New Fiction by Ed Hamilton @ Carmichael’s + INKY + Writer’s BLock = consider your week booked

“In seven stories and a novella, Ed Hamilton takes on this clash of cultures between the old and the new, as his characters are forced to confront their own obsolescence in the face of a rapidly surging capitalist juggernaut. Ranging over the whole panorama of New York neighborhoods—from the East Village to Hell’s Kitchen, and from the Bowery to Washington Heights—Hamilton weaves a spellbinding web of urban mythology. Punks, hippies, beatniks, squatters, junkies, derelicts, and anarchists—the entire pantheon of urban demigods— gambol through a grungy subterranean Elysium of dive bars, cheap diners, flophouses, and shooting galleries, searching for meaning and a place to make their stand.”

“Greg had started his shop, the aptly named Fat Hippie Books, in the mid-eighties on a burned-out block of New York’s East Village. The shop was around the corner from the famous punk venue CBGB and the former office of the Yipster Times. When he moved in, the store was right across the street from a rubble-strewn lot where junkies shot up. Now, in 2004, there was a brand new condo building there. The neighborhood had gentrified, but the bookstore remained the same: aged tomes spilling off the sagging wooden shelves onto unstable piles rising up from the creaking floor. And when the door popped open with a clatter of bells, plate glass, old boards and rusty hinges, a gust of wind might set the dust to swirling, some of the same dust maybe as back in the eighties, and patrons would catch a whiff of that unmistakable used bookstore smell. And these patrons, each of that furtive, clandestine race who frequent such places, would feel that familiar tingle of recognition deep in their brain stems that told them instinctively what this place was about: the preservation of knowledge, the suspension of time.” — From The Chintz Age

     Ed Hamilton will discuss his writhing on the radio hour on Artxfm.com at 1pm Thursday, November, 12  You can hear him read live in person later the same evening at Carmichael’s Books on Frankfort Ave, 7pm

Event date:

Thursday, November 12, 2015 – 7:00pm

Event address:

2720 Frankfort Ave

Louisville, KY 40206

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Born in Atlanta, GA, writer, journalist and blogger Ed Hamilton grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. He has a master’s degree in philosophy and a bachelor’s in psychology. The author of Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with the Artists and Outlaws of New York’s Rebel Mecca (Da Capo, 2007), Hamilton’s fiction and non-fiction have also appeared in dozens of small journals, magazines, and newspapers, both on-line and off. In 2005, together with his wife, Debbie Martin, Hamilton founded “Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea” Blog, the world’s first hotel blog. In 2007, developers took over Hamilton’s beloved Chelsea Hotel, intent on gutting the iconic building and evicting its artistic residents. Hamilton, together with a small group of other tenants who became his friends, devoted the next few years of his life to fighting for the continued existence of one of the last outposts of bohemia in Manhattan. As of this writing, Hamilton is still living at the Chelsea Hotel. Please join us for a reading and book signing of his newest work, The Chintz Age: Tales of Love and Loss for a New New York.

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Also this week:  InKy kicks off the 5th Annual Writers Block, curated by the Louisville Literary Arts 

If you have yet to register for a workshop there are a few spots left !

