Down the Dog Hole We Go!

August 24, 2016August 24, 2016Leave a comment

I have been sitting on this news for weeks and weeks now, but I am happy to announce that Scranton-based poet Tom Blomain and I recently edited an anthology called Down the Dog Hole, featuring 11-NEPA based poet writing about the greater Scranton region. The book will be out in the coming weeks through Nightshade Press of Keystone College. On Sept. 22, we will have a book launch at Keystone College, and we have a scheduled Scranton launch for Oct. 14 at the Library Express.

The featured poets include: David Elliott, Dawn Leas, Craig Czury, Erin Delaney, Jane Honchell, Susan Luckstone Jaffer, Nancy Dymond, Laurel Radzieski, Amanda J. Bradley, Tom Blomain, and I.

Here is a picture of the front cover. I will post a pic of the back cover, too, once I have a high res copy.

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Winter Edition of The Writers’ Showcase

February 15, 2016February 15, 20161 Comment

If you’re looking to shake the winter blues, then come out to the winter edition of The Writers’ Showcase on Feb. 27 at the Old Bricke Theatre in north Scranton. My co-host, Dawn Leas, and I are proud of the line-up that we have in store for the audience. Here is a flyer with all of the information.

Writer’s Showcase: August Edition!

August 27, 2015August 27, 2015Leave a comment

I just want to give a quick shout-out to the fine folks at Electric/Diamond City for the wonderful write-up on the August edition of the Writer’s Showcase at the Old Brick Theater in Scranton. I’m thrilled we got to sit down with them for an interview and photo shoot. This reading series continues to grow, and I couldn’t be more proud. Check out the article here.

The reading will take place this Saturday from 7-9 p.m. Admission is $4. The Old Brick Theater is located at 126 W. Market Street in Scranton. I couldn’t be more excited about this edition’s line-up! Check out their bios:

Carrie Reilly is a genderqueer poet from Philadelphia and host of Wild Mischief: A Reading Series & Literary Gathering. Carrie earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Wilkes University and has had poems published in Apiary Magazine and My Favorite Bullet, as well as the collective chapbook, “Bodies of Fire,” with poets Julia C. Alter and Julia Perch.

Raymond P. Hammond served over twenty-five years as a law enforcement officer at the National Park Service. He is editor-in-chief of The New York Quarterly Foundation and the author of Poetic Amusement, a book of literary criticism. He is also an adjunct professor at Keystone College and is the faculty advisor for Keystone College Press.

William Black’s short fiction has appeared in The Southern Review, Threepenny Review, Crazyhorse, The Sun Magazine, Harvard Review, and more than twenty other journals and magazines, and a collection of stories, Inheritances, came out in the spring of 2015. He lives in Scranton and teaches creative writing and world literature at the Johns Hopkins University.

Sarah Zane Lewis is a poet and science geek from Scranton, PA. She is the recipient of the Delta Epsilon Sigma National Writing Prize in Poetry, the J. Harold Brislin Medal for Distinction in Creative Writing, the Sister M. Charitas Loftus Medal for Excellence in Poetry, and a National Science Foundation Research Experience in biochemistry. The author of two chapbooks and several limited edition graphic poems, her work has also appeared in Pulp, and the recent SwanDive Press anthology, Everyday Escape Poems. Sarah Zane founded Seattle’s Word of Mouth poetry series, and featured at the Seattle Poetry Festival, the Seattle Poetry Slam, the National Poetry Slam, the Bumbershoot Music Festival and was the 2001 Bumberslam Champion. Sarah Zane served as Scoring Director for the National Poetry Slam, has coached a youth slam team at Brave New Voices, and mentored young writers through the Emerging Voice program. She holds a B.S. in Biotechnology and a lifetime membership to Trapeze School New York.

Kaylie Jones is the author of the acclaimed memoir, Lies My Mother Never Told Me (2009). Her novels include A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries, which was released as a Merchant Ivory Film in 1998; Celeste Ascending (2001); and Speak Now (2004). She is the author of numerous book reviews and articles, which have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, the Paris Review, the Washington Post, Confrontation Magazine, and others. She is the editor of the anthology Long Island Noir (2012). Her latest novel, The Anger Meridian, was published in July 2015. Kaylie has been teaching for more than 25 years, including at Southampton College’s MFA Program in Writing, and in the low residency MFA Program in Professional Writing at Wilkes University. She co-chairs the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, which awards $10,000 yearly to an unpublished first novel. Her latest endeavor is her imprint with Akashic Books, Kaylie Jones Books, a writer’s collective in which the authors play a fundamental part in their own publishing process.

