Monday at poetrynight!

Monday, December 2, 2013, poetrynight welcomes featured poet Sierra Golden. A 2010 Sue Boynton Poetry Contest winner for her poem What I Really Like About Making Bread, Sierra Golden received her MFA in poetry from North Carolina State University and won the program’s 2012 Academy of American Poets Prize. Though she calls the state of Washington home, Golden has spent time in Spain, Mexico and Argentina and spends summers in Alaska working on a commercial fishing boat.

CORRECTION! Please note that poetrynight will meet at the Alternative Library this Monday, December 2. Doors open and open mic sign-up begins at 7:30pm; poetry begins at 8:00pm. More about Sierra Golden here. More about poetrynight here and on Facebook and tumblr.

Thanksgiving

“Thank me no thankings
nor proud me no prouds.”
William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
. . . . . .
Cobbe portrait of William Shakespeare

fair warning…

It would be nice to think that people involved in the book world are honest, fair-minded and concerned for the welfare of writers. Alas, that’s not always the case, and it’s the ongoing role of Writer Beware to sleuth out the truth and warn the unwary.

“Writer Beware’s mission is to track, expose, and raise awareness of the prevalence of fraud and other questionable activities in and around the publishing industry.”

Founded in 1998 and sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, with additional support from the Mystery Writers of America and the Horror Writers Association, Writer Beware is “concerned not just with issues that affect professional authors, but with the problems and pitfalls that face aspiring writers.” Their posts talk about “questionable literary agents, publishers, independent editors, writers’ services, contests, publicity services, and others.”

The Writer Beware website is short on glamor and long on meaningful content. It is a worthwhile addition to your RSS feed or subscription list. You can also find Writer Beware on Facebook.

book talk

In case you need more input on recent books, consider tuning in to Late Night Library. This Portland (Oregon)-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit literary arts organization is dedicated to sustaining book culture and promoting talented writers.

Programs include three podcast series, two weekly video series, multi-genre events in Brooklyn and Portland, a visiting writers series in Portland, a national campaign to support independent bookstores and publishers, annual prizes for emerging and debut authors, and a variety of online columns, including book reviews, interviews and other creative writing about books and book culture.

Learn more at the Late Night Library website, YouTube channel or Facebook page. And if you have a book published within the last three months, have a look at the submissions guidelines.

getting ready…

It’s that time of year and it’s that week: Thanksgiving is almost upon us. While you’re stocking up on sweet potatoes and cranberries, don’t forget to put in a supply of poems to share at the feast.

To facilitate your Thanksgiving poem selection, here’s a short list of places to browse for appropriate fare:

• Thanksgiving poems and At the Common Table: Poems for Thanksgiving from the Academy of American Poets
• The Cranberry Cantos from the Poetry Foundation
• Get in the mood with excerpts from six poems of giving thanks from PennSound
• Two Thanksgiving Poems by Billy Collins courtesy of The Huffington Post
• Thanksgiving by Mac Hammond from Poetry 180
• If you like your Thanksgiving poetry with a little cowboy flavoring, have a look at Western and Cowboy Poetry at the Bar-D Ranch
• thanksgiving by Luther Allen
• Thanksgiving poem by J.I. Kleinberg

Even if you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, enjoy the gratitude.
. . . . .
photo: Bellingham Farmers Market

indies first!

The intent of this post is not to encourage you to go out and spend money. But, wherever you may be, if you do plan to spend — for example, if you will be buying gifts for the holidays — we encourage you to
1) shop local and 2) shop independent.

On Saturday, November 30, 2013 (Small Business Saturday), Bellingham shoppers will discover a new lineup of booksellers at Village Books in Fairhaven. At the urging of the ever-inspired Sherman Alexie, regional authors will be working the counters (and maybe even signing books!) as part of Indies First. Here’s the Village Books schedule:

• 11am-1pm: Abbe Rolnick: Color of Lies and River of Angels
• 1-3pm: Clete Barrett Smith: Aliens on Vacation, Alien on a Rampage and Aliens in Disguise
• 3-5pm: Jim Lynch: Truth Like the Sun, Border Songs and The Highest Tide
• 5-7pm: Janet Oakley: Tree Soldier: A Novel of Love, Forgiveness and the Great Depression

But Indies First is not just a Bellingham event! Visit Indies First and these other authors at independent bookstores throughout Washington State:

