last-minute reminder

The deadline for submissions to the 4th edition of Clover, A Literary Rag, is TODAY, September 30, 2012. Although the deadline is not posted (at least in any readily-obvious way) on the Independent Writers’ Studio (IWS) Facebook page or website, IWS director, Mary Gillilan, says today’s the day and please submit your finest, starting at the submissions page.

another rejection?

Anyone who submits poems gets rejections. But if ALL you get is rejections, or if you’re getting just too darn many of them, perhaps it’s time to ask “Why?” Thanks to Harriet, the blog of The Poetry Foundation, for alerting us to this helpful article from the Indiana Review, “Five Marks of Oft-Rejected Poems.”

Have a look…and then re-read some of your recently-rejected poems. Time to rewrite?

on poetry…

“The way to learn to write poetry is to write poetry. So we pass directly from the aspiration to the activity itself.” James Fenton

Reading! Wednesday, October 3

Mark your calendar for Wednesday, October 3, 2012. That’s when James Bertolino will read from his latest (his eleventh) volume of poetry, Every Wound Has a Rhythm.

In addition to being a prolific poet, a founder/prime mover of Whatcom Poetry Series and The Poet As Art, Jim was a member of the founding board of the Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest and has served as emcee for the awards ceremony for many years since. Local rumors suggest that Wednesday’s reading will be particularly upbeat, as Mr. Bertolino will launch the celebration of a milestone birthday, which happens to happen the following day, October 4.

The reading will be held at 7:00pm in the Readings Gallery (downstairs) at Village Books in Bellingham. Don’t miss it!

Every Wound Has a Rhythm and a number of Jim’s other poetry titles are available now at Village Books.

Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week, observing its 30-year anniversary September 30 through October 6, 2012, highlights the benefits of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982.

How will you participate?

Village Books, in Bellingham, will host a Banned Books Week Read-Out on Sunday, September 30, 2 to 4pm. In addition to the store’s annual, much-commented-upon banned books display, community members will read a banned text or talk about a book banning event. Village Books will record and post videos of each person as part of the nationwide Virtual Read-Out.

The Whatcom County Library Foundation invites the public to an open house to “Celebrate the Freedom to Read” on Saturday, October 6, 2 to 4pm at the Ferndale Public Library.

Show your support for the freedom to read. Check your local library and independent bookstore for Banned Books Week displays and events. Look over lists of the 10 most challenged titles of 2011 and 97 banned or challenged classics. Here’s a list of the 100 most frequently challenged books from 1990-1999 and 2000-2009. See a short 2010 list of banned poems, thanks to Harriet, the blog of the Poetry Foundation. Watch a Banned Books Week video created by Bookmans, an independent bookstore with six locations in Arizona. Like Banned Books Week on Facebook. Read a banned book.

winner wins again…

Sometimes it takes a while for news to reach us here in the upper left-hand corner. But it’s with no less enthusiasm that we share this bit of April 2012 news about Sierra Golden, a 2010 Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest Merit Award winner for her poem, What I really like about making bread.

Sierra, who is now an MFA student in poetry, won the prestigious North Carolina State University Academy of American Poets Prize, part of the Academy’s University and College Poetry Prize program.

Sierra also won an Honorable Mention in the 2011 North Carolina State University Poetry Contest for her poem, Visiting Tenakee Springs, AK, which you can hear her read here. Go Sierra!

museum in a box…

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on the upcoming Conference on Poetics, here’s an entire museum of poetics. Imagined and created by poet Jim Cohn and online since 1997, The Museum of American Poetics (MAP) documents “major trends in Postbeat poetry through its collection of online exhibits, annual Napalm Health Spa journal, poetics transmissions, video presentations, links and blog.”

As a good museum should, MAP opens the door and invites you to get lost. With a minimum of visual drama, it presents fresh combinations of older and more recent work, puts familiar poets into new categories and leads you to outside sites where you can continue to wander. And of course it has a store (and a Facebook page). Have a look.

Conference on poetics…

The University of Washington | Bothell will host The Convergence on Poetics, September 27-30, 2012, on campus at the North Creek Events Center. The conference consists of keynote panels, poetics postings and author performances. There is no fee for attending, but registration is required.

Featured poets/panelists/presenters include Charles Altieri, Marie Annharte, Charles Bernstein, Amaranth Borsuk, Lee Ann Brown, Rebecca Brown, Tisa Bryant, Rebecca Cummins, Michael Davidson, Sarah Dowling, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Kathleen Fraser, Elisabeth Frost, Carla Harryman, Lyn Hejinian, Jeanne Heuving, Ted Hiebert, Cynthia Hogue, Clark Lunberry, Joe Milutis, Aldon Nielsen, Peter O’Leary, Candice Rai, Brian Reed, Leonard Schwartz, Evie Shockley, Ron Silliman, Barrett Watten, Tyrone Williams and Lissa Wolsak.

More information on poetics and The Convergence on Poetics here. To read more deeply on poetic theory, see this collection of articles at The Poetry Foundation.

there’s still time!

Northwest Bookfest

LiTFUSE

Go!

the whale is in the room…

You’ve been wanting to read — or re-read — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville for a long time.

Now, the actress Tilda Swinton and 134 other readers are lending their voices to the “Moby-Dick Big Read,” an online audio version of Melville’s epic novel. At the rate of a chapter a day (today is chapter 7, read by Keith Collins and accompanied by artwork by Oliver Clegg), you can download and listen to the novel long into the autumn’s lengthening nights.

Start here.

You can also download Moby-Dick in a variety of formats from Project Gutenberg (not part of the Moby-Dick Big Read).