Berks County Bards and the Reading Scene

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If you live anywhere in Central, PA and you’re interested in finding a literary community, check out the Berks  Bards. The organization hosts several literary events each month, including a reading series at Reading Area Community College called “Poetry at the 6.” The reading often includes a featured reader or two and then an open mic. Last night, I was the featured reader, along Scott Thomas. This was my first time reading for the Berks Bards, and I was impressed with the turnout, especially for a Monday night. The organization provides wonderful support and community for Reading area writers. In addition, the work read during the open mic portion was polished and strong, a pleasure to hear. The audience members were attentive, and they will buy your book if you give a good reading.

Reading has some other cool events, including writing workshops that are held on Saturdays at the Pagoda and an open mic series held at the Wise Owl Bookstore in West Reading, just across the bridge from downtown Reading. I suppose the best way to find out about events in that area is to like the Berks Bards on Facebook by clicking here , or simply check the group’s website. The organization has several events yet to happen for National Poetry Month, almost an event a day, into the beginning of May.

It’s All About Community

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Yesterday, I took part of a panel discussion at the Osterhout Library in Wilkes-Barre in celebration of National Poetry Month. I could talk for hours and hours about my relationships with poetry and why I love the genre, but that’s not why I enjoyed this event. I liked it because I looked out and saw young people in the audience, including one high schooler with a stack of books, and an elementary student. Both have an interest in writing, and they were wide-eyed and on the edge of their seats while we talked about the writing process and our key influences.

After the event, I thought about how lucky I am to live in an area that has events like this. Throughout April, Osterhout is running a series of free poetry workshops. The library has also held various poetry and prose readings, and it publishes a literary magazine, Word Fountain. A few blocks down from the library, there is a reading series the third Friday of every month at ArtSEEN Gallery in Wilkes-Barre, and Scranton includes the Prose in Pubs series and the New Visions series. As I chatted with the two young members of the audience yesterday, I thought about how important community is to writing, how we need mentors and friends involved in the writing process because no one outside of such a community cares that we write.

Students in one of my creative writing classes this semester understand the importance of community, since they decided to create a writing workshop outside of class. I’m also starting to see more and more students at various literary events in the community. That’s what it’s all about, supporting each other, guiding each other, and forming something bigger than one’s own writing.

Two National Poetry Month Events

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I meant to post news earlier about two events I’m doing for National Poetry Month, but this has been a busy month for me. Anyways, here is the info about the events. On Saturday, April 2o, I’m going to be part of a panel discussion about poetry and craft at the Osterhout Library in Wilkes-Barre. The event begins at 2 p.m. and will be held in the Reading Room. Local writer and library employee Rachael Goetzke will moderate the event.

On Monday, April 22, I’m reading at Reading Area Community College with Scott Thomas. That event starts at 6:30 p.m. and is sponsored by the Berks County Bards as part of their month-long celebration of poetry.

Both of these events are free. If you’re in the Wilkes-Barre or Reading area, I hope to see you there!

 

 

Sharon Olds, Adam Johnson Win Pulitizer Prizes

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Today, the Pulitzer Prize committee announced its winners, and decided to give an award for the fiction category too, after not doing so last year. Here is a write-up from Poets & Writers:

The Pulitzer Prize board announced the winners and finalists of the 2013 Pulitzer Prizes today in New York City. Of the twenty-one categories, the prizes in letters are given annually for works published in the previous year by American authors.

The winner in fiction is The Orphan Master’s Son (Random House) by Adam Johnson. The finalists were Nathan Englander’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank (Knopf) and Eowyn Ivey’s The Snow Child (Little, Brown). The winner in poetry is Stag’s Leap (Knopf) by Sharon Olds. The finalists were Collected Poems by the late Jack Gilbert (Knopf) and The Abundance of Nothing by Bruce Weigl (TriQuarterly). The winner in general nonfiction is Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys (Harper) by Gilbert King. The finalists were Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (Random House) and David George Haskell’s The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature (Viking).

The finalists and winner for the poetry category do not surprise me, except for  Bruce Weigl, mostly because I’m happy that a small press (TriQuarterly), though one of the larger small presses, made the final list.  As for Sharon Olds winning, what can be said about that? She’s been on the scene for decades. She’s a huge name. She’s earned it.

The Slow Death of the American Author

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Scott Turow, president of The Authors Guild, has a fascinating, but depressing story in The New York Times regarding the rapidly changing publishing industry and the loss of revenue stream for authors, thanks in a large part to e-books and electronic search engines. Turow begins the article by stating authors have often been considered a fundamental part of democracy. He states:

“Authors practice one of the few professions directly protected in the Constitution, which instructs Congress ‘to promote the progress of Science and the useful Arts by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.’ The idea is that a diverse literary culture, created by authors whose livelihoods, and thus independence, can’t be threatened, is essential to democracy.

