Literary Reading at Posana Café

Later this week, a literary reading featuring Catherine Reid and Valerie Neiman. February 18, 2012, at Posana Cafe, at 7:30 p.m.

Catherine Reid is the author of COYOTE: SEEKING THE HUNTER IN OUR MIDST, as well as essays in such journals as GEORGIA REVIEW, MASSACHUSETTS REVIEW, FOURTH GENRE, and BELLEVUE LITERARY REVIEW. Currently, she directs the undergraduate creative writing program at Warren Wilson College, where she also teaches creative nonfiction and environmental writing.

Jane Alison calls  Valerie Nieman‘s third novel, Blood Clay “both a tense, plot-driven story about complicated issues of race and guilt, and a meditation on solitude, history, and ways of living.”

A former newspaper reporter, Nieman is also the author of a collection of short stories, Fidelities, and a poetry collection,Wake Wake Wake. She teaches at the John C. Campbell Folk School and serves as poetry editor of Prime Number magazine.

From an email from Mark Prudowsky and Katherine Soniat

Juniper Bends Literary Reading

This week the Juniper Bends reading series continues this Friday, February 10th, at 7:00 p.m. at Downtown Books and News. The event features readings by: Kate Zambreno, Katherine Soniat, Jesse Rice-Evans and Adam Jernigan. Visit the Facebook event page for more details. (link)

The Top 3 Poems of 2011

NPR Books published the top three poems of 2011 according to poet Tracy K. Smith. [1] The three poems include:

  1. Laura Kasischke’s “Look,” from Space, in Chains [2]
  2. Rae Armantrout’s “Soft Money,” from Money Shot [3]
  3. and Ross Gay’s “Love, You Got Me Good,” from Bringing the Shovel Down. [4]

I haven’t read any of these poems nor the books from which they originate.

What do I think the top three poems of 2011 should be? Where does one begin to select the top poems of the year? Maybe, what is most memorable? Or has the most enduring image?

I can think of a few books that captured my attention, but there are small number of contemporary American poets that disturb my universe. [5] This may be in part because I have purchased only a few poetry books this year and I have allowed all my favorite literary magazine subscription lapse. And the only poems that really disturb the cosmos of my mind are the poems I endeavored to translate from German and Russian. Due to the obscurity of these poets, I’ll simply offer that the Mountain Xpress’s first annual poetry prize presented a lot of very talented poets to watch in the coming year. [6]

NOTES: [1] Read Tracy K. Smith’s reasons why she selected these three poems as the top three poems of 2011 at NPR Books: Savage Beauty: The Top 3 Poems Of 2011 [2] Read Laura Kasischke’s “Look” [3] Read Rae Armantrout’s “Soft Money” [4] Read Ross Gay’s “Love, You Got Me Good” [5] With apologies to T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” [6] Not that I am biased in any way, but the Mountain Xpress’s 2011 poetry event was most memorable and I look forward to their 2012 event.

And so it ends…

All aboard

 

 

Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.

C. S. Lewis (via ermarty)

People do judge a book by its cover

Have you ever considered who the people are who design book covers? I know most of us are more interested in the author and the story being told, but for me it is interesting to learn of the designers behind such iconic book covers. That’s why I enjoyed this short list of iconic book covers and the creatives who designed them. The list includes some of my favorites like The Great Gatsby (designed by a relatively unknown artist at the time, Francis Cugat), To Kill A Mockingbird (designed by Shirley Smith), Brace New World (designed by Leslie Holland), and Fahrenheit 451 (designed by Joe Pernaciaro). What are some of your iconic book covers?

These last few months I have missed you @Malaprops

Downtown #avl all lit up.

A view from my afternoon office.

Woodblock print drying.

Painting with Kidlingers

 

3bythefire:

More Collages by Nicole & Travis

5 Walnut Wine Bar & Gallery

Sunset, Christmas Day 2011.

‘For Christmas Day’ by Charles Wesley

Hark, how all the welkin rings,
“Glory to the King of kings;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconcil’d!”

Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
Universal nature say,
“Christ the Lord is born to-day!”

Christ, by highest Heaven ador’d,
Christ, the everlasting Lord:
Late in time behold him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb!

Veil’d in flesh, the Godhead see,
Hail th’ incarnate Deity!
Pleas’d as man with men to appear,
Jesus, our Immanuel here!

Hail, the heavenly Prince of Peace,
Hail, the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
Risen with healing in his wings.

Mild he lays his glory by,
Born that man no more may die;
Born to raise the sons of earth;
Born to give them second birth.

Come, desire of nations, come,
Fix in us thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conquering seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.

Now display thy saving power,
Ruin’d nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to thine.

Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
Stamp thy image in its place.
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in thy love.

Let us thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the life, the inner man:
O, to all thyself impart,
Form’d in each believing heart.

(via Poetry Foundation)

Tonight, Christmas Eve Missio Dei gathering. Exultet celum laudibus.

‘Advent’ by Donald Hall

When I see the cradle rocking
What is it that I see?
I see a rood on the hilltop
Of Calvary.

When I hear the cattle lowing
What is it that they say?
They say that shadows feasted
At Tenebrae.

When I know that the grave is empty,
Absence eviscerates me,
And I dwell in a cavernous, constant
Horror vacui.

(via Poetry Foundation)

Ten Reasons Why the Internet Is No Substitute for the Library:

1. Not Everything is on the Internet.

2. The Needle (Your Search) in the Haystack (the Web)

3. Quality Control Doesn’t Exist.

4. What You Don’t Know Really Does Hurt You.

5. States Can Now Buy One Book and Distribute to Every Library on the Web… Not.

6. Hey, Bud, What About E-Books?! (Reading on any e-reader is a chore.)

7. Aren’t There Library-less Universities Now? (No.)

8. But a Virtual State Library Would Work, Right? (Only if you like bankruptcy.)

9. The Internet: A Mile Wide, an Inch (or Less) Deep.

10. The Internet is Ubiquitous, but Books are Portable.

(via sleepinginyourflowerbed)

PREACH! (via chartophylax)

(Source: http://boingboing.net/2011/04/14/found-sign-why-the-i.html)

‘Mosaic of the Nativity (Serbia, Winter 1993)’ by Jane Kenyon

On the domed ceiling God
is thinking:
I made them my joy,
and everything else I created
I made to bless them.
But see what they do!
I know their hearts
and arguments:

“We’re descended from
Cain. Evil is nothing new,
so what does it matter now
if we shell the infirmary,
and the well where the fearful
and rash alike must
come for water?”

God thinks Mary into being.
Suspended at the apogee
of the golden dome,
she curls in a brown pod,
and inside her the mind
of Christ, cloaked in blood,
lodges and begins to grow.

Book cover design

Kidlingers like the latest book cover design… because the title has flaming letters & a firefighter.

Beautiful rainy afternoon.

designcloud:

‘Great ways to differentiate Helvetica from Arial’ by George Drury

How to create running headers and footers in InDesign

Graphic design tip: running headers & footers