I just received word yesterday that poet/writer/human rights activist Carolyn Forché is coming to the University of Scranton in February. Here is the press release that was shared with me. This event is going to be free and well-worth checking out, considering Forché is one of the biggest names in the contemporary American poetry scene.

As part of its 2010 – 2011 Education for Justice theme of peace and reconciliation, The University of Scranton will welcome Carolyn Forché — an award-winning poet, essayist and human rights activist — for a lecture on Wednesday, Feb. 16. The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 7 p.m. in the Pearn Auditorium of Brennan Hall.

No stranger to the University, Forché received an honorary degree following her inspiring speech at Scranton’s 2010 undergraduate commencement. She told graduates that they “have the potential to be noble of spirit” and that they may “become the most important generation that has ever lived.” At the ceremony, Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., president of The University of Scranton, said, “The witness of her words and example resonates with the University’s commitment to promote justice in the Jesuit tradition.”

Titled “The Voice of Witness,” the lecture will focus on ways in which warfare, imprisonment and other forms of suffering are given voice by writers around the world.

Forché has commented on some of the most devastating social events of the 20th century. Her first book of poetry, “Gathering the Tribes,” won the 1975 Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Forché traveled as part of Amnesty International to El Salvador, where she witnessed a civil war — an experience that inspired her to write “The Country Between Us,” a book of poems that was named the 1981 Lamont Poetry Selection and became a rare poetry bestseller.

A noted translator and a teacher of poetry and literature for 35 years, she holds and directs the Lannan Chair of Poetry and Poetics at Georgetown University. Forché has received three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lannan Foundation Fellowship and other literary and teaching awards — including the Robert Creeley Award in 2005 and The Golden Rose from the New England Poetry Club in 2008. In 1998, she was presented the Edita and Ira Morris Hiroshima Foundation Award for Peace and Culture in Stockholm, Sweden, for her work on behalf of human rights and the preservation of memory and culture.

The Education for Justice Office promotes justice throughout The University of Scranton community through various programs, lectures and activities. The office wishes to educate students on the importance of justice, so they may act

Happy New Year everyone!

In the spirit of the new year and new possibilities, I want to share an interesting blog/journal I discovered recently that may appeal to some of the fellow writers who read my blog. The journal I’m talking about is titled Young American Poets. Check it out here. I’m especially impressed with this site because the editors publish a poem every few days, except when they shut down for a few weeks during the holidays. The site is also unique because the editors only publish poets born on or before July 20, 1971 from all 50 states.

So, if you’re looking to get your work out there, you may want to check their submission guidelines, since they’ll be open for submissions again soon. I just sent them work a few weeks ago.

Good luck, and happy new year!

The latest issue of Poets & Writers is now in bookstores.  For anyone interested in strengthening their writing and learning more about the poetry business, this magazine should be a standard. But I think the current issue is a little more special than others. It features the 6th Annual Debut Poets Roundup, meaning it contains blurbs on several poets who released debut poetry collections recently. Each featured poet also provides advice on writing/publishing.

Unforutnately, Poets & Writers’ content is only available in print, so I can’t post a link to the section, but I will share some helpful advice .

J. Michael Martinez, author of Heredities, published by Lousiana State Unviversity Press, says, “I’d recomend poets focus on the actual act of writing. It is easy to get preoccupied with the fetishizing of publication and lose sight of why we do what we do.”

Here’s some good advice on publishing from Keetje Kuipers, author of Beautiful in the Mouth, published by BOA Editions.

“Good poems are good poems, and they’ll find a home somewhere. But when you’re sending your manuscript out to contests and publishers, you know that your work is going up against a whole lot of good poems. That’s why structure and order and cohesion of a collection are all so important.”

Finally, I’ll end with some advice by John Murillo, author of Up Jump the Boogie, one of my favorite collections of the last year.

“Take as long as you need to write the best book you can, work hard until you are generally satisfied. Then send it out and hope for the best. Second, know that what’s meant for you will find you; what isn’t, won’t. It’s a waste of both time and energy worrying about where this person publishes or what this person wins… Don’t hate, hustle.”

Happy Holidays everyone! Since it’s Christmas Eve, I thought I would post a holiday poem- “Christmas Trees” By Robert Frost. Enjoy!