F R I D A Y ———– I N K Y 

Friday, October 13 , 2015 7 p.m. at the The Bard’s Town Free and Open to the Public Open-mic sign-ups will begin at 6:45 Lee Martin  is the author of the novels The Bright Forever, a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction; River of Heaven; Quakertown; and Break the Skin. He has also published three memoirs, From Our House, Turning Bones, and Such a Life. His first book was the short story collection, The Least You Need To Know. He is the co-editor of Passing the Word: Writers on Their Mentors. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in such places as Harper’s, Ms., Creative Nonfiction, The Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, Fourth Genre, River Teeth, The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, and Glimmer Train. He is the winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council. He was the winner of the 2006 Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching from Ohio State. Danielle Dutton’s  fiction has appeared in magazines such as Harper’s, BOMB, Fence, and Noon. She is the author of a collection of prose pieces, Attempts at a Life, and a novel, SPRAW L, which was a finalist for the Believer Book Award. In 2015, Siglio Press released Here Comes Kitty: A Comic Opera, an artist’s book with texts by Dutton and images by Richard Kraft. In 2016, Catapult will publish her novel Margaret the First, about the life of the seventeenth-century writer Margaret Cavendish. She teaches in the graduate creative writing program at Washington University, and in 2010, Dutton founded the small press Dorothy, a publishing project. Bobbi Buchanan  is founding editor of New Southerner Magazine, an online journal focusing on self-sufficiency, environmental stewardship and local economies. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Louisville Review, GreenPrints, New Madrid and other publications. She received the 2007 Emerging Writers Award in Nonfiction from the Southern Women Writers Conference at Berry College. The Keynote Reader is Pulitzer Prize winner, Adam Johnson We are pleased to announce our festival keynote reader, presented by the University of Louisville’s Anne and William Axton Reading Series.  Adam Johnson has received many awards for his novels and short stories.  He is a professor of English at Stanford University and a recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His fiction has appeared in Esquire, Harper’s, Playboy, GQ, Paris Review, Granta, Tin House and Best American Short Stories. He is the author of Emporium, a short-story collection, as well as the novels Parasites Like Us and The Orphan Master’s Son, for which he won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize. Mr. Johnson’s latest story collection is Interesting Facts, published by Random House.  Mr. Johnson has recently been named a finalist for the NationalBook Award for his most recent book, Fortune Smiles,     The reading, Q & A and book signings are from 5 to 7 PM.  This event is open to the public at no cost. First come, first seated! Read a brief review of Orphan Master’s Son by one of LLA’s board members Announcing a WB Festival Afterparty featuring the Literary Death Match! After a day of  conversation, inspiration education and enlightenment, there will be a raucous afterparty—a spirited literary competition. Celebrity writers will “compete” in this  ticketed emceed performance at The Haymarket Whiskey Bar.  Literary Death Match has been performed  in 57 cities worldwide.  The LA Times has called it “the most entertaining reading series ever.” This Literary Death Match Louisville debut features emcee Adrian Todd Zuniga, who will lead this performance, which brings four authors together to read their most electric writing for seven minutes before a panel of three local celebrity judges. After each pair of readers, the judges in three categories—literary merit, performance and intangibles—take turns sharing astute, often hilarious off-the-wall commentary. The judges confer and select their two favorites to advance to the finals. The two finalists then compete in avaguely literary competition to determine who takes home the Literary Death Match crown.   The Judges! Erin Keane, poet, critic, journalist and author of Demolition of the Promised Land Gill Holland, film producer, Green Builidng & Nulu developer, and Louisville Magazine’s 2009 Person of the Year. Crystal Wilkinson, author of Blackberries, Blackberries and founder of Affrilachian Poets  The Writers! Hannah Pittard, award-winning author of Reunion and The Fates Will Find Their Way Gabe Tomlin, Generation iSpeak featured poet Ryan Ridge, author of American Homes, Hunters & Gamblers, and Ox  Will Lavender, author of Obedience, a New York Times and international bestseller, and Dominance Time:  7:30 to 10 PM Place:  The Haymarket Whiskey Bar in downtown Louisville, KY Cost:   $10 in advance and $12 at the door   Purchase your tickets now!

Double Vision at PYRO gallery & The Kentucky Writing Workshop

This past Friday was the opening reception for Double Vision at PYRO Gallery. A group show featuring 17 Artist/Writer pairs and their collaborative work.  Almost every medium is represented from sculpture and ceramic to oil and digital collage.  Some of the writings are placed on the wall close to the visual representation, some are incorporated within the piece, in a block of text, while others are incorporated line by line or poem by poem by being draped across, tied, or affixed with a decoupage.  Over the next few weeks, PYRO will be hosting readings of the pieces as follows:

Thursday 1/22, PYRO Gallery, 7pm 

Kristen Miller, Fred Smock. William Smith, Ellyn Lichvar, David Harrity

Thursday 1/29, PYRO Gallery, 7pm 

Sarah Gorham, Lynnell Edwards, Makalani Bandele, Annette Allen, Michael Estes

Thursday 2/5, PYRO Gallery, 7pm 

Sean Patrick Hill, Martha Greenwald, Adam Day, John James, Kathryn Welsh

Keep Louisville Literary will be hosting some of these Writer/Artist pairs on the radio hour on ArtFM for an in-depth discussion about their collaborative process.

This Thursday January 15, 1pm on artxfm.com

Kay Grubola/Lynell Edwards

CJ Pressma

Jeff Skinner/Jessica Farquhr/Adam Day

Kay Polson Grubola is an artist and independent curator in Louisville, Kentucky. Creating assemblages using natural found objects, Grubola’s work is a celebration of nature. The work is also an allegory for the natural process of human life, both its ascendance and its decline. She has shown her work nationally and internationally.

Grubola was the Executive Director of Nazareth Arts, a regional arts center on the campus of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in Kentucky, as well as the Artistic Director of the Louisville Visual Art Association.  For 10 years she taught drawing and printmaking at Bellarmine University and Indiana University Southeast.

An active curator Grubola has organized many exhibitions in a wide range of topics.  Her exhibits have ranged in subject matter from original concept drawings from the design studios of GM, Chrysler and Ford muscle car era to a nationally recognized extravaganza of handmade dinnerware and exquisite table design, which wowed audiences for more than 20 years.

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Lynnell Major Edwards is the author of three collections of poetry, most recentlyCovet (October, 2011), and also The Farmer’s Daughter (2003) and The Highwayman’s Wife (2007), all from Red Hen Press.  Her short fiction and book reviews have appeared most recently in Connecticut Review, American Book Review, Pleiades, New Madrid, and others. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky where, since 2010 she has been president of  Louisville Literary Arts, a non-profit literary arts organization that sponsors the monthly InKY reading series and The Writer’s Block Festival. She is also Associate Professor of English at Spalding University.  She also teaches creative writing at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and is available for readings and workshops in a variety of settings.