Turow points out, however, that the livelihood of authors is being threatened because revenue streams for writing and publishing are shrinking. Turow blames this partially on e-books, stating that e-books are inexpensive to produce and the major publishing houses “all rigidly insist on clauses limited e-book royalties to 25 percent of net receipts,” which is about half of a traditional hardcover royalty. He had that many best-selling authors have the power to negotiate a higher royalty, but lesser-known authors, or mid-list authors, don’t have such power.

The article goes on to address the fact that Google recently scanned thousands and thousands of pages of copyrighted material, and authors have made no money from their work when it appears in a search. Google claims that the whole text doesn’t appear, but Turow argues that if you continue using different search words, you can ultimately read the whole text. Google is making money off of this through ad revenue, but authors don’t see a dime.

Sadly, Turow doesn’t provide any remedy to this situation, such as simply supporting bookstores and purchasing books, even if it’s only an e-book.

New Poets’ Quarterly in Time for National Poetry Month

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For the last several months, I’ve been part of the Poets’ Quarterly team as a contributing editor, and I’ve had a blast. The new issue is live and features a lot of solid content, including an interesting essay about e-poetry, an interview with Jane Hirshfield, an interview with Molly Fisk, and several other reviews, essays, and interviews. For this issue, I worked on two reviews, including Looking for the Gulf Motel by Richard Blanco, who is slowly becoming one of my favorite contemporary American poets, and another review on A Change in the Weather by Geoffrey Jacques. I was exposed to this book during one of my Ph.D. classes at Binghamton University this semester. Jacques’ book makes the claim that the most well-known modernist writers, including Wallace Stevens, Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, and T.S. Eliot, owe a huge debt to black culture. The book came out a few years ago, and I am waiting for Jacques’ theories to spark greater debate, which is one reason I wanted to review the book. His ideas are worth considering because they challenge the modernist canon.

Check out the rest of the issue and enjoy it.

Jim Daniels Reading at Keystone College

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The string of literary events in NEPA continues. Poet/prose writer Jim Daniels will read at Keystone College this Thursday at 7 p.m. in Evans Hall. The reading is free and open to the public.  Since 1981, Daniels has been on the faculty of the creative writing program at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he is the Thomas Stockham Baker Professor of English. Daniels won the inaugural Brittingham Prize in Poetry from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He was educated at Alma College and Bowling Green State University.

Samples of Daniels’ work can be found using a simple Google search, but here is a link to his poem “Dim,” republished by The Poetry Foundation, and another link to his short story “Et Tu,” recently published by the journal PANK.

Shout-out to Two Open Mics

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For budding writers living in northeast, PA, there is a chance to share your work with a broader audience through two newish open mics in the area.  The first open mic I want to mention takes place the fourth Wednesday of every month at Library Express in the Steamtown Mall at Scranton. I used to host this, but my teaching schedule prevented me from continuing to do so. However, local poet Scott Thomas has stepped in and revived it, so make sure to check it out. The next one will be in April.

The other open mic I want to mention takes place the fourth Friday of each month at the Dietrich Theater in Tunkhannock. Unlike the Library Express open mic, this one also features music. Participants are encouraged to get there by 6:30 if you want to sign up for one of the open performance slots. They fill up fast! The series is run by Laurel Radzieski, a Keystone College alum who is currently working on her M.F.A. at Goddard. In June, I will be stepping in and hosting the series for one night, and I will be the featured poet July 26.

Plenty of opportunities are available in the area for young writers. Make sure to make use of them.

 

 

New Visions Reading

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The next installment of the reading series at New Visions is March 30 at 7 p.m. The line-up this month will feature a diverse mix of Keystone College alumni, Wilkes M.F.A. students/alumni, and other local authors. It will include poetry, fiction, and possibly some non-fiction. As always, this reading series if free and will be held at New Visions Studio and Gallery, 201 Vine Street in Scranton.

Stanton Hancock is a poet, author, and musician from Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. Stanton has a Bachelor’s in Philosophy from Bloomsburg University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Wilkes University. He is the founder of the indie publishing company Three Chord Press and is excitedly finishing the final preparations for its first release, Split 7 Inch, slated to be released this spring.

Laurel Radzieski is a Keystone College graduate who divides her time between writing and theatrical endeavors. She is the Cultural Assistant at the Dietrich Theater and is an acting member of the Dietrich Children’s Theatre, a group in which she has played a fox, a wolf, and a few cats. Her poetry has been recognized by the Mulberry Poets & Writers Association and she is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Goddard College.