• A Book for All Seasons, Leavenworth – Kay Kenyon
• Adventures Underground, Richland – Patricia Briggs
• Auntie’s Bookstore, Spokane – Jess Walter, Shawn Vestal, Kenn Nesbitt, M. Kari Barr
• Book & Game Co., Walla Walla – Shanna Hatfield
• Eagle Harbor Book Company, Bainbridge Island – Lance Weller, Carol Cassella
• Edmonds Bookshop, Edmonds – Jim Lynch, William Dietrich
• Finally Found Books, Auburn – Jeanne Matthews, Joyce Yarrow, Lisa Stowe, Susan Schreyer
• Inklings Bookshop, Yakima – Spencer Hatton
• Left Bank Book Collective, Seattle – Danbert Nobacon
• Liberty Bay Books, Poulsbo – Suzanne Selfors, Lance Weller, Kristin Hannah, Garth Stein, Megan Chance, Gennifer Albin, Erica Bauermeister, Carol Cassella
• Mockingbird Books, Seattle – Stephanie Barden, Bonny Becker
• Open Books: A Poem Emporium, Seattle – Elizabeth Austen, Maged Zaher
• Orca Books, Olympia – Laura Swan, Averil Dean
• Queen Anne Book Company, Seattle – Sherman Alexie, Lesley Thomas, Garth Stein, Laurie Frankel
• Secret Garden Books, Seattle – Sherman Alexie, Peter Brown, Bonny Becker, Kim Baker, Jaime Temairik
• The Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle – Sherman Alexie, Garth Stein, Maria Semple, Jennifer Shortridge, Samantha Vamos, Tom Nissley, Kathleen Flynn, Kathleen Fleniken, Ryan Boudinot, Jonathan Evison
• Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park – Tina Bustamante, Kristin Kittscher, Stephanie Kallos, Ken Jennings, Garth Stein, Sherman Alexie
• Trail’s End Bookstore, Winthrop – Erik Brooks
• University Book Store, Bellevue – Samantha Vamos, Kevan Atteberry, Lisa L Owens, Janet Lee Carey, Dana Sullivan, Waverly Curtis
• University Book Store, Renton – Mike Lawson
• University Book Store, Seattle – Jennie Shortridge, Kyle Bolton, Peter Mountford, Ryan Boudinot, Jaime Garbacik, Kristin Halbrook, Sherman Alexie, Carly West, Kim Baker, Mary Jane, Beaufrand Cat Patrick, staff members behind the APRIL Festival
• Uppercase Bookshop, Snohomish – Bernadette Pajer, Warner Blake
• and, of course, Village Books, Bellingham – Abbe Rolnick, Clete Barrett Smith, Jim Lynch, Janet Oakley

Not planning to be in Washington? That’s no excuse!

make some poetic noise…

In case it has escaped your notice, those busy folks at The Poetry Foundation have established a stream on Sound Cloud: Record-a-Poem. Here’s an opportunity to give voice to some of your favorite poems and put them in front of a poetry-loving audience.

Don’t know where to begin? Consider participating in The Poetry Foundation’s collaboration with the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and read a selection from Part II of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Post your recording at Record-a-Poem by December 1, 2013 at midnight and your voice could be added to a crowd-sourced reading that will be edited from the contributed versions.

View the complete instructions on the BAMblog.

poetry and medicine

While these posts generally focus on poetry topics that have some thread of connection with the Pacific Northwest, or with the Sue Boynton Poetry Contest, occasionally we veer off in another direction altogether (e.g., sci-po, math-po).

In the spirit of veering off, here’s a med-po post, about the Hippocrates Prize, an international award for poetry about medicine. Rafael Campo, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, recently won the Prize for his poem “Morbidity and Mortality Rounds.” Campo’s sixth collection of poetry, Alternative Medicine, was published this fall by Duke University Press.

The annual Hippocrates Prize, with first-place awards of £5,000 in each of three categories “is one of the highest value poetry awards in the world for a single poem.” In addition to a category for those associated with the UK National Health Service, there is also an Open category, which anyone in the world may enter, and an International Hippocrates Prize for Young Poets (ages 14-18).

The Hippocrates Prize Facebook group offers this description: “Medicine is to be interpreted in the widest sense. Themes could include health and poetry; impact of health and disease on the poet; the nature of the body, and anatomy; the history, evolution, and future of medical science; the nature and experience of tests; the experience of doctors, nurses and other staff in hospitals and in the community; the experience of patients, families, friends and carers in these situations; the experiences of acute and long-term illness and dying, of birth, of cure and convalescence; the patient journey; the nature and experience of treatment with herbs, chemicals and devices used in medicine; poetry as therapy.”

Submissions for the 2014 Hippocrates prize(s) are now open through January 31, 2014. Details here.

call for poems: Labyrinth

Labyrinth, the annual print journal of the Western Washington University Women’s Center, invites submissions for the 2014 edition. The editors welcome submissions from students, faculty and the general community. The theme is Communities (Un)bound: “an exploration of privilege and oppression when accessing, being denied, and moving through circles of communities.”

Submissions close January 10, 2014 at 11:45pm. More information and submission form here or follow Labyrinth on Facebook.

Celebrate the ow in Bukowski

Are you a fan of Charles Bukowski? Have you tried your hand at erasure poetry? Here’s an opportunity combine the two. Silver Birch Press, an independent publisher located in Los Angeles, invites your submissions to Bukowski Erasure Poetry.

See examples on Bukowski on Wry. The call for submissions and guidelines are here and the deadline is December 15, 2013. Selected Bukowski Erasure poems will appear on the Bukowski On Wry blog and in a printed collection.

Silver Birch Press has recently released the Bukowski: An Anthology of Poetry & Prose about Charles Bukowski, a 272-page collection that includes portraits of the author by over 75 writers and artists around the world.