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C.J. Pressma is a graduate of Antioch College and holds an  M.F.A. in Photography from Indiana University.  He studied as a special graduate student with Minor White at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and with Henry Holmes Smith at Indiana University.

In 1970 he founded the Center for Photographic Studies – an alternative school of creative photography.  The Center provided a learning experience for those seeking to explore photography as creative expression.  During its eight-year existence the center attracted students from over 35 states and foreign countries to its full-time resident program and provided part-time instruction and darkroom access for hundreds of students in the Louisville metropolitan area.  Its two galleries provided monthly photographic exhibits featuring the works of local, regional, and internationally acclaimed photographic artists including Ansel Adams and Minor White.

In 1978 he was awarded a National Endowment Fellowship in Photography.

In 1979 Pressma embarked on a career as a multimedia producer and marketing communications specialist. In 1984, his seven part series Witness to the Holocaust, was released in the U.S. and Canada where it remains in distribution today.  One of the first productions to use survivor interviews as the exclusive content to tell the story of the Holocaust, Witness to the Holocaust has received numerous national awards.

In 1997 he was awarded the American Advertising Federation’s prestigious Silver Medal Award for “outstanding contributions to advertising and furthering the industry’s standards, creative excellence, and responsibility in areas of social concern.”

In December,2001 Pressma was awarded a Fellowship by  the Kentucky  Arts council.

Pressma is represented by Pyro Gallery in Louisville.

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Poet, playwright, and essayist Jeffrey Skinner’s most recent book (memoir, advice, humor), The 6.5 Practices of Moderately Successful Poets, was published to wide attention and acclaim, including a full page positive review in the July 19, 2012 Sunday New York Times Book Review.  His most recent collection of poems,Glaciology, was chosen in 2012 as winner in the Crab Orchard Open Poetry Competition, and will be published by Southern Illinois University press in Fall, 2013.   Skinner has published five previous collections: Late Stars (Wesleyan University Press), A Guide to Forgetting (a winner in the 1987 National Poetry series, chosen by Tess Gallagher, published by Graywolf Press), The Company of Heaven (Pitt Poetry Series), Gender Studies, (Miami University Press), and Salt Water Amnesia (Ausable Press).  He has edited two anthologies, Last Call: Poems of Alcoholism, Addiction, and Deliverance; and Passing the Word: Poets and Their Mentors.  His numerous chapbooks include Salt Mother, Animal Dad, which was chosen by C.K. Williams for the New York City Center for Book Arts Poetry Competition in 2005.  Over the years Skinner’s poems have appeared in most of the country’s  premier literary magazines, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Nation, The American Poetry Review, Poetry, FENCE, Bomb, DoubleTake, and The Georgia, Iowa, and Paris Reviews.

Also a playwright, Skinner’s play Down Range had a successful limited run at Theatre 3 in New York City in the Spring of 2009, and will again be produced in Chicago in 2012-13.  His play Dream On had its premier production in February of 2007, by the Cardboard Box Collaborative Theatre in Philadelphia.  Other of Skinner’s plays have been finalists in the Eugene O’Neill Theater Conference competition, and winners in various play contests.

Skinner’s writing has gathered grants, fellowships, and awards from such sources as the National Endowment for the Arts (1986, & 2006), the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the Howard Foundation, and the state arts agencies of Connecticut, Delaware, and Kentucky.  He has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, McDowell, Vermont Studios, and the Fine Arts Center in Provincetown.  His work has been featured numerous times on National Public Radio.  In 2002 Skinner served as Poet-in-Residence at the James Merrill House in Stonington, Connecticut.

He is President of the Board of Directors, and Editorial Consultant, for Sarabande Books, a literary publishing house he cofounded with his wife, poet Sarah Gorham.  He teaches creative writing and English at The University of Louisville.

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Jessica Farquhar holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Purdue where she was the assistant director of Creative Writing. She is a Louisville native, and current resident. Her poems have appeared in Catch Up, Word Hotel, ABZ, Transom, New Madrid, Poetry East, and Lumberyard; reviews and interviews in Sycamore Review.

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Adam Day was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky.  He received his MFA in creative writing at New York University, where he was poetry editor for the program’s national literary journal, Washington Square. His work has been published or is forthcoming in The American Poetry Review, Columbia: A Journal of Literature and the Arts, Crab Orchard Review,Seattle Review, and others.

Thursday January 22nd, 1pm on artxfm.com

Sean Patrick Hill/John McCarthy

Makalani Bandele /Wendy Smith

Martha Greenwald/Susie Harrison

Bio’s posted in next week’s blog 

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Another opportunity to workshop in Louisville is on the Horizon with The Kentucky Writing Workshop. “..A special one-day “How to Get Published” writing workshop on Friday, Feb. 6, 2015, at the Holiday Inn Louisville East.”

In addition to the instructional courses, 5 different literary agents will be in attendance taking pitches for books & novels.

