Poem: The honey bee
Category: poetry
Poem: The Storm Approaches
The winning poetry prize moment captured on video
Friday night’s Mountain Xpress poetry prize event was captured on video by Jesse Hamm. Check out the video of Brian Sneeden winning the poetry prize and reading the award winning poem, “The Temple.”
Poem: There’s A Place
Poem: Foggy Sunday Morning
If you’re participating in the 30 poems in 30 days writing challenge, it’s day eleven. How are you doing with the challenge? This poem sketch was written yesterday, but I was offline so here’s poem 10 of 30.
And the Winner of the 2011 Mountain Xpress Poetry Prize is…
Selected from ten finalists by Keith Flynn, founder and managing editor of Asheville Poetry Review, Brian Sneeden’s “The Temple” won the 2011 Mountain Xpress Poetry Prize. Congratulations Brian!
Brian shared double duty Friday night at the 2011 Mountain Xpress Poetry Show as he and I were invited as members of the Rooftop Poets to read at the event as part of “the next generation” of Asheville poets.
The Poetry Show provided an excellent environment to read and hear local poetry. Each one of the finalists read well-crafted verse; from laundry to bath tubs. Laura Hope-Gill kicked off the evening with a wonderful collection of poems. It was also a special delight for me to hear Matt Owens and Mesha Maren of the Juniper Bends reading series present their work. I’ll spare you an event review. But I will mention that Jaye Bartell was the evening’s host and I would like to thank the person whose cell phone rang incessantly during the reading of my poem “The Last Chestnut Tree.” Without you I wouldn’t have been able to pull off that performance.
A wonderful and full evening provided by the Mountain Xpress team and talented local poets!
Tonight – The Poetry Show
Quick note of correction about the Mountain X ad: members of the Rooftop Poets will be reading poems. Rooftop Poets is a creative collective or poetic triumvirate of Barbara Gravelle, Brian Sneeden and myself.
A quick story about the ethos of the Rooftop Poets. Barbara invited Brian and I to read at the historic Battery Park Hotel roof garden ballroom one evening. As the sun set in the west the shadows from the west window frames mirrored the frames of the east windows of the ballroom. It’s an amazing alignment of architecture and environment. As we read in round-robin fashion, one poem building upon previous poems read, the sky grew dark with night. Many poems were read in that space first before they were read publicly. While Barbara read a new poem, Brian exclaimed, ‘Barabara, look…’ We all looked out the east windows of the roof garden ballroom to see a full moon rise over the mountains. It seemed as if Barbara had called up the moon. One of the poems I hope to read tonight at the Mountain Xpress Poetry Show I hope will honor that moment and the poetic triumvirate of the Rooftop Poets.
Who will be the winner of the 2011 Mountain Xpress Poetry Prize?
And the finalists are:
- Randal Pride, “Coal Palace”
- Jessie Shires, “Corpus unum”
- Jesse S. Rice-Evans, “Taking A Bath In Frida Kahlo’s Tub”
- James Cox, “By the Lake in Northern Michigan”
- James Davis, “Sourwood”
- Jessica Claire Newton, “Two Weeks Deep Into the Dirty Laundry”
- Tamsen Turner, “Sestina”
- Brian Sneeden, “The Temple”
- John Eells, “Sleep And Dreams”
- Andrew Procyk, “Life and Death”
Some good poets represented on this list. Should be great evening of poetry and music.
I am honored and humbled to be on the list of featured poets for event. There’s a nice write-up in the Mountain Xpress (Rhyme and reason) that mentions my involvement with the Rooftop Poets. Last time I was mentioned in the Xpress was when I was contributing to The Traveling Bonfires.
If you can make it to the big show tomorrow night, here’s some more details from the Mountain Xpress’s Facebook event page:
Featured poets include:
• Laura Hope-Gill, Director of Asheville Wordfest and Blue Ridge Parkway poet laureate.
• Matt Owens and Mesha Maren of the Juniper Bends reading series.
• Matthew Mulder and Brian Sneeden of the Rooftop Poets series.
