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BraveMaker Podcast with special guest Shia Smith! Welcome our special guest, Shia Shabazz Smith, a filmmaker, screenwriter, poet, and educator whose work celebrates and authentically represents diverse communities. Shia is a powerhouse storyteller with accolades from the Moondance and Tribeca All-Access competitions and is a three-time Sundance Screenwriters' Lab Stage Two finalist. Her short films, like the poignant Dawn and the humor-filled Curdled, showcase her ability to weave powerful narratives. A Cave Canem Fellow, award-winning poet, and educator, Shia's passion for storytelling extends to empowering young minds. Tune in to hear Shia's journey, creative insights, and passion for impactful storytelling. Let's celebrate the art of authentic narratives together! Watch the weekly LIVE stream on BraveMaker YouTube. Follow BraveMaker on social media: Instagram TikTok Facebook #BraveMaker #Podcast #LIVE #Stream #Fundraising
Thom Francis introduces us to Rico Frederick who was the featured poet at Nitty Gritty Slam #75 on August 5, 2014, at The Low Beat in Albany, NY. --- Nitty Gritty Slam was a joint project between Albany Poets, Urban Guerrilla Theatre, and the Frequency North Reading Series at The College Saint Rose. The poetry slam brought together artists from academia, the local spoken word community, and visiting writers from across the country on 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month. NGS started in 2011 with a goal of sending the first team from Albany to the National Poetry Slam. All together, the Capital Region was represented three times at Nationals. On Tuesday, August 5, 2014, Rico Frederick was the featured poet at Nitty Gritty Slam #75 at The Low Beat in Albany, NY. Rico Frederick is a graphic designer and the author of the book Broken Calypsonian (Penmanship Books, 2014), holds an MFA in Writing from Pratt Institute, a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Finalist, Fulbright semi-finalist, Cave Canem Fellow, Poets House Emerging Poets Fellow, Pushcart nominee, and the first poet to represent all four original New York City poetry venues at the National Poetry Slam. His poems, artistic work, and short film have been featured in the New York Times, Muzzle, Epiphany, No Dear Magazine, The Big Apple Film Festival, an Academy of American Poets Contest - Honorable Mention, Best of the Net Anthology Nominee (poetry) 2017 and elsewhere. Rico is a Trinidadian transplant, lives in New York, loves gummy bears, and scribbles poems on the back of maps in the hope they will take him someplace new.
In this episode of The Poetry Exchange, we talk with one of poetry's greatest leading lights, Malika Booker, about the poem that has been a friend to her: ‘The Domestic Science of Sunday Dinner' by Lorna Goodison.Malika Booker, currently based in Leeds, is a lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, a British poet of Guyanese and Grenadian Parentage, and co-founder of Malika's Poetry Kitchen (A writer's collective). Her pamphlet Breadfruit, (flippedeye, 2007) received a Poetry Society recommendation and her poetry collection Pepper Seed (Peepal Tree Press, 2013) was shortlisted for the OCM Bocas prize and the Seamus Heaney Centre 2014 prize for first full collection. She is published with the Poets Sharon Olds and Warsan Shire in The Penguin Modern Poet Series 3: Your Family: Your Body (2017). A Cave Canem Fellow, and inaugural Poet in Residence at The Royal Shakespeare Company, Malika was awarded the Cholmondeley Award (2019) for outstanding contribution to poetry and elected a Royal Society of Literature Fellow (2022).Malika has won the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem TWICE: in 2020 for 'The Little Miracles' (Magma, 2019), and most recently in 2023 for 'Libation', which you can hear her read in this episode.'Libation' was first published in The Poetry Review (112:4). ‘The Domestic Science of Sunday Dinner' by Lorna Goodison is published in Turn Thanks by Lorna Goodison, University of Illinois Press, 1999.You can read the full text of ‘The Domestic Science of Sunday Dinner' on our website.P.S. don't forget you can pre-order your copy of Poems as Friends – The Poetry Exchange 10th Anniversary Anthology – which is published by Quercus Editions on 9th May 2024. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In their latest collection of poems, Cave Canem Poetry Prize winner Brionne Janae dives into the deep, unsettled waters of intimate partner violence, queerness, grief, and survival. This event took place on July 6, 2023. “I've decided I can't trust anyone who uses darkness as a metaphor for what they fear,” poet Brionne Janae writes in this stunning new collection, in which the speaker navigates past and present traumas and interrogates familial and artistic lineages, queer relationships, positions of power, and community. Because You Were Mine is an intimate look at love, loneliness, and what it costs to survive abuse at the hands of those meant to be “protectors.” In raw, confessional, image-heavy poems, Janae explores the aftershocks of the dangerous entanglement of love and possession in parent-child relationships. Through this difficult but necessary examination, the collection speaks on behalf of children who were left or harmed as a result of the failures of their parents, their states, and their gods. Survivors, queer folks, and readers of poetry will find recognition and solace in these hard-wrought poems—poems that honor survivorship, queer love, parent wounds, trauma, and the complexities of familial blood. Get Because You Were Mine from Haymarket: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/... Speakers: Brionne Janae is a poet and teaching artist living in Brooklyn. They are the author of Blessed are the Peacemakers (2021), which won the 2020 Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize, and After Jubilee (2017). Janae is the recipient of the St. Botoloph Emerging Artist award, a Hedgebrook Alum, a proud Cave Canem Fellow, and a 2023 National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellow. Their poetry has been published in Best American Poetry (2022), Ploughshares, the American Poetry Review, the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, the Sun Magazine, jubilat, and Waxwing among others. Janae is the co-host of the podcast The Slave is Gone. Off the page they go by Breezy. Amber Flame is an interdisciplinary artist whose work garnered residencies with Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, and more. Her first poetry collection, Ordinary Cruelty, was published through Write Bloody Press. Flame is a recipient of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture's CityArtist grant and served as Hugo House's 2017-2019 Writer-in-Residence for Poetry. Krysten Hill is the author of How Her Spirit Got Out (Aforementioned Productions, 2016), which received the 2017 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize. Her work has been featured in The Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day Series, Poetry Magazine, PANK, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Winter Tangerine Review, and elsewhere. She is recipient of the 2016 St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award, 2020 Mass Cultural Council Poetry Fellowship, and 2023 Vermont Studio Center Residency. JR Mahung is a Belizean-American poet from the South Side of Chicago and one half of the Poetry duo Black Plantains with Malcolm Friend. They teach, write, and study in Amherst, MA. JR is a 2016 Pushcart Prize nominee, a 2017 Emerging Poet's Incubator Fellow, and the 2018 Individual World Poetry Slam representative for the Boston Poetry Slam. Tweet them about rice and beans @jr_mahung. Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine, editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry, winner of the Lascaux Prize in Collected Poetry, and author of Blue Hallelujahs. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, MacDowell Colony, and Château de la Napoule among other foundations. Watch the live event recording: https://youtube.com/live/oQzdrRc6y7k Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Why and how do you decolonize an organization's bylaws?In this episode, host Tim Cynova connects with three leaders from the U.S.-based nonprofit Dance/USA about their recent and ongoing work to decolonize their organization. Joining the discussion are Kellee Edusei, Executive Director of Dance/USA, and Holly Bass and Jim Leija, two members of the Board of Directors who co-lead the process to decolonize their organizational bylaws.We discussed the what, why, and how of the process Dance/USA engaged in over the past couple of years.Visit Dance/USA online.EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:The importance of decolonizing organizational structures: The conversation highlights the need to critically examine and reimagine organizational structures that are often rooted in racism and oppression. Decolonizing these structures is essential for fostering inclusivity and equity in the workplace.The significance of continuous reflection and learning: The leaders of Dance/USA emphasize the importance of an ongoing process of reflection and learning in the journey of decolonization. This includes acknowledging challenges, celebrating successes, and adapting strategies as necessary.Core values as guiding principles: Dance/USA operates based on core values – creativity, connectivity, equity, and integrity – that serve as guiding principles for their work in decolonizing their bylaws and developing inclusive practices.Collective responsibility in creating change: The conversation underscores the collective responsibility of individuals and organizations in creating an anti-racist, inclusive, and equitable dance field. This necessitates collaboration, sharing of resources, and actively challenging systemic barriers.GUEST BIOS:HOLLY BASS is a multidisciplinary performance and visual artist, writer, and director. Her work explores the unspoken and invisible social codes surrounding gender, class, and race. She was a 2020–2022 Live Feed Resident Artist at New York Live Arts and a 2021–22 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow. She is the recipient of Dance/USA's Engaging Dance Audiences grant and part of their inaugural class of Dance/USA Fellowships for Artists. She studied modern dance (under Viola Farber) and creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College before earning her Master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Her work has been presented at spaces such as the National Portrait Gallery, the Seattle Art Museum, Art Basel Miami Beach (Project Miami Fair), and the 2022 Venice Biennale as part of Simone Leigh's Loophole of Retreat. Her visual artwork includes photography, installation, video, and performance. A Cave Canem Fellow, she has published poems in numerous journals and anthologies. She is currently the National Director for Turnaround Arts at the Kennedy Center, a program which uses the arts strategically to transform public schools facing severe inequities. KELLEE EDUSEI (she/her) is the first BIPOC Executive Director of Dance/USA, a forty-one year old, historically and predominately white led organization. After over a decade of serving in multiple capacities (first as the Office Manager and soon after as the Board Liaison and Director of Member Services), Edusei currently has the privilege of sitting at the helm of Dance/USA during this moment of change. Edusei embodies an ethos of “being in humble service to the dance ecosystem.” Through her leadership, she is committed to cultivating a practice of bringing to life the organization's stated core values of Creativity, Connectivity, Equity and Integrity. Under her leadership, Edusei is leading Dance/USA in building an environment that...
Season 3 EP 44 DuEwa interviews poet, Joel Dias Porter. Joel's new release is titled, Ideas of Improvisation (Thread Makes Blanket Press, 2022). Visit www.threadmakesblanket.com and follow Joel on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Subscribe and Follow NERDACITY PODCAST @Spotify @ApplePodcasts @Anchor & more! FOLLOW Nerdacity on Instagram @nerdacitypodcast. TWEET Nerdacity on Twitter @nerdacitypod1. LIKE Nerdacity on Facebook.com/NerdacityPodcast. WATCH/LISTEN to YouTube.com/DuEwaWorld videos of Nerdacity. SUPPORT future episodes of Nerdacity by donating at PayPal.me/duewaworld or Cash app $duewaworld Thanks for listening! BIO Joel Dias Porter (aka DJ Reneg8d) originally from Pittsburgh, PA & currently resides in South Jersey. The 1998 & 1999 Haiku Slam Champion, he has poems in POETRY, Mead, Best American Poetry 2014, Callaloo, Antioch Review, Red Brick Review, & the anthologies, Short Fuse, Role Call, Def Poetry Jam, 360 Degrees of Black Poetry, Poetry Nation, Beyond the Frontier, and Catch a Fire. A Cave Canem Fellow, he received the 1995 Furious Flower "Emerging Poet Award". His collection “Ideas of Improvisation” is just out from Thread Makes Blanket Press. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/duewafrazier/support
Good day, bilches! We're winding down this stab at a third season with our last, luminous guest, Amaud Jamaul Johnson, with whom we discuss advisorship, allusion, and arrangement. Born and raised in Compton, California, educated at Howard University and Cornell University, AMAUD JAMAUL JOHNSON is the author of three poetry collections, Red Summer, Darktown Follies, and Imperial Liquor (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020). A former Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford, MacDowell Fellow, and Cave Canem Fellow, his honors include the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the Dorset Prize, and a Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared in Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, The New York Times Magazine, Kenyon Review, Callaloo, Narrative Magazine, Crazyhorse, Indiana Review, The Southern Review, Harvard Review and elsewhere. His most recent collection was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2021 UNT Rilke Prize. NEAT GLASS OF THE MACALLAN FINE WHISKY: The Macallan Fine & Vintage Single Malt Scotch Whisky, nothing else.