Shelby Fisk is a former staff writer and photographer for The Times Leader Scranton Edition and Abington Journal. She graduated with a M.A. and MFA in Creative Writing from Wilkes University, where she studied fiction and poetry. She writes incorporating the two genres in her writing, teaches English at Keystone College, where she received her B.A., and is currently working on a multi-narrative novel.

Chris Campion holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from Wilkes University. His short stories can be found through Fiction365.com and the East Meets West, American Writers Journal. He is currently an M.F.A. candidate at Wilkes University.

Heather M. Davis has been a film buff since the beginning of her life on Earth. She received a B.A. in Film Studies and Production from Hofstra University and a M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Wilkes University. She works full-time as Marketing and Communications Specialist for Johnson College and adjuncts at Johnson College and Lackawanna College. She’s a screenwriter, essayist, and fiction conjurer who currently lives in Scranton.

Andrea McGuigan has been hosting poetry readings in the greater Scranton area for more than ten years, including the Test Pattern reading series, the Anthology Books reading series, and the current Prose in Pubs series. Andrea is a rostered artist-in-residence with the NEIU #19 and has taught poetry workshops and residencies in schools and at Arts Alive and Arts Alive Intermediate. She is a regular judge for Poetry Out Loud, a national performance poetry competition in which local schools participate. Her book of poems, Spinning with the Tornado, was published by Paper Kite Press in 2003. Once upon a time, she owned a bookstore called Anthology. Andrea lives in Scranton with her husband, Conor, and their cat, Kiki Ray Simone.

Post-AWP Rounup

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I spent the last few days in Boston for the AWP Conference. This was my third time attending; I previously went to the conference in Chicago in 2009 and Denver the following year. By far, this one was larger, and even the bitter winds and steady snowfall of the first two days didn’t keep people away. I heard estimates that ranged from 11,000-15,000 people registered and over 700 venders at the book fair. I questioned why AWP grows larger each year. Is it because of the proliferation of M.F.A. programs across the country? Is it because of the growth of small presses and journals? I would say it’s both. There’s a creative writing boom going on right now, especially with the continuous creation of low-res M.F.A. programs and undergrad B.F.A. programs. I see this even in northeastern, Pennsylvania. The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area is not at all like Boston or other big cities, and yet there are several writing groups here and multiple reading series. The reading series are often well-attended, jammed even. I see this as only a positive thing.

During the three-day event, I saw several of my favorite contemporary poets, including Major Jackson, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, Kevin Young, Tony Hoagland, Cornelius Eady, Thomas Sayer Ellis, Richard Blanco,Tracy K. Smith, Kevin Young, and others. During the Cave Canem event, Major Jackson read a poem about online dating that made me almost fall out of my chair laughing at certain points. It was a poem a lot different from anything found in his three full-length collection of poems, especially for its humor, but also the point it makes about consumerism, online dating, and making yourself a product for another’s consumption.

Hoagland was on a panel with Chris Campion and a few others, and he wrote an essay specifically for AWP about a theory he has regarding capitalism overtaking poetry. The thesis of his article is that the proliferation of M.F.A. programs and this increasing notion of a “professional writer” has created unhealthy competitiveness in the arts and writers more concerned with publishing than really creating good poems and building community. He blames this on market capitalism  and the notion that one must get a tenure-track position to write and have a career. Furthermore, he said this has led to over-intellectualization in poetry, or rather using big words just for the sake of using big words. Hoagland made plenty of good points, and his fellow panelists had a lot of responses, some defending the M.F.A. programs by stating they can indeed build community and they can teach young writers to focus on craft and reading. However, I found myself mostly agreeing with Hoagland. There are SO many M.F.A. programs out there now and SO many M.F.A. graduates vying for very, very few academic jobs.  This has indeed created a cutthroat aspect not at all healthy to community building. Yet, what does one do with an M.F.A.? Most programs stress teaching, but maybe it’s time to have a conversation about career alternatives, such as public relations work, editing, publishing, journalism, or teaching community workshops, as opposed to teaching in a college classroom.

During another panel, I listened to Charles Bernstein defend poetry as a political act when a fellow panelist claimed poetry should not at all be political and instead be about truth and beauty because a political poem makes no difference at all because “nobody reads poetry.” Bernstein said that poetry is inherently political because it often questions what is truth or beauty. He added that even the notion of publishing writing online and through small presses is political because it creates information sharing and makes literature available to more people for free or a low price.

Now that I’m back from the conference, I’m glad to be on spring break. I have a stack of new books to read, poems to revise, and new poems to draft.