• The top 10 finalists of the 2011 Mountain Xpress poetry prize will read their poems, and the overall winner of the contest will be announced. (The 10 finalists will also read their winning poems at the Saturday night YMI party during Wordfest in May.)The evening concludes with a live performance by Keith Flynn & the Holy Men in celebration of the release of their album, “LIVE at the Diana Wortham Theatre.”
The even begins at 7 p.m. with a reception. Poetry readings begin at 8 p.m., and music begins at 9 p.m.
Tickets are $5 and can be purchased in advance at http://www.mountainx.com/mxcore/poem/tickets or at the door.
Hope to see you there!
The Mountain Xpress Poetry Show Ashevill – coming up in 1 day
Friday, April 8th, 7PM, The Mountain Xpress Poetry Show featuring Laura Hope-Gill, Director of Asheville Wordfest, Matt Owens, Mesha Maren, Matthew Mulder, Brian Sneeden and the top 10 finalists of the 2011 Mountain Xpress poetry prize. Plus a performance by Keith Flynn & the Holy Men.
Poem: Never Look A Doughnut Dealer in the Eyes
Note: These poems are rough drafts and include typos, erroneous grammar and other literary warts. In this case, perfume is intentionally misspelled to represent a unique American accent.
Poem: Some days all you need
Poetry Prize finalists announced
Mountain Xpress announced their poetry prize finalists today. Among the finalists are a couple of friends. Hope all my friends win first place! The winning poet will be announced next Friday, April 8th, at the Mountain Xpress Poetry Show.
As part of the Mountain Xpress Poetry Show, I have been invited as a guest poet to read alongside some of Asheville’s talented and notable poets. I’ll be the poet wearing the t-shirt that reads: “Haikus are easy/but sometimes they don’t make sense/refrigerator.”
Hope to see you next Friday night!
Translating Concrete
Brinkmann’s book Künstliches Licht begins with a poem titled after the French architectural style of roughly-finished concrete. Nothing more interesting than translating a German poem with French words and deeper contextual elements.
Lost in translation
Look what arrived from across the pond. Forgive me for being rather spare with my online presence these last few weeks. I’ve got two good reasons and a surprise.
- A vintage manual typewriter arrived and I’ve been spending more time using that machine than I’ve been online.
- A copy of Rolf Dieter Brinkmann’s Künstliches Licht arrived in time for the rainy season and I’ve been reading in German and translating to English. Hopefully I’ll have some of the translations done in time for the upcoming Poetry at the Pulp event on April 8th.
Okay so the big surprise is still in the works. Sorry for the tease. I’ve been working on something new and plan to launch it here in the near future. That’s all I can say at this point. By the end of the week I should have more details that I will share.
Only six copies remain – A Body Turning
A Body Turning was published as the culmination of a creative writing workshop I directed more than a year ago. Poems by Samara Scheckler and Susan Ryonen Keene are featured in this book as well as an introductory essay written by myself.
When I studied art at the university the goal of each student was the senior art exhibit. From a student’s body of work the best art objects were selected for the show. That’s how the poetry writing workshops I direct are planned. Students work on poems for several weeks and then we select, edit and publish their best work in a collection of poems.
If you’re interested in an upcoming poetry writing workshop, please leave a comment or email me at coffeehousejunkie [at] gmail [dot] com.
Order A Body Turning (paperback, 48 pgs, 8.5″x5.5″ $10 + s/h) today!
Poetry contest winners announced!
How did I overlook this? The Rapid River Magazine’s 14th annual poetry contest winners were announced earlier this month. Congrats Tracy Darling on receiving first place for the winning poem: ‘Offering Up the Main Course.’ All finalists are published in this month’s issue of the Rapid River Magazine as well as a review of Thomas Rain Crowe’s new book Crack Light.
Sold out: Tomorrow We Sweat Poetry
Tomorrow We Sweat Poetry (paperback, 20 pgs, 8″x5″ $8 + s/h) is officially out of print.