Friends, lovers, bilches—this episode wraps up our pandemic season of The Poet Salon, and what an episode it is! After chopping it up with Amaud Jamaul Johnson on smoke, speakers, and silences, he brought us Linda Gregg's "The Poet Goes About Her Business." If this is your first encounter with the poem, we're excited for you but also very jealous. Born and raised in Compton, California, educated at Howard University and Cornell University, AMAUD JAMAUL JOHNSON is the author of three poetry collections, Red Summer, Darktown Follies, and Imperial Liquor (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020). A former Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford, MacDowell Fellow, and Cave Canem Fellow, his honors include the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the Dorset Prize, and a Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared in Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, The New York Times Magazine, Kenyon Review, Callaloo, Narrative Magazine, Crazyhorse, Indiana Review, The Southern Review, Harvard Review and elsewhere. His most recent collection was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2021 UNT Rilke Prize. LINDA GREGG was born in New York and raised in Marin County, California. She earned both a BA and an MA from San Francisco State University. Gregg published many several collections of poetry, including All of It Singing: New and Selected Poems (2008), a Los Angeles Times Favorite Book of 2008 and winner of the Poetry Society of America's William Carlos Williams Award; In the Middle Distance (2006); Things and Flesh (1999), finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Award for Poetry; Chosen by the Lion (1995); Sacraments of Desire (1992); Alma (1985); and Too Bright to See (1981). Gregg's lyrical poetry is often admired for its ability to discuss grief, desire, and longing with electrifying craftsmanship and poise.
Celebrate the finalists in the 2021 Poetry Contest with the Enoch Pratt Free Library and Little Patuxent Review! The three finalists, another contributor to the summer issue, and LPR's head editor read. Steven Hollies, the winner of the 2021 Poetry Contest, is a Rockville native living mostly inside his head, a 2019 graduate of Howard Community College, and a drop-out from many other times and places. He enjoys playing volleyball, guitar, hooky, jokes, games, with words, around, along, it cool, hard to get, with fire, and the fool. Read "Body/language," the poem that won the 2021 Poetry Contest. Virginia Crawford, a 2021 Poetry Contest finalist, is a long-time teaching artist with the Maryland State Arts Council. She has co-edited two anthologies: Poetry Baltimore, poems about a city and Voices Fly, An Anthology of Exercises and Poems from the Maryland State Arts Council Artist-in-Residence Program from CityLit Press. She earned degrees in Creative Writing from Emerson College, Boston, and The University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Her book Touch appeared in 2013 from Finishing Line Press. Apprentice House Press published questions for water in April 2021. She writes and lives in Baltimore. Learn more at virginiacrawford.com. Rosemary Hutzler, a 2021 Poetry Contest finalist, teaches, writes, and mothers in northwest Baltimore. Growing up on an island near Seattle, she was imprinted by natural beauty, quirky houses, and iconoclastic personalities. She also lived in Maine, Connecticut, France, and Brooklyn before settling into Baltimore and its Jewish community. Her teachers have included John Hollander, Michael Collier, Mark Strand, and Gerald Stern. Her work has appeared in the Texas Observer, the Baltimore Sun, the Baltimore City Paper, the Forward, Nimrod, and elsewhere. Read her translation of R.M. Rilke's "Grown Woman" and her review of a republication of Ellen La Motte's Backwash of War. .chisaraokwu. (she/her), a contributor to LPR's summer 2021 issue, is an Igbo American actor, poet, and healthcare futurist. Her poetry and essays have appeared in many journals, including Berkeley Poetry Review, Cutthroat, Obsidian, and Tinderbox Poetry. Named a Cave Canem Fellow in 2020, she looks forward to post-pandemic travel. Read her poem "The Suicide Bomber Climbs A Mountain & Leaves A Note." Chelsea Lemon Fetzer, a contest judge, holds an MFA in Fiction from Syracuse University. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in journals such as Callaloo, Tin House, Mississippi Review, and Minnesota Review. Her essay “Speck” appears in The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives about being Mixed Race in the 21st Century. She is a 2019 Rubys recipient for the Literary Arts. Fetzer currently teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Baltimore. She serves on the board of CityLit Project and as head editor of Little Patuxent Review, a literary and arts journal that publishes creative work from the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond. Read her poem "flare." Pictured: (top row) Virginia Crawford, Steven Hollies, Rosemary Hutzler, (bottom row) .chisaraokwu., Chelsea Lemon Fetzer. Recorded On: Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Raymond Antrobus was born in London to an English mother and Jamaican father. He is a Cave Canem Fellow and author of ‘The Perseverance' and 'All The Names Given' both being published in the US this year by Tin House. His first children's picturebook 'Can Bears Ski?' illustrated by Polly Dunbar is published by Candlewick Press. His work has been featured on NPR, BBC, The Guardian, Lit Hub, POETRY Magazine among others. His accolades include a Ted Hughes Award, Sunday Times/University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year Award, the Rathbone Folio Prize and he was awarded an MBE for his contribution to English language literature. He is currently based in Oklahoma City.
