LaMorticella

September 18, Noon, St Johns Booksellers 8622 N Lombard, Portland
Barbara Drake, Brittany Baldwin, and Barbara LaMorticella
read on Market Day

Barbara Drake, Brittany Baldwin and Barbara LaMorticella team up for an end of summer reading. Enjoy an afternoon of organic produce at the St. John’s Farmer’s Market, and books and spoken word at the St. Johns Booksellers from Noon to 1 o’clock.

One of Oregon’s most beloved poets, Barbara Drake raises sheep, grapes and grandchildren on her small farm in Yamhill. Barbara is winner of many awards for both poetry and prose, and her memoir Peace at Heart was an Oregon Book Award finalist. Her college textbook, Writing Poetry, has been in print and continuously used in colleges across the country since 1983. Barbara's work is both grounded and ever-changing.

Brittany Baldwin
Brittany Baldwin combines fabulous cookery with extraordinary poetry and writing. She has cooked and catered professionally for almost 20 years. She currently owns and runs a personal chef catering company, and grows many of her own vegetables and herbs herself organically on her small homestead. Her first collection was Broken Knuckles Against Knives Cutting The Food to Feed Me Through This. She’s won awards for both cooking and poetry.

Barbara LaMorticella has co-hosted Talking Earth on KBOO since 1988. Her second collection of poems, Rain on Waterless Mountain, was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. She’s won a Stewart H. Holbrook Award for Outstanding Contribution to Oregon Literary Arts, a Bumbershoot Big Book Award, and in 2010 the first Northwest Poets Concord Prize. Her newest collection is “The Great Dance,” poems 1969 to the present. She lives in the woods outside Portland.

THE SENSITIVE
by Barbara Drake

The truly sensitive are better than you and I, their ears flap shut at the slightest unpleasantness. To soften their passage, sleeping mice curl in the toes of their slippers. Their tongues are coated with microscopic light-emitting diodes and when they open their mouths an ethereal glow comes forth like that of a firefly caught in an old mayonnaise jar. When they move the world doesn’t jangle or slap like seawater in a rocky hollow the way it does with the rest of us, but slides past with a gentle shussing. We cannot imagine anyone having given birth to them, for their heads seem too fragile to have ever been squeezed into existence in this rough animal fashion.

EXCERPT FROM "AND THEY DO, AND IT DOES"
by Brittany Baldwin

Refusing to settle for the expectations of my form
I run my hands over butter
and smudge it across the bottom of a hot pan
with my fingers lightly.
I close my eyes instead of looking for you,
I close my eyes and think of all the men
I’ve tried to explain this to,
but before I have a chance
they’ve already decided I must be gay,
I must’ve been beaten,
I’m way too damaged to be here on the other side
of things
mixing fire and metal on food.
Scared of the work in your hands,
settling against doors of misunderstandings
trying to create love,
trying to form love into a shape in my hands,
when there is only work
I am only working food through my skin.
They cannot see the rhythm,
they cannot see the processes,
they only see me with my eyes closed
in a cloud of stress and time...

Talking Earth Monday Night September 20
10-11 PM Pacific Time
KBOO, 90.7 FM Portland

Hispanic Heritage Month: Joann Ferias and Cindy Williams Guitterez bring poetry and music in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month to Talking Earth on Monday September 20. To open the Miracle Theater’s 2nd-annual festival of Hispanic Arts and Culture, Guitterez has teamed up with writer-storyteller Lynn Darroch and musician Gerardo Calderon to stage Dreaming the Americas: Encounters/Encuentros. Encuentros is a journey through the Americas from south of the border through the Northwest, narrated through the dreams of spoken word artists, and accompanied by the rhythms of Latin guitar and cello and the haunting sounds of pre-Hispanic instruments and Didgerido. Cindy and Gerardo preview and talk about the show, the theater, and the celebration.

Los Portenos is a lively group of Hispanic poets that has crystallized around the Teatro Milagro. Joann Ferias brings some of Los Portenos to share the air with Guitterez and Calderon.

THE BOY IN THE BALLOON
by Barbara LaMorticella

For Falcon Heene, who vomited at a press conference when asked
to vouch for his father’s lie that Falcon had accidentally cut loose his father’s
home-made balloon and then hid. The whole thing was actually his father’s
elaborate publicity stunt. Millions watched the untethered balloon fly

Watching as the balloon raced,
we grew so much bigger than ourselves.
our hearts came out of the basement.

We, too, were caught in an updraft,
spiralling unmoored, untethered from earth.

We floated with the six year old,
tossed and buffeted,
our world out of control,
not knowing where we would end
what field we would find ourselves in
when we came down.

Only when the balloon crashed
did we realize the ride we’d really taken
had never left the earth.
The wizard was only a con man.