Goodbye, Vintage Theater

August 12, 2014Leave a comment

Unfortunately, another all-ages art venue in Scranton is closing its doors. The Vintage Theater will officially close at the end of this month. A goodbye bash will be held on August 30 at 6 p.m. As a board member, I can’t even begin to express my disappointment and sorrow to see yet another venue close in the community. I can’t even begin to describe the importance of venues like The Vintage to communities like Scranton. When I was in high school, I found solace at another all-ages venue, Cafe Del Soul, which closed its doors during my senior year. It was there that I discovered the punk rock community, activism, poetry, and the broader art community. I am sure that The Vintage provided that for a lot of people in the greater Scranton/Wilkes-Barre community, and I can only hope another venue will open soon.

As a writer, The Vintage has been incredibly important to me. I had the book launch for Front Man there in the fall of 2010 and more recently, I had the release party for All That Remains there last fall. Conor and Theresa, the venue owners, were always there for the art community, and when New Visions Studio and Gallery closed last year, they were gracious enough to allow Jason Lucarelli and I to move the Writers’ Showcase there. We had two readings there, one last March and one in July. Both were well-attended, and all of the writers, especially the ones that came from our of town, had positive things to say about the venue and the greater Scranton community. Furthermore, the venue hosted a local writing group there each Saturday and had a monthly open mic for writers. All of this comes on top of the countless art, music, and theater events the venue had over the years.

If you’re in the area, or even if you moved out of the area, come say goodbye to the venue on August 30 at 6 p.m. and thank Conor and Theresa in person for the positive impact they had on the community.

About That Study

July 26, 2014July 26, 2014Leave a comment

While I was away on vacation last week, a lot of my local friends spread this article via social media by The Citizens’ Voice.

The article pertains to a study done by economists at Harvard University and the University of British Columbia Canada. The study found that the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metro area is the unhappiest region in the U.S. Here is what the article states:

Economists with Harvard University and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, looked at telephone polls from 2005 to 2009 organized by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among a slew of health and lifestyle questions was, “How satisfied are you with your life?”

At least 300,000 people in the U.S. answered that question each year. The study’s authors picked 177 metro areas that garnered at least 200 respondents each year. Even controlling for age, race, gender and other demographic factors, Northeastern Pennsylvanians were most likely in the country to tell pollsters their lives are unsatisfying.

Everyone knows the rust belt regions lack jobs, and that’s nothing new. Yet, as my friend Charlotte Lewis pointed out in the article, this area has a fairly strong artistic community. For the last three years, I’ve hosted a reading series and brought in writers from around the northeast region and from as far away as Chicago, and all of them were impressed by the city and the reading series. Furthermore, there are countless other literary events in the area, including open mics at The Vintage, open mics at Embassy Vinyl, locally produced plays, not to mention the visiting authors that the local colleges host. In addition, there’s a strong First Friday art walk in downtown Scranton and now a Third Friday art walk in Wilkes-Barre that is only growing. There’s a local music scene, and there’s easy access to NYC via bus. Philly is just a two hour car ride, while Boston and DC are only a few hours away, too. So, I’m unsure why people complain about the area so much. It’s certainly not lacking in terms of things to do or its access to other cities. The economy is troubled, yes, but that is nothing knew in the rust belt region of the U.S.

If people feel unhappy, then why don’t they do something about it? I have countless friends that have started wonderful artistic events in this area, but what about those that just complain about everything? If they’re fed up with the politics, then why not run for city council, county office, or school board? If they think there’s nothing to do, then why don’t they start something?

I’m glad that some of the quotes in the article praised what there is to do here and the growing artistic community. I feel fortunate to live in a place that has reading series, art walks, theater, several colleges, and short car rides to major East Coast cities.

Writers’ Showcae at the Vintage

February 26, 2014February 26, 2014Leave a comment

This Saturday, March 1, Jason Lucarelli and I will be hosting the Writers’ Showcase at The Vintage in downtown Scranton. The reading starts at 7, and I’m excited about our line-up! It should be great night. Our featured readers are Laura Duda, Jeff Rath, Emmalea Russo, Kevin McDonough, Amanda J. Bradley, and Le Hinton. Here is a list of their bios and here is a link to a feature story The Weekender just published on Le Hinton and the reading.

