Poety and Youth

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Last weekend, I did a reading and Q and A at the Vintage Theater with other local published authors (thank you to everyone who came out!). One of the questions we were asked is how we got started. Just about everyone on stage stated that we started writing in high school, due to a writing class we had with a supportive teacher.

I had a wonderful teacher in 9th and 12th grades, Mrs. James, who pushed me to continue writing poetry and crafting articles for the newspaper. When I arrived at West Chester University, I had two phenomenal creative writing workshops with Kate Northrop, who constantly challenged and pushed the students, making our critiques of each other’s work stronger. Even more importantly, she recommended to us different poets to read based on our style. I’m still grateful to her for lending me books by Mark Strand and Charles Simic when I was trying to write imagistic lines.

I mention all of this because young writers need encouragement and support. I never would have become a poet without that. One of the teachers at the Tunkhannock Area School District is trying to provide such support to her students and bring more poetry into her classroom. High school English teacher Katie Watkins Wisnosky has launched what she dubs “Breaking Ground Poetry SLAM” for her students at Tunkhannock. This Saturday, from 6-9, they will read at the Vintage Theater in Scranton. Before they take the stage, Lauren Zuniga, a nationally touring SLAM poet, will perform a 30-minute set. Zuniga is currently ranked in the top 5 female slams poets from the 2012 Women of the World Poetry Slam. She is the founder of Oklahoma Young Writers and the 2012 Activist-in-Residence at the University of Oklahoma.

For more information on this event and Wisnosky’s efforts to bring more poetry and creativity to her classroom, check out this article from The Scranton Times.

Lit. Unraveled

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If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, check out the event Lit Unraveled, taking place this Friday at 7 p.m. at the new Vintage Theater, 326 Spruce Street in Scranton. The event will feature readings by Dawn Leas, Rich Howells, Jason Lucarelli, Amye Archer, and I. It will include a great mix of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Following the reading, there will be a Q and A session with the writers. The cost for this event is $3, and all of the money is going to the Vintage Theater, so they can continue to have art and cultural events that benefit the community. Lit Unraveled will also give you the chance to check out the Vintage’s new space and cafe, which includes several used books for sale.

For more info about this event, check out the article that appeared in The Weekender.

 

A Recap of Billy Collins at King’s College

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King’s College hosted former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins in a packed auditorium Monday night. Throughout his reading and the brief Q and A/lecture session that followed, I regretted leaving my notebook and a pen at home. He offered the usual humor associated with his readings and work, but also several nuggets of wisdom, especially for writers, teachers, and students.

I especially liked some his writing tips. He said a poem should “Begin in Kansas and end in Oz,” and he dislikes poems that suddenly begin in Oz without any explanation of how the poet suddenly arrived there. His advice reminded me of Frost’s quote that a poem should “begin in delight and end in wisdom.”  Collins further explained his writing process and said that he sometimes doesn’t know where a poem will go, but he’ll continue writing and see where it leads. Sometimes this takes 20 minutes, or sometimes it takes 4 hours, he said, but when it’s done, he has an experience to share with a reader.

He also offered some suggestions as to teaching poetry. Instead of immediately dissecting a poem’s rhythm or trying to unlock its theme, he suggested that teachers ask students how a poem got to its eventual conclusion, how did the poet get us to the last line. In a way, posing that type of question causes students to look more closely at the techniques used to make the language or imagery fresh and interesting.

As for the reading portion of the event, Collins read poems from most of his nine collections, as well as a few new poems. He read some of his most famous works, such as “Questions About Angels” and “NightClub,’ as well as an assortment of other work, frequently cracking jokes before or after he started a poem. Love him or hate him, Billy Collins has had a long, incredibly successful career by injecting humor into his work, using colloquial language, and making his work accessible.

Billy Collins at King’s College

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I’ve had notice of this for a few weeks now, but I forgot to post this news on my blog. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins will be at King’s College tomorrow (Oct. 15) for a reading. The event begins at 7:30 p.m. and will be held at the William G. McGowan School of Business, located at the corner of W. Union and N. River Streets. The best news is that this event is free and open to the public.

Collins is the receipent of numerous awards and author of several collections of poetry, including Sailing Around the Room, Picnic Lightening, and many others.

National Book Award Finalists Announced

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The finalists for the National Book Award were announced today. The list for poetry is a decent mix of well-known names, including Alan Shapiro, and some lesser known names.

Here is the full list for poetry:

David Ferry, Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations(University of Chicago Press)

Cynthia Huntington, Heavenly Bodies (Southern Illinois University Press)

Tim Seibles, Fast Animal (Etruscan Press)

Alan Shapiro, Night of the Republic (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Susan Wheeler, Meme (University of Iowa Press)

For the most part, most of the books on the list come from large indie presses, but there is one smaller press mentioned ,Etruscan Press, which is run through the Graduate Creative Writing program of Wilkes University, where I received my M.F.A. I got to do some work with Etruscan during my last semester, including having the opportunity to make study guides for some of the books. It’s a well-run press with a small, dedicated staff, so kudos to them, and I hope Tim Seibles’ book wins. What’s especially impressive is that this is Etruscan’s third National Book Award nomination. Works by H.L. Hix and William Heyen were nominated in the past.

A full list of the finalists in every genre can be read here.

Don’t Panic, People!

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A lot of my liberal friends have been moaning and groaning over the last few days after President Obama’s lackluster debate performance last week. However, I’ve been telling them not to worry, at least not yet. In the last few decades, incumbant presidents have more times than not lost the first debate. Ronald Reagan had a poor performance against Walter Mondale in 1984. George Bush Sr. lost the first debate to Clinton. George Bush Jr. lost the first round to John Kerry in 2004. All of those candidates, other than Bush Sr., went on to win re-election.