Join us for a virtual reading by Virginia Crawford, E. Doyle-Gillespie, Meg Eden, Brian Gilmore, Joseph Harrison, Christine Higgins, and Michael Salcman, seven local poets with recent books. Virginia Crawford, author of questions for water (Apprentice House Press, 2021), is a long-time teaching artist with the Maryland State Arts Council. She has co-edited two anthologies: Poetry Baltimore, poems about a city and Voices Fly, An Anthology of Exercises and Poems from the Maryland State Arts Council Artist-in-Residence Program. She earned degrees in Creative Writing from Emerson College, Boston, and The University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Her book Touch appeared in 2013 from Finishing Line Press. She writes and lives in Baltimore with her family. E. Doyle-Gillespie is a Baltimore City Police officer. A 15-year veteran of the force, he has worked in patrol, operations, and education among other specializations. His books of poetry include Masala Tea and Oranges, On the Later Addition of Sancho Panza, Socorro Prophecy, and Aerial Act. His most recent title is Gentrifying the Plague House, an exploration of our world of social upheaval and pandemic. He is a former teacher who holds a BA in History from George Washington University, and a Master of Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University. Meg Eden is a 2020 Pitch Wars mentee and teaches creative writing at Anne Arundel Community College. She is the author of five poetry chapbooks, the novel Post-High School Reality Quest (2017), and the poetry collection Drowning in the Floating World (2020). She runs the Magfest MAGES Library blog, which posts accessible academic articles about video games. Find her online at www.megedenbooks.com or on Twitter at @ConfusedNarwhal. Brian Gilmore, Washington, D.C., poet and longtime public-interest lawyer, is the author of four collections of poetry: elvis presley is alive and well and living in harlem, Jungle Nights and Soda Fountain Rags, We Didn't Know Any Gangsters, and come see about me, marvin, which received a 2020 Michigan Notable Book Award. He is a Cave Canem Fellow and Kimbilio Fellow and twice recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award. He currently teaches social justice law at Michigan State University. Joseph Harrison is the author of six books of poems, including Someone Else's Name, Identity Theft, Shakespeare's Horse, and, most recently, Sometimes I Dream That I Am Not Walt Whitman. His poetry has been published in numerous journals (such as The New York Review of Books, Parnassus, Raritan, and The Yale Review) and several anthologies (including Best American Poetry, the Library of America's American Religious Poems, and Norton's Leadership: Essential Writings of Our Greatest Thinkers). He is Senior American Editor for the Waywiser Press. Christine Higgins is the author of Hallow, a full-length collection of poetry published in spring 2020 (Cherry Grove). She was the second-place winner in the Poetry Box competition for her chapbook, Hello, Darling, in 2019. She is the co-author of In the Margins, A Conversation in Poetry. She has been the recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Award for both poetry and nonfiction. Her work has appeared in America, Poetry East, Naugatuck River Review, and Windhover. Learn more at www.christinehigginswriter.com. Michael Salcman, poet, physician and art critic, served as chairman of neurosurgery at the University of Maryland and president of the Contemporary Museum and CityLit. Poems appear in Arts & Letters, Café Review, Hudson Review, New Letters, and Raritan. Books include The Clock Made of Confetti; The Enemy of Good Is Better; his popular anthology, Poetry in Medicine; A Prague Spring, Before & After, winner of the Sinclair Poetry Prize; and Shades & Graces: New Poems (Spuyten Duyvil, 2020), inaugural winner of The Daniel Hoffman Legacy Book Prize. Listen to “Thoughts on Making Soup and War” by Virginia Crawford. Read "Oasis Bridesmaids" by E. Doyle-Gillespie. Read “Rikuzentakata” by Meg Eden. Read "detroit sketch #1 (for m.l.)" by Brian Gilmore. Read “Mark Strand” by Joseph Harrison. Read “The Boy” by Christine Higgins. Listen to “In-Painting” and “The Cult of Beauty” by Michael Salcman. Pictured: (top row) Virginia Crawford, E. Doyle-Gillespie, (middle row) Meg Eden, Brian Gilmore, Joseph Harrison, (bottom row) Christine Higgins, Michael Salcman. Recorded On: Wednesday, June 16, 2021
Episode 092. Robert Gibbons opens up about his journey from a small town in Florida to life in New York where he has evolved into an amazing poet, educator, and creative. Robert Gibbons, a native Floridian, came to New York City in 2007 in search of his muse Langston Hughes and found a vibrant contemporary poetry community at the Cornelia Street Cafe, the Green Pavilion, Nomad's Choir, Brownstone Poets, Hydrogen Juke Box, Saturn Series, and Phoenix among other venues. His first book, Close to the Tree, was published by the New York-based Three Rooms Press in 2012. Robert currently worked as a Literature Professor at the City College of New York. He is a Cave Canem Fellow (2019-2021) and has received residencies from the Norman Mailer Foundation (2017) and the DISQUIET International Literary Program (2018). In 2018 he completed his MFA at City College. Robert has been published in over thirty literary magazines and in several notable anthologies. Recent publication credits include Expound, Promethean, Turtle Island Quarterly, Killer Whale, and Suisun Valley Review, and the forthcoming Bronx Memoir Project: Vol. 2 published by the Bronx Council of the Arts. Robert lives in Brooklyn and continues to be active in the New York poetry scene. Flight is his second poetry collection.
The East Side Freedom Library invites you to a special evening with Mary Moore Easter and her new poetry collection Free Papers: Inspired by the Testimony of Eliza Winston, A Mississippi Slave Escaped to Freedom in Minnesota in 1860. Mary Moore Easter is the author of The Body of the World (Minnesota Book Award in Poetry Finalist, 2019); Walking from Origins; From the Flutes of Our Bones (Nodin Press 2020), and Free Papers: poems inspired by the testimony of Eliza Winston, a Mississippi slave, escaped to freedom in Minnesota in 1860. (Finishing Line Press 2021) A Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, Cave Canem Fellow, veteran dancer /choreographer, and emerita professor of dance at Carleton College, Easter is the mother of two daughters and four grandchildren. Poet Danez Smith writes: “Mary Moore Easter's Free Papers is dreaming in the archives. Through poems that document and redocument the life of Eliza Winston paired beside poems that reach across time to unite Black women in their quest to rapture the self from the prisons of nation and whiteness, Easter has built a hall of mirrors where one can come out of the other side free, transformed. Here, documents morph like a mind suddenly free from its last shackle. The poetry, freedom's promise, knows no bounds.” As a special treat, for “Winslow House: A Script for Three Voices,” Mary will be joined by her daughter Allison Easter (Based in NY, Allison Easter was the first American woman in Stomp and has performed with MacArthur awardees Susan Marshall and Meredith Monk, in Law & Order and in Will Pomerantz's adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities.) and Siddeqah Shabazz (Originally from Oakland, CA, with degrees in theater from the University of La Verne in Southern California and the Guildford School of Acting in England, she has worked in the Twin Cities with Climb, Shadow Horse, Gadfly, Chain Reaction, Freshwater, and 20% Theaters, Exposed Brick Theatre, Savage Umbrella, Aniccha Arts, Intermedia Arts, Artistry, Underdog Theatre, Transatlantic Love Affair, and Full Circle Theatre.) View the video here: https://youtu.be/6OxPEAWlDG0
Philadelphia-based poet, singer, educator and curator Yolanda Wisher is the author of Monk Eats an Afro (Hanging Loose Press, 2014) and the co-editor of Peace is a Haiku Song (Philadelphia Mural Arts, 2013). Wisher was named the inaugural Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in 1999 and the third Poet Laureate of Philadelphia for 2016-2017. A Pew and Cave Canem Fellow, Wisher was awarded the Leeway Foundation's Transformation Award in 2019 for her commitment to art for social change. Wisher taught high school English for a decade, served as Director of Art Education for Philadelphia Mural Arts, and founded and directed the Germantown Poetry and Outbound Poetry Festivals. She performs a unique blend of poetry and song with her band The Afroeaters and has led workshops and curated events in partnership with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the U.S. Department of Arts & Culture. Wisher was part of the first cohort of artists with studios at the Cherry Street Pier on the Delaware River Waterfront. She is currently the Curator of Spoken Word and producer of the podcast Love Jawns: A Mixtape at Philadelphia Contemporary, a freestanding space for contemporary and performance art.