The single grace note in the story was
the vomiting of a boy
who wouldn’t lie.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Poet Emmett Wheatfall's Cascade AIDS Project Fundraiser Friday, September 17

From Carolyn Lee and Emmett Wheatfall:

There Stood I: The Poetry of Emmett Wheatfall
Cheatham Hall
4033 SW Canyon Road
Portland, OR 97221

Performances by:
Mario DePriest
Lindy Fisker
Ronault “Polo” Catalani
T. Allen Bethel
Dorothy Elmore 
Jana Cole
David OrnetteCherry 
Lynn Darroch
Lawrence Howard
Richard Wingard
Sunshine Dixon
Paula Small
Lynne Duddy
Anderson Duboise

Capacity is Limited ‐Please RSVP by September 15, 2010:
cascadeaidsprojectfundraiser@yahoo.com

Thank You to Our Generous Sponsors: Elephants Delicatessen and Quick Stop Photo

Friday, September 17, 2010

6:30p –7:00p
Reception

7:00p –7:45p
Silent auction

8:00p –10:00p
Poetry readings

Hors d’ oeuvres will be provided
No‐host refreshments
will be available

A Charity Fundraiser For
Cascade AIDS Project

This is an amazing fundraiser for Cascade AIDS Project (CAP) involving poetry, photography and dignitaries (200+ guests). The event will be held on Friday, September 17, 2010 from 6:30p – 10:00p at the World Forestry Center’s Cheatham Hall in Portland.

We chose to partner with Cascade AIDS Project because of Emmett Wheatfall's personal connection with AIDS - his sister passed years ago of AIDS related complications and he wrote a poem about it. As a result, CAP was the perfect charity to benefit from this fundraiser and we named the event after his poem.

The event itself consists of an intimate reception then a performance piece. The reception will involve music, photography/poetry, a silent auction/raffle, hors d’ oeuvres, and beverages. Guests will have the opportunity to bid on the artwork consisting of Emmett Wheatfall’s poetry incorporating professional photography by local photographer Tony Sibley. All proceeds will go to charity.
The performance part involves dignitaries and community leaders reading Emmett’s poems that are specifically chosen for them.
 
Please RSVP by September 15th to cascadeaidsprojectfundraiser@yahoo.com.

Emmett Wheatfall: http://emmettwheatfall.com/

Cascade AIDS Project: http://www.cascadeaids.org/

Friday, September 10, 2010

NYC Poet Eileen Myles at The Waypost (Portland, OR) September 19

Eileen Myles
Photo by Lucia Dipierro
From Jesse Morse (via David Abel):

Please come out to The Waypost (3120 N Williams Ave., Portland) to see renowned poet Eileen Myles read from her new poet's novel, Inferno. Smorg is extremely excited to host this event. Sunday, September 19th, 7:30 pm. Food, beer, wine and espresso all available at The Waypost. See you there!

Smorg
http://www.smorgreadingseries.blogspot.com/

Eileen Myles will be reading from Inferno (a poet’s novel) which chronicles the adventures of a young female writer finding her sex and aesthetics in the last decades of the 20th C. Eileen’s books of poems include Not Me, School of Fish and Sorry, Tree. Her first fiction, Chelsea Girls, appeared in 1994 followed by Cool for You (a nonfiction novel) in 2000. She taught in the writing program at the University of California at San Diego for five years, returning to New York in 2007. Last spring she was the Hugo visiting writer at U.MT, Missoula. Her essays were collected in 2009 in The Importance of Being Iceland for which she won a Warhol/Creative Capital grant.

http://www.eileenmyles.com/

http://www.thewaypost.com/


Interview with novelist Shawn Rohrbach

Check out this interview with Shawn Rohrbach, novelist and author of the new book, Cast the First Stone, from H.I.P. Publishing in Tacoma, WA:

http://nwconvergencezone.com/wordpress/2010/09/episode68-part-2-author-shawn-rohrbach-and-more/

Author Shawn Rohrbach

Cast the First Stone: Set in France during the Tour de France, a young American cyclist is caught up in an ever growing and systematic doping scandal. In order to deflect attention from himself, he accuses his own father of a heinous crime. [Description from http://www.shawnrohrbach.com/]

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Christopher Luna and Toni Partington's contributions to Vancouver's Community Constellation, a collaborative art piece

I am very proud to have been among those invited to contribute to the Community Constellation, a collaborative art project in which several artists were gicven a small, round wooden circle upon which to create a piece on the theme of "community." These circles were then connected together and displayed at the Brickhouse Bar and Grill (109 W 15th St, http://www.vancouverbrickhouse.com/) and later at The Space (2315.5 Main St., behind One World Merchants, http://thespaceartcollective.blogspot.com/). Here is a photograph that I took of the piece as it appeared in The Space:


Colleen Lindsay, who is one of the founding members of The Space, wrote a great article about the project: http://www.vanvoice.com/article/20686-art+goes+round

Christopher Luna with the
"Community Constellation"
at The Space
Vancouver, WA

"Time Traveling"
Toni Partington's piece for
"Community Constellation"
Photo by Christopher Luna

"GHOST TOWN, USA"
Christopher Luna's contribution to
"Community Constellation"
Photograph by Christopher Luna

The "Community Constellation" was first displayed at the Red, White, and Black Ball, an event that took place at Brickhouse Bar and Grill in Vancouver, WA on Friday, February 5, 2010.


