
Amen.
I don’t write because there’s an audience. I write because there is literature.
Susan Sontag (via theparisreview)
Yesterday I enjoyed listening to great poets read their work at Grateful Steps Publishing House and Bookshop and Altamont Theater. There are some many wonderful poetry related events it’s a challenge to decide which events to attend. That being said, here’s today’s list of Asheville Wordfest events:
Saturday, May 7
10:00 a.m.
Children’s events at Spellbound Children’s Bookshop10:00 a.m.
Youth Writing Scavenger Hunt at Thomas Wolfe House with Janet Hurley of True Ink9:30-11:00 a.m.
Resilience Panel with Brian Turner, Paul Guest and Katja Esson Explore with poets and film-maker and each other how resilience “works,” what it is and how we develop it.11:00 a.m.
WORDslam highlights at YMI Cultural Center12:00 p.m.
Our Voice: Together We Are Strong reading This event is sponsored by Our Voice and celebrates the voice and writings of survivors of sexual assault, at YMI Cultural Center.1:00 pm
THE DAY CARL SANDBURG DIED at Fine Arts Theatre1-3 p.m.
IMAGINATURE w/ Hobey Ford, Melinda Tennison, Lisa Alcorn, Cindy Bowen, Hal Mahan, Janet Hurley, Heartworks, SisterJ Spiritvoice. A family event where families can move, make art, learn and discover. Convene at Splashville.3:00 p.m.
Poetry Under the Magnolia Tree: Listen to the poems our children write!
The Magnolia Tree is between Pack Tavern and the City Building in the park.4:00 p.m.
William Matthews Poetry Prize Winners YMI Cultural Center7:00 p.m.
Justin Bigos, Rose McLarney, Kwame Dawes, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Linda Hogan YMI Cultural Center10:00 p.m.
Mountain Xpress Poetry Bash w/ beer and music YMI Cultural Center
If you are using Twitter, please use the hashtags #avlpoetry and/or #wordfest so others may follow social media updates. Hope to see you at one of these fine poetry events!

I just returned from a spiritually energizing retreat of sorts. So, I haven’t been connected to the internet.
This is a big week for poetry in Asheville. Here’s today’s Asheville Wordfest events:
Friday May 6
4:00 p.m.
Britt Kaufman, Mendy Knott and Luke Hankins Grateful Steps Publishing House and Bookshop 159 Lexington Station.7:00 p.m.
Landon Godfrey, Paul Guest, Holly Iglesias, Brian Turner, YMI Cultural Center9:00 p.m .
An Evening of Translation Altamont Theater at 18 Church St. featuring Thomas Rain Crowe, Emoke B’Racz, Nan Watkins, Luke Hankins, Caleb Beissert
Having been away on a spiritual retreat, I need to get back to the grind of work. But hopefully I’ll be able to attend these Friday events. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Update: If you’re using Twitter, please use the hashtag #avlpoetry and/or #wordfest to follow social media updates.
It is a question I am often asked after a poetry reading. I usually offer a tongue-in-cheek reply, ‘Metallica, Blind Guardian, and Johnny Cash.’ The deer-in-headlights look I receive is ‘gold standard’ (as one writer puts it). I guess they expect something like ‘Whitman, Ginsberg, and Bukowski’ or some other literary trinity.
Specific books inspire me more than specific poets. During April, 32 Poems blog published poets who offer their list of five poetry books you need to read. I enjoyed reading what other poets offer as recommended poetry reading. But I often wondered if the five books chosen by the featured poets were more a literary bumper sticker proclaiming themselves serious poets or, like indie rock musicians, a list of obscure books that no one knows but should know how important they are.
So, I am not going to offer a list of five poetry books that inspire me. I’ll stick with my initial reply, ‘Metallica, Blind Guardian, and Johnny Cash.’
I am scheduled to read poems with poets Diana Pinckney and Barbara Gravelle as part of Poetrio at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café May 1, 2011 at 3 p.m.
I plan to read poems from the anthology Rooftop Poets (2010) as well as selected published and unpublished material.
Also, I take requests. If you’ve seen something I’ve posted recently as part of the 30 poems in 30 days challenge that you would like me to read for Poetrio, please email me, DM me on Twitter (@mxmulder) or leave a comment and I’ll make sure to read your requests. Hope to see you on Sunday!
Poets Diana Pinckney, Barbara Gravelle and Matthew Mulder plan to read from their recently published books for Poetrio at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café May 1, 2011 at 3 p.m.
Diana Pinckney has published poetry and prose in such journals and magazines as Southern Poetry Review, Cream City Review, Tar River Poetry, Cave Wall, Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Icarus International, Atlanta Review, Green Mountains Review, Main Street Rag, Kalliope, Iodine, Asheville Poetry Review, Calyx, RHINO, Charlotte Viewpoint… Magazine, The Pedestal Magazine.com, Creative Loafing and many others. Her chapbook, Fishing With Tall Women, won North Carolina’s 1996 Persephone Press Book Award and South Carolina’s Kinlock Rivers Memorial Chapbook Contest. Nightshade Press, Troy, Maine, published her second book of poems, White Linen, in 1998. Alchemy, the third collection was published by Main Street Rag Publishing Co. in 2004. The latest full-length book of poems concerns the many fascinations and mysteries of the sea, among other things. Green Daughters was released April 2011.
Barbara Gravelle, author of several poetry books including, Keepsake, Dancing the Naked Dance of Love, and her latest collection of poems, Poet on the Roof of the World. Barbara Gravelle began to publish poetry in the 1960s when she was in Detroit at Wayne State University. In 1970 she moved to Berkeley, California where her first book, Keepsake, was published by Two Windows Press. She worked with the San Francisco State NEA Poetry in the Schools program at Northern California schools. Concurrently she worked at Intersection Center for the Arts in North Beach directing the Women’ Reading Series and an experimental Feminist Writing Workshop. Dancing the Naked Dance of Love, her book of San Francisco poems was published during this time. In the mid 1980’s Barbara began to migrate to the island of Kythera in Southern Greece, while living there she wrote the poems for Poet on the Roof of the World.
Matthew Mulder has published poetry and prose in such journals and magazines as Crab Creek Review, H_NGM_N, The Indie, Rapid River Magazine, ISM Quarterly, Salamander, Wander, The Blotter, Southern Cross Review and others. He teaches poetry writing classes at Asheville bookstores and fine arts centers and is presently translating selected works of German poet Rolf Dieter Brinkmann. He is the author Late Night Writing (2004) and editor of A Body Turning (2010) and Tomorrow We Sweat Poetry (2009). His new poems are anthologized in Rooftop Poets (2010).

NOTES:
1) szymon, accessed April 21, 2011, http://inspire.2ia.pl/post/3216409498 (page no longer available, web site deactivated)
2) Laura Sweet, “Pantone Color Chip Cookies! Kim Neill Bakes Up Deliciously Divine Design.,” February 2011, If it’s Hip, It’s Here, accessed April 21, 2011, https://ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com/2011/02/pantone-color-chip-cookies-kim-neill.html?zx=9222f2c9e0dcd152

“Everyone has a story. Everyone is interesting for at least 15 minutes.”
–fluffynotes1Source2
NOTES:
1) fluffynotes, accessed April 20, 2011, http://fluffynotes.tumblr.com/post/3350787628 (page no longer available, tumblr account appears deactivated)
2) keepcalmandd, accessed April 20, 2011, https://keepcalmandd.tumblr.com/post/3264112950 (page no longer available, tumblr account appears deactivated)
Can do better, will do better.
Andre Dubus III, Six-Word Memoir from the Memoirville interview at Smith Magazine (via wwnorton)