In this week’s episode, correspondent and poet Shin Yu Pai shares another installment of Lyric World, now in its second year of programming. Lyric World engages poets in conversations about the concerns and themes that preoccupy their work. As part of Black History Month, Pai hosts poet and musician Gary Copeland Lilley in a dialogue about the creative and intellectual influences that have shaped his work. Gary Copeland Lilley is the author of eight books of poetry, the most recent being The Bushman’s Medicine Show, from Lost Horse Press (2017), and a chapbook, The Hog Killing, from Blue Horse Press (2018). He is originally from North Carolina and now lives in the Pacific Northwest. He has received the Washington DC Commission on the Arts Fellowship for Poetry. He is published in numerous anthologies and journals. Lilley is a Cave Canem Fellow. Shin Yu Pai is the author of ten books of poetry. Her work has appeared in publications throughout the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Her essays and nonfiction writing have appeared in Tricycle, YES! Magazine, The Rumpus, City Arts, The Stranger, Medium, and others. Lyric World: Conversations with Contemporary Poets is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike. The series is supported by grants from the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture, Windrose Fund, and The Satterberg Foundation. Buy the Book: http://www.losthorsepress.org/catalog/the-bushmans-medicine-show/ Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation online click here.
In this week’s episode, correspondent and poet Shin Yu Pai shares another installment of Lyric World, now in its second year of programming. Lyric World engages poets in conversations about the concerns and themes that preoccupy their work. As part of Black History Month, Pai hosts poet and musician Gary Copeland Lilley in a dialogue about the creative and intellectual influences that have shaped his work. Gary Copeland Lilley is the author of eight books of poetry, the most recent being The Bushman’s Medicine Show, from Lost Horse Press (2017), and a chapbook, The Hog Killing, from Blue Horse Press (2018). He is originally from North Carolina and now lives in the Pacific Northwest. He has received the Washington DC Commission on the Arts Fellowship for Poetry. He is published in numerous anthologies and journals. Lilley is a Cave Canem Fellow. Shin Yu Pai is the author of ten books of poetry. Her work has appeared in publications throughout the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Her essays and nonfiction writing have appeared in Tricycle, YES! Magazine, The Rumpus, City Arts, The Stranger, Medium, and others. Lyric World: Conversations with Contemporary Poets is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike. The series is supported by grants from the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture, Windrose Fund, and The Satterberg Foundation. Buy the Book: http://www.losthorsepress.org/catalog/the-bushmans-medicine-show/ Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation online click here.
In addition to the just-released From the Flutes of Our Bones (Nodin Press) Mary Moore Easter is the author of three other poetry books, The Body of the World (Minnesota Book Award in Poetry Finalist, 2019), Walking from Origins, and the forthcoming Free Papers: poems inspired by the testimony of Eliza Winston, a Mississippi slave escaped to freedom in Minnesota in 1860 (2021). She edited Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: poems in the wake of racial injustice (Rain Taxi 2020).In a long dance career in Minnesota and nationally, her awards include a Bush Artist Fellowship in Choreography, and McKnight Awards in Choreography and in Interdisciplinary Arts from Intermedia Arts. She most recently performed as a dancer in Paula Mann’s Invisible.Her career as an independent dancer/choreographer and Founder and Director of Carleton College’s dance program overlapped with writing as a Cave Canem Fellow. She is a 2020 recipient of an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Easter holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence and an M.A. in Music for Dancers from Goddard.
