Looking For New Authors

Hello CCA MFA in Writing folk,

Because I'm very far away I'm hoping to get some more authors on board with the blog, especially current students!

Send me an email if you're interested. davidmmorini[at]gmail[dot]com

Thank you everyone!

Bett,
David

Jennifer Robert's The Beekeeper Staged Reading

Staged readings bring plays to their feet while kick-starting human imagination. Sitting in the dark, being told a story, letting your mind build your own sets and wash your own light.

Jennifer Robert’s new play The Beekeeper will have a staged reading over two weekends in Concord. Conducted by the Butterfield 8 Theatre Company the readings will take place at Cue Live Productions.

More about The Beekeeper:

“Oleta, an apiarist’s daughter, grew up believing she was special, but special is a double-edged sword. Haunted by a tragic childhood accident, and the mysterious death of her father, Oleta struggles to unlock the secrets of her own Colony Collapse Disorder, while a series of events reveal that the accident may not have been an accident after all.”

July 24-26th and
July 31st-August 2nd, 2009.

Friday/Saturday performances 8pm, Sundays at 3pm.

Buterfield 8 at Cue Productions Live
1835 Colfax Street
Concord, CA

Ticket Prices:
$11 for seniors and students
$15 for adults
$10 for TBA members
general admission, no reserved seating
For tickets call 925-798-1300
or purchase online at Willows Tickets
Tickets will also be available at the door.

Kevin Killian and Three Others to Read at Dog Eared Books

Taken from a facebook event notification:

Wednesday, June 17, 2009
7:30pm - 10:00pm
Dog Eared Books
900 Valencia Street @ 20th
San Francisco, CA

Dog Eared Books is delighted to present a reading for all that gay stuff that happens at the end of June with:

Trebor Healey
Kevin Killian
Stephen Beachy
Alvin Orloff

Poet and novelist Trebor Healey is the author of Through It Came Bright Colors, Sweet Son of Pan and A Perfect Scar & Other Stories. He lives in Los Angeles, where he just completed a novel about a faun.

Kevin Killian is the author of several books of prose and poetry, including ARCTIC SUMMER, ACTION KYLIE, and I CRY LIKE A BABY. His new book IMPOSSIBLE PRINCESS comes out in November from City Lights.

Stephen Beachy is the author of the twin novellas Some Phantom and No Time Flat, as well as two novels, The Whistling Song and Distortion. Distortion will be reissued this fall by Rebel Satori Press. Stephen is currently hard at work on two novels, one about Kathy Acker's journey through the lands of the dead, and one called Glory Hole, from which he will most likely be reading.

Alvin Orloff is the author of I Married an Earthling and Gutter Boys. He has just completed a new novel, Disasterama! and is working on a memoir.

Holly Payne: Kingdom of Simplicity

Author of The Virgin's Knot and The Sound of Blue, Holly Payne's new novel will be published through Skywriter Books this July 2009.

Entitled Kingdom of Simplicity the book "follows the journey of Eli Yoder, a misguided Amish youth, who, unable to forgive the driver who killed his five sisters, leaves home during rumspringa searching for acceptance in the Outside World only to confront the biggest question of his life: how to let go of the past and heal."

There will be a West Coast Book Launch on July 9th at the Fort Mason Center.

July 9, 8 p.m.
Join Holly for a book launch/benefit for Litquake!
with special guests Blame Sally

Fort Mason Center, Golden Gate Room
easy parking in lot across from Marina Safeway
TICKETS: $25, included signed copy of the book
Book sale and silent auction benefit LitQuake

Bay Area Poetry Marathon: June 2009

Summer has arrived which means Bay Area Poetry Marathon is back at The Lab. Taken from a recent email:

*******2009 BAY AREA POETRY MARATHON*******

"An ear and mind opener... this event delivers the real thing: edgy stuff, poetry with a real bite!" --SAN FRANCISCO magazine

At the Bay Area Poetry Marathon, poets from across the U.S. and the Bay Area celebrate innovative poetry in a series of readings throughout the summer. Founded in 2001, the Marathon takes place at The LAB gallery and performance space in San Francisco's Mission district.

