Wednesday, October 15: Poetry program for Florence, SC, book club

Florence, SC, local book club program
Wed., Oct. 15
11 a.m.
Florence Public Library
Free & open to the public

Reading from Keep and Give Away, plus poetry discussion

Sunday, Sept. 21: Porter Fleming Writing Competition Awards Ceremony, Augusta, GA

15th Annual Porter Fleming Writing Competition
Competition Awards Ceremony
Sunday, September 21, 2008
1:30 p.m.
Morris Museum
1 Tenth Street, Augusta, GA

I was thrilled to be among the winners of this year's Porter Fleming Writing Competition and to read with the other winners of the contest. The reading was held in the auditorium of the Morris Museum in Augusta, GA, as a part of the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival. Below are the winners of all four categories:

FICTION:
1st prize -- Michael Leslie, "Marathons, Mercurys, and Orphans"
2nd prize -- Angela Aaron, "The Tale of Tapanga"
3rd prize -- Dot Jackson, "Boy Lost"

NONFICTION:
1st prize -- Marina Brown, "Pieta"
2nd prize -- Elizabeth Estes, "How I Lost Fourteen Warts by Just Holding Hands"
3rd prize -- Marina Brown, "The Sweetness of Red Cabbage"

POETRY:
1st prize -- Allan Ryder-Cook, "Scapula"
2nd prize -- Gilbert Allen, "My Mother Teaches Me to Type"
3rd prize -- Susan Meyers, "Namesake"

PLAYWRITING:
1st prize -- Amy Richerson, "The Ex-Box"
2nd prize -- Thomas McConnell, "Colliding with Andromeda"
3rd prize -- Joseph Barry, "Bait and Switch"

This year's final judge for the poetry division was Stephen Corey, poet and editor of The Georgia Review. For more information, see Arts in the Heart of Augusta.

Friday, Sept. 19: Visit to Furman University class

I was recently invited to visit the undergraduate poetry workshop of Gil Allen, professor and poet at Furman University in Greenville, SC. The purposes of the visit was to give the students a chance to hold a small-group conversation with a working poet. What a pleasure! After I started our session by reading a poem, the twelve students in the class each told me about what for them seemed hard, and in turn what seemed easy, about writing poems. We also talked about such issues as where our poems come from, how we get started, and how much revising we do. I tried to emphasize the fact that my poems rarely begin with an idea; they're much more likely to begin with a line that comes to me. Typically I keep laying down one line after another, not really knowing where I'm headed. The more I write, the more I like the mystery of where the developing poem is taking me, its surprises and turns along the way. It's probably apparent, too, that I like to sit and talk about writing.

The students were eager for the exchange, which made my whole trip worthwhile. Thanks for inviting me, Gil. And thanks to the students--James, Christan, Rachel, Duncan, Drew, Sarah, Gwendolyn, Scott, Stephen, Keegan, Ait, and Helen--for voicing your concerns and ideas about the writing process. I was happy to be there for our conversation on poetry.

Thursday, September 18: After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery, a reading by area anthology contributors, Charleston (SC) County Public Library

After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery from Life-Shattering Events
Thursday, Sept. 18
Charleston County Library
68 Calhoun Street
Charleston, SC
7 p.m.
Book signing and reception will follow the reading.
Anthologies will be available for purchase.

Area poets included in the anthology who will read:
Paul Allen, of Charleston
Linda Ferguson, of Charleston
Richard Garcia, of Charleston
Barbara G.S. Hagerty, of Charleston
Kurtis Lamkin, of Charleston
Susan Meyers, of Summerville
Gail Peck, of Charlotte
Marjory Wentworth, of Mt. Pleasant
Tom Lombardo, editor, of Atlanta


MORE ABOUT AFTER SHOCKS:

Sante Lucia Books is pleased to announce publication of a ground-breaking anthology, entitled After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events, edited by Tom Lombardo. The anthology comprises 152 poems by 115 poets from 15 nations, including: 3 U.S. Poets Laureate, a Pulitzer Prize winner, 2 Whitbread Prize winners, and many others. Chapters cover stories of recovery from Grief, War, Exile, Abuse, Divorce, Bigotry, Illness, Injury, Addiction, and Loss of Innocence.

The anthology grew out of the editor’s personal experience surviving the death of his spouse when he was in his early 30s. “I was a young widower, and over the years since then, I've spoken with others going through similar trauma, trying to come to terms with my own grief and what it meant for my continuing life. After receiving my MFA in Creative Writing, and turning my writing more toward poetry, I came to realize that poetry could help express the hope and the will to live that eventually springs from these life-shattering events,” said Tom Lombardo.