Brian G. Gilmore was born and raised in Washington, D.C. He is the author of three previous collections of poetry, including We Didn’t Know Any Gangsters, a 2014 NAACP Image Award Nominee. He is both a Cave Canem Fellow and a Kimbilio Fellow, and he currently teaches social justice law at Michigan State University.Brian joins us today to talk about his Michigan Notable Book of poetry, Come See About Me, Marvin from Wayne State University Press. In this latest collection, Brian imagines a dialogue between himself and Marvin Gaye, another black man from Washington D.C. who moved here to follow his career. The poems were written, in part, as a way of coping in a strange new land. Check out the book here: https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/come-see-about-me-marvin
In the spirit of back to school season, we have Mr. Aaron Coleman sharing his poem, "On Acquiescence," as well as his School Dose selection, "Theme for English B" by Langston Hughes. Aaron Coleman is the author of Threat Come Close (Four Way Books, 2018) and the chapbook St. Trigger, selected by Adrian Matejka for the 2015 Button Poetry Prize. A Fulbright Scholar and Cave Canem Fellow from Metro-Detroit, Aaron has lived and worked with youth in locations including Spain, South Africa, Chicago, St. Louis, and Kalamazoo. Aaron’s poems have appeared in journals including Boston Review, FENCE, and New York Times Magazine. As a poet and translator from Spanish, Aaron has received awards including the American Literary Translators Association’s Jansen Memorial Fellowship, the Tupelo Quarterly Poetry Contest, and the Cincinnati Review Schiff Award. Aaron is currently a PhD student at Washington University St. Louis, studying 20th Century literature of the African Diaspora and Translation Studies in the Comparative Literature Program’s International Writers’ Track. Music; "Another Brick in the Wall" by Richard Cheese
1. Kristiana Rae Colón is a poet, playwright, actor, educator, Cave Canem Fellow, creator of #BlackSexMatters and co-director of the #LetUsBreathe Collective. She was awarded 2017 Best Black Playwright by The Black Mall. 2. Dennis Rowe, dir. Port Chicago 50, at SF State's McKenna Theater in Creative Arts Building, July 28, 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., has been producing for over twenty years under his company, Dennis Rowe Productions/ Entertainment. Rowe has an extensive theater background where he has written, produced, developed and directed over eight shows. He just finished producing his show Port Chicago 50 at the National Black Theater Off-Broadway in New York. portchicago50.eventbrite.com 3. Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2018 con't with Jon Bernson: When Lighting The Voids - Sunday, July 22nd, 2pm & Friday, July 27th, 8pm; Lauren English (Director) and Roweena Mackay (Dramaturg) We also speak to Madhuri Shekar: House of Joy, Saturday, July 21st, 8pm and Saturday, July 28th, 12pm Daniel Banks (Director) and Vidhu Singh (Dramaturg). This play opens Aug. 17, 2019 at Cal Shakes in Orinda.
1. Ron Yassen (Director) of "Crossroads," a featured selection of the SFJFF, is an Emmy® Award-Winning sports documentary producer and director who began his career at Classic Sports Network and a founding member of Network of Champions. He has produced and directed numerous films, including Roger Maris: Reluctant Hero, Glory in Black and White, and Kareem: Minority of One. He is a partner at Roadside Entertainment. https://jfi.org/sfjff-2018/film-guide/crossroads 2. Deborah Santana, ed. All the Women in My Family Sing https://allthewomeninmyfamilysing.com/ 3. Kristiana Rae Colón's "suspension" is a part of the SF Playwrights Festival July 2018. She is also a poet, playwright, actor, educator, Cave Canem Fellow, creator of #BlackSexMatters and co-director of the #LetUsBreathe Collective. She was awarded 2017 Best Black Playwright by The Black Mall. Amy Mueller, Artistic Director, Playwrights Foundation, gives an introduction, overview of this 2018 season, July 20-29. http://playwrightsfoundation.org/bapf2018/ http://tobtr.com/s/10894509
Boyer, GLCA Fiction Prize Winner, has received writing grants and fellowships from the Wisconsin Arts Board and the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. He has taught at the University of New Hampshire and Northeastern University, and has taught the Journal Writing Seminar at Montserrat’s summer program in Viterbo, Italy, since 1998. His chapbook of poetry, “The Mockingbird Puzzle,” is published by Finishing Line Press. “History’s Child,” his first novel, tells the coming-of-age story of a Polish boy born in a village in eastern Poland in 1931, whose childhood is torn apart, first by the Soviet invasion from the east, then by the German invasion from the west, and ultimately by repressive grip of Stalin that sends him to the gulag and subsumes his homeland into the Soviet republic of Belarus. Horton, GLCA Nonfiction Prize Winner, is the recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award, the Bea Gonzalez Poetry Award and a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Literature. His previous work includes the poetry collection “Pitch Dark Anarchy.” Horton serves on the Board of Directors for Pen America’s Pen Prison Writing Program and teaches at the University of New Haven. He is a Cave Canem Fellow, and a member of both the Affrilachian Poets and the experimental performance group Heroes are Gang Leaders. Horton is also a senior editor at Willow Books, an independent literary press he helped found in 2006. Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, he now resides in Harlem, New York. His GLCA award winning book, “Hook: A Memoir,” explores his downward spiral from unassuming Howard University undergraduate to homeless drug addict, international cocaine smuggler, and incarcerated felon. Hook explores race and social construction in America, the forgotten lives within the prison industrial complex, and the resilience of the human spirit.
Welcome to Season 2, Episode 5 of The Poetry Gods! On this episode of The Poetry Gods, we talk to Aracelis Girmay about poetry, wolves, and more. Check out the episode and let us know what you think. As always you can reach us at emailthepoetrygods@gmail.com. ARACELIS GIRMAY BIO: Born and raised in Santa Ana, California, poet Aracelis Girmay earned a BA at Connecticut College and an MFA from New York University. Her poems trace the connections of transformation and loss across cities and bodies. In her 2011 online chat interview with the Rumpus Poetry Book Club, Girmay discussed innovative and hybrid poetric forms, stating, “I wonder what new explorations of form might have to do with documenting the new and old ways of thinking about power. Of how we've been taught to think by our families, institutions, television, computer culture, etc. [….] Perhaps the so-called hybrid poems are about dislocating or splintering the central lens.” Her poetry collections include Teeth (2007), Kingdom Animalia (2011), and The Black Maria (2016), named a “Top Poetry Pick” by Publisher's Weekly, O Magazine, and Library Journal. She is also the author of the collage-based picture book changing, changing (2005). In 2011 Girmay was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and in 2015 she received a Whiting Award for Poetry. A Cave Canem Fellow and an Acentos board member, she led youth and community writing workshops. She currently teaches at Hampshire College. She lives in New York City. Follow Aracelis Girmay on Twitter : @aracelisxgirmay Follow The Poetry Gods on all social media: @_joseolivarez, @azizabarnes, @iamjonsands, @thepoetrygods & CHECK OUR WEBSITE: thepoetrygods.com/ (much thanks to José Ortiz for designing the website! shouts to Jess X Snow for making our logo)