A Christmas Circular Letter

The city had withdrawn into itself
And left at last the country to the country;
When between whirls of snow not come to lie
And whirls of foliage not yet laid, there drove
A stranger to our yard, who looked the city,
Yet did in country fashion in that there
He sat and waited till he drew us out
A-buttoning coats to ask him who he was.
He proved to be the city come again
To look for something it had left behind
And could not do without and keep its Christmas.
He asked if I would sell my Christmas trees;
My woods—the young fir balsams like a place
Where houses all are churches and have spires.
I hadn't thought of them as Christmas Trees.
I doubt if I was tempted for a moment
To sell them off their feet to go in cars
And leave the slope behind the house all bare,
Where the sun shines now no warmer than the moon.
I'd hate to have them know it if I was.
Yet more I'd hate to hold my trees except
As others hold theirs or refuse for them,
Beyond the time of profitable growth,
The trial by market everything must come to.
I dallied so much with the thought of selling.
Then whether from mistaken courtesy
And fear of seeming short of speech, or whether
From hope of hearing good of what was mine,
I said, "There aren't enough to be worth while."

"I could soon tell how many they would cut,
You let me look them over."  

                                    "You could look.
But don't expect I'm going to let you have them."
Pasture they spring in, some in clumps too close
That lop each other of boughs, but not a few
Quite solitary and having equal boughs
All round and round. The latter he nodded "Yes" to,
Or paused to say beneath some lovelier one,
With a buyer's moderation, "That would do."
I thought so too, but wasn't there to say so.
We climbed the pasture on the south, crossed over,
And came down on the north. 

                                    He said, "A thousand."  

"A thousand Christmas trees!—at what apiece?"  

He felt some need of softening that to me:
"A thousand trees would come to thirty dollars."  

Then I was certain I had never meant
To let him have them. Never show surprise!
But thirty dollars seemed so small beside
The extent of pasture I should strip, three cents
(For that was all they figured out apiece),
Three cents so small beside the dollar friends
I should be writing to within the hour
Would pay in cities for good trees like those,
Regular vestry-trees whole Sunday Schools
Could hang enough on to pick off enough.
A thousand Christmas trees I didn't know I had!
Worth three cents more to give away than sell,
As may be shown by a simple calculation.
Too bad I couldn't lay one in a letter.
I can't help wishing I could send you one,
In wishing you herewith a Merry Christmas

Well, it’s about time! The Ramones are set to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys in February. Other recipients include Dolly Party, Julie Andrews, and The Kingston Trio.

The Ramones changed everything. They were the godfathers of American punk rock who made CBGBs in New York famous. Johnny Ramone’s buzzsaw guitar sound developed the three or four power chord style that other punk rock bands still emulate to this day. Furthermore, the band stripped rock ‘n roll to its bare bones, took out all of the fat, long-winded guitar solos, and slick production and produced tracks no longer than two or three minutes.

This band is also a reoccurring name in my poetry chapbook, Front Man. In fact, the first poem of the book is about hearing The Ramones for the first time.

The First Listen

Opening chords blast,

 rattling pictures on my wall.

Snare and booming bass echo

louder than gunfire.

The singer shouts,

Hey Ho! Let’s Go!

I ball my fist,

dream I mosh and slam,

shred my jeans,

wear a black motorcycle jacket,

like the four Ramones

posed on that first album cover.

I see myself at Café Roach,

hanging with people father calls freaks, burnouts,

hair red, green or blue,

safety pins poking through clothes.

Johnny Ramone’s power

chord formula could be a map

to the stage, where I’d rise up,

spray the crowd

with machine gun speed riffs.

I am working on a new reading series with the owner of the Exhale Hookah Lounge and Kabob Grill on Wyoming Ave. in downtown Scranton. Our first reading in the series will take place this Wednesday at 7 p.m. The readers include fiction writers Tom Borthwick and Matt Holmes and poets Victoria Garafola, Dale Wilsey Jr, and I.

The event should be an all-in-all good time that features diverse work from local writers. Admission is free.

Prominent publications and organizations have posted their best of the year poetry collections for 2010.

The HuffingtonPost posted its list this week, and it includes H.L. Hix’s collection First Fire, Then Birds: Obsessions 1985-2010. This book covers a span of Hix’s work throughout his career. I don’t have the collection yet, but I have read a few of Hix’s collections, including Chromatic, which was nominated for a National Book Award, God Bless, poems consisting of phrases from speeches given by George Bush and Osama Bin Laden, and As Easy as Lying, an essay collection on the craft of poetry.

HuffingtonPost’s writer, Anis Shivani, commented that Hix is “one of our most daring poets, his oeuvre a rebuke to timidity, apathy, and retreat in any of its manifestations.”

I also wanted to point out that Hix serves on the advisory board of the Wilkes Graduate Creative Writing Program, where I earned my M.F.A. In addition, a lot of his work, including the book mentioned on HuffingtonPost’s list, was published by Etruscan Press, which is housed out of the Wilkes creative writing offices. I also interned for the press during my last semester of the program. So congrats to Hix and congrats to the Wilkes program.

