Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Um, well, I think we're gonna have a lot of fun, don't you?!
Word for Word: Peter Covino, Thomas Sayers Ellis, and Ada Limón
August 8, 2006, 6:30 p.m.
Bryant Park Reading Room, 42nd Street, between 5th & 6th Avenues, New York, NY
Free
The Academy of American Poets presents its second summer of readings in the Bryant Park Reading Room, as part of the 2006 Word for Word Series. Free and open to the public, the series highlights emerging poets and takes place monthly from May until September.
Peter Covino is the author of Cut Off the Ears of Winter (Western Michigan University/New Issues Press, 2005) a finalist for the Publishing Triangle’s Thom Gunn Award. His chapbook, Straight Boyfriend, received the Frank O'Hara Prize in Poetry in 2001. He just received his Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing from the University of Utah and will join the faculty of English at the University of Rhode Island this fall. His poems have been widely published and anthologized. He is currently working on a translation project of Italian poets for an anthology on Contemporary European Poetry, to be published by Graywolf Press in 2007.
Thomas Sayers Ellis is the author of a chapbook, The Genuine Negro Hero, (Graywolf 2005), and a chaplet, Song On (WinteRed Press 2005). His first book of poetry, The Maverick Room, was published by Graywolf Press in 2005. His Quotes Community: Notes for Black Poets is forthcoming from the University of Michigan Press (Poets on Poetry Series). He is an associate professor of English at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and a faculty member of The Lesley University low-residency M.F.A program in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Ada Limón is originally from Sonoma, California. A graduate of the creative writing program at New York University, she has received fellowships from the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and won the Chicago Literary Award for Poetry. Her first book, lucky wreck,was the winner of the 2005 Autumn House Poetry Prize and her second book, This Big Fake World, was the winner of the 2005 Pearl Poetry Prize.
Sponsored by Academy of American Poets and Bryant Park Restoration Pr
August 8, 2006, 6:30 p.m.
Bryant Park Reading Room, 42nd Street, between 5th & 6th Avenues, New York, NY
Free
The Academy of American Poets presents its second summer of readings in the Bryant Park Reading Room, as part of the 2006 Word for Word Series. Free and open to the public, the series highlights emerging poets and takes place monthly from May until September.
Peter Covino is the author of Cut Off the Ears of Winter (Western Michigan University/New Issues Press, 2005) a finalist for the Publishing Triangle’s Thom Gunn Award. His chapbook, Straight Boyfriend, received the Frank O'Hara Prize in Poetry in 2001. He just received his Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing from the University of Utah and will join the faculty of English at the University of Rhode Island this fall. His poems have been widely published and anthologized. He is currently working on a translation project of Italian poets for an anthology on Contemporary European Poetry, to be published by Graywolf Press in 2007.
Thomas Sayers Ellis is the author of a chapbook, The Genuine Negro Hero, (Graywolf 2005), and a chaplet, Song On (WinteRed Press 2005). His first book of poetry, The Maverick Room, was published by Graywolf Press in 2005. His Quotes Community: Notes for Black Poets is forthcoming from the University of Michigan Press (Poets on Poetry Series). He is an associate professor of English at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and a faculty member of The Lesley University low-residency M.F.A program in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Ada Limón is originally from Sonoma, California. A graduate of the creative writing program at New York University, she has received fellowships from the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and won the Chicago Literary Award for Poetry. Her first book, lucky wreck,was the winner of the 2005 Autumn House Poetry Prize and her second book, This Big Fake World, was the winner of the 2005 Pearl Poetry Prize.
Sponsored by Academy of American Poets and Bryant Park Restoration Pr
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Fried Chicken & Big Life Things
I'm feeling a little sorry for myself and I think it's affected my writing. By this I mean to say, I have a dear friend who is in hospice and who is dying of cancer at 31, I have a parent going into another stretch of yet another battle with cancer as well, I have, somehow, managed to get diagnosed with bronchitis on the day when New York has a heat index of 119. Now, all I want to do is lay under a bus, and I can't seem to get writing (which usually helps when life is too big).
So, when I was kid and things were upsetting, my favorite junk food was Hungry Man Fried Chicken dinner. With the corn and mashed potatoes, then lots and lots of coffee ice cream later.
Of course, I wanted to get those things on the way home, but I settled for some hummus, crackers, and papaya. Too healthy, I know, but it's too hot for the oven and fried chicken anyway.
ANYWAY, all this to say, how does one start writing when really BIG things are going on? Do you know what I mean, like when you're heart is really broken you can't seem to write at all until you get a little better? Or when someone close to you dies, you can't really write about until some time has passed. BUT, you can't really write about anything else, right? I mean all the things you want to write about that aren't the big things seem stupid and mundane and unimportant.
So, I guess this is it, I'll just reminisce about Hungry Man Fried Chicken Dinner and Solid Gold (oh, did I mention I loved Solid Gold).
So, when I was kid and things were upsetting, my favorite junk food was Hungry Man Fried Chicken dinner. With the corn and mashed potatoes, then lots and lots of coffee ice cream later.
Of course, I wanted to get those things on the way home, but I settled for some hummus, crackers, and papaya. Too healthy, I know, but it's too hot for the oven and fried chicken anyway.
ANYWAY, all this to say, how does one start writing when really BIG things are going on? Do you know what I mean, like when you're heart is really broken you can't seem to write at all until you get a little better? Or when someone close to you dies, you can't really write about until some time has passed. BUT, you can't really write about anything else, right? I mean all the things you want to write about that aren't the big things seem stupid and mundane and unimportant.
So, I guess this is it, I'll just reminisce about Hungry Man Fried Chicken Dinner and Solid Gold (oh, did I mention I loved Solid Gold).
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