"Community Constellation"
at Brickhouse Bar and Grill
Photo by Anni Becker

To see more of Anni Becker's wonderful photographs of the Red White and Black Ball, go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kermitlover/sets/72157623366627994/

My thanks to Colleen Lindsay for inviting me to contribute to this unique project. Her role as  a local muse and mentor has inspired all of us. I would also like to thank those in Vancouver who continue to support my work. I am very proud to be a part of this growing community of artists. Art is happening in the 'Couve!

Friday, September 3, 2010

THE WORK: SEPTEMBER 2010

Friends and poetry lovers,

A new season is nearly upon us. Some will return to the classroom. Some will reassess. I am about to begin my 40th year on the planet. What a marvelous adventure it has been. I want to thank everyone in the arts community who has made my time here in the Vancouver metropolitan area so filled with laughter, learning, words, music, and art. I look forward to the discoveries this next year will bring.

The fall marks the return of my workshop, known, like this newsletter, as “The Work,” after a line in “Memory Gardens,” a poem by Allen Ginsberg: “Well, while I'm here I'll/do the work –/and what's the work?/to ease the pain of living./Everything else, drunken/dumbshow.”

We will listen to spoken word recordings, discuss poetry and the poet’s role in the community, and do some writing together. Let me know if you’d like to speak to a former participant of the workshop to determine whether it would be right for you. I am also excited to announce that the workshop will take place in the newly opened Niche, a wine bar owned and operated by Angst Gallery Director Leah Jackson. Niche is located at 1013 Main, right next door to the gallery. The workshop costs $20 and will take place from noon to 2:30 on Saturday, September 11. Hope to see you there.

Congratulations to Dan Raphael on the publication of his selected poems. Dan is someone for whom I have a deep admiration and respect. I want to thank Dan for his freindship, encouragement, and support, and for all that he does to keep poetry alive in the Pacific Northwest.

Here is Dan's announcment about the new book: "I'm very excited about my new book, Impulse and Warp: The Selected 20th Century Poems; it contains poems from my first 13 books, representing over 26 years of work. More information at the publisher http://www.wordcraftoforegon.com/. First reading for Impulse and Warp will be 9/19, 4, at Hawthorne Powell's. Penelope Scambly Schott will also be reading, from her new book, Crow Mercies."
Would you like to see photos and hear audio from Our July 30 viewing party for "When You're Strange," the new Doors documentary? Thanks to Rich Lindsay for recording, editing, and posting the podcast of our Jim Morrison open mic, and Anni Becker for photographing the proceedings. Also, thanks to Jenney Pauer, Bernadette Barrio, Mokii, Rich and Debra Marshall, Kyle David Congdon, Lori and Jake Loranger, Angelo Luna, and Toni Partington for partying with us. Special thanks to my partner Toni for the delicious snacks and beverages:

http://christopherluna-poetry.blogspot.com/2010/08/photos-and-audio-from-special-viewing.html

Thanks to my old friend Jason Mashak for his kind mention of me in this interview for Black Heart Magazine (http://blackheartmagazine.com/2010/08/18/an-interview-with-jason-mashak/). There is a ridiculously long list of Portland poets whom I might never have met were it not for Jason. Please take a look at this interview and consider buying his book, "Salty As a Lip."

M’s poem “Salt” was recently featured on Rattle’s blog. If you go to the page, you can also hear her reading it: http://rattle.com/blog/page/2/

My friend Matt Meighan’s popular songwriting workshop is starting up again:


I've got a couple of spaces left in my eight-week "Songwriting as Truth-Telling" class that starts Tuesday, Sept 28. (It's limited to 8 or 9 people, and there are two classes: 3:30-5:30 pm and 7 - 9 pm). A description of the class can be found here: http://www.songwritingastruthtelling.com/classes.php.

The classes usually get full well before starting, so if you're interested or would like more information, please let me know. - Matt matt@mattmeighan.com

Ed Sanders performing with the Fugs in New York City, 1967
Ed Sanders recently made his seminal book, “Investigative Poetry,” available for free online: http://woodstockjournal.com/pdf/InvestigativePoetry.pdf. This book, which I first read in the Allen Ginsberg Library at Naropa University, cracked my head open and changed the way I thought about poetry forever. Check it out.