Furthermore, the president was never a good debtor. He lost several of the debates to Hillary Clinton in 2008, and he lost the first debate to John McCain after securing the Democratic nomination. He is better at giving speeches, especially when he hasn’t debated in four years and his opponent went through a long, drawn-out primary season with a record number of debates.

Sure, Mitt Romney got a bit of a bounce from the first debate. However, President Obama is still ahead in the electoral count, and that’s what matters most.  Just about every electoral map has Obama ahead. Here is a sampling of the Huff Post’s map and The New York Times map, as two examples.

It was probably likely the race was going to tighten after the debate anyways. The president enjoyed a post-convention bounce and was pulling ahead. Romney is enjoying a slight post-debate bounce, but bounces fade after a week or two.

Meanwhile, if you want to get involved in the election, for either candidate, the offices always need help. I continually tell my friends that instead of posting political rants on Facebook, they should do phonebanking, canvassing, or voter registration.

Where’s the Enthusiasm?

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In one of my writing classes, I begin each session with a short writing prompt. Today, I asked my students to write down their thoughts on the presidential election. I asked if they have been following it at all and which issues they would like the candidates to address during tonight’s presidential debate. When I gave out the assignment, I stressed that they did not have to reveal who they are voting for, but rather, just write about their interest or lack of in the campaign.

After they finished the prompt, some volunteered to share what they had written. A majority of them confessed that they really had no interest at all in politics, voting, or the outcome of the election. Some of them said they do not see how a presidential campaign  has any impact on their life.

The responses startled me some, especially since I have been extremely politically active since I was 18 and was eager to vote in my first presidential election. That said, I had a hunch that young people have tuned out the campaign season, and I suspect youth turnout is going to be low, especially compared to 2008 and even 2004.The youth vote played a major role in President Obama’s first election.

I pondered for a while why young voters are disengaged this time. Perhaps they are disillusioned with the dismal state of the economy and do not believe either candidate can fix it. Perhaps, as one student said, they don’t see how politics affects them, especially since they aren’t out of college and have yet to face real economic, bread-and-butter issues. Or maybe they just don’t want to spend a lot of their time thinking about foreign policy, the unemployment numbers, or other campaign issues.

Their responses were alarming in another sense, too. If there is a decrease in voting turnout, then it sure makes it easier for politicians to do whatever they want, if they know that a certain group of people don’t vote in large numbers. Why not slash Pell grants even more if you know a lot of young people don’t vote or won’t do anything about it? Why not slash education, which leads to tuition hikes?

By the end of the discussion, all I could  say is that in the past, throughout the history of our country, change happened not because of one politician and president, but because of movements, often fueled by young people. Any great movements over the last few years that led to a politician actually doing something was driven by civic engagement. I hope we reach a point in this country again where we can have meaningful discussions about issues.

 

A Major Win for Voting Rights Advocates

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Earlier today, Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson halted the Pennsylvania voter ID law from kicking into effect for the November election. This is a major win for voting rights advocates that have argued the voter ID law would disenfranchise voters that typically vote Democratic, including minorities and the elderly. Some reports estimated that if the PA law was not struck down, up to 750,000 voters could be disenfranchised.

Poll workers can still ask a voter to show an ID, but if a voter does not have an ID, she or he can’t be turned away from the polls. According to an article in The Washington Post, the judge’s decision can be appealed to the state Supreme Court, but it’s not likely that it will change. The Supreme Court already looked at the case and bounced it back to the lower court to make a final decision.

The PA voter ID law drew a lot of attention after state Rep. Mike Turzai said the ID law would help Romney win PA.

The judge’s ruling today proves that sometimes our system of checks and balances does work. It is clear from the video above that the voter ID law was nothing more than a partisan attempt to help Republicans in the fall election. I hope that the law is completely after Nov. 6.

 

Bowery Poetry Club’s Transformation

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Out of all the venues I’ve read poetry at in the tri-state area, by far my favorite is the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City’s Lower East Side. I read there last spring with other members of the Mulberry Poets and Writers Association. I especially like the atmosphere- the dank bar in front of the venue, before you go through a curtain and enter a seated area with a large wooden stage and bright lights over the mic. It’s a comfortable performance space that attracts regular, attentive crowds.

Today, I learned that Bowery Poetry Club is undergoing a major transformation. According to an article from The Poetry Foundation, there will be a farewell party at the venue this Tuesday, before it closes down for renovations to reopen jointly with TriBeCa burlesque club Duane Park. The article goes on to state that the burlesque club will use the space
Tuesday through Saturday each week, with Bowery Poetry Club operating on Sundays
and Mondays. However, one staffer is quoted in the article as saying, “As far as we are concerned, this place is closing.”

We’ll have to wait and see what the final fate of the venue will be, but I hope it continues to have poetry readings and host writers from across the country. It is by far one of the most accommodating and well-known poetry venues in NYC.

Some Love from Journals

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I’m thrilled to announce that I got a copy of the Michigan-based journal Third Wednesday in the mail today, and in the latest issue, I am the featured poet. Eight of my poems are included, as well as an introduction to my writing. Most of the poems included will be in my forthcoming full-length collection, which Unbound Content is publishing in 2013. The Third Wednesday poems are a nice preview of the book, especially in terms of the form, tone, and subject matter that my new collection will focus on.

Unfortunately, this journal doesn’t put any of its work online, but you can order copies through the website by clicking here.

I especially like the work Third Wednesday does because it often features a small sampling of writing by students in Detroit area schools. The editorial staff works with the organization Inside Out Literary Arts Project to foster creative writing in city schools and then supports some of the work through the journal.

In addition to the poems in Third Wednesday, I also have two pieces in the latest issue of Boston Literary Magazine. You can read them by clicking here, or ordering a print copy through the website.