Join us at this summer's opening event:

---Saturday, JUNE 20, 7pm---

SAMANTHA GILES * CAROLINE GOODWIN * VALYNTINA GRENIER * OWEN HILL * SARA MUMULO * ERIC OLSON * STEPHEN VINCENT * DELLA WATSON * JESSICA WICKENS

at

THE LAB, 2948 16th Street (@ Capp), San Francisco
*1 block from the Mission BART stop*

Andy Nicholson In Turntable and Blue Light

If you haven't been to Turntable + Blue Light than I suggest you look right now. Not only does it publish choice and great poetry but the website design is gorgeous.

Andy Nicholson ('06) has 4 poems in their April 2009 issue.

That can be read at this location.

Steffi Drewes in BlazeVOX 2k9

Steffi Drewes (’06) has a few poems in the new, downloadable BlazeVOX 2k9 (Spring).

BlazeVOX is a full service stop on the literary internet railroad that subheadlines with "Poetrey that doesn't suck". With books, issues, podcasts, and programs one needs the season to move from page 1 to the end.

So thank them for offering a sustainable tome.

Nonsite Collective Event this Saturday

More on the next Nonsite Reading, taken from Amber's blog:

As a continuation of the Nonsite Collective's Aesthetics as Somatics Practice investigation (Poetics and Disability thread), Amber DiPietra will host;

That Same Nowhere: a Talk with Norma Cole
May 23, 2009, 3:30pm
935 Natoma, btwn 10th and 11th,
and btwn Mission and Howard
Close to Van Ness and Market (Muni)
or Civic Center BART

This event space is wheelchair accessible, with the exception of the bathrooms. We welcome input in our search to find more accessible venues.

(This event follows the May 16 Poetics and Disablement event with Robert Kocik. Stay tuned for more in this series with Michael Davidson and Sue Schweik on June 6, 2009)

Six years ago, Norma Cole experienced a stroke that resulted in aphasia, apraxia and right side involvement. She cannot use her right arm and hand, has difficulty with balance and walking, and motor problems with speech. I approached Norma some months ago with questions as to how this shifted embodiment affects her writing and her work as a translator and teacher of poetics. I have been interested in how such a shift may come to bear on everything from use of white space on the page to the actual taking up of pen and paper. Having been focused on the basic logistics of recovery in relation to this subject, Norma now begins to explore the space that writing and the complicated body must negotiate.

This is an interview of sorts, but also a group experiment in aesthetic somatic practice. Please bring your thoughts and questions as they relate to Norma’s work, to rehabilitation, physical regimes and routines, poetics and more. Check out the Nonsite workbook page for the Poetics and Disablement series.

Previous interviews with Norma appear there as well as keywords related to our upcoming talk (somatic practice, the phantom self, here-to-there) Please consider and contribute to our provisional definitions.

- Amber DiPietra

Bios

Born in Toronto, Canada, Norma Cole received an MA in French from the University of Toronto in 1967, moving to France in time to absorb the revolutionary atmosphere of the May '68 general strike. Returning to Toronto in the early '70s, she migrated to San Francisco in 1977, where she has lived ever since. A member of the circle of poets around Robert Duncan in the ’80s, and a fellow traveler of San Francisco’s language poets, Cole is also allied with contemporary French poets like Jacques Roubaud, Claude Royet-Journoud, and Emmanuel Hocquard. Her translations from the French include Hocquard’s This Story Is Mine (Instress, 1999), Crosscut Universe: Writing on Writing from France (Burning Deck, 2000), Danielle Collobert’s Notebooks 1956-1978 (Litmus, 2003), and Fouad Gabriel Naffah’s The Spirit God and the Properties of Nitrogen (Post-Apollo, 2004). She has taught at many schools, including the University of San Francisco and San Francisco State. During winter 2004/05, Cole could be seen inhabiting a 1950s living room as part of the California Historical Society’s Collective Memory installation series. More recently, she curated a show by Marina Adams at the Cue Arts Foundation in NYC. Among her many books of original poetry are Collective Memory (Granary Books, 2006), Do the Monkey (Zasterle, 2006), Spinoza in Her Youth (Omnidawn Press, 2002) and Natural Light (Libellum, 2009). Where Shadows Will: Selected Poems 1988—2008 appeared from City Lights in April 2009.

Amber DiPietra is a San Francisco poet who lives and works as a member of the local disability community. She tracks the body in real time at http://adipietra.blogspot.com/ and is resource specialist for the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Most recently, her work appeared in the Winter 2008 issue of Tarpaulin Sky and (in the form of a hybrid essay) as part of a symposium on the Poetics of Healing: creative investigations in art, medicine, and somatic practice—a project curated by Eleni Stecopoulos and the SFSU Poetry Center. Amber is also an editor and blog curator for Kelsey Street Press.