Neeli Cherkovski
Photograph by Jannie Dresser
Jannie Dresser has written a good article about Neeli Cherkovski for the SF Poetry Examiner:

http://www.examiner.com/poetry-in-san-francisco/nexus-poet-neeli-cherkovski-walks-the-past-into-the-future

Please join us at Cover to Cover Books on Thursday, September 9,
when our featured reader will be Ed Coletti:

Open Mic Poetry
hosted by Christopher Luna
7:00pm Thursday, September 9, 2010
& every second Thursday
Cover to Cover Books
1817 Main Street, Vancouver
McLoughlin Blvd. & Main Street
“always all ages and uncensored”
For more info call
360-514-0358 or 360-910-1066

Poet, essayist and painter Ed Coletti graduated from Georgetown University and the Creative Writing Masters Program at San Francisco State University (under Robert Creeley). Coletti has published several books of poetry including thawts ($12), Jazz Gods ($9), and Bringing Home the Bones ($9), which will be available at the reading. Recent work has appeared in Big Bridge, divide, Lilliput Review, Italian Americana, Unlikely Stories, Blueline, The New Verse News, Jerry Jazz Musician, poem, and home An Anthology of Ars Poetica (Hill & Waber, 2009 Paper Kite Press). His work also appeared alongside that of Lawrence Ferlighetti and Diane DiPrima in Avanti Popolo, an anthology of Italian-American poets (edited by James Tracy for Manic D Press). Coletti is the publisher of Round Barn Press. He lives with his wife Joyce in Santa Rosa, California where he operates the respected Bay Area-wide Poetry Azul Reading Series. His internet presence includes ″Ed Coletti’s P3” (http://edcolettip3.blogspot.com/) and ″No Money In Poetry” (http://edwardcolettispoetryblog.blogspot.com/).

For more info on Ed, read this recent profile from the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/poetry-in-san-francisco/ed-coletti-s-swan-song-at-poetry-azul-sunday-september-5

blitz chess with eric bourdon & the animals
by Ed Coletti

may need to leave this game before it ends,
nation building is very much like that,
get to know your new-afflicted neighbor
divorce her as you would a coughing pup;

time for sending Christmas cards again arrives
no ritual will ever put the face of god on mystery
political genial jaguars primp and eat the camera
the pump don’t work cause the vandals took the handle

round table pizza prices soar like a rocket through the roof
all the clocks are running backwards once again
martial law about to be declared for the infinite time,
won’t anybody look at me including me?

speed kills, go slowly
Sergeant Pepper’s salt of earth
time hath no fury like a moment cornered
this letter of the law which killeth

let the white space do the talking
martha, mary, joseph,
we gotta get outta this place
before before

or stay awhile longer on the real scene
hoping that your progeny might glean
a bit from such crumbs your nonsense sews
less than a tapestry, more than just clothes.


Onward, instanter,
for there are
no weekends for poets,
Christopher Luna

THE WORK
SEPTEMBER 2010

NEWSLETTER TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. LiTFUSE Launch Party with Susan Rich, Mimi Allin, Elizabeth Austen, and Dan Peters at Hugo House (Seattle, WA) September 7.

2. The Writings on the Wall: Text-Based Interactive Art, Music, Poetry September 10th Launch Pad Gallery (Portland, OR)

3. Karen Tolley, margareta waterman, and David Lloyd Whited at St. Johns Booksellers (Portland) Sept. 11

4. The Studio Series with Barbara Drake and Scot Siegel + open mic at Stonehenge Studios/Ross Island Café Sept. 12 (Portland)

5. Judith Montgomery + open mic at Barnes and Noble Vancouver September 14

6. Figures of Speech: Crystal Williams and BT Shaw + open mic at 100th Monkey Studios September 15

7. Dennis McBride at Paper Tiger open mic September 16 (Vancouver, WA)

8. Spare Room: Jen Currin and Don Mee Choi at Concordia Coffee House (Portland) September 18

9. Paulann Petersen and Paul Merchant at Moonstruck Chocolate Café (Lake Oswego, OR) September 19

10. Two new articles and a publishing opportunity/contest from Sage Cohen

1.
LiTFUSE Launch Party, Sept. 7 @ 7pm @ Hugo House.
Words, music & wonder, featuring Susan Rich, Mimi Allin, Elizabeth Austen, Dan Peters & surprises. $5 donation.

LiTFUSE Poets’ Workshop 10.8.10-10.10.10. LiTFUSE is an annual weekend-long poets’ workshop held in Tieton, WA (near Yakima), for poets of all ages, abilities & styles. LiTFUSE combines writing, performance, meditation, music, camaraderie and natural beauty to IGNiTE your muse. This year’s featured artist, teacher & poet Ingrid Wendt, leads a faculty with deep experience and varied styles. For more information and to register, please visit www.litfuse.us, or email michael@litfuse.us - Northwest Writers, UNiTE!

