Rapid Poetry Reading at Series A Mini Conference

On September 19th I was honored to be asked to participate as part of this rapid poetry reading, culminating the afternoon's special mini conference on poetry and poetics. Also featured here are moderator (and Series A founder) Bill Allegrezza, Tim Yu, Kristy Bowen, Srikanth (Chicu) Reddy, Abra Johnson, Ray Bianchi, Kristy Odelius, Garin Cycholl, Chad Heltzel, Simone Muench and Nick Demske. I'm actually first on this amazing bill, reading "My Biology of Louis Pasture," "New Age Baby Names" and "My Penis," but I encourage listening to the whole reading for some sense of the incredible range of voices and material assembled for this undertaking.

Series A is dedicated to showcasing experimental writing in the US and the Midwest through readings, discussion and performance. Organized by Indiana University Northwest faculty member, William Allegrezza, this series brings exciting authors to the Hyde Park Art Center to share their work.

It looks as if I'll be back early next year for a feature at Series A. Stay tuned!

Larry Levis, "In a Country"

I am the poet-in-residence in two Hands on Stanzas schools this year. So far, work by students (grades 3-5 in one school, all 5th grade in the other, representing a rather wide demographic overall) has been pretty amazing.

I'll try to post their poems here regularly. In the meanwhile, take a gander at Shields and Solomon student work regarding Larry Levis' "In a Country." The prompt's genesis was Election Day this past week, and by its title you can see how this poem might apply. But it goes much further than that, and I was especially pleased by how readily and eagerly students responded to the poem, as well as to each other in our discussion of it. I always come well-prepared with questions and particulars to help them navigate the poem in question, but here they dove right in. Enjoy!

Window Washers

They're doing the semi-annual window washing for our building today. In honor of that -- and the brave folks whose job it is -- here's a poem from my Brief Nudity manuscript, currently circulating among potential publishers.


Window Washers

Stunt men of the air

swinging by a string,

water buckets dangle,

brushes soak inside.

Boots bang window

panes, steadying

descents. Squeegeeing

smudges with Zorro-

esque swirls, black

droplets spatter forty

stories down, dirty

tears

falling

from gratified glass.

Bucketfull of Brains

The good folks at Bucketfull of Brains are having a subscription drive.

For those unfamiliar with this fantastic music (and more) magazine, I suggest you check out their blog, Facebook, and/or My Space pages. Like many other labors of love, BoB has encountered severe financial handships the last couple of years, and even stopped publishing for a while. The last few issues have been one-offs, but now they're looking to begin publishing again on a regular schedule; however, in order to do this they need 400 new subscribers. With print magazines going under at an alarming rate, it would be a shame to see a terrific magazine like BoB suffer the same fate.

For more info on how to subscribe, see the pages, above. You won't be sorry if you support this amazing, one-of-a-kind publication!

Orange Alert Reading Series

Please come to The Whistler this Sunday, October 18th at 6 PM. I'll be featuring as part of the Orange Alert Reading Series, along with Micah Ling, Nathan Graziano, and Simone Muench.

The Whistler is located at 2421 N. Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago, (773) 227-3530. Hope to see you there!

babysue/LMNOP review of Fun with a Purpose

Thanks to venerable pop culture magazine babysue/LMNOP for the swell 5+ review of Fun with a Purpose!

September Mourn

OK, the title of this post is a pretty lame Neil Diamond pun, but it seems to work given the last few weeks.

For one thing, September's arrival pretty much puts a nail in summer's coffin, and while I'm an avowed non-fan of humidity, shorts and volleyball, since I started teaching full-time I've become accustomed to a summer vacation -- or staycation, such as it were. Even though mine was busy in its own right, I welcomed the break from the spring semester's routine, and managed to get a few items crossed off my never-ending to do list.

With September peeking around the corner, my various ducks are beginning to fall into their myriad rows...

A recent bit of good news was getting hired to teach two sections of English composition at McHenry County College. Though I was retained in the eleventh hour (the university has been swamped with a third more incoming students because of its Promise scholarship program) and had to scramble to get my syllabi together in time, everyone has been very supportive and gone out of their way to help me get settled even while juggling their own craziness at the start of a new term. Every English classroom comes equipped with computers and smart electronics -- a luxury I'm not quite used to, but plan to exploit as much as possible. And the students themselves are terrific. Both of my sections are full, and I'm excited to see how this semester goes.

I'll also be tutoring at Northeastern Illinois University, working one-on-one and in small groups with students. Classes start tomorrow. While I'm sorry not to be teaching my own section(s) again this year, I'm curious to see how this flagship tutoring program develops and pleased to be a part of it from the ground floor.

Mid-September I should also begin a new year of poet-in-residence work through The Poetry Center's Hands on Stanzas program. More to come on that front.

Continuing the onslaught of Fun with a Purpose-related news, here's another review and a link to Japanese distribution for our album. The Injured Parties will also be playing this week at Beat Kitchen; the poster, below, is self explanatory.

Finally, the reading celebrating the release of the bilingual Chinese-American anthology, on the no way road to tomorrow, to which I contributed two poems, was held on Friday. It was a great success, and I'm honored to have been a part of this ongoing cultural exchange and experiment.