Brian Gilmore, Washington, D.C., poet and longtime public-interest lawyer, is the author of three collections of poetry including his latest, We Didn't Know Any Gangsters (Cherry Castle Publishing, 2014), which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and a Hurston/Wright Award. He is a Cave Canem Fellow and Kimbilio Fellow and twice recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award (2001 and 2003). He currently teaches social justice law at Michigan State University. His blog on Medium is called bumpy's blues.Joseph Ross is the author of three books of poetry: Ache (2017), Gospel of Dust (2013), and Meeting Bone Man (2012). His poems appear in many places including the Los Angeles Times, Poet Lore, Tidal Basin Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, and Drumvoices Revue. He has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations and won the 2012 Pratt Library / Little Patuxent Review Poetry Prize. He recently served as the 23rd Poet-in-Residence for the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society in Howard County, Maryland. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., and writes regularly at www.JosephRoss.net.Read "philadelphia" by Brian Gilmore. Read "Trayvon Martin: Requiem" by Joseph Ross.Recorded On: Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Brian Gilmore, Washington, D.C., poet and longtime public-interest lawyer, is the author of three collections of poetry including his latest, We Didn't Know Any Gangsters (Cherry Castle Publishing, 2014), which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and a Hurston/Wright Award. He is a Cave Canem Fellow and Kimbilio Fellow and twice recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award (2001 and 2003). He currently teaches social justice law at Michigan State University. His blog on Medium is called bumpy's blues.Joseph Ross is the author of three books of poetry: Ache (2017), Gospel of Dust (2013), and Meeting Bone Man (2012). His poems appear in many places including the Los Angeles Times, Poet Lore, Tidal Basin Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, and Drumvoices Revue. He has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations and won the 2012 Pratt Library / Little Patuxent Review Poetry Prize. He recently served as the 23rd Poet-in-Residence for the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society in Howard County, Maryland. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., and writes regularly at www.JosephRoss.net.Read "philadelphia" by Brian Gilmore. Read "Trayvon Martin: Requiem" by Joseph Ross.
Monday Reading Series t'ai freedom ford is a New York City high school English teacher, Cave Canem Fellow, and Pushcart Prize nominee. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Drunken Boat, Tupelo Quarterly, Winter Tangerine, The African American Review, Vinyl, Muzzle, Poetry and others. Her work has also been featured in several anthologies including The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop. In 2014, she was the winner of The Feminist Wire's inaugural poetry contest judged by Evie Shockley. She is currently a 2015 Center for Fiction Fellow and the winner of the 2015 To the Lighthouse Poetry Prize. Her first poetry collection, how to get over is forthcoming from Red Hen Press. t'ai lives and loves in Brooklyn, but hangs out digitally at: shesaidword.com. NYC-based poet-filmmaker Stephanie Gray is the author of Shorthand and Electric Language Stars and I Thought You Said It Was Sound/How Does That Sound? (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs 2015, 2012); Place your orders now! (Belladonna*, 2014); A Country Road Going Back in Your Direction (Argos Books, 2015); and Heart Stoner Bingo (Straw Gate Books, 2007). Her super 8 films have screened internationally and she often reads live with her films. Shorthand and Electric Language Stars was selected as a finalist for a 2016 Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry.
Dr. Raina J. León was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was introduced to poetry by her mother from a young age. She holds multiple degrees, and she’s been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her work has appeared in over 50 literary magazines and journals, and her published poetry collections include: Canticle of Idols (2008) and Boogeyman Dawn (2013) which was was a finalist for the Naomi Long Madgett Prize. Her third book, sombra : (dis)locate, will be published this year. León is a Cave Canem Fellow, as well as the recipient of other fellowships and residencies, and the cofounder of The Acentos Review (2008). She is currently an Assistant Professor at St. Mary's College of California. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Out of Our Minds is a 45 year old Poetry Radio show hosted on KKUP Cupertino 91.5fm on Wednesday nights from 8-9pm in the Bay Area or beyond the bay - streaming live on kkup.org. The show's host is Rachelle Escamilla aka Poetita. Contact Rachelle at www.poetita.com Cedric Tillman holds a BA in English from UNC Charlotte and graduated from American University's Creative Writing MFA program. He is a Cave Canem Fellow, two-time Pushcart Award nominee, and a former Nation Magazine (now Boston Review) "Discovery" contest semifinalist. Cedric's poems appear in several publications including Rove, Apogee Magazine, Iodine Poetry Journal, Crosscut, Kakalak, and Home Is Where: An Anthology of African American Poets From the Carolinas. In 2016, he was named a semifinalist in the Saturnalia Books & Cleveland State University Open Book Poetry competitions. His debut collection, entitled Lilies in the Valley, was a semifinalist selection for the 2011 42 Miles Press Poetry Award, and was published by Willow Books in 2013. He lives in Charlotte.
In this episode I talk with Cameron Awkward-Rich about his approaches to poetry and theory, and the poetry in his new book Sympathetic Little Monster. Cameron has published poems in The Journal, cream city review, Muzzle Magazine, Hobart, The Seattle Review, The Offing and elsewhere. He is a Cave Canem Fellow, a poetry editor at Muzzle Magazine, and currently a doctoral candidate in Modern Thought & Literature at Stanford University. Cam is the author of the chapbook Transit (Button Poetry, 2015) and his debut collection, Sympathetic Little Monster, was published by Ricochet Editions in 2016. Go check out Sympathetic Little Monster, its a wonderful collection. Writers who were mentioned in the shout outs: James Baldwin's essay "Here Be Monsters" Aracelis Girmay Ari Banias Danez Smith Franny Choi Sam Sax Justin Phillip Reed Fatimah Asghar Aziza Barnes Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib The Sound of Waves Breaking this week is the sound of opening an attic, as found on freesound.org
Randall Horton is the author of The Definition of Place (2006) and Lingua Franca of Ninth Street (2009), both from Main Street Rag. His poetry prizes include the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award and the Bea González Prize for Poetry. He has an MFA from Chicago State University and a PhD from SUNY Albany. Horton is a Cave Canem Fellow, a member of the Affrilachian Poets, and associate professor of English at the University of New Haven. He also serves as senior editor for Willow Books and editor-in-chief for Tidal Basin Review.