In addition to writing, Laura Duda’s creative outlets include a custom line of art called BarnYard Art where she utilizes recycled materials – old barn wood, barbed wire, saw blades, horse shoes, etc. – and natural elements to create art and jewelry. She has also had gallery showings of her digital nature photography. She and her husband operate a horse drawn carriage business and reside on a small horse farm in Fell Township, Pennsylvania. She an adjunct instructor in the humanities division at Lackawanna College, and co-chair of both the Creative Arts Club and First Friday Committee. She is also an adjunct faculty member at Southern New Hampshire University as an instructor in English composition and creative writing. Laura is a Spring 2013 graduate of the Wilkes University Creative Writing Master of Arts program where she focused on fiction and nonfiction. She has had fiction published in the Osterhaut Library’s Word Fountain, and her non-fiction short story “Bonnie” was published in the Fall 2012 edition of the East Meets West American Writer’s Review; the story won honorable mention in the 2012 Fall Writer’s Contest.

Jeff Rath is the author of three collections of poetry: The Waiting Room at the End of the World (2007), In the Shooting Gallery of the Heart (2009) and Film Noir (2011), all published by Iris G. Press. His works have been published in a number of journals including Everyday Genius and Fledgling Rag. He is the 2007 R.E. Foundation Award winner and a Pushcart Prize nominee.

Emmalea Russo is a poet and visual artist making process-based works. Recent work has appeared in Two Serious Ladies and THE VOLTA. She is the author of they (an artist book made from thread and Gertrude Stein’s Stanzas in Meditation, GAUSS PDF, 2014), and the chapbooks book of southern and water (Poor Claudia, 2013) and CLEAR1NG (Dancing Girl Press, 2013). She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Kevin McDonough is a full-time Assistant Professor at Lackawanna College. He teaches a range of English and writing courses including College Writing, Introduction to Literature, Women’s Literature, American Literature to 1900, and Language, Literacy, and Play. Kevin also works as an adjunct professor for Marywood University’s English department, teaching Composition and Rhetoric, Children’s Literature, and Structured Linguistics. He spends his time outside of the classroom writing and performing original music—and working on short fiction. His New Year’s resolution for 2014 is to actually start submitting his stories.

Amanda J. Bradley has two books of poems out from NYQ Books: Hints and Allegations was released in 2009 and Oz at Night in 2011. She has published poetry and essays in many journals including Kin Poetry Journal, The Nervous Breakdown, The Best American Poetry Blog, Rattle, The New York Quarterly, and Poetry Bay. She was interviewed in The Huffington Post in April 2013. Amanda is a graduate of the MFA program at The New School, and she holds a PhD in English and American Literature from Washington University in St. Louis. She is an Assistant Professor at Keystone College.

Le Hinton is the author of four poetry collections including, most recently, Black on Most Days (Iris G. Press, 2008) and The God of Our Dreams (Iris G. Press, 2010). His work has been published in Gargoyle, Little Patuxent Review, Unshod Quills, Watershed, Off the Coast, and in the poetry anthology/cookbook, Cooking Up South. His poem “Epidemic” was the winner of the Baltimore Review’s 2013 Winter Issue contest. In 2012, his poem, “Our Ballpark,” was incorporated into Derek Parker’s sculpture Common Thread and installed at Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as part of the Poetry Paths project.

I love Scranton, but…

February 21, 2014February 21, 2014Leave a comment

Everyone knows that Scranton is broke. The city made national headlines a few years go when former mayor Chris Doherty paid city workers, including police officers, minimum wage because of the city’s financial woes. That action earned Scranton headlines in the New York Times, MSNBC, the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, NPR, and other mainstream media outlets. Now, there’s been chatter about the city’s recently created “amusement tax.” According to an article in Electric/Diamond City, a notice was sent to business owners about this tax in January, and the notice states that the tax allows the city “to impose a 5-percent tax upon privilege of attending or engaging in non-exempt amusements, including every form of entertainment, diversion, sport, recreation and pastime, requiring all persons, partnerships, associations and corporations conducting places of amusements; imposing duties and conferring powers upon the Treasurer of the City of Scranton; prescribing the method and the manner of collecting the tax imposed by the ordinance; and imposing penalties for the violation thereof.”

Editor Tom Graham’s piece raises important questions, too. “Exactly 5 percent of what?” he asks. 5 percent of a ticketed event? 5 percent of cover charges collected at the door? How exactly will the money be collected? There is a lot of troubling aspects of this tax. If it is imposed, it will probably hurt some of the smaller venues downtown by not only whacking them with the tax, but also by driving bands, writers, actors, actresses, and other entertainers away from Scranton venues because the tax would impact how much they get paid to perform. Scranton has a lot of issues, but thanks to First Friday and the strong, growing art and entertainment community, it does have culture. It would be a shame if this tax killed that.

The best thing to do is to attend city council meetings and call the mayor’s office and urge them not to enforce this tax. The contact information for city officials can be found here.

Brian Fanelli

Poet. Educator. Horror Blogger.

Tag: Scranton