All information about agents, workshops, and registration available HERE

Chuck Sambuchino will be on Keep Louisville Literary on January 29th to discuss the event.

Chuck Sambuchino (chucksambuchino.com,@chucksambuchino) of Writer’s Digest Books is the editor of Guide to Literary Agents as well as the Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market. His authored books include Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript; Create Your Writer Platform, which was praised by Forbes.com; andHow to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack, which was optioned for film by Sony. He oversees one of the biggest blogs in publishing (the Guide to Literary Agents Blog) as well as one of the biggest Twitter accounts in publishing (@WritersDigest). He is a freelance editor who has seen dozens of his clients get agents and/or book deals, and he has presented at almost 90 writing conferences and events over the past eight years.

Several great events lead up to Writers Block, Louisville + the Radio hour with Adriena Dame

This week on the radio hour [Thursday, October 23] artxfm.com, I’ll be chatting with the multifaceted, Adriena Dame, editor for the journal ‘94 creations‘. The 94 creations team will be celebrating their release party for the 6th issue on October 25th. Tune in Thursday to hear a sneak peak and some behind the scenes discussion to what went into putting this issue together.
94 creations is not Adriena’s only passion. She also serves on the Louisville Literary Arts board, has her own sock company, makes jewelry, writes, teaches, and works with at risk youth.
We’ll also be chatting about the makings of the Writers Block coming up on Nov. 15th

Adriena Dame, author of The Moo: Stories and a Novella, is a military brat, adventurer, mixed-media jewelry artist, and creative writing professor at Spalding University. She also leads writing workshops; teaches fiction, creative nonfiction, and wearable art classes; and offers homeschool English courses at 94 Creations Studios, located at Mellwood Arts Center in Louisville, Kentucky. In addition to publishing 94 Creations literary journal, she contributes to the editorial efforts of Tidal Basin Review, is a poetry coach for Generation iSpeak, and serves as a board member for the Kentucky Foundation for Women. She is a graduate of Spalding’s brief-residency MFA in Writing Program.

You can attend the release party of 94 creations this Saturday at Vault 1301- Readers include Sheri L. Wright, Nathan Gower and Karen George.

Other events leading up to Writers Block:
Saturday, October 25th, 7pm, Carmichaels, Poets Eric Scott Sutherland, Tom C. Hunley, and Lynnell Edwards will be signing and reading from their new collections.

Tuesday, October 28th, 7pm, Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning
251 W 2nd St, Lexington, Kentucky 40507,
The Louisville Review and The Carnegie Center present a reading in celebration of the 75th issue of The Louisville Review. The reading takes place 7:00-8:15 p.m. Tuesday, October 28, at the Carnegie Center in Lexington and features writers who work has appeared in The Louisville Review.

Featured writers include Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X Walker, former Kentucky Poet Laureate Sena Jeter Naslund, Karen Mann, Katerina Stoykova-Klemer, Bill Goodman, and Susan Christerson Brown.

Thursday, October 30th, 4pm, Bingham Poetry Room– Heather Slomski is giving a reading and will appear on the radio hour at 1pm to chat about her work.

Wednesday, November 5th, 630pm, Hillbilly Tea, The Spalding BFA salon, hosted by Merle Bachman

Wednesday, November 12, 730pm, Decca, Subterranean Phrases with Erin Keane and Jay Sizemore

Thursday, November 13th, 1pm, artxfm.com, The radio hour with Joy Priest.

Friday, November 14th, 7pm, The Bardstown, InKY/ writers block kickoff

Deadlines and Hot Shops [8.28.14]

Lynnell Edwards will be joining me on the radio hour Thursday [8.28.14] with “Kings of the Rock and Roll Hot Shop (Or, What Breaks)” 

Lynnell Major Edwards is the author of three collections of poetry, most recentlyCovet (October, 2011), and also The Farmer’s Daughter (2003) and The Highwayman’s Wife (2007), all from Red Hen Press.  Her short fiction and book reviews have appeared most recently in Connecticut Review, American Book Review, Pleiades, New Madrid, and others. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky where, since 2010 she has been president of  Louisville Literary Arts, a non-profit literary arts organization that sponsors the monthly InKY reading series and The Writer’s Block Festival. She is also Associate Professor of English at Spalding University.  She also teaches creative writing at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and is available for readings and workshops in a variety of settings.

Her Chapbook, “Kings of the Rock and Roll Hot Shop” was released this year by Accent’s Publishing, but was researched intensively at Flame Run Gallery in 2010 at their Market Street location.  Edwards explores all aspects of glassmaking with a concise 17 poems.  All senses. All meditations–From process and history to the methodological clutter and clean up, Edwards paints a full canvas of the art of glass shaping as colorful and beautifully transparent as the glass she describes. 

Tune in Thursday at 1pm on artFM to hear live readings and discussion.  

 

Deadlines Approaching. I repeat. Deadlines: 

September 1st: Radar 

Women only 3-6 unpublished poems. 

September 30th: New Southerner

fiction, non-fiction, poetry 

October 1st: American Literary Review

short fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry 

October 15: Writer’s Block

1-3 unpublished poems

***Writers Block will also begin accepting reservations for workshops on September 1st. HERE 

 

write on, 

Rachel short

Thursday [6.19.14] Poet and Documentarian, Lee Pennington, on KeepLouLit radio hour: History and its ‘truth’

Thursday at 1pm on artxfm.com, I will be chatting with Lee Pennington about writing, teaching, and world travel.  Some time back, I had the fortunate opportunity to share a stage with Lee at the Stone Soup reading series, hosted by Sheri L. Wright.  Since then, I have kept up with Lee’s status updates as he travels the world documenting historical ruins and telling their story.  Lee explores the concept of history, as we know it, and its truth.

Tomorrow night, there is an opportunity to see one of these films during its premiere.

The second documentary in the Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church/Louisville, KY is EYES THAT LOOK AT THE SKY: THE MYSTERY OF EASTER ISLAND. Lee and Joy Pennington made two trips to Easter Island, one in 1997 and again in 1999-2000 to film this JoLe Productions’ documentary.

Showing Wedensday, June 18th, 7pm

Easter Island is the most remote piece of inhabited land on earth. Located midway between South America and Tahiti in the Pacific Ocean, the tiny island, three miles wide and twelve miles long, is the site of one of the world’s great mysteries.
On this island natives carved and erected stone statues called moai, sometimes moving great distances the several ton giants over rough terrain, never damaging them in the process. In addition, red topknots, weighing as much as two elephants were raised and placed on many of the moais’ heads.
Archaeologists still have not been able to determine exactly how the statues were moved or how the topknots were raised thirty feet or more and placed on the moais. The mystery is deepened when at a certain point all the sculptors apparently laid down their stone hammers and stopped all work, leaving statues in various stages of completion at the quarry.
Who were these people? Where did they come from? Why did they exert such tremendous energy to create such that even today leave us in awe? And why did they suddenly stop all their work?
Lee and Joy, on their two trips to Easter Island, captured some stunning pictures of this amazing culture and its incredible monoliths. The film is a comprehensive overview of Easter Island, her people, and her mystery, with some unique surprises along the way.

The event page HERE

You may be thinking, ” Keep Louisville Literary” is a show with live readings and writer Q&A. Don’t worry, Lee has plenty to read from:

             LEE PENNINGTON is the author of 19 books including I knew a Woman (1977 Love Street Books) and Thigmotropism (1993 Green River Writers/Grex Press)–both nominated for Pulitzer Prize. He has had over 1300 poem published in more than 300 magazines in America and abroad. In 1984 he was designated Poet Laureate of Kentucky by the state legislature. He has had nine plays produced, wrote the script for The Moonshine War (MGM, 1970, starring Alan Alda, Richard Widmark, etc.), and has published thousands of articles in everything from Playgirl to Mountain Life and Work. Since 1990, through his video production company, JoLe Productions (joleproductions.com), Lee, along with his late wife, Joy, produced 23 documentaries including In Search of the Mudmen (1990), Wales: History in Bondage (1995), and Secret of the Stones (1998), Eyes that Look at the Sky: The Mystery of Easter Island (2001), The Mound Builders (2001), The Serpent Fort: Solving the Mystery of Fort Mountain, Georgia (2005), Let Me Not Drown on the Waters: Fred Rydholm, Michigan’s “Mr. Copper”(2008), Sometimes You Clean, Sometimes You Litter: The Amazing Warner Sizemore (2012), Room to Fly: Anne Caudill’s Album (2013). Lee is a graduate Berea College in KY and the University of Iowa. He holds two Honorary Doctor degrees: Doctor of Literature from World University, and Doctor of Philosophy in Arts from The Academy of Southern Arts and Letters. He taught for nearly 40 years, the last 32 as Professor of English and creative writing at University of Kentucky Jefferson Community College until he retired in 1999 He has traveled extensively (in all the United States, all the Canadian Provinces except one, and in 78 foreign countries). He lives with artist Jill Baker in Kratz House, a designated historic home, in Middletown, KY. For the past six years, he has served as president of the Ancient Kentucke Historical Association, a group dedicated to the study and research of pre-Columbian contact in the Americas. In June of 2013 the University of Louisville in Kentucky dedicated and opened THE LEE AND JOY PENNINGTON CULTURAL HERITAGE GALLERY which houses Pennington’s body of work.

I’m thrilled to have Mr. Pennington on the show and I hope you’ll listen to our meandering conversation. (poets tend to meander about.)

 

write on,

Rachel Short

An interview with Tasha Cotter. Reading tomorrow at Down One Bourbon Bar with Derek Pollard and Eric Sutherland.

I got a chance to email interview Tasha Cotter about her writing process and her recent book of poems Some Churches.

Tasha Cotter is the author of the chapbooks That Bird Your Heart (Finishing Line Press) and Spectacular Girl (Chantepleure Press). Her first full-length collection of poetry, Some Churches, was released in 2013 with Gold Wake Press. Her work has appeared in journals such as Contrary Magazine, Country Dog Review, and Booth. You can contact Tasha at tasha dot pedigo at gmail dot com.

 

Q- On KLL, I’ve been chatting with a lot of poets about thematically structured chapbooks.   Do you feel this is a tool to generate material or is it the only way to fully explore a specific topic within the format of poetry?

 

 

I’ve authored one chapbook and I am working on edits for another: I do think chapbooks have a lot of potential in terms of exploring one theme. Generally, chapbooks are between 18 and 30 pages so it’s just enough room to explore an idea or a style. I’ve been at work on a chapbook that was inspired by the work of Mexican poet Dolores Dorantes. I’m working in a very bare, experimental style that’s a far cry from my usual narrative-driven lyrical work. And I think that 25 pages is about all I muster, so the chapbook was something I was immediately drawn to.

 

Q-How closely do you relate religion and the physicality of the church as a building?

 

Poetry has always been akin to prayer for me and in locating an emotional center for this book it became clear to me that a theme seems to be the volatility of the heart — and heartbreak. I began delving into this when putting the book together and deciding on the title. It became clear that a key poem in the book was Some Churches — it orbits around the idea of an expectation of happiness and what happens when that expectation isn’t met. I wanted to treat life experiences with reverence. Life is a precious thing. These poems operate as churches.

 

Q-Do these structures give your poems reverence?

 

I hope so. I hope people read these poems and find some amount of solace or at least feel some familiarity with the book.

 

 

Q-Are  your poems structured like the architecture of a church?

 

I don’t think so! I do kind of like this idea. 

 

 

Q-How is form related to your writing style?

I tend to write free-verse narrative poetry and I’ve always loved the prose poem. I don’t tend to write a lot of formal poetry, though I sometimes like to incorporate the sonnet form or the villanelle when exploring an idea. I tend to pay most attention to syllabics and the music in a line. Most of my poems are one page, maximum. I’ve never had much luck sustaining the energy for a longer poem, though I really admire poets who can do this, like Tracy K. Smith and Brian Turner.

 

Q-Aesthetic aside, poets are ever aware of the specific and the universal. How do you approach weaving your personal experience with broader allusions

 

Good question! I think there’s such a thing as emotional truth: a way of understanding the emotional depth of a particular experience that may have little relation to an actual past, but still manages to carry weight. I rely on this in my work and I do incorporate moments, places, and images of my own life in my work, but I always try to build something universal around it. In some ways I feel like an architect trying to envision something and see it through to its creation. Poems are their own structures — they need to stand by themselves.

 

Q-Literature is a (if not the) powerful, transportative medium, formative and informative to us all. So, what books/author’s have had your attention lately?

 

 

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of fiction. I’m currently at work on a novel and some of my favorite writers these days include Hilary Mantel and Jeanette Winterson. I’m leading a discussion on Saturday for the Kentucky Women Writers Conference on the work of poet Tracy K. Smith, so I’ve been reading a lot of her work, too. I read a little bit of everything: :literary work, chick lit, and poetry. I’ve always been interested in a little bit of everything. 

Q-Most bio’s include the writers list of educational pedigree, yours does not, what lead to this decision? Tell us a little bit more about the Lexington scene and writers that inspire you locally.

 

I graduated from UK in 2006 and knew even then that writing was important to me. My mentor was Nikky Finney and she was an inspiration to me. Lexington is such a rich, fertile place to be a writer. We have the Carnegie Center and there are local MFA programs that add to the cultural richness of the area. Over the last three years I’ve served on the board for the Kentucky Women Writers Conference and I’ve been able to meet writers I’ve admired for a long time such as Kim Addonizio, Molly Peacock, and Bonnie Jo Campbell. I earned an MFA in Creative Writing from EKU in 2010. Kentucky is home to so many writers who inspire me: Gwenda Bond, Ada Limon, and Jim Tomlinson continue to impress me.

 

Q-How do you go about choosing poems to read for a live audience?

 

In choosing poems to read I go with my gut. Generally, I try to choose two or three from my book Some Churches and read a couple of new poems. I always like to read something new — I think of it like taking the poem out for a test-drive. I want to hear the sounds of the poem. I want to see if the line-breaks are working well and of course, if people like the poem, I want to know that, too

 

You can hear Tasha read live tomorrow evening at Down One Bourbon Bar with Derek Pollard and Eric Scott Sutherland

8pm. Hosted by Leigh Ann Hornfeldt. 

 

Here is the Facebook event page.

 

Write on, 

Rachel Short 

 

Thursday [6.12.14] Tony Acree on the Keep Louisville Literary radio hour on ArtFM + the weeks events

Thursday at 1pm EST on artxfm.com, I’ll be chatting with Tony Acree about thrilling fiction, character development, and barely getting out alive. He’ll read excerpts from his recent thriller, The Watchers, and from his previous best selling novel, The Hand of God. 

Amazon bestselling author, Tony Acree,likes putting characters in situations they think they will never survive, and find out if they’re right. He lives near Goshen, Kentucky with his wife, twin daughters, two female dogs, a female cat, and says the way the goldfish looks at him, he’s sure she’s female, too.

His work has appeared in Kentucky Monthly Magazine as well as The Cumberland, the state wide newspaper of the Sierra Club. He is a member of the International Thriller Writers and the Green River Writers.

His debut novel, The Hand of God, was Hydra Publications number one best seller for 2013 as well as an Amazon best seller. His current thriller, The Watchers, was released in May of 2014.

His website is Tonyacree.com and can be found on Twitter @Tonyacree. 

 

 

By Jamie Lee Scott

Format:Kindle Edition

Don’t let the title fool you, this is not your average book about God. If I had to give it a genre, I’d call it paranormal crime noir, ala Elvis Cole novels with a twist.

I was happily surprised from the first page, and laughed my way through the rest. This first effort from author Tony Acree is a hit.

The description on Amazon doesn’t even hint at the fun I had reading this novel. At one point, I actually stopped reading, so I could send a “shout out” Tweet to the author. I’m looking forward to his next installment.

 

 

Also this week:

Wednesday [6.11.14] Subterranean Phrases with Mark Webb and Ut Gret 

Decca, cellar lounge, 812 E market St, 8pm

 

Mark Webb is the editor of A Narrow Fellow and poet of two recently penned full length books, The Weight of Paper,  available on Amazon.com and Whateverits up for pre-order through Finishing Line press. 

Subterranean Phrases’ featured writers are backed by improvisational musicians. Limited open mic slots.  

 

Thursday [6.12.14]

• Thursday at 9:00pm

• Lisa’s Oak St. Lounge 1004 East Oak St., Louisville, Kentucky 40204

• This is the release show for 
   

Douglas Lucas and Yoko Molotov ‘s new book
“__________”

They are 10$ and there is a limited 20 print run.

Also,
Fluxus themed acts by
Cher Koeune
Thaniel Ion Lee
Mu and Harpy ( Yoko Molotov )

Free show besides that
WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO WEAR WHITE. 
WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO BE 
WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO BE NOTHING

 

Friday [6.13.14] 

• Friday at 8:00pm 3 days from now · 79°F / 59°F Chance of a Thunderstorm

• Down One Bourbon Bar 321 W. Main Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202

Join us in the speakeasy for an evening of poetry & bourbon. Tasha Cotter, Derek Pollard, and Eric Scott Sutherland will be reading from their collections Some Churches, Inconsequentia, and pendulum.

 

 

write on,

Rachel 

Spalding Residency/Chamber Opera-Emily-and the intersection of science and faith

Opera generally greets a very specific clientele. Operatic performances tend to only grace the stages of large cities on a frequent basis and mid sized cities a couple times a year.  They’re expensive due to the their grand design with heavy production, stage craft, costumes, large casts, and full orchestras. Thanks to fragmentation   some composers are composing shorter, smaller, more fiscally manageable chamber opera’s. There are still big budget opera’s, like Michel van der aa’s 2006 Afterlife,  but for a poet like Emily Dickinson, all the grandeur of traditional opera might have seemed contrived. A chamber opera, however, matches. Eva Kendrick , a Boston area composer, took a concise slice of Dickinson’s life, a cast of ten, a piano, and only an hour of your time to explore the essence of Emily’s poetry.  Musically speaking, Emily was more tonal than I would have expected from a modern operatic production, but there are some nice harmonies and one fantastic moment with a 6-part stacked polyphonic monologue. The main  theatrical ‘action’ deals with a singular poem, If you were coming in the fall, and the many misinterpretations by suitors, friends, and family. The poets frustration in dealing with social constructs in conveyed as Emily only smiles when she’s writing, or showing her poetry to someone she respects.

Tomorrow on the Keep Louisville Literary radio hour, I’ll be chatting with another poet by the name of Emily.

Emily Ruppel is a writer and artist whose work explores the intersection between faith and science, the spiritual and empirical, as ways to understand ourselves and our place in the cosmos. After studying poetry at Bellarmine university, Emily received a master’s degree in science writing at MIT and is now back home in the Louisville highlands.

Social constructs have changed since the days of Emily Dickinson, but how we deal with sharing our poetry with the world-not as much. Tune in at 1pm EST on artxfm.com to hear about the balance between writing in science and the writing of the heart, the faith in beauty, poetry.

Events: All week Spalding Residency

Tonight: http://spalding.edu/frank-x-walker-speak-diana-m-raab-distinguished-writer-residence/

Frank X Walker, Kentucky poet laureate, has been named the 2014 Diana M. Raab Distinguished Writer in Residence for Spalding University’s brief-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program. Walker gives a public presentation at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 29, at the Brown Hotel, 335 W. Broadway. The event is free, ticketless, and open to the public. A book signing follows.

 

Lexington- Holler 72 happens to be our 6 year anniversary of bringing literature to the main stage in Lexington. Guest hosted by award winning poet and feature at the very first Holler, Maurice Manning, the party will feature the return of former Poet Laureate Richard Lawrence Taylor and Holler creator and host Eric Scott Sutherland, both celebrating the release of new books. Music will be provided by the talented Don Rogers (Bluegrass Collective, KY Wildhorse, Giant Rooster Sideshow, etc.). Richard and Eric will have their new books available and will be ready to sign your copy. Open mic starts the show at 8pm with signups beginning at 645pm

 

 

This week [5.21.14] Our Story.Frederick Smock.Matthew Presley

Tonight at the ALI center 

Ali Center Collaborates on Free Community Event

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (May 8, 2014) … On Wednesday, May 21, from 6:30-9:30pm, the Louisville Story Program will be celebrating the publication of “Our Shawnee” with a free event at the Muhammad Ali Center featuring author readings, book signings (books will be available for $15.00), and remarks from local community leaders.

The Louisville Story Program helps historically underrepresented Louisville residents write and publish books about their lives and neighborhoods, and pays them for their work. “Our Shawnee” is LSP’s first project. Over the course of almost a year, the eight authors of “Our Shawnee,” all students at The Academy @ Shawnee (formerly Shawnee High School), wrote this landmark book, which consists of autobiographical essays, oral histories, and photography that compellingly convey the richness of life in often-overlooked Louisville neighborhoods, predominantly Shawnee and Portland.

– See more at: http://alicenter.org/press-release/163#sthash.JVS6bhgD.LwTwpTyl.dpuf

 

Tomorrow [5.22.14] at Carmichael’s 7pm 

Frederick Smock and Richard Boada will read poems at the Carmichael’s Bookstore on FRANKFORT AVE. Richard Boada is an alumnus ofBellarmine University, and a former student of Prof. Smock. Mr. Boada’s first full-length collection of poetry, “The Error of Nostalgia” has just been published by Texas Tech University Press. Mr. Smock will read from his most recent writings.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1448274102077268/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

 

Thursday on Keep Louisville Literary radio hour on artxFM.com 

 

Matthew Presley will be chatting with John Beechem on KLL on Thursday at 1pm EST about his recent book of poems Abundantly Clear. Matthew has been hard at work on new poems as well, and will share previews for his upcoming 2nd book.  Presley is an avid attendee of many open mics in Louisville, a great supporter to so many writers and artists with his photographic documentation, a kind, generous soul, and diligent poet. Tune in to hear live readings and Q&A about self publishing and importance of poetic community. 

 

GetLIT,

Rachel 

 

Subterranean Phrases with Tony Brewer and KLL radio hour with Kirsten Clodfelter

This week in Literary Louisville: 

Wednesday, May 14, 8pm in the cellar lounge of Decca Restaurant [812 e. Market] –Subterranean Phrases

Featuring Tony Brewer, Bloomington, IN and Paul Robey of Common Collective 

Tony Brewer is a poet, spoken word performer, screenwriter, sound effects artist, and roller derby announcer from Bloomington, Indiana. He also is executive director of the Spoken Word Stage at the 4th Street Arts Festival; chairs the Writers Guild at Bloomington; and is one-quarter of the performance group Reservoir Dogwoods. He teaches and performs live sound effects at the HEAR Now Festival in Kansas City, and is the house sound effects artist for the Firehouse Follies live variety show on WFHB Community Radio. He has announced for Bleeding Heartland Roller Derby for 8 seasons, and he wrote and co-produced 8 Wheels of Death, the world’s first roller derby zombie romantic comedy. He has three books of poetry: The Great American Scapegoat, Little Glove in a Big Hand, and Hot Type Cold Read.

We had Tony on the radio hour awhile back and you can listen here: http://www.mixcloud.com/KeepLouisvilleLiterary/tony-brewer-on-kll-22024-poems-radio-plays-roller-derby-zombies

Host of Subterranean Phrases, Rachel Short, matches a musician with the writers to perform unrehearsed collaborations. Paul Robey of Common Collective will be providing the soundscape with Brewer’s words.  http://www.reverbnation.com/commoncollective 

There is also an open mic available and opening Set by Brian Manley, artFM local music director, and Douglas Lucas, Louisville Experimental Festival. 

 

Thursday on the Keep Louisville Literary radio hour on http://artxfm.com at 1pm EST, we’ll be chatting with Kirsten Clodfelter.

Kirsten Clodfelter’s writing has been previously published in The Iowa Review, Brevity, Narrative Magazine, Green Mountains Review, The Good Men Project, and storySouth, among others and is forthcoming in ROAR Magazine. Her chapbook of war-impact stories, Casualties, was published last October by RopeWalk Press. Clodfelter is a regular contributor to As It Ought to Be, where she is also the Series Editor of the small-press review series, At the Margins. An Associate Editor of New American Press, Clodfelter lives in Southern Indiana with her partner and young daughter.

Tune in to hear live readings from previous work and upcoming projects along with Q&A with Host, Rachel Short.