Early Praise for After Shocks:

This anthology is of national and international significance. It is a collection that crosses and embraces all boundaries—culture, class, gender, and race. It takes us into the hardest places human beings have to go—the failures of personal relationships, loss of loved ones, genocide, racial oppression, addiction, loss of innocence, marginalization, and more. And, yet, each section moves, finally, toward a place of hope and dignity and resilience.
—Cathy Smith Bowers, Author, The Candle I Hold Up To See You

This wonderful and important anthology…is a solid act of generosity…a gift of testimony from poets across a broad range of experience and language, poems that tell us we can gather ourselves from the shock of upset and loss in life and continue…After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery is a book that seeks to stand up and walk among us as a living thing, a force to activate the good and prepare us to weather the bad.
—Afaa Michael Weaver, Author, The Plum Flower Dance

The sum of these poems is to tell the truth and by the telling to find relief and sometimes healing. The ones who read and hear these poems can share the loss that is so common among us, and perhaps also share the healing that comes through bold voice.
—Walter Brueggemann, Ph.D. Author of Finally Comes the Poet, Biblical Scholar, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia

In this collection of poetry, recovery…speaks to transformation and hope…Many of these poems can help individuals acknowledge the reality of their losses and develop an understanding that helps them continue on their life's journey…This international collection of poetry can serve as an aid in promoting compassion and courage. We draw courage from those on a similar path.
—Nicholas D. Mazza, Ph.D., editor of Journal of Poetry Therapy


Complete List of Poets Included:

Rita Dove Simon Armitage Carol Dine Douglas Dunn Cathy Smith Bowers Patricia Wellingham-Jones Donald Hall Carol Ann Duffy Molly Gloss Thomas Lux Pam Bernard Elizabeth Bernardin Sandor Kányádi Stellasue Lee Doug Anderson Jim McGarrah Sonja Besford Martha Collins Rachel Tzvia Back Brian Turner Nazand Begikhani Liu Hongbin Paul Sohar Satyendra Srivastava Marjorie Wentworth Diana Woodcock Majid Naficy Shelley Davidow J. P. Dancing Bear Margaret Chula Major Jackson Lisha Adela Garcia Ron Rash Annie Finch Barbara Mitchell Roseann Lloyd Joy Helsing Nehassaiu deGannes Peter Cooley Paul Allen R.G. Evans Barbara G.S. Hagerty Clinton B. Campbell Iain Haley Pollock Laurel Blossom Willie James King Georgia Ann Banks-Martin Kevin Young Tolu Ogunlesi Meir Wieseltier Randall Horton Richard Garcia György Faludy Bette Lynch Husted William Stafford Terri Wolfe J. Stephen Rhodes Gail Rudd Entrekin Anthony S. Abbott Faye J. Hoops Farideh Hassanzadeh Rebecca McClanahan Sister Lou Ella Hickman Anna Rabinowitz David Bottoms Janet Winans Alexa Selph Dennis Ward Stiles Renée Michele Breeden Ellen Doré Watson Joseph Mills Liesl Jobson Deborah P. Kolodji Aimee Nezhukumatathil Kurtis Lamkin C.C. Thomas Barbara Presnell Naomi Ruth Lowinsky Jericho Brown Therése Halscheid Becky Thompson John McAllister J.E.Pitts William Greenway Susan Varon Shaindel Beers Genie Cotner Marcia Slatkin Barbara Mitchell Joan Houlihan Jenni Meredith Rhett Iseman Trull Pramila Venkateswaran Diane Holland Valerie Nieman Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda Susan Meyers Joseph Enzweiler Jane Gentry Rachel Eliza Griffiths Gail Peck Jennifer Barber Ilya Kaminsky Allison Hedge Coke Steven Cramer Linda Annas Ferguson Kevin Simmonds Nancy Tupper Ling Carole Baldock Deema Shehabi Kate Gale Jeffrey Levine Bernardo Atxaga


After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events
Edited by Tom Lombardo, 388 pages
Available August 29, 2008
Sante Lucia Books
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9816354-0-8

For further information or to order copies in advance,
please go to The Poetry of Recovery.
Also visit the press's blog.