Welcome to Episode 2 of The Poetry Gods! In this episode we talk to Jeremy Michael Clark about the worst performances we've ever done, tattoo ideas, vulnerability and more. If you like what you hear, please follow us on soundcloud, subscribe on iTunes, and follow us on Twitter. JEREMY MICHAEL CLARK BIO: Jeremy Clark is from Louisville, Kentucky. A Cave Canem Fellow, he is currently living in Newark, New Jersey, where he is an MFA candidate at Rutgers University. Follow Jeremy on Instagram: @jmichaelclark Follow The Poetry Gods on Twitter: @ThePoetryGods @AzizaBarnes @IAmJonSands @JayOhEssEe Episode 3 drops on March 29th with HANIF WILLIS-ABDURRAQIB!
Monday Reading Series Angel Nafis is a Cave Canem Fellow. Her work has appeared in The Rattling Wall, Union Station Magazine, MUZZLE Magazine, Mosaic Magazine, and Poetry Magazine. She has represented the LouderArts Poetry Project at both the National Poetry Slam and the Women of the World Poetry Slam in 2011. She is an Urban Word NYC Mentor and the founder, curator, and host of the quarterly Greenlight Bookstore Poetry Salon reading series. She is the author of BlackGirl Mansion (Red Beard Press/ New School Poetics, 2012). Facilitating writing workshops and reading poems across the United States and Canada, she lives in Brooklyn. Bridget Talone is the author of the chapbook In the Valley Made Personal, published by Small Anchor Press. Recent work has appeared in The Atlas Review, White Elephant, The New Delta Review, and Salt Hill Journal. She lives in Queens.
If you’re nasty: A Janet Jackson inspired literary salon. With guests Danez Smith, Kamia Watson, Khary Jackson, Sha Cage and Tish Jones. Recorded in a live performance environment. Producer: Givens Foundation for African American Literature, Production services: iDream.tv BMR Hosts: Junauda Petrus and Erin Sharkey Special thanks to Seven Steakhouse & Sushi in Minneapolis for hosting the inaugural salon. Danez Smith – a Saint Paul native, Danez is a current mentor in the Givens Emerging Writers Program, a winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, a 2014 Ruth Lilly - Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellow, a Cave Canem and VONA alum, and recipient of a McKnight Foundation Fellowship. Sha Cage – Writer/Performer, Givens Writing Fellow, and IVEY AWARD winner for her tour de force performance in grounded last year and her solo work U/G/L/Y. Khary Jackson – Poet, playwright, dancer, musician, and Cave Canem Fellow. Kamia Watson – A native of Minneapolis, she writes under the name KamRynnKay Tish Jones – Spoken Word artist and Founder & Executive Director of TruArtSpeaks. DJ Sarah White will provide the sounds throughout the event.
Ep 33 Diana Arterian & Robin Coste Lewis: The People We close out the show with a song from Minneapolis based musician Jesse Whitney from his new album Impossible Buildings. You can find out more about his music at http://www.jsswhtny.com - and the name of the track is Immense Rooms Collapsing Inwards. Diana Arterian is a poetry editor at Noemi Press and a managing editor and founding editor at the small press Ricochet. Her chapbook Death Centos came out from Ugly Duckling Presse in 2013. She'll be talking to us about some of her new work, a collection centered around the historical figure of Agripina the Younger. Robin Coste Lewis is a Provost's Fellow in the Creative Writing & Literature PhD Program at USC. A Cave Canem Fellow, she received her MFA from New York University's Creative Writing Program where she was a Goldwater Fellow in poetry. Her first book, Voyage of the Sable Venus from Knopf won the 2015 National Book Award in poetry.
Curtis L. Crisler is a prolific poet, novelist, and mix-genre author who writes about the American experience. In his work, Crisler turns a particularly keen eye toward the Midwest, masculinity, and jazz. It seems he has published a book a year since 2007, gaining the attention of critics and winning several major awards. Currently, he teaches creative writing in the English Department at Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW). He has three books: Pulling Scabs (Willow Books; Aquarius Press, nominated for a Pushcart), Tough Boy Sonatas (Wordsong; Boyds Mills Press) and Dreamist (YA mixed- genre novel from Willow Books; Aquarius Press). His chapbook Spill won (the 2008 Keyhole Chapbook Award at Keyhole Press). He edited the nonfiction book, Leaving Me Behind: Writing a New Me (Lulu.com), on the Summer Bridge experience. He is the recipient of Cave Canem grants (a Cave Canem Fellow), also the recipient of the Eric Hoffer Award, the Sterling Plumpp First Voices Poetry Award, an IAC grant, Soul Mountain, and nominated for the Eliot Rosewater Award. His work has been adapted to theatrical productions in Chicago and New York, and he has been published in a variety of magazines, journals, and anthologies. You will certainly enjoy the conversation with this well-read, enlightened, and amiable poet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Curtis L. Crisler is a prolific poet, novelist, and mix-genre author who writes about the American experience. In his work, Crisler turns a particularly keen eye toward the Midwest, masculinity, and jazz. It seems he has published a book a year since 2007, gaining the attention of critics and winning several major awards. Currently, he teaches creative writing in the English Department at Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW). He has three books: Pulling Scabs (Willow Books; Aquarius Press, nominated for a Pushcart), Tough Boy Sonatas (Wordsong; Boyds Mills Press) and Dreamist (YA mixed- genre novel from Willow Books; Aquarius Press). His chapbook Spill won (the 2008 Keyhole Chapbook Award at Keyhole Press). He edited the nonfiction book, Leaving Me Behind: Writing a New Me (Lulu.com), on the Summer Bridge experience. He is the recipient of Cave Canem grants (a Cave Canem Fellow), also the recipient of the Eric Hoffer Award, the Sterling Plumpp First Voices Poetry Award, an IAC grant, Soul Mountain, and nominated for the Eliot Rosewater Award. His work has been adapted to theatrical productions in Chicago and New York, and he has been published in a variety of magazines, journals, and anthologies. You will certainly enjoy the conversation with this well-read, enlightened, and amiable poet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices