Writers-in-Progress

Prologue to a Sad Spring - Poem for Baltimore Museum of Art

Have just wrapped up my ekphrastic poetry workshop at the Baltimore Museum of Art, which will culminate in a reception with a poetry reading to close the exhibition Looking Through the Lens, photographs, 1900-1960. I had 8 terrific poets who really threw themselves into the form. I am terribly impressed with their skill and passion. I've been asked to open the program with a poem of my own inspired by the exhibit, so am sharing the piece and the photograph.

PROLOGUE TO A SAD SPRING

after a photograph by Edward Weston

We might mock the gothic, silent
movie look of it except for the tree—

laughing with all its dark tongues,

abandoned to its own black
lightning. Beside it, the woman

is a premonition of loss. She gives

her lover an anxious look,
edging towards the freedom

of the shadow, where the tree will

catch then cast her into a storm-
smudged sky of flying or falling—

her choice. Only in this mirror

backed by the sun can those of us
who have posed for the last

photograph in love, though the end

was years away, see what he won’t—
how she’s already crossed over,

how the lines of body and branches

mark the hour, the image a clock,
frozen at the time of leaving.

Christine Stewart, Copyright 2008, All Rights Reserved.

Gregory Orr & Clarinda Harriss reading

Smartish Pace Reading Series

Friday, June 13, 2008

6:30 PM

The Walters Art Museum

600 N. Charles Street, Baltimore

410-547-9000

The reading is free and open to the public.

Gregory Orr is the author of nine poetry collections, most recently Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved (Copper Canyon, 2005). His memoir, The Blessing (Council Oak, 2002), was chosen by Publisher's Weekly as one of the fifty best non-fiction books of the year. He has written three books of essays including Poetry as Survival (U. of Georgia, 2002). Orr has received a Guggenheim, Rockefeller and two NEA fellowships; in 2003 he received an Award in Literature from the Academy of Arts and Letters. He teaches at the University of Virginia where in 1975 he founded the MFA Program in Writing. His new poems appear in Smartish Pace, Issue 15.

Clarinda Harriss is the author of seven books of poetry with Mortmain just released from Half Moon Editions. Novelist Geoff Bakers has said of her work, "Clarinda Harriss writes poems with precision and humor about Baltimore, sex, mortality…." She teaches at Towson University and directs BrickHouse Books, Inc., Maryland's oldest continuously publishing literary press.

The poets will be available to sign books after the reading. We look forward to seeing you on the 13th!

Poetry Out Loud Nat'ls in DC, April 28-29

I have a bone to pick with Poetry Out Loud.

Now don't get me wrong, I believe in the program, after all it: "helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about their literary heritage," but its emphasis is too heavily on the side of poetry as an oral art.

It takes patience, practice, creativity, and skill to craft a poem. It's not enough to read someone else's work and understand the tones and nuances, the pacing of line breaks, the themes, etc. That's just one half of the equation. Think of it in terms of always being a passenger in a car and never the driver. Most people learn how to follow directions and find places by driving themselves, not being the passenger. You learn by doing. You learn about what makes a good poem by writing poetry. Memorization and recitation, though each has their merits, don't go far enough.

What I'd like to see is a category added to the competition in which the participants have to write and recite one of their own poems. Perhaps one influenced by one of the pieces they choose to recite, either in subject, style, or form. I believe they should demonstrate being good poets in their own right, as well as good interpreters of those that inspire them.

That said, go see for yourself. The nationals take place at Lisner auditorium in DC April 28th and 29th.

Poetry Out Loud

Mary Gaitskill Reading in Rockville, April 4

Well R.E.M. was wrong - DO go back to Rockville because Mary Gaitskill is giving a reading there!

Mary Gaitskill Headlines Authors at Fitzgerald Spring Event

Renowned author Mary Gaitskill will read from her work at the Spring Event of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference. The event takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 4 at the Rockville Vis Arts Center.

Mary Gaitskill has been nominated for the National Book Award, National Book Critics' Circle Award and PEN/Faulkner Award. She is the author of Two Girls, Fat and Thin; Veronica; Bad Behavior; and Because They Wanted To. Her short story "Secretary" was made into a feature film.

Gaitskill will be joined by four local authors: Dave Housley (Ryan Seacrest is Famous), Nathan Leslie (Madre, Believers), Susan Muaddi-Darraj (The Inheritance of Exile), and Lalita Noronha (Where Monsoons Cry).

Don't miss this rare opportunity to see Gaitskill and other talented authors read from their work. The event is free to members of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference, Inc. and their guests, and the cost is $10 for the general public. There will be a minimal charge for students. Parking at Town Center is free after 7 p.m., and refreshments will be served.

For directions to the Vis Arts Center, visit www.visartscenter.org

Dana Gioia at The Writer's Center, April 12

Dana Gioia, NEA Chairman and Poet, To Appear

On April 12 for National Poetry Month Event

Dana Gioia, poet and Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts, will discuss the role of poetry in America on Saturday, April 12, 7:30 p.m. at the Writer’s Center, 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, Maryland.

The event is part of the Writer’s Center celebration of National Poetry Month, established by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996 to raise visibility for the art of poetry and poetry heritage in the U.S. A poet of note and former vice president of the Poetry Society of America, Mr. Gioia will also read from his own work.

Mr. Gioia was appointed Chairman of the NEA in 2003. Under his direction, the NEA has supported new programs that promote wider awareness of literature and creative writing. His “Shakespeare in Communities” project has brought the Bard to small towns across the U.S. In 2005, he began the "Big Read" program, seeking to get Americans to read serious literature.

He holds an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. where he studied with the poets Robert Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Bishop, and a M.B.A. from Stanford University. In 1992 he left General Foods where he was a Vice President to become a full-time writer. The author of three full-length books of poetry, his third collection of poems, Interrogations at Noon (2001), won the American Book Award.

The Writer’s Center is one of the country’s premier community-based literary centers offering writing workshops in all genres and skill levels. PoetLore, one of the oldest continuously published poetry magazines in the United States, is now published under the stewardship of the Writer’s Center.

Admission to the Writer’s Center event is $5 for members and $8 for non-members.

https://www.writer.org/events/details.asp?id=339

Maryland Poet Laureate Readings

Maryland Poets Laureate: Coming to a Library near You!

Three of Maryland’s nationally-celebrated past and present Poets Laureate will visit 10 Maryland public library systems this spring as part of The Maryland Center for the Book’s (MCFB) program Poetry’s Here @ Your Maryland Library. A program of the Maryland Humanities Council, MCFB promotes books, reading, libraries, Maryland writers, and the state’s literary heritage…

Two nearby ones:

A Reading and Conversation with Poet Linda Pastan
11:00 A.M. Wednesday March 26th
Maryland State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
415 Park Avenue Baltimore, MD 21201-3603
Catherine Rubin (410) 230-2424

A Reading and Conversation with Poet Michael Collier
6:30 P.M. Thursday April 3rd
Enoch Pratt Free Library
Light Street Branch 1251 Light Street Baltimore, MD 21230
Melanie Oliver (410) 396-1096 Judy Cooper, Publicist (410) 396-5494

Scottish Poet Douglas Dunn at Hopkins

Because you have to be pyschic to know when poets and writers are giving readings at Johns Hopkins University (they don't publicize their calendar through email notifications/mailing lists) GRRR, I just found out that Scottish poet Prof. Douglas Dunn (from St. Andrews) is giving three readings at Hopkins. There's one tonight at Homewood - the Percy Graeme Turnball Memorial Lecture - 6 pm in Maryland 110 - that's the second. There was another last night. The third is Thursday, the 15th, at the School of Medicine near Hopkins Hospital, in Hurd Hall - 5 pm, if there are locals interested.

For those of you who can't make it - here are a few of his poems:

THE KALEIDOSCOPE

To climb these stairs again, bearing a tray,
Might be to find you pillowed with your books,
Your inventories listing gowns and frocks
As if preparing for a holiday.
Or, turning from the landing, I might find
My presence watched through your kaleidoscope,
A symmetry of husbands, each redesigned
In lovely forms of foresight, prayer and hope.
I climb these stairs a dozen times a day
And, by the open door, wait, looking in
At where you died. My hands become a tray
Offering me, my flesh, my soul, my skin.
Grief wrongs us so. I stand, and wait, and cry
For the absurd forgiveness, not knowing why.
__________________________________________

LOVE POEM

I live in you, you live in me;
We are two gardens haunted by each other.
Sometimes I cannot find you there,
There is only the swing creaking, that you have just left,
Or your favourite book beside the sundial.

Maryland Writers Association Reading

MARYLAND WRITERS SHARE THEIR WORK

If you happen to be in the Baltimore-DC area, here’s the perfect opportunity to listen to some of Maryland’s rising literary stars as they share their work.

The October meeting of the Maryland Writers Association Baltimore Chapter takes place on Monday, October 22 at 7p.m. at the new Ukazoo Books in Towson Town Center. Directions are available on the Ukazoo website at www.ukazoo.com and will also be up shortly on the MWAB website too.

This month's meeting will showcase the work of some of Baltimore’s finest authors. Members of the Maryland Writers Association will read from their work.

For more information, visit the MWAB website.

http://www.mwabaltimore.org/

Rumi-Inspired Reading

CELEBRATE 800 YEARS OF RUMI

Celebrate 800 years of Persian poet, teacher, and philosopher Rumi at “A Rumi-esque Reading.”

The event takes place at the Watermark Gallery in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor on Sunday, October 21 at 2 p.m. and includes readings of Rumi’s work as well as Rumi-inspired fiction, poetry, artwork, and music. Wine and refreshments will be served.

The Maryland Writers Association (MWA) will be well represented at the event; all three fiction-readers and one of the two poetry-readers are members of the MWA.

Hightlights of “A Rumi-esque Reading” include readings of Rumi’s work as well as Rumi-inspired work from poets Deanna Nikaido and Cliff Lynn.

Three local fiction writers will share their work.

Caryn Coyle will read her story, “She Walks in Beauty,” about a Native American ancestor guiding a twentieth century woman on a spiritual journey

Nitin Jagdish will read "Lines: A Portrait Contemplates Its Audience" and "Fragments from a Backyard Melodrama.”

Eric D. Goodman will read excerpts from Womb, a novel written from the point of view of an unborn child.

“Diverse Expressions,” a collection of surreal artwork by Manza Rassouli-Taylor, will be on display.

Eastern, Rumi-inspired music will be performed.

Edward P. Jones Reading at Goucher (Baltimore)

Groundbreaking fiction writer Edward P. Jones will read from his works, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Known World, at 8 p.m. on Monday, October 15, in Goucher College’s Kraushaar Auditorium.

This reading — presented by the college’s Kratz Center for Creative Writing — is free and open to the public. Tickets must be reserved in advance, however, by calling 410-337-6333 or e-mailing boxoffice@goucher.edu. A reception and book signing will follow the reading.