Fri., Aug. 22: Celebration for Ed Madden's book Signals

Signals: Celebrating the Art of Ed Madden
Friends of Ed Madden Book Launch
Friday, August 22nd
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Columbia Museum of Art
Corner of Hampton and Main
Free and Open to the Public

Join the South Carolina Poetry Initiative for a celebration of Ed
Madden’s Signals, a work already acclaimed by award-winning poets: "Signals calls us to consciousness in a natural world that is at once quietly witness to our loves and losses and yet always as urgently and insistently alive as we are. Ed Madden, as with any of our most necessary poets, locates us plainly in this conflicted Eden, this garden of the reverent imagination…" — Rafael Campo

Signals was selected by Afaa Weaver as the winner of the 2007 South Carolina Poetry Initiative’s Book Contest, and on August 22 the Initiative is going to toast the book, celebrate Ed Madden’s journey, and maybe roast the poet a bit! Hear Madden read from the book as well as hear readings from some of Ed’s friends, who happen to be among South Carolina’s finest poets. Vera Gomez, Ray McManus, Kevin Lewis, and Susan Meyers are a few of the folks who will take to the stage to toast this gifted poet. The evening will include a reception, music, and a superb display of photography that maps many of the landscapes Madden brings to life in this stunning collection. Join us as we celebrate friendship, the written word, and art that addresses the legacies and landscapes of our region.

Ed Madden is an associate professor of English and associate director of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina as well as writer in residence at the Riverbanks Botanical Gardens in Columbia, South Carolina. Madden is the author of Tiresian Poetics and coeditor of Geographies and Genders in Irish Studies. His essays on politics and Southern culture have appeared in many newspapers and journals and been featured on NPR. He was selected by editor Natasha Trethewey for inclusion in the anthology Best New Poets 2007. For information contact Charlene Spearen at cmspeare@mailbox.sc.edu or call (803)777-5492.

Kakalak 2008 is now available

Congratulations to 2008 KAKALAK editors Beth Cagle Burt, Lisa Zerkle, and Richard Allen Taylor on the release of this year's anthology, the third in the series of Kakalak: Anthology of Carolina Poets. Each year the editors hold a poetry and art contest--putting out a call for poetry and art submissions from North and South Carolina poets/artists, and from other poets/artists with work about the Carolinas. Poet Colette Inez served as judge for the poetry competition this year. 2008 Kakalak includes the results of this year's contests, as well as a special section of work by poet and photographer Steve Lautermilch, winner of both contests last year.

This year's cover art, Watertrees, is by Patz Fowle; and, as always, the anthology is a beautiful book. It contains the work of more than a hundred poets and about twenty visual artists. Copies can be ordered at the anthology's website: Kakalak

I'm extremely pleased to be included again in the new edition, doubly pleased that my poem received an honorable mention in the poetry contest:


Whistling through My Hands

Until today, the dove's cry hasn't come
from so deep inside itself since that summer
Emily stepped from the curb into the night's traffic.
She, the troubled bright wonder in our class.

This moment, straight through me because out here
I'm closer, my ear a vessel of sorrow?
I want to carry that sound into fall. No, winter.
The morning I read her obituary

I went to Paul, our teacher.
Found him in his office and sat there numb
while he cried, that big man at his desk,
his plastic black cat clock behind him on the wall.

Now Paul gone too. I have to remind myself.
If I hollow my hands, clasped together
into the shape of the church
without the steeple, or the people,

line up my thumbs just so,
I can blow on them to make that long, low call
I practiced and practiced as a child, till finally
when it came to me, it came to me by heart.

                                        for Paul Rice

Thur., June 12: Reading & signing at The Happy Bookseller, Columbia, SC

Thursday, June 12
Reading & book signing
The Happy Bookseller
4525 Forest Dr. Columbia, SC 29206
6 p.m.
Phone: 803.782.2665; Toll Free: 800.787.1503

Linda Annas Ferguson -- Bird Missing from One Shoulder
Ray McManus -- Driving through the Country before You Are Born
Susan Meyers -- Keep and Give Away
Marjory Wentworth, Poet Laureate of SC -- Despite Gravity

Apr. 28 Reading at the Greensboro Public Library

Thanks to those who came to the Greensboro (NC) Public Library on Monday, April 28, when Mark Smith-Soto and I read. Despite an all-day rain storm (that cleared up just in time for the reading), we had a good turnout. For the "Two Views, Two Poets" billing, we each chose to read a poem by another poet. Mark read a poem by Seamus Heaney, and I chose one by Li-Young Lee. I was honored to read with Mark, whose work I greatly admire.