Nonsite Collective and the Poetics of Disablement

Borrowed largely from Amber's blog:

The Nonsite Collective's investigation around the Poetics of Disablement that began last year with Bhanu Kapil, Amber DiPietra, and Thom Donovan will continue with three events during May and June, beginning Saturday afternoon, May 16, with a presentation by Robert Kocik:

Saturday, May 16 at 3:30 pm
935 Natoma, btwn 10th and 11th,
and btwn Mission and Howard
Close to Van Ness and Market (Muni)
or Civic Center BART

(The program will continue May 23 w/Norma Cole and Amber DiPietra, and then on June 6 w/ Michael Davidson and Sue Schweik)

Robert Kocik, poet, essayist, artist, design/builder, lives in Brooklyn where he directs the Bureau of Material Behaviors. His architectural works are committed to the realization of 'missing' functions, services, organizations, or agencies. He is currently developing a building based on 'prosody' and poets' imagined importance to our society. With the choreographer Daria Faïn, he has initiated a field of research called The Prosodic Body. His publications include: Overcoming Fitness (Autonomedia, 2001), and Rhrurbarb (Field Books, 2007).

Marissa Bell Toffoli in RHINO 2009

Marissa Bell Toffoli ('06) has a poem in RHINO's 2009 issue, released in April.

RHINO, a non-profit literary organization based in Evanston, IL, is an annual journal featuring high-quality, diverse poetry, short/shorts and translations.

You can order this book, future books, and back issues via PayPal on RHINO's site.

Babylon Salon: Joseph Lease, Mary Suddaby, & Beeswax Magazine,

Taken from a recent email:

http://www.babylonsalon.com

San Francisco's rollicking reading and performance series
Presents another night of literary delight…

Saturday, June 6, 2009, 7:00 p.m. At Cantina SF (basement level)

Performances by Victoria A. Hudson, reading from Powder: Writing by Women in the Ranks from Vietnam to Iraq, emerging local writers Amy Burkhardt and Lauren Becker and editor John Peck presenting Mary Suddaby from the pages of Beeswax Magazine and featuring:

Acclaimed poet: Joseph Lease

Joseph Lease is the author of three critically acclaimed collections of poetry: Broken World, Human Rights, and The Room. His dynamic, lyrical, political poetry has been featured on NPR and in The Best American Poetry 2002. He has published in The AGNI 30th Anniversary Poetry Anthology, VQR, Bay Poetics, Paris Review, and elsewhere. He is an Associate Professor of Writing and Literature at California College of the Arts.

Cantina SF is located at 580 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

415-398-0195
(www.cantinasf.com)

- Free Admission - Cash bar exotica -

Doors open at 7:00. Reading and performances begin promptly at 8:00.

Babylon Salon is a reading and performance series hosted by: Timothy Crandle, Timothy B. Rien, Lindsay Tam Holland, Maury Zeff, and Laurie Doyle.

For more information, to subscribe, or to inquire about future events, please email babble@babylonsalon.com

Michelle Richmond article in The Rumpus

Michelle Richmond has a review of Yiyun Li’s novel The Vagrants and it is available to be read on The Rumpus.

Personally, I love reviews that incorporate an element of the personal while discussing the subject of the review. Acknowledging that our personal experiences effect how we approach a book, a CD, an installation, etc. creates a story around the discussion. Not only am I now curious about Li’s book and would love to read it but I’m interested in knowing what Michelle was doing in China and why she was brought there!

Hugh Behm-Steinberg reading at Moe's

Hugh Behm-Steinberg, author of Shy Green Fields, will be reading with D.A. Powell at Moe’s Books on March 19th as part of Poetry Flash’s reading series at the Berkeley bookstore.