Michael Schein
LiTFUSE Director
206.714.3178

http://www.litfuse.us/
http://www.michaelschein.com/

2.
The Writings on the Wall
ONE NIGHT ONLY: Text-Based Interactive Art, Music, Poetry
September 10th - 25th, 2010

SECOND FRIDAY
September 10th, 2010
7pm-1am
FREE! ALL AGES!

Northern Soul 45’s lovingly laid down by DJ Asher Loverdi

WHAT IS IT??
Home-made Magnetic Poetry vs. Freestyling vs. Improvisation vs. Live Painting vs. Open Mic

We’re having a happening Happening of sorts, because we believe that YOU, our art-loving public, have something to say, so we’re taking a chance to experiment and providing the tools to make something unique and wonderful! We require YOUR HELP to make the art this month! Bring your FAVORITE WORDS to include in a gigantic text-based experiment in collaborative writing, music and art making.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Come prepared with your thesaurus in tow, ready with ideas and images to share and work into a grand text masterpiece of our collective creation….

We will provide hundreds of blank 3×5 index cards, push pins and markers, along with 40 feet of empty wall and pre-made pronouns, prepositions and nouns- just basics, basically.

YOU and your friends bring ideas along with your favorite adjectives, nouns, verbs. Feel free to bring poems of your own to translate onto the wall, but know that your words will hopefully be cannibalized into other peoples sentences, just like on the fridge.

(you can pre-make 3×5 cards with word on them if you’d like to get extra fancy!)

Over the course of the night, the wall will change and evolve as musicians, artists, DJ’s, MC’s and poets integrate your words and ideas into their flow alongside, as well as performing their own original material.

In between music acts, we will have OPEN MIC opportunities for YOU to share poems, stories and snippets that you have created during the night using the words on the wall.

LIVE PAINTERS
(Artists will sell the work they create through out the night via silent auction)
CHRIS HABERMAN
JENNIFER MERCEDE

LIVE MUSIC, IMPROVISATION & FREE-STYLING

CHILDISH: Poet & songwriter Rob Childish will be bringing original songs as well as lyrics and poems created on the fly

REED WALLSMITH & TIM DuROCHE
Improvisational Jazz

THE WORD ASSOCIATION
Featuring Variant & Pecos B.
Beats, rhymes and stories

NORTH VOID COLLECTIVE & START FIRES:
Featuring: Joe Cyrus, Wellis Fool, Daltonic, DMLH, DJ Shermstixx
Freestyling! Pass the mic….

Launch Pad Gallery - 534 SE Oak Street, Portland, OR 97214 - 971.227.0072

NEW HOURS: Wednesday-Saturday 12 - 4pm, & by appt.

3.
Market Day Poetry Series
Curated by Dan Raphael

*Karen Tolley*
*margareta waterman*
*David Lloyd Whited*

saturday, september 11
12:00 noon
Free admission

St. Johns Booksellers
8622 N. Lombard
503-283-0032
http://www.stjohnsbooks.com/

The Market Day Poetry Series is a collaboration between St. Johns Booksellers and the St. Johns Farmers' Market (located in the nearby plaza), taking place each Saturday at noon during the market season.

About the readers:

*Karen Tolley* announced her love of the written word when she was two years old. she reads and reads and occasionally writes -- as the spirit moves her. her creativity, not limited to words themselves, enhances her environment in many projects of literary focus: a bookstore which is the cultural center of the county; an artisan bookbindery; guiding boards of library and bookfair. local writers value her support and inspiration. she seldom publishes or presents her own writings. this opportunity to hear her read is rare and precious.

*margareta waterman* (author of many books of poetry and fiction, founder of *nine muses books*) is known to most of you. now semi-retired, she reads publically less and less and enjoys it more and more, is very happy to put her voice out into portland air.

*David Lloyd Whited*, currently a planner for the Puyallup Indian Tribe in Tacoma, Washington, lives on Vashon Island with his wife, four cats, a ragged family of raccoons, and various other critters. his reputation as a distinguished poet rests on the integrity of his poetic voice. his recent books include */Shadow Dance/*; */Wet Way Home/*; */The Elevens/*; */3 & 1/*. Now in manuscript, */Olde Man Coyote Goes to Towne/* will be published by nine muses books.

4.
The Studio Series: Poetry Reading and Open Mic will feature Barbara Drake and Scot Siegel on Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010 at Stonehenge Studios/Ross Island Café, 3508 SW Corbett Avenue, Portland 97239 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Free and open to the public, the Studio Series is held monthly on second Sundays. For additional information please contact organizer and host leahstenson@comcast.net.