The list also includes Major Jackson’s latest collection, Holding Company, one of my favorites of the year, and collections by Arab poet Adonis, C.D. Wright, who has made other lists, Paul Muldon, who also made other lists, Charles Simic, and others.

Some other lists include the New Yorker’s 11 best poetry books of 2010, which includes this year’s winner of the National Book Award, Terrance Hayes, for his collection Lighthead, also one of my favorites of the year.

The Poetry Foundation and others have also posted their lists, so check them out if you have time.

As  I had mentioned earlier, Holding Company by Major Jackson is one of my tops for the year. In this collection, Jackson created a major shift in form from his previous two books, Leaving Saturn and Hoops. Instead of the narrative form that often composes his work, he created brief, 10-line poems in Holding Company that created a greater sense of urgency and forced him to make the point sooner.

Another one of my favorite collections of the year is Terrance Hayes’ Lighthead. Hayes just has a gift for language, metaphor, and pop culture references, especially music.

Over the weekend, I took part in the OutLoudLit series in Mechanicsburg, PA. This reading is held bi-monthly at a spacious art gallery appropriately named The Gallerie, right in the downtown at 13 E. Main Street. Saturday’s event consisted of well-polished poetry and fiction from writers mostly based in Central, PA. Several of them are also current students, alums, or faculty from the Wilkes University Graduate Creative Writing Program. Since Christmas is about two weeks away, the event had a holiday theme, so everyone’s work, including my own, referenced some aspect of winter and the holidays.

The quality of the work was stellar, I thought. These stories and poems were polished and ready to be shared, and all of the readers did a great job at the podium. 

This series was put together by Ally Bishop, a current student in the Wilkes program, and it was clear to me after the reading concluded that this series has helped stenghten and grow the writing community in Mechanicsburg. I hope it continues for a long time because it does provide another venue for writers to share their work.

Upon driving home from the reading, I realized I’m even more interested in strengthening the writing community here in the Scranton area. We already have some solid ongoing events here. A writing group meets every Saturday at noon at Anthology Books.  The used book store also has several different book clubs, and all of that info is on the store’s website. There’s also a writing group that meets the first and third Monday of every month at The Vintage Theater. Our next meeting will be Dec. 20 at 7 p.m.

Furthermore, I’m starting a reading series at the Exhale Hookah Lounge and Kabob Grill, located at 136 Wyoming Avenue in downtown Scranton. Our first reading will be on Wednesday, Dec. 22 at 7 p.m. The readers include fiction writers Tom Borthwick and Matt Holmes, and the poets include Dale Wilsey Jr, Victoria Garafalo, and myself.

I hope this reading series catches on and does for this community what the OutLoudLit series has done for Mechanicsburg.

Now that the fall semester is winding down and I have some of my final grades finished, I’m freed up to do some more readings. Last night, I participated in the Mulberry Poets and Writers Association’s Winter Solstice at the Dante Literary Society in South Scranton. The MWPA has been around for decades in the area, and recently, they’ve become quite active again, launching and planning collaborative events between poets and artists, open readings, and even a future bus trip to NYC so group members can read at the Bowery Poetry Club and tour the Poets House. For anyone interested in poetry, I recommend joining this group. It’s only $10 a year and it provides the chance to showcase your work at a few different events throughout the year. Another benefit, and one I really enjoy, is the chance to simply mingle with people who have a deep appreciation for poetry.   More info about the group can found here, though the website is currently in the process of undergoing some changes.

Today, I’m off to Mechanicsburg to read with alumni, current students, and faculty from Wilkes University’s Graduate Creative Writing Program, where I completed my MA and MFA. The event, called OutLoudLit, starts at 2 p.m. and will be held at The Gallerie, 13 E. Main Street. Admission is free, and there will also be some food and a book sale.

I am going to teach a 5-week long poetry workshop at The Vintage Theater in downtown Scranton starting Wednesday, Jan. 19 and running through the next few Wednesdays. The sessions will feature lessons on various techniques of poetry, including metaphor, form, line break, rhythm, persona, narrative, revision, and public readings.  Each student’s work will be heavily critiqued by fellow students and myself. Furthermore, I will always take student work home with me and heavily comment on it. The last session will feature a reading party to showcase the work the students completed during the five weeks.

The cost of the workshop is $75, and some of that money will go to The Vintage Theater. At this point, I am near my limit for students, but I can still add a few more. If interested, contact me at bfanelli84@gmail.com.