Moe’s Books, Berkeley: 7:30 PM

The following bios were C/P’d off Moe’s site:

D.A. Powell's new book of poems is Chronic from Graywolf Press; J.D. McClatchy says of it, "Whenever I change the channel to D.A. Powell's work, there beneath the screen's headlines runs the simultaneous quicksilver crawl of news from elsewhere: from underneath, behind the scenes, the half-secret places where love is brokered and power is spent.... Chronic gives us the time of our lives in ways both ardent and exhilarating." Powell's previous collections are Tea, Lunch, and Cocktails, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Hugh Behm-Steinberg's book of poems is Shy Green Fields; Jane Miller says his debut volume ". . . is in company with books by poets who wrote about glorious ordinary days in extraordinary times. In a pillowbook of a hundred seven-line poems, this life, as it is written, has the shadow of Robert Creeley's A Day Book behind it, and the shadow of Federico Lorca in his famous, reiterated line, "Green, I love you, green..... "A former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, Hugh Behm-Steinberg has received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. He is the editor of the California College of Arts literary journal Eleven Eleven.

Latasha N. Nevada Diggs in Jubilat #15

While checking out the latest in the world of jubilat on their website I came across a familiar name. LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs has two poems published in their 15th issue.

You make purchase single issues, subscriptions, or make donations at this location.

You may also read sample work from the issue at this location.

Marianne Rogoff article on the Rumpus

Marianne Rogoff has an article about the internet on The Rumpus. The piece was written with quotes from students in her Writing for Artists class.

A fascinating observation about our times; the piece addresses many aspects of our relationship with the internet and how it's perceived and perceived to be used by different individuals and establishments.

As Arthur Frobisher's spiritual adviser said on a recent episode of Damages, "Every gesture has two sides; one faces the sun, the other darkness."

Jessica Wickens, Skeptic Press, and Doubt This Animal

Jessica Wickens ('07) knows that one way to get going is to fetch the gasoline herself. Recently, she emerged with Skeptic Press to “design, produce, and sell poetry chapbooks and to contribute to the effort of independent publishing.”

Skeptic Press’s first chapbook is out now and available for purchase. Scribed by Wickens, Doubt This Animal is hand-bound with 100 copies produced. You’re able to purchase the chapbook via PayPal on Skeptic Press’s blog.

Peach Friedman to read at Virginia Festival of the Book

Peach Friedman will read from her book Diary of an Exercise Addict at the Virginia Festival of the Book on March 20th. You can find her in the dome room of the rotunda at the University of Virginia with book signing to follow.


Friday, March 20, 2009
Time:
2:00pm - 4:00pm

Location:
UVa Rotunda, dome room
Charlottesville, VA

Corisa Moreno Photos and Jessica Wickens Poetry in Switchback

Please note: the above photo is not one of Corisa's mentioned below.

Corisa Moreno ('09) has three photographs in the current installment (Issue 9) of Switchback, a publication run by the University of San Francisco MFA in Writing Program.

And, for the double stuff, Jessica Wickens ('07) has a poem, "Blink", in the same issue.

Donna de la Perrière to Read at Studio One

Donna de la Perrière will be reading at Oakland's Studio One along with Joseph Massey, Jared Stanley and music from Diana McCullough. And looks like Tommy Busch and company are up to something as well...

March 6th:
wine starts at 7pm
out of the door around 9:30

Studio One
365 45th Street
Oakland, CA

The following biographical information was borrowed from Studio One' s blog:

Jared Stanley was born in Arizona, grew up in the East Bay, and lives in the San Joaquin Valley. He's written a chapbook, The Outer Bay (Trafficker Press, 2008). His first full-length book, Book Made of Forest, will be published by Salt Publishing in April. With Lauren Levin and Catherine Meng, he edits the magazine Mrs. Maybe.

Joseph Massey was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, and has lived in Humboldt County, California for the last eight years. His chapbooks include Minima St. (Range: 2003), Eureka Slough (Effing Press: 2005), Bramble (Hot Whiskey: 2005), Property Line (Fewer & Further Press: 2006), November Graph (Longhouse: 2007), Within Hours (The Fault Line Press: 2008), and Out of Light (Kitchen Press: 2008). Another chapbook, The Lack Of, will be published this winter by Nasturtium Press. His first full-length collection, Areas of Fog, will be published by Shearsman Books in the spring of 2009. His work has also appeared in American Poet: The Journal of the Academy of American Poets, The Nation, Abraham Lincoln, and Northwest Review, among various other journals and magazines.

Thomas Busch, Atticus Culver-Reese, and Conor Allen have been collaborating on comedy skits for two years. These comedy projects are a part of an on going series that premieres on getoutofmydojo.com. The ‘Gullible’ skit is the latest in that series.

Donna de la Perrière is the author of True Crime (Talisman House, 2009) and the recipient of a 2009 Fund for Poetry award. Her work has appeared in Agni, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Five Fingers Review, The New England Review and Bread Loaf Quarterly, New American Writing, Volt, and other journals. She teaches in the MFA and undergraduate creative writing programs at California College of the Arts and San Francisco State University, co-curates the Bay Area Poetry Marathon reading series, and lives near downtown Oakland with the poet Joseph Lease and the cat Little Sister.

Myron Hardy Reading at HearSay

Cultivated from a facebook status update Myron Michael Hardy will be participating in the HearSay Reading Series this February 25th at 7:30.

Please, make your way to California College of the Arts, Oakland Campus to the Gothic looking building otherwise known as Mackey Hall at the aforementioned date and time.

HearSay is a reading series put together by Red Is Blue, a CCA publication put together by the Undergraduate Writing and Literature Department.

Brian Teare: Sight Map, and Poetry Daily

A recent poem by Brian Teare was featured as Poetry Daily’s poem of the day for February 14th of this year. Titled, "Genius Loci", the poem is part of Brian’s new book of poetry, Sight Map, being published by University of California Press as part of its New California Poetry Series on March 2nd.

You can pre-order your copies through the UofC Press website or from Amazon.

Dodie Bellamy in Action Yes Quarterly

Dodie Bellamy has a piece about girl sexuality available for viewing online at Action Yes Quarterly. Action Yes Quarterly is the online wing of Action Books.

Called “Girl Body” you can also read the backstory on the genesis of this piece on her blog.

Post-Valentine's Poetry Event with Kevin Killian and Others

On February 15th, follow up Valentine's Day with a gathering at Books & Bookshelves where poetry fills the space left behind by a fleeting Cupid. Kevin Killian and others will be reading and singing Valentine's related script.

Borrowed from a recent email:

Please Join Us at Books & Bookshelves for our post-Valentine's Poetry Event!

This Sunday, February 15 at 7:00pm

Valentine's Day songs and poems from Alex Cory, Jay Dillamuth, Kevin Killian, Rebecca Bella, Brice Hobbs, Adam DeGraff, Genevieve George, Emily Howard, Micah Ballard and Sunny Lyn Thibodeax, David Highsmith and MORE.

Bring your own (pink) beverage and rose colored shot glass!

Free, BYOB

Books & Bookshelves is located in the Castro at 99 Sanchez

Eric Schubert and Dandy Magazine

Eric Schubert ('07) has sent out a call for submissions for a new magazine.

The following was borrowed from a recent email:

Call for submissions: Dandy Magazine!

Be a part of a new literary/art magazine with a musical prize inside! The music means more readers, and the writing and art means more listeners.

We're starting a new literary and art magazine, and we want to publish your stuff. Every issue will contain a special-secret surprise! The theme for issue #1 is "Ladder to the Moon": art/writing about space travel, nighttime, quick fixes, brilliant solutions, howling at the moon, basking in the sun, lunacy, pining, taxis, barges, and ladders. Pretty much, if we like it we'll make room for it.

Submissions are due by May 1 and we plan to launch our first issue by Indian Summer.

Send all submissions and questions to Dandy Magazine at dandythemagazine[at]gmail[dot]com .

Please forward!

xxx,
the new dandy in your life

Listen to Donna de la Perrière on DubLit

DubLit.com, a networking site for the at-large writing community, is hosting Donna de la Perrière's reading from City Light's Bookstore; February 10, 2009.

So, if you were there an want to re-listen or if you were unable to attend and want to hear a slice of her new book True Crime, published by Talisman House, then check it out.

Donna de la Perrière, City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco, February 10, 2009

Jessica Wickens in Little Red Leaves

Jessica Wickens ('07) has poems in the latest edition of Little Red Leaves. A collection called, 11 Poems from The Letters of Emily Dickinson, you can read them online.

Little Red Leaves is an online journal of poetry that publishes twice a year. LRL also offers e-books which can be downloaded as free PDFs or, if hard copies are your pleasure, can be purchased via lulu.com.

Joseph Lease at AWP: Chicago

Joseph Lease will be personalizing (with his signature) copies of his most recent collection of poetry Broken World at Coffee House Press's AWP table. Broken World was published by Coffee House Press in April of 2007.

Here are the coordinates so that you may meet Joseph:

AWP, Chicago
Coffee House Press table (#426-428)
Friday, February 13th from 2-2:45 PM.