Tomorrow We Sweat Poetry is the result of the workshop I directed called “Write and do not waste time” and features poems by Susan Ryonen Keene. A digital sample is available here. Each poetry writing workshop I direct invites students to contribute their best poems for publication in a poetry book. If you’re interested in an upcoming poetry writing workshop, please leave a comment or email me at coffeehousejunkie [at] gmail [dot] com.
Thank you all for your support!
Review of Sunday’s Poetrio featuring Landon Godfrey, Luke Hankins, Britt Kaufmann
Maybe ‘review’ is a bit of an erudite word to use in this blog title regarding Sunday’s poetry reading at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café. But Sunday’s poetry reading may be one of the best Poetrio readings I’ve attended in a long time. After the snow flurries ceased the poetry began. Several local literary luminaries were in attendance including Pat Riviere-Seel, Gary Hawkins, Sebastian Matthews, Keith Flynn among others.
The first poet who read was Luke Hankins, Associate Editor of Asheville Poetry Review. I first learned about Luke from an article he wrote for the The Writer’s Chronicle and then I had the privelege to met him at one of the Poetry at The Pulp events last year.
He read from his recently published bilingual chapbook of translations, I WAS AFRAID OF VOWELS / THEIR PALENESS, of French poems by Stella Vinitchi Radulescu. Poems read include: ‘landscape in three movements,’ ‘children of the fog,’ ‘a cry in the snow,’ and the poem where the title of the chapbook originates — ‘adagio.’ Radulescu’s poems tend to be spare and short and afforded Luke opportunity to read some of his own poems. The difference between Luke and Stella’s styles offered a stimulating contrast to his portion of the Poetrio reading. Luke read another translation he had made of a different French poet. I didn’t catch the name of the poem or poet, but the poems essence was atmospheric (and reminded me of the poet Jean Orizet) and provided a beautiful centerpiece to his portion of Sunday’s reading.
Britt Kaufmann read next from her recently published chapbook BELONGING. Her chapbook was named a semi-finalist in the most recent competition for the New Women’s Voices Series at Finishing Line Press.
My introduction to Britt and her work was at a Flood Reading Series in February 2007. Poems read include: ‘Oak Leaf,’ Hand-Me-Down Gift,’ ‘Under Grandma’s Quilt, ‘Tobacco Barns,’ and others. Interestingly, the title poem to the chapbook is not included in the collection of poems. But Britt read it as her last poem of her portion of the event.
Britt’s poetry evokes a celebration of everyday moments too often overlooked. A lyrical ache subtly emerges from each poem the way daffodils quietly appear in late February here in the mountains. There’s a longing for meaning in each poem and a sense of contentment to just be.
If you missed Poetrio, Britt is scheduled to read on Friday May 6, 2011 at 4 p.m. at Wordfest at Grateful Steps Publishing House and Bookshop.
The final poet to read at Sunday’s Poetrio event was Landon Godfrey. She read from her recently published book, SECOND-SKIN RHINESTONE-SPANGLED NUDE SOUFFLE CHIFFON GOWN. David St. John chose her manuscript as the winner of the 2009 Cider Press Review Book Award.
A book title like this is hard to forget, and equally difficult to remember. I first heard Landon read the title poem at a Flood Reading Series in March 2009 [listen to the audio] and later at May 2009 Poetrio event. Other poems read at those 2009 readings included ‘Chanel No. 5,’ ‘Labor in Vain,’ ‘There Are Thousands of Stones in the Sky,’ and ‘On Black Cloth with White Chalk I Drew the Stars.’ Landon read some of those poems at Sunday’s Poetrio reading as well as others: ‘Landscape with Dialectical Materialism and Milk,’ ‘Hotel Beds,’ and ‘Compositions in Grey and Grey.’
Landon’s poems provide a rich, lush tapestry of memorable moments that haunt you long after you’ve heard or read them. There’s tense, delicious balance between smooth sensuous lines and jarring acrimony in her poems.
