Voices for the Solstice

Monsoon Voices finished a terrific year of literary sharing and celebration on December 19th at Unlimited Coffee. If you haven’t gone by Unlimited, either for a reading, a drink, or a gelato, you should know that the building began life as a pizza hut. Red brick walls and large windows surround the once-dining room. Down the center of the room, a table worthy of a CEO’s boardroom runs north to south; performers stand at the north end, with Glendale Avenue and neon window signs behind them. At the south end of the room the coffee/gelato magic happens.
On Friday night the returning readers all seemed to pull up chairs at the big table. There were at least five of us, not counting our reader-hosts, Traci and Patrick. The room was surprisingly filled for the last Friday before Christmas. I sort of thought we’d be reading only to each other. Maybe people found it more satisfying to be in a full reading than an empty department store. Maybe word has gotten out that Monsoon Voices is a great time.
I was lucky enough to be invited to read and it was a great way to spend part of the winter solstice. I intended to riff on the solstice before reading, but on Friday I ran through the piece one more time before the show and realized that it was written off an assignment in a class this fall. I decided to mention how beneficial I find being in class: the motivation, the inspiration. The deadlines. So I talked about that, then read “Red Silk iPod,” which made people laugh in many of the right places. I finished with “Dieting at Christmas,” one of those ditzy poems that people (with the exception of magazine editors) always seem to like. But I was the last reader, and before me, there were treasures:
Steven Lufkin – guitars and vocals – This 15 year old marvel pleased the crowd with several well-crafted songs of his own creation. We got the feeling that his talent would develop beautifully in the fullness of time. Then he played “Hey Joe” from Jimi Hendrix. He mastered “Hey Joe.” The guitar that had only supported his words earlier now blasted us, slaughtered us, enthralled us. I can’t wait to see this kid smack the world in the eye.
Rosemarie Dombrowski – Editor of ‘merge’ magazine – this terrific poet treated us to two short personal essays: “Flour, sugar, stir, repeat,” and “Converse.” Both were polished, funny, memorable. I hope poetry can hang on to her, but fear that prose might win.
bakeem lloyd – poetry – this is the first time I’ve met bakeem but I know it won’t be the last – he read two long poems: ‘Jigsaw Puzzle in Reverse,’ and ‘The Mating Habits of Binary Stars.’ bakeem seemed shy, quiet; his poetry is powerful and deep. He reads beautifully. I think we’ll all hear more about him.
Pascal Marco – longtime newspaper man and new essayist – read us ‘Heliotrope,’ the story of meeting his wife of thirty years at the age of seventeen. Pascal brings us the humor and joy of his life. We’re lucky.
Jessica Standifird – introduced as ‘a poet heavily into the local scene’ which she promptly told us might be true, but she feels “not nearly as accomplished as that might seem to imply.” All of us who strive to read in public can empathize, but she’s wrong in her own case: this poet has got it on. She read us several excellent pieces, and I hope the print outlets are picking up on them.
Sarah Moore – young happy college student – this bright light has a lot to share. Like so many good writers, she took a small moment--losing her keys in a forest—and spun it into a story that threw light on the kindness and wonder of the world; and did it all while making us laugh.
Shawnte Orion – another regular on the local scene, this one with a loyal fan base, several of whom were there to cheer him on. If they hadn’t come, well, no worries; the rest of us made enough noise to cover it. He gave us a sermon on the creation of Phoenