It's Pushcart Nomination Time!

Each year, Pushcart’s editors ask the wide world of small press editors to report back six pieces from among the collections they published in the year 2012. Pushcart’s editors use these nominations in the making of their annual compendium, The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, an honor which first recognized the likes of Charles Baxter, Raymond Carver, and Rick Moody. This year, Poet Lore, the semi-annual poetry journal published by The Writer’s Center, selected works in the spirit of the series—poems that feed readers hungry for what’s new in poetry. Read below for a list of the poems Poet Lore chose, as well as more information on their authors. But, first, enjoy the following segment from Mark Sullivan’s nominated poem.

 

[from] HOMAGE TO NI ZAN

2.

Funny how little we remember.
How the days seep through themselves and are gone,
with their thousands of cups of coffee, their faces
seen only an instant in the street, and their fresh bread
full of faceted tastes of salt and honey,
the moist-sand texture that we hardly notice.
And the way the more details dissolve,
the more the years . . . what?  Accumulate?  Pass?  Anything
we can say is just analogy.  We have no idea
what the years do, and yet we know with precision
that they behave just like—there—a receding ship
watched from a pier, losing first its intimate clarity,
then its shape, then itself.

What remains is mostly feeling,

sunlight on a hand, water coursing with shadow,
and not so much the sensation itself as how
it seemed, likeness piled onto likeness,

and some gulls graying into the sky, and then a last look.

 

 

Here are the poems Poet Lore chose from the work published on its pages in 2012:

From the Spring/Summer 2012 issue—

"Vermin" by Tresha Faye Haefner

TRESHA FAYE HAEFNER’s poems have appeared in such journals as Amarillo Boy, Blood Lotus, and Pirene’s Fountain. Her poem "A Walk through the Parking Lot at Midnight" was awarded the Robert and Adele Schiff prize in poetry from The Cincinnati Review.

"The Dark" by Josh Rathkamp

JOSH RATHKAMP’s first book, Some Nights No Cars At All, was published by Ausable Press and is now distributed by Copper Canyon. His work has recently appeared in RATTLE, Arts & Letters, Meridian, Gulf Coast, and Painted Bride Quarterly. He directs the creative writing program at Mesa Community College.

“Ventilation” by Amy Eisner

AMY EISNER’s poems have appeared in Fence, The Louisville Review, Madison Review, and Washington Square Review, among other publications. She teaches creative writing and literature at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the Fall/Winter 2012 issue—

"Homage to Ni Zan" by Mark Sullivan

MARK SULLIVAN’s first collection, Slag (Texas Tech University Press, 2005), was the winner of the Walt McDonald First Book Series competition. His other honors include a “Discovery”/The Nation Prize, and a 2007 literature fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His poems, essays, and reviews appear in many publications, including Beloit Poetry Journal, New England Review, and The Southern Review.

"Coronagraphy" by Samiya Bashir

SAMIYA BASHIR is the author of Gospel and Where the Apple Falls, both from RedBone Press. Her work was most recently featured in Crab Orchard Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Cura, The Rumpus, and The Encyclopedia Project. She has been an NEA Writer-in-Residence at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and teaches creative writing at Reed College.

"The Boxing Shrine" by Henry J. Morro

HENRY J. MORRO is the author of the poetry collection Corpses of Angels (Bombshelter Press). His poems have been published in numerous journals—including Seneca Review, New Letters, and Black Warrior Review—and in The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (Thunder’s Mouth Press).

Congratulations to Poet Lore's poets on their well-deserved recognition! The issues of Poet Lore featuring these nominated poems may be purchased here, at our E-Store.

 

Poet Lore would like to thank its publisher, The Writer’s Center, as well its loyal readership for their continued support of its work.

Veterans Day Reading

We're happy to get out the word about The Veterans Writing Project's Veterans Day Reading on Monday, November 12 from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.  It takes place at The United States Navy Memorial, in The Presidents Room, 701 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.  The program is free, open to the public, and extremely Metro accessible, at the Archives Metro station on the Green Line.   For more information on The Veterans Writing Project visit their Web site, VeteransWriting.org, or see their Facebook page. 

Readers are:

Dario DiBattista is an Iraq war combat veteran and outstanding graduate of the M.A. in Creative Writing Program at The Johns Hopkins University. His work has appeared in The Washingtonian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Connecticut Review, Three Quarter Review, World Hum, and he’s been featured in The New York Times, Urbanite Magazine, and on The Marc Steiner Radio Show. He blogs for many websites, most notably, www.notalone.com, which is a resource website for returning veterans. And he teaches writing at The George Washington University and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at Bethesda for The Veterans Writing Project, and as an adjunct professor at the Community College of Baltimore County.

Frederick Foote is retired from the U.S. Navy. His 29 years of service, as a Corpsman and physician, included 6 years at sea and deployments to Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm and OIF/OEF. Fred’s poems have appeared in Commonweal, The Progressive, and many other journals. He is the Director of the Warrior Poetry Project at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda.

Kate Hoit is known throughout the military blogosphere as “GI Kate.” Born and raised in Albany, New York, she joined the U.S. Army Reserve at 17 and served for eight years—including time as an Army photojournalist in Balad, Iraq from 2004 – 2005 with the 301st Area Support Group out of Queens. In addition to maintaining the blog GIKate.com, her work has appeared in the New York Times (at The Caucus: The Politics and Government Blog of The Times), Time’s Battleland, The Huffington Post, and VetVoice. She has appeared in the History Channel documentary special Band of Bloggers and has worked on a documentary film about women in the military. Kate currently studies Nonfiction Writing at Johns Hopkins University, and she is a Pat Tillman Military Scholar.

James Mathews is the author of Last Known Position, a short story collection published by the University of North Texas Press and winner of the 2008 Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction. He is also a Chief Master Sergeant in the District of Columbia Air National Guard with over 25 years of military service. Since 9/11, he has been activated and deployed numerous times including two tours in Iraq, in 2003 and 2006.

Grady Smith attended Infantry Officer Candidate School and Ranger and Airborne training at Fort Benning. He commanded an infantry company in the Vietnam Delta and served in the Army for 20 years. His final assignment was Executive Office of the U.S. Army Center of Military History. He is a produced playwright, and his novel about combat trauma, Blood Chit, was published in August.

The Writing Staycation: A Unique Retreat for Writers

by Andrea Solarz

Many of us long to be able to participate in a retreat for writers (perhaps in some exotic sun-kissed locale), where we can immerse ourselves in our writing without interruption. But finding the time to do so can be even more of a challenge than finding the funds. The Writing Staycation gives the best of both worlds--the chance to immerse yourself in writing for a week, but without having to pack your bags or think about who will feed the cat (or the kids!) while you’re away.
As a participant in an earlier Writing Staycation (spring, 2011), I thought it might be useful to others considering registering for an upcoming retreat for me to share my experience. In addition to being very enjoyable, perhaps most importantly, the Staycation really helped me to jump start my writing (which had hit a significant roadblock), and gave me a lot of motivation that continued long after that week.

Zahara is especially skilled at creating a nurturing and supportive environment, coupled with bringing in engaging and thoughtful guest speakers to provide nuts and bolts information (and inspiration) about writing and publishing. Reflecting the interactive nature of the Staycation, we each had the opportunity to meet individually with those speakers (as well as with Zahara) to discuss our personal writing projects or challenges and to get feedback or input from them. Being able to discuss my writing project with multiple experts over the course of a week, and to benefit from their perspectives, gave me a number of important new insights into how to approach my own work.

Although my fellow “Staycationers” were quite a diverse group (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoirs, and other projects at all stages), the format of the retreat worked very well for all of us. Each day of the Staycation typically began with a short reading or writing exercise and a brief discussion, followed by us each going off to our writing corners (either in the room or any other available space in the Writing Center). We would then reconvene for lunch and to hear our guest speaker of the day (optional, but everyone attended). After that, back to writing, perhaps broken up by a refreshing walk outside, and then coming back together at the end of the day for a short update or closing exercise.

Zahara was flexible about the format, so if the group wanted more time writing, for example, she was responsive to those requests; the goal was for the retreat to meet our needs. Finally, on the last day, we discussed a range of strategies that we could implement for continuing the great progress we had made during the week, ensuring that the benefits of participating in the Staycation did not end when we said our goodbyes. As a bonus, I came out of that discussion with a writing partner to meet with regularly.

I encourage anyone who is stuck in her or his writing, or who just wants to have some structured time to focus on a project, to consider enrolling in the Staycation.

Nonfiction Storytelling in Science, Technology and Policy—The Necessity of Narrative

We were very glad to get an email from Creative Nonfiction editor Lee Gutkind suggesting  that The Writer's Center could host "To Think, To Write, to Publish," a conference bringing together writers and science and innovation policy scholars.  As many of you know, Lee visited The Writer's Center two years ago for a program focusing on creative nonfiction.  We're joining with Creative Nonfiction to offer a panel discussion,at The Writer's Center 6:30 p.m. Saturday, October 6 as part of the conference, and we're glad to post Lee's blog entry describing the program.   

Pitching and Selling Story Ideas About the Future:

by

Lee Gutkind

“Nonfiction Storytelling in Science, Technology and Policy—The Necessity of Narrative.” That’s the subject of an intriguing and unique panel discussion among editors from leading publications—The Atlantic, Harper’s, National Geographic, Publisher’s Weekly and Slate—upcoming at the Writer’s Center, in Bethesda, MD, on Saturday, October 6. I will be moderating the panel.

The discussion, open to the public, is the keynote event of an invitation-only, 4-day program introducing narrative or creative nonfiction approaches and techniques to writers and science policy scholars from around the world. The landmark program, “To Think, To Write, To Publish,” was conceived and will be conducted by the Consortium of Science Policy & Outcomes (CSPO) at Arizona State University and supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

The subject of the panel is especially important because the discussion will go beyond the use of storytelling in science and technology to engage the public—it will be dealing partially with policy: Ideas, theories, proposals. This is the stuff that folks around the Beltway are talking about all the time, mostly in generalizations because policy is so difficult to define—and even more challenging when attempting to connect to the general public. Policy, however, is what our candidates for public office, as well as scientists, engineers, economists, environmentalists etc., should be discussing and debating, for establishing and following policy is how we will shape our future.

The “To Think, To Write, To Publish” workshop will focus on translating and presenting policy into story and the “Nonfiction Storytelling in Science, Technology and Policy—The Necessity of Narrative” panel will concentrate on how to pitch and sell these ideas to major magazines and publishers.

The editors participating include: Christopher Cox, Senior Editor, Harper’s Magazine; Scott Stossel, Editor, The Atlantic; Victoria Pope, Deputy Editor, National Geographic; Laura Helmuth, Science and Health Editor, Slate.com; and Mark Rotella, an editor and reviewer of nonfiction for Publisher’s Weekly. Virginia Morell, a frequent contributor to National Geographic and an author of many books concerning science and policy, will join the panel for discussion.

Each editor will first discuss his or her publication and editorial interest in stories about science and policy. The editors will include information about the content and shape of stories they might encourage from writers. The discussion following the presentations will focus on conceiving ideas concerning the future and how to present them in narrative form. The necessity of narrative may also be debated.

The October 6 panel discussion, “Nonfiction Storytelling in Science, Technology and Policy—The Necessity of Narrative,” is co-sponsored by Creative Nonfiction and the Writer’s Center.  Please visit our Web site,  call 301-654-8664 or email post.master@writer.org for more information.  Admission is $15 ($10 for Writer's Center members).  

Poet Lore Poet Kelley J. White on “The Crash Room”

On “The Crash Room”

By Kelley J. White

THE CRASH ROOM

here is where I run in slow motion

clipboard as shield keys clanking

stethoscope banging breast with each beat

chanting the mantra of resuscitation: adrenalin

bretylium bicarbonate dopamine

and the door has flung open on a child

seizing a child

bleeding a child whose shoulders convulse

with electroconversion shock

a child burned a child

crushed a child struck torn broken fixed

pupils pinpoint dulled eyes swollen shut shut

and I will be the one at the ankle

threading a line

the one pushing chest

the one counting with an ear at the mouth

the one cutting

clothes the one pushing tubes

the one standing on the ceiling

watching her

spirit thrown

—Poet Lore Vol. 97, No. 3/4

This is the urgency of Code Blue. Doctor Stat. Arrest. I was twenty-five years old, an intern in a crumbling inner-city hospital in a crumbling neighborhood in North Philadelphia. I’d chosen St. Christopher’s for its smiling apple logo and a fleeting sense that my peers would support me; that I just might be able to survive a three-year residency and then begin a life; that a dozen of us—new doctors in training, each issued two sets of scrubs, proud of not sleeping, arrogant with our beepers and bloodied shoes, clutching our cold coffee on rounds—could invent together a better way to fix lives. I was terrified. I was exhausted. I was dangerous and full of intolerant self-importance.

I hope that “The Crash Room,” written twenty years later, contains some of that terror, rushing—the stuttering footsteps down a dim hall, the stuttering heartbeat. I left the lines unstopped. Let there be the chopping rhythm of awful discovery. Let there be the eerie smoothness that comes with the loss after the adrenalin lets go. The momentary identification with the patient, as our chief resident taught us: at a code, ‘the first pulse to check is your own.”

“The Crash Room” published in Poet Lore in 2002, became part of my collection Toxic Environment, published by Boston Poet Press in 2008. Oddly, that manuscript also includes a later poem, “After performing CPR,” which appeared in Kalliope in 2003. It uses a similar non-punctuated enjambed strategy but is intended to have a slower pace, using the softer sounds of s’s and f’s, instead of the hard c’s and b’s of “The Crash Room.” It tries to remember the body experience of CPR—the way the rhythm stays with the body for days after the event, like dozing off after an evening of dancing a dark, desperate dance.

AFTER PERFORMING CPR

like skiing the white hills of sleep

following mountains all the bright chill

day the rhythm of falling in time with

a wind singing above the flight falling

yet never touching ground sweet sore

muscle learned and the child will breathe

will open her eyes this time will breathe

Thirty years later now, the experience stays with me. Though it’s no longer a frequent requirement in my work, where the major emergencies are ‘social’ (child abuse, foster care, substance abuse, mental illness, homelessness, kids falling into the criminal justice system), I still listen with a stethoscope and use an otoscope and opthalmoscope for exams. But I try more and more to see and hear with my eyes and ears and a thinking heart. I’ve come back to my little town in New Hampshire and found it every bit as much suffering, and more, for children in this pristine rural environment than in my ‘Toxic’ city. At the present, I am not writing many poems. I thought I’d write about nature here in the pine woods or spiritual life, gazing at white steeples. Perhaps, in another thirty years, my words will be shaped by the urgent sufferings of these children. It may be urgent that I write these stories before they are forgotten or I run out of time.

After 30 years of pediatric practice in inner-city Philadelphia, Kelley J. White now practices at a rural health center in her home state, New Hampshrie. She received a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship in poetry in 2008, which helped to support work on her most recent collection, TWO BIRDS IN FLAME, poems related to the Shaker themes, and published by Beech River Books.

A wide selection of Pore Lore volumes are available for purchase here.

Quotidian Theatre Company

This coming weekend is the last chance to see The Quotidian Theatre Company's productions of Afterplay by Brian Friel and A Little Trick by Anton Chekhov.  Performances are 8:00 p.m. August 17 and 18 and 2:00 p.m. August 18 and 19.

"What a wonderful little gem the Quotidian Theatre Company of Bethesda is. The vignette of A Little Trick was an all-around joy to watch. Jonathan Feuer as Ivan captivates your attention right off, and lends a mesmerizing performance. Sara Dabney Tisdale’s Nadya is incandescent and captivating. Concert violinist Christine Kharazian, as the wind, personifies the Russian winter and the characters’ emotional plight. Director Stephanie Mumford has led her team to generate not only “a little trick” but a mesmerizing, little slice of life. As in A Little Trick, the actors are very strong and captivating in Afterplay. The focus of the play is on the dialogue and discussion reactions, and both Osherow and Dubov provide engaging and outstanding performances for Director Jack Sbarbori"   - Connie Morris, DC Metro Theater Arts

"Sbarbori’s direction (of Afterplay) and the acting—David Dubov as Andrey and Michele Osherow as Sonya—is impeccable, bright and clean, performed with much elegance and sensitivity to the ebb and flow of the art of conversation, with things said and unsaid. Words, gestures and silences are finely handled, down to the nuance. The image-stories the actors evoke are marbled with gentle humor and not without the painful regret that can characterize a life half-lived. Dubov displays understated comedic talent in a charming and quirky portrayal of Andrey.


Osherow distinguishes Sonya with spirit and fortitude, and her gradual, understated transformation from assured administrator of her family’s estate to the bared, broken down prisoner to neglected passion is remarkable.

Preceding Afterplay is the short A Little Trick, based on a Chekhov story and directed by Stephanie Mumford. A Little Trick is a narrated memory play told from the point of view of a young man, Ivan, about a singular season spent with Nadya, an impressible young woman who he may have loved in his youth. Jonathan Feuer gives an assertive portrayal as the diffident Ivan... Sara Dabney Tisdale’s almost wordless performance as the painfully smitten Nadya makes the piece special. She must convey Nadya’s subtext in reaction to Feuer’s monologue, and does so ably, through movement and facial expression. John Decker’s set design for A Little Trick is imaginative and lively, evoking a wintry birch forest and a hilltop with a scarlet sleigh displayed for the audience like a totem idol. A Little Trick also features the vibrant strings of Christine Kharazian’s violin. - Roy Maurer, DC Theatre Scene

(In A Little Trick) "Tisdale and Feuer work beautifully together as the terrified Nadya and the proud and protective Ivan. As she nearly faints with fear, he whispers his love to her, causing her to want to take to the icehill again and again. The third character is the Wind (Christine Kharazian), who does not speak but plays Vivaldi's "Winter" from "The Four Seasons" on the violin. Stephanie Mumford's direction of this poetic, suggestive piece is deft and subtle, emphasizing its elusive nature as a play about perception and deception. Brian Friel's Afterplay imagines what it would be like if two characters in two of Chekhov's dramas met in a whole new setting. Sbarbori's sensitive direction, Osherow's and Dubov's talent and Friel's quirky sense of humor flourish in this theatrical gem." - Barbara Mackay, Washington Examiner

John Elsberg

We were very sorry to hear that John Elsberg, a poet, editor, and long-time friend of The Writer's Center, passed away on Friday, July 27.  We are posting an appreciation Board member Wilson Wyatt wrote for the Eastern Shore Writers' Association E-News. 

On John Elsberg

by Wilson Wyatt,

In July, we lost a fellow writer, a poet extraordinaire, and a friend. It is with sadness we write of the passing of long-time ESWA member John Elsberg.

John enjoyed the personal side of writing, quietly celebrating small achievements with other writers, to build something better, writing for a greater purpose, a step at a time. This was evident at “The Delmarva Review,” where he was the poetry editor and close advisor for five years. After editorial meetings, he would often say, with a pleasant smile on his face, “Let’s go have a glass of wine.” It was his way of ending business discussions to enjoy the camaraderie of others, in respect for every small effort to build the Review. He always took the long view, but he wanted to celebrate each step of progress.

John passed away last week after a bout with cancer. The great loves in his life were his wife Connie, their family, and writing. He was devoted to writing, both to his own poetry and the work of many others. He was an early member of the Eastern Shore Writers Association and became a founding advisor to help create “The Delmarva Review,” as a regional journal showcasing new literary work. His devotion to writers on the Eastern Shore included judging the regional arts councils’ poetry competitions and “open mic” poetry readings in Greensboro. In retirement, he was looking forward to moving from Virginia to his and Connie’s second home in Henderson, Maryland.

John was a highly regarded poet, reviewer, editor, and historian. The author of over 14 books and chapbooks of poetry, his work has been published in many anthologies. He started the open poetry readings at The Writer's Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and in the 1970's was fiction editor of “Gargoyle” literary journal. Since 1975, he was the editor and publisher of “Bogg,” a magazine of contemporary writing from America and the U.K. As a young man he taught at the University of Maryland and then spent many years as an editor/publisher of history books. In his professional life, he directed a publishing program for the U.S. government.

John is survived by his wife Connie, his son, Steve, and two grandchildren. The family requests that expressions of sympathy be in the form of contributions to the Caroline County Humane Society, 407 West Bell Street, in Ridgely, MD 21660 (410-820-1600). You may send a note of sympathy to Connie Elsberg at 422 North Cleveland Street, Arlington VA 22201.

Thorpe Moeckel Doubles Back on "Wild Ice Cream"

On "Wild Ice Cream"

By Thorpe Moeckel

          “Wild Ice Cream” is the simplest kind of poem—a list poem—and it’s rooted in a particular time in my life. I wrote it in my late twenties, in 1999 or 2000. Our first daughter was a toddler then. We were reading her many stories and children’s books. I enjoyed these books, especially the alphabet primers, and I liked the ritual of reading—the togetherness. Things I enjoy—isn’t joy sometimes as destabilizing as grief?—tend to influence my writing.

During that time, I was adjusting to a more domestic life after ten years of leading outdoor trips on rivers and trails from Maine to Florida. Eating ice cream and reading these fun kid’s books helped with this transition. In other words, I missed the extended work in the outdoors (I had been leading 30-day trips before Sophie was born) for many reasons, one of them being the intimate contact with plants, critters, weather, customers, and landforms in beautifully various parts of the Appalachians and Eastern coastal regions.

Poetry has always been a means to synthesize various life-urges and passions. “Wild Ice Cream” is not only a blend of life forms from very diverse ecosystems—coral polyp and blue spruce, for instance—but it was also a way to stir some of my favorite life forms in the psychic mixing bowl that is a poetry draft—bugs, animals, plants, rocks, fruit, grains, music, the playful vibe of children’s books, as well as a nod and smirk at the designer ice cream industry. In a sense, it was a roll call for the things I missed living with day in and day out—things I hoped my young daughter would know, as well as an homage to Ben & Jerry for their willingness to make ice cream with creative flavors and great ingredients and tastes.

I appreciate the opportunity to look back at this poem because it makes me hungry for ice cream—which is a good thing—and also because when I look at poems from that period of life (and even from the present period), I become aware of certain yearnings that serve as predictors, road signs of sorts, for where life might take us, my family and me. I become aware, too, of how lucky we’ve been.

While teaching at Hollins University for the last seven years, I’ve also been helping my wife and kids work a little Permaculture farm/homestead, where among the many food/soil building systems, we raise a Nubian goat dairy herd. We make cheeses, yogurts, kefir, and ice cream from that goat milk. We don’t get too crazy with the flavors, and I doubt we’ll get into milking gorillas anytime soon, but in every line of this poem are at least two things we grow, raise, or wild-harvest (and then process and eat) from our 18 acres and the surrounding fields, forest, streams, and rivers. Today there was basil and walnut in the pesto we mixed into a chevre spread for lunch. And the pawpaw will be ripe before too long.

A last note: if I remember correctly, Ben & Jerry had a contest in the late 1990’s where you could send them flavor ideas. If they liked your flavor, you won a year’s worth of free ice cream. This poem was the entry I never sent.

Thorpe Moeckel is the author of three poetry collections, the most recent, Venison, was published by Etruscan Press in 2010. Making a Map of the River was published by Iris Press in spring 2008, and his first book of poems, Odd Botany, winner of the Gerald Cable Award, was published in 2002 by Silverfish Review Press. After years guiding trips on rivers and trails in the Appalachians, he earned an MFA in 2002 at University of Virginia, where he was a Jacob K. Javits and Henry Hoyns Fellow. A former Kenan Visiting Writer at UNC-Chapel Hill, Moeckel was awarded a 2010 National Endowment for the Arts Literary Fellowship in poetry. He teaches in the writing program at Hollins University, and lives with his wife and children in Western Virginia.

For more, please visit:  http://fishousepoems.org/archives/thorpe_moeckel/index.shtml.

WILD ICE CREAM 

Dandelion sorbet, beechnut-chicory root,

persimmon, yellow dock-goat milk, crawdad-mulberry,

& elderberry-birch; we’ve got goldenseal-soynut,

marijuana-horseradish, sesame-carrot & blue spruce;

rhubarb-hemlock, coon-tongue-mayapple,

basil-walnut, & a periwinkle-kelp swirl. Or try

quartzite-yellowwood, a scoop of barnacle crunch,

ciderbug, waterstrider, black ant-chip.

Coral polyp, orb-weaver-lemon balm, tahini-prune–

there’s bluegill roe-watercress, poision ivy-touch me not,

& amanita-skullcap. Or beebalm, violet-crabapple,

galax-wintergreen. If none of that sounds good,

try jimson weed-sweet corn, roasted lime bean.

Here’s iris, carrot-sesame, & bee pollen-gorilla milk.

Even puffed quinoa, rugosa-cattail, pawpaw-bladderwort.

 

—Poet Lore Volume 97, No 1/2, p 9

A wide selection of Pore Lore volumes are available for purchase here.

Poet Lore Poet Karla Huston Revisits Her Poem "Summer Storm"

Today, First Person Plural features a post by Poet Lore poet Karla Huston on her "reunion" with the poem "Summer Storm," which she first published in Poet Lore over a decade ago (in Volume 97, No. 3/4, the Fall/Winter 2002 issue). Huston opens the poem again and makes friends. Just right for the season, "Summer Storm" is republished below her post. Take a look for a lesson in the "long-distance" viewing of our past work.


On "Summer Storm"


By Karla Huston

Being asked to write something about a poem I wrote more than ten years ago and about an event that happened twenty-five years before that is like attending a class reunion—both curious and scary.  You know the feeling: you look forward to seeing your best friend since grade school and hope you still have something in common. 

The poem “Summer Storm” likely started from an exercise—to write about a storm, either real or imagined.  And storms, whether weather-related or emotional can be fodder for lots of writing.  But I didn’t start with that intent.  I wanted to show what happened in a small moment taken from a much larger event.  While I hadn’t been writing long, I knew enough about the process to understand that creating a narrative about the entire day wouldn’t work.  There was too much story to tell. 

Briefly, a bunch of friends decided to camp on the sandbar along the Mississippi River near one of the locks and dams close to La Crosse, Wisconsin, where I was living in the late 70s.  That summer, we’d had record rains; so much had fallen that everything was sodden and whole hillsides—boulders and heaps of sludge—were slipping onto roadways, blocking traffic along the both sides of the river.

Maybe it was dangerous.  Or maybe we were just impetuous 20-somethings bent on a good time, but we—four or five couples—boated to the sandbar, secured tents, unrolled sleeping bags and located food and beverage coolers in a large screen tent where we gathered to hang out and play euchre. 

Across the river, thunderheads started to build and move like ships forming a huge gray-black wall.  Undeterred, we joked and talked inside the screen tent while the storm gathered momentum.

Soon rain and wind arrived, and we hung onto poles to keep the tent standing while swaying in the wind.  To celebrate our situation, someone decided to pass a bottle of bourbon.  As the bottle rounded the square, the winds became fierce, blowing rain, throwing hail, and hurling sand and debris.  We saw our sleeping quarters flattened by wind.  Seeing them in sodden heaps seemed kind of funny at first—until we thought about crawling inside later.

That’s much of what happened, in more detail than anyone needed to know, but it’s important to show what I didn’t include, which was most of it.  As I started to write, I somehow knew to show the event in medias res.  I kept the screen tent scene only, with the bourbon and friends and our quarrel with the weather and didn’t include the rest.  I knew that too much of the story would render the poem boring, begging the question, “so what?”

Trying to seize the power of the storm, I looked for strong words then, and revisiting the poem now shows how many single syllable u sounds I included: clutch, lurch, gusts, bluffs, huff, slung, and bullet.  I hear hard c sounds, q sounds, too, contrasted with soft s’s.  These weren’t conscious choices that I remember making, yet playing with words, finding the right one based on meaning, sound and rhythm is one of the most pleasurable parts of writing.

The “old man,” who, in the heart of the storm, hurls mud and clams and weeds, is perhaps a cliché—“old man river?”  We were on the Mississippi, but “he” brings another character into this narrative other than the ubiquitous “we.”

The quarrel with the weather outside ended when the storm wore itself out, some of us deciding to break camp and head home back to dry warmth and safety. 

For many, writing through an experience is a good way to bear witness to “stormy” events.  For me, though, time is the way I distill an experience into something artful.  While I may write in a journal or a letter to an imaginary someone about an emotional experience, when I try to write too close to the “storm” of an event, I find what I’ve written is often not artful.  I’m too emotionally attached, and these pieces of writing may be good catharsis but don’t make for good writing for me. 

When I sent this packet of poems to Poet Lore editors for their consideration, I never imagined they would choose this piece.  Though I don’t remember what else I sent, I thought this poem was the weakest of the lot.   So I was both surprised and pleased with their selection.  Looking back at it now, I think I like it.

  

 

 

 Karla Huston has published six chapbooks of poetry, most recently, An Inventory of Lost Things: Centennial Press, 2009. Her poems, reviews and interviews have been published widely, including in the 2012 Pushcart Best of the Small Presses anthology. A book of collaborative poetry, written with Cathryn Cofell, was recently published by Sunnyoutside Press. Visit Karla Huston's website for more information.

 

SUMMER STORM

We clutched together in a screen tent,

nine of us lurching between

tent poles and gusts, watching

clouds gather up in the west,

the angry wave of them

hovered over the Mississippi River

bluffs like a black wall. The wind

huffed down the face of the limestone,

threw clay and trees onto highways

and shorelines. We shivered

and while the sky slung bullets,

the old man reared back, spit mud

and clams and weeds.

The wind made sodden debris

of tents and sleeping bags

while under the plastic canopy

we passed the bourbon—an amber torch,

the burning liquor the only thing

that quenched the quarrel outside.

—Poet Lore Volume 97, No 3/4, p 22

A wide selection of Pore Lore volumes are available for purchase here.

 

Young Writers' Circle Workshop

Adele Brown writes about The Young Writers' Circle workshop for 8 to 11 year olds, which meets Tuesday through Friday, July 24 through August 3 at The Writer's Center.

Summer is the time for recharging batteries and taking some time to appreciate all of the beauty the natural world has to offer. Therefore, summer provides a perfect opportunity for writing students of all ages to examine the art and beauty in nature. In my workshop we will use nature as our inspiration for writing, and we will also examine the works of other well-known writers who did the same.

The garden verse of Pablo Neruda and other poets to include Shel Silverstein, Issa, Paul Fleishman, and others will be examined as well as stories by Maurice Sendak, Helen Ward, O’Henry, and Ralph Waldo Emerson to mention a few. We will also explore narrative verse and the art of the memoir through the work of Anne E. Burg (All the Broken Pieces) and E. Ethelbert Miller (Fathering Words: The Making of an African American Writer).

Finally, we will not only be reading to inspire writing in my workshop—we will also be experimenting with a variety of writing exercises and prompts to stimulate the imagination and help us write. Exercises will include the use of photography, water painting, word play, music, art and more!

So come and join me in my workshop this summer and have fun while learning to perfect your craft of writing whether it be poetry, short stories, the novella, narrative verse, and/or the memoir—I’ll look forward to seeing you soon!

Adele Brown

Mandela Celebration

Please join us to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 94th birthday in a program with Mandela’s biographer Charlene Smith and Johnny Moloto, Deputy Chief of Mission at the South African Embassy. The program starts at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, July 15 (three days before his actual birthday), at The Writer’s Center, 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, Maryland. The program will include a Question and Answer session, reception and book signing. Free admission. Copies of Smith's biography, Mandela: Celebration of a Great Life, will be available for purchase. Please call 301-654-8664 or email post.master@writer.org for reservations.

A War Story Call for Submissions

We're very glad to help get the word out about A War Story, a new online journal which will publish fiction, nonfiction and poetry by veterans, active and reserve service members, and military family members.  Editors are looking for a wide range of submissions, not only war stories. 

Click for submission details and for links to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. 

My Daddy is Proud of Me

Sunday, June 17 2012, Father’s Day
Undiscovered Voices Fellowship – Open Mic Reading

by Gimbiya Kettering

Most days, I do not wonder if I am a good writer.

It isn’t that I am one of those supremely confident, creative types. To the contrary, in my best moments I believe that someday I will be a good writer. Meanwhile, I’m a chronic rewriter and obsessive editor. I believe every piece is almost good-enough and with a little more work, it will be ready.

When I was awarded the Undiscovered Voices Fellowship last year, it felt like a sign that I was, in fact, a good writer. Maybe even a very good writer. It was a sign that I forgot in the humbling experience that is workshop. In classes with Writer’s Center instructors like Susan Land, Patrick Ross, and Amin Ahmad, I learned different techniques and tips that would make my writing better. And since any formal publication feels far-far away, I continue to believe that I would have endless time to make my next draft better.

Then, suddenly it was Father’s Day – the day of the finale reading. And nothing I wrote was good enough to be read in public! I spent the week before rereading my novel-in-progress for an excerpt, practicing reading aloud, and worrying. And worrying more.

By the time I got up to the microphone, I was a so nervous that my mouth was dry and the words blurred. Then I looked into the audience and in the front row was my family, smiling at me encouragingly. I swallowed and started to read, Africa. The whole expanse of it is condensed to a heavy, small stone.

Afterwards, my father – my biggest fan – said he was so proud of me. And he is. He has always been so proud of me. When I doubt my talent, Dad continues to remind me that I am a good writer. I was glad that I could give him the gift of sharing my work: Happy Father’s Day!

I want to thank everyone who came and were so supportive in response to my reading. As the featured writer, I shared the stage with other local writers, including (click on names to visit their websites): Vivian Feggans, Paul Hopper, David Martin, Louise Farmer Smith, Marija Stajic, and Enrique Tapias.

Have you ever read your work in public? What about reading aloud makes you nervous? How do you overcome the stage-fright? Write about it in the comment section below.

Public readings are a wonderful way to build your confidence and a chance for your fans to support your on-going creative process. We invite you to read at the next Open Mic at the Writer’s Center on Sunday, July 29 at 2:00 pm.

Top Tips to Prepare for a Reading

• Edit the excerpt: It is okay to make changes that will make   any piece easier to read aloud.
• Print in large font: 12 point is tiny when you're at the podium. I use 16!
* Practice Reading Aloud: So you can time yourself, practice any tricky words, and gain confidence.

Gimbiya Kettering, 2011-2012 Undiscovered Voices Fellow, with her biggest fan -- her father Merlyn Kettering. Application deadline for 2012-2013 Fellowship is30 June 2012.  Click Here to Apply.

Confessions: Fact or Fiction?

On Sunday, July 8 we’ll host a program with authors published in Confessions: Fact or Fiction? Authors will read from the anthology and audience members will be invited to guess whether the piece is in fact true or fictional. It should be challenging and a lot of fun, and will lead to a discussion on the boundaries between memoir and fiction . The program starts at 2 pm and readers include Michelle Brafman, Herta B. Feely, George Nicholas, and Tim Wendel.

We’ve invited anthology co-editor Herta Feely to write for First Person Plural.

Confessions: Fact or Fiction?

By Herta Feely

What are the boundaries between fiction and memoir? Can you, the reader, tell the difference between the two genres? And, how far can, or should, an author stretch the truth in the service of art?

Let me give you a quick test:

If you’re writing an essay and the story includes information about a dog-grooming company’s pink vans, is it okay to say the vans are purple because it sounds better in the sentence? How about in that same story, you change the name of a bar from The Boston Saloon to Bucket of Blood because it’s more interesting. And lastly, because this is a story about a boy who jumped from a building to his death, and you want to keep the focus on him, you change another death by jumping that same day to a suicide by hanging. How do you feel about that?

What if the author of that essay, which exists, told you that he made these changes because he feels his first duty is to art, his second to truth? Would you argue with him, as the fact-checker in real life did?

Let me switch gears a bit. When you read memoir, you expect the story to be true, right? But exactly how true? Pretty true, half true, or only a little bit true?

Generally speaking, there are many similarities between fiction (a made-up story) and memoir, (a story that actually happened to someone). Memoir uses many elements of fiction, just like a novel. They both develop characters, have a plot, use scenes, setting and dialogue.

So  let’s take dialogue. Everyone knows people writing memoirs make up dialogue, right? After all, who can remember what they said yesterday, let alone a decade ago? So let’s say we cut the author some slack when it comes to dialogue. I mean as long as they write it to the best of their memory, then it’s okay? If they adhere as closely to the “facts” as their memory allows, then we’re okay with that. Right?

But at what point, dialogue aside, is there simply too much fiction in a memoir to call it a memoir? For example, you might recall the million little lies in James Frey’s memoir, A Million Little Pieces? A book he’d tried to sell as a novel, but without success. Then, as a memoir, it became the 2nd biggest selling book of 2005! Is that because we the readers prefer a story that’s salacious, gritty, sexy, or sensational to be “true”? So what role, if any, do readers play in a writer’s impulse to stretch the truth? Or is the desire to get published the only motivating factor?

The panelists will argue these issues after reading short segments from their pieces in Confessions: Fact or Fiction? After each reading you will be asked to determine the story’s genre. This anthology of 22 stories (of love, lies, loss and betrayal) sets out to explore the murky boundary between fiction and memoir, and the writer’s obligation to the reader.

On Sunday, July 8th, 2 pm, meet a panel of writers (authors, and creative writing teachers) and listen to them battle it out! Your opinions count, so come armed!

Herta Feely, co-editor of Confessions: Fact or Fiction?