Again if you missed Sunday’s Poetrio, Landon is scheduled for a reading and book signing at Warren Wilson College’s Sage Cafe with March 24, 2011 at 7 p.m. She is also scheduled for a reading and book signing at Wordfest, on May 7, 2011 at 7 p.m.
All these fine poetry books are available at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café for purchase.
Poetrio reading, Sunday, March 6, 2011, 3:00 p.m. at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café: Landon Godfrey, Luke Hankins, Britt Kaufmann
From Malaprop’s e-newsletter:
On Sunday afternoon, March 6 at 3:00 p.m., Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café will welcome poets Landon Godfrey (SECOND-SKIN RHINESTONE-SPANGLED NUDE SOUFFLE CHIFFON GOWN), Luke Hankins (I WAS AFRAID OF VOWELS / THEIR PALENESS), and Britt Kaufmann (BELONGING). The reading and booksigning event is free and open to the public, and we hope that you will join us at this monthly poetry event.
Poet, artist, and actress Landon Godfrey read her poetry at the Malaprop’s Poetrio event in May 2009, and some of you may remember that this versatile practitioner of many arts has had work published in the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center chapbook, Voicing BMC: The Women; in Best New Poets 2008, selected by Mark Strand; and in Orbis, The Missouri Review, The Southwest Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, and many other literary journals. You may also have seen her on the stage of the BeBe Theatre in Asheville, and she’ll be appearing in Labyrinth at the Magnetic Theatre in April. For the manuscript of her just-published poetry book, SECOND-SKIN RHINESTONE-SPANGLED NUDE SOUFFLE CHIFFON GOWN, she won the 2009 Cider Press Review Book Award. Writes poet David St. John, who judged the 2009 award competition, “Never has the sumptuous materiality of language felt more seductive than in Landon Godfrey’s remarkable debut collection, SECOND-SKIN RHINESTONE-SPANGLED NUDE SOUFFLE CHIFFON GOWN. These exquisite poems are both sensually compelling and intellectually rigorous — a rare feat indeed. The iridescence of this marvelous volume continues to glow long after one has turned out the lights. . . .”
Luke Hankins has served as an Associate Editor of Asheville Poetry Review since 2006. His poetry, prose, and translation have appeared in numerous publications, including The Cortland Review, New England Review, Poetry East, Southern Poetry Review, and The Writer’s Chronicle, as well as on the blog of the NPR program “Being.” He graduated from the Indiana University M.F.A. program in 2009, where he held the Yusef Komunyakaa Fellowship in Poetry, the program’s highest poetry fellowship. At Malaprop’s, Luke Hankins will be reading from I WAS AFRAID OF VOWELS / THEIR PALENESS, his recent bilingual chapbook of translations from the French poems of Stella Vinitchi Radulescu. Radulescu was born in Romania but left in 1983, first seeking political asylum in Rome and then immigrating to the United States. A scholar and teacher as well as a poet, she has written and published books of poetry in Romanian, French, and English but does not translate her own work. In his Translator’s Note, however, Luke Hankins acknowledges “her partnership in finalizing the translations” for I WAS AFRAID OF VOWELS / THEIR PALENESS — selected poems from Radulescu’s book UN CRI DANS LA NEIGE (A CRY IN THE SNOW). Writer and translator Hoyt Rogers admires both the original poetry and Luke Hankins’ translations: “Like seashells with light shining through, these poems by Stella Vinitchi Radulescu express the tough fragility of being; in his lucid translation, Luke Hankins mirrors perfectly their deftness and their strength.”