5.
BARNES & NOBLE VANCOUVER WELCOMES ANOTHER OREGON BOOK AWARD WINNER. Judith Montgomery will read from "Red Jess" and introduce other poems after she drives over from Bend. We are very fortunate to host Judy, our 2nd OR Book Award-winning author in a row and someone who comes highly and widely recommended. The reading, along with an open mic afterwards: Tuesday, Sept. 14th at 7 pm, Barnes & Noble Vancouver, 7700 NE Fourth Plain Blvd., 98662. Order "Red Jess" now and have it come to your home before the event so Judy can sign it! Just click here or paste into address bar: http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?WRD=red+jess&box=red%20je&pos=-1 This is a pre-paid title, and one in plentiful supply. Order on or before Sept. 6th! See you soon, Shawn Sorensen, crm2679@bn.com

6.
Figures of Speech: Join hosts Steve Williams and Constance Hall for our next event on September 15th at the 100th Monkey Studios (110 S.E. 16th Ave, Portland) for a reunion of sorts. B.T. Shaw and Crystal Williams will renew their friendship in person. Earlier, B.T. published an interview with Crystal in the Oregonian. Crystal has been out of the state until recently so this is one of your first chances to hear her since her recognition as a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. And as always, open mic, a writing prompt, cookies, and other fun.

Crystal Williams, a native of Detroit, Michigan, is the author of three books of poetry, most recent of which is Troubled Tongues, winner of the Long Madgett Poetry Prize and finalist for the Oregon Book Award. Her work appears or is forth oming in journals and anthologies including, The American Poetry Review, 5AM, Callaloo, Ploughshares, and The Norton Anthology of African American Poetry, among others. She is a MacDowell Fellow and a recipient of a 2009 Oregon Arts Commission fellowship. She is an associate professor at Reed College.

B.T. Shaw lives in Portland, where she edits the Poetry column for The Oregonian and teaches at Portland State University and in the certificate program at the Independent Publishing Resource Center. Her debut collection, This Dirty Little Heart, won the 2007 Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry. She is afraid of staplers.

Figures of Speech is sponsored by the Oregon State Poets Association.
Third Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m.
Starting January 2011, we’re moving to the third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m.
http://figuresofspeechpdx.wordpress.com/

7.
From Dan Nelson:

Hey there wordsmiths,
Thanks to everyone who attended, read, or publicized August's poetry event at Paper Tiger. It just keeps getting better and better. The variety of subjects and styles and the high quality of the verse make little feet of joy (even the misplaced pride of vicarious identification) go pitter pat through the tunnels of what passes for my mind. We were particularly blessed by the profound words of our featured reader, Kori Sayer, whose honesty is eclipsed only by her talent for creative elucidation of the pains and joys and gray areas of existence. Thank you Kori!

For September I am excited as a vulture over carrion (death smells sweeter to them than lilacs to us) to announce the appearance of Dennis McBride. Dennis is a Portland based free lance loiterer, writer, and part time barfly who barely graduated from Lincoln High School after completing his GED with marginal honors. He received an honorable discharge from the US Air Force after 4 years of service, despite being involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital in Texas for 1 month due to a misunderstanding. He later attended Wichita State for 2 consecutive months. He later spent most of his working life as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the medical/industrial complex. His work has appeared in 'The Oregonian', 'The LA Times', 'The Washington Post', 'NBC Radio-Los Angeles', and numerous poetry anthologies and periodicals including the Canadian magazine 'Open Minds' and the California magazine 'Journal'. He has recieved positive notice of his work from Edward Albee and the late, Pulitzer Prize winning author William Styron. He is the author of two works of poetry and satire, "Looking for Peoria" and "Killing the Mockingbird" He was the recipient of the 1996 Andreas Berger Award for Poetry. He is still alive and lusts, lies, cheats and steals--but only when it's the right thing to do.

So do yourself a favor and be at Paper Tiger, 703 Grand Blvd. (between Mill Plain and Evergreen in Vancouver) on September 16th at 7pm . Please bring a poem or 2 to read at our open mic (5 minute max due to the number of readers), and join with some of the best poets in the Northwest declaiming their heartfelt musings. Plus the coffee can't be beat, as well as a host of other hot and cold beverages. Here's a sampler of Dennis's work to spark a flame of desire.

Dan Nelson 360-334-1129 or nelsondaniel59@yahoo.com

Grace by Dennis McBride

What strangeness comes over us.
The things I've done that don't
belong in a poem and the other
things I've wanted to do that
could not be put in one and the
mind that wonders what that
means about the poem and about
me and why it is the poem saves
us from these things and from
the ones yet to come like an
exit door in a bad movie.
We hope there is a God,
silly, and sinful, and wise
who grades on a curve
from an endless blue sky
almost as large as the heart
which keeps hurting and healing us
and ends when it must like the poem.