Britt Kaufmann’s poetry has been published in The Mennonite, Western North Carolina Woman, Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine, Main Street Rag, LiteraryMama.com, and elsewhere. Her chapbook BELONGING was named a semi-finalist in the most recent competition for the New Women’s Voices Series at Finishing Line Press. The poetry in her new collection loosely chronicles Britt Kaufmann’s upbringing in Mennonite Goshen and her move to the mountains of Western North Carolina. Her hometown of Burnsville, North Carolina, hosts the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival, for which she serves on the planning committee. Among others, Fred Chappell and Kathryn Stripling Byer, former Poets Laureate of North Carolina, admire Britt Kaufmann’s new collection of poetry. Fred Chappell has written, “‘Belonging,’ that word is the best possible title for Britt Kaufmann’s earnest, engaging, affectionate, and wonderfully enjoyable collection of poems. ‘Be,’ says the land and the nature that enfolds it. ‘Longing’ is what we feel when we gaze upon the land and try to search its meaning.” Kathryn Stripling Byer adds, “[Britt Kaufmann’s] words call up the things of everyday life and make them last. This poet belongs unapologetically to that moment when joy pushes its way to the surface, like a crocus through snow, never hesitating to praise it and its many gifts, opening her arms wide to welcome its arrival.”
Hope to see you at Malaprop’s on Sunday!
UPDATE: Due to the scheduled the Asheville Mardi Gras parade for 3:00 p.m. Sunday, March 6, Malaprop’s staff recommends arriving early (the parade line-up begins at 2:00 p.m.). The city of Asheville has several parking solutions. Here’s a link to parking garages in near Malaprop’s Bookstore: Link.
Rooftop Poets literary salon
Many thanks to all who attended last night’s Rooftop Poets literary salon at the Roof Garden Ballroom of the Battery Park Hotel!
Poet’s on the Roof: A Literary Salon
Poet’s on the Roof: A Literary Salon
You are invited to a literary salon at the Roof Garden of the historic Battery Park Hotel. Whether you dabble in poetry or prose or you’re a published poet or writer or maybe you just love art and books; join the Rooftop Poets for a stimulating evening of literature, music and conversation.
Come prepared to participate in engaging dialogue about art, books, literature and life. Discussions will be lead by Barbara Gravelle, Matt Mulder and Brian Sneeden. Please bring work by someone you admire or something you’ve written to share at the salon.
Snacks and hors d’oeuvres will be provided, along with music by Mattick Frick and the Bloodroot Orkaestarr.
$10.00 admission includes all food and beverages.
Join us Friday, February 18, 8:00pm – 11:00pm at the historic Battery Park Hotel, 1 Battle Square, Asheville, NC (located north of the Grove Arcade building).
This week: Poets on the Roof: A Literary Salon
You are invited to a literary salon at the Roof Garden of the historic Battery Park Hotel. Whether you dabble in poetry or prose or you’re a published poet or writer or maybe you just love art and books; join the Rooftop Poets for a stimulating evening of literature, music and conversation.
Come prepared to participate in engaging dialogue about art, books, literature and life. Discussions will be lead by Barbara Gravelle, Matt Mulder and Brian Sneeden. Please bring work by someone you admire or something you’ve written to share at the salon.
Snacks and hors d’oeuvres will be provided, along with music by Mattick Frick and the Bloodroot Orkaestarr.
$10.00 admission includes all food and beverages.
Join us Friday, February 18, 8:00pm – 11:00pm at the historic Battery Park Hotel, 1 Battle Square, Asheville, NC (located north of the Grove Arcade building).
Rooftop Poets reading this Friday
Will the Rooftop Poets love poems? You’ll have to come and find out.
The Rooftop Poets perform at Accent on Books on Fri., Feb. 11, 6 PM. Barbara Gravelle, Matt Mulder and Brian Sneeden will be accompanied by special guest musician Mattick Frick.
This event is free and open to the public and light refreshments will be served.
Next week: Poets on the Roof: A Literary Salon
If you’re using Facebook or Twitter, you may have heard that the Rooftop Poets are gearing up for some big gigs in Asheville.
Tomorrow’s reading at Accent on Books is just the beginning.
Friday, February 18th, the Rooftop Poets host a literary salon at the Roof Garden of the historic Battery Park Hotel.
Whether you dabble in poetry or prose or you’re are a published poet or writer or maybe you just love art and books prepare for a stimulating evening of literature, music and conversation.
More details will be provided soon.
Coffeehouse Junkie 