Mustard by Dennis McBride

The wrists and mind are weak tonight
and there's so much to do.
I think of all the dirty windows of the world,
the lost keys to locked doors,
and I drift toward the longing of
a slightly burnt hot dog with mustard
like a single engine plane on empty
looking for a sure place to land.
My dog Alfie and I are still alive
and I know this is a miracle.
He's 21 years old.
That's a hundred and forty seven
in human years, but sometimes,
when he's chasing a grasshopper,
he forgets that and his arthritis vanishes.
It's good to desire what you don't have,
even lilacs come back again and again.
Suddenly he's four and a half,
following something inside
the dark cave of his mind,
glittering and sparkling.

The Future of Rome by Dennis McBride

Let's say having increases hunger,
that light makes it harder really to see.
Then suppose, like me, you don't have eyes,
suppose you don't have ears to hear
and there is no nose.
Imagine, like me,
you don't even have a mouth
to put the sweet, soft black berry in.
But suppose there are Red and Green and Yellow,
that you feel them.
Then suppose you had a lamp
bigger than you to lean against,
a dark maroon red carpet to sit on
and a blue teacup large as your chest.
Then imagine, like me,
you were made of gold,
that you were willing to be idle
and were the one to come after Man.
Think of having only to sit,
of the heart's thoughts,
of fear leading finally to safety,
speech to silence.
Think of enough.

8.
From David Abel (Spare Room Collective):

[please note that this reading takes place on a Saturday, not our usual Sunday slot]

Spare Room Presents
Jen Currin
Don Mee Choi

Saturday, September 18
7:30 pm

Concordia Coffee House
2909 NE Alberta
$5.00 suggested donation

www.flim.com/spareroom
spareroom@flim.com

Upcoming Readings

October 3 Robert Mittenthal & Standard Schaefer
November 7 Lewis Warsh & Alicia Cohen
November 14 Les Figues press authors
December 12 Kristen Gallagher & Chris Alexander

==================================================

Jen Currin was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, and lived in Boston, upstate New York, Denver, and Tempe, Arizona, before settling in Vancouver, B.C. in 2002. Jen teaches writing and literature at Vancouver Community College and Langara College. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in English, and has published three books of poetry: The Sleep of Four Cities (2005), Hagiography (2008), and The Inquisition Yours (2010).

Don Mee Choi was born in South Korea and came to the United States via Hong Kong. Her first book of poems, The Morning News Is Exciting, has just been published by Action Books. She lives and works in Seattle and also translates contemporary Korean women's poetry. Her translations include When the Plug Gets Unplugged (Tinfish), Anxiety of Words: Contemporary Poetry by Korean Women (Zephyr), and Mommy Must Be a Fountain of Feathers (Action Books).

Grafitti or You are on Yew Street
by Jen Currin

We have been busy hating
& making home-spun slogans.

Very busy. A canister of you
is a canister of me.

Walls: We can climb them,
knock them down, or dissolve…

Someone wants to respond,
to enter an egoless room.

You are on Yew Street
facing audio charges,
half-stepping, afraid of drama & editing.

But the undo mob isn’t angry.
They’re busy loving everything.

Taking fire-walking classes,
wondering if the compost worms will eat glass.

It’s not just manipulations on a page.

She let the children throw rocks at her.

It’s not just paragraphs someone wants to call emotional.

Every dog must learn repetition:

Hey, let’s go downtown and pick up some costumes.

& unlearn:

My mask—doesn’t quite fit.


To All Boys and Men!
by Don Mee Choi

Dandelions may not be weeds. They are related to chrysanthemums. Girls should.

May all weeds dislocate themselves. Girls should. I clench my fist and watch the morning news. Dandelion leaves are bitter yet tender. Girls should.

Chrysanthemums are admired. Beware. The early morning news is exciting.

9.
From Joan Maiers:

A HARVEST OF POETRY AND MUSIC FOR AUTUMN

Arrive early to order chocolate or beverages and enjoy hearing two local illustrious authors read their work. Featured are: Oregon Poet Laureate, Paulann Petersen and Oregon Book Award Nominee, Paul Merchant, as well as guitar music by Casey Killingsworth before and after the reading.

Hosted by Joan Maiers.

Free and open to the public.

$5 suggested donation to assist relief work in Haiti.

Sunday, September 19
6:30 PM

Moonstruck Chocolate Cafe
45 S. State Street in downtown Lake Oswego, OR 97034

Accessible with abundant parking.

503-697-7097

10.
Want to be more productive with your writing process and results than ever before? Two, new articles from Sage Cohen can help!

Check out "10 Ways to Be a Productivity Pro" in the "Big 10" (September) issue of Writer's Digest -- available now in your favorite bookstore. This issue can also be purchased here: http://www.writersdigestshop.com/product/print-issue-writers-digest-september-2010/?r=wdbktw072110WD0910-jenkinspromo

Cohen's companion piece, "Top 10 Productivity Pitfalls For Writers To Avoid" is available for FREE on the Writer's Digest website: http://writersdigest.com/article/productivity-pro

Both pieces offer some of the greatest tips from Sage Cohen's latest book: The Productive Writer: Tips and Tools for Writing More, Stressing Less and Creating Success -- to be released in December of this year.

MAKE YOUR POEM AN iPOEM! DEADLINE IS NOVEMBER 1

Want to see your poetry appear in a poem-a-day iPhone app? Submit up to three, 20-line poems that express the spirit of "the life poetic" to "The Life Poetic iPoem Contest" by November 1.

Sponsored by Sage Cohen, author of Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry and The Productive Writer: Tips and Tools for Writing More, Stressing Less and Creating Success, the contest offers a range of prizes with a total value of more than $400.

Get all the details here:

http://writingthelifepoetic.typepad.com/writing_the_life_poetic/2010/08/the-life-poetic-ipoem-contest.html

SUBMISSION CALLS AND OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST

1.
From: allenbraden@comcast.net

2010 WABASH PRIZE FOR POETRY
Final Judge: JANE HIRSHFIELD
http://www.sycamorereview.com/contest/

First Prize: $1000 and winning entry published in Winter/Spring 2011 issue

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS
Deadline: October 1, 2010

1. For each submission, send up to three poems.
2. A $15 reading fee (check or money order) payable to Sycamore Review must accompany each submission. The reading fee includes a copy of the prize issue.
3. Additional poems (beyond the initial three) may be included. Increase the reading fee $5 for each additional poem.
4. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable only if Sycamore Review is notified immediately upon acceptance elsewhere.
5. All entries must be typed and must include a cover letter with the author's name and contact information (mailing address, telephone number, and email address) as well as the titles of all poems submitted. Information that identifies the author should NOT appear on the manuscript itself.
6. Manuscript pages should be numbered and should include the title of the piece.
7. Please include a self-addressed, stamped postcard if you wish to be notified upon receipt of your manuscript.
8. Manuscripts will not be returned. Winners will be announced by Dec. 30, 2010. For information on winners and runners-up, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope with entry.
9. All contest submissions will be considered for regular inclusion in Sycamore Review.
10. All poems must be previously unpublished.
11. Questions may be directed to (replace (at) with @)

Send 2010 Wabash Prize for Poetry submissions and reading fee to:

2010 Wabash Prize for Poetry
Sycamore Review
Department of English
500 Oval Drive
Purdue University
West Lafayette , IN 47907

2.
From: allenbraden@comcast.net

CONSEQUENCE Magazine: Call for Submissions

CONSEQUENCE Magazine is the literary, print magazine addressing the culture of war. We are interested in the personal and social consequences of armed conflict worldwide, and seek multi-national perspectives.

CONSEQUENCE is currently accepting submissions of exceptional short fiction, poetry, non-fiction, interviews, and visual art.

Submissions will be accepted until November 1, 2010.

For information about how to submit your work, please visit our website:

http://www.consequencemagazine.org/

3.
http://www.writeonwhidbey.com/Publications/

Soundings is currently reading for the fall issue, including our two contests, Founders' Circle Award and First Publication Contest. Deadline for these for the fall issue is September 15, but any submissions received at that time will be considered for the spring issue. All entries are considered for publication in the magazine.

Founders’ Circle: $300 award, open to all except staff of the magazine.

All genres, prose and poetry

Length: poetry up to two pages; prose (fiction or nonfiction) up to 3,000 words

Entry fee: $5 for WIWA (Whidbey Island Writers Association) members; $7 for nonmembers

Winner receives publication and $300 & publication

Follow standard submission guidelines for magazine: 12 pt. Times Roman font, double space prose, include small SASE for response or larger envelope for return of manuscript.

Write “Founders Circle Contest” on manuscript.

First Publication Contest: $100 award, open to those who have never before published in a book or magazine open to national submissions nor in a publication advertised or circulated nationally.

Entry fee: $5 for WIWA members; $7 for nonmembers

For this contest, if we receive no entries that do not meet the quality standards of Soundings Review; reading fees will not be returned.

Follow standard submission guidelines for magazine: 12 pt. Times Roman font, double space prose, include small SASE for response or larger envelope for return of manuscript.

Write "First Publication Contest " on the manuscript.

All entries will be considered for publication.

Currently, Soundings Review reads all year. Manuscripts received too late for one issue will be considered for the next. Published authors include Kelli Russel Agodon, Marvin Bell, Larry Cheek, Lorraine Healy, Bruce Holland Rogers, and David Wagoner. Full guidelines at our Website. www.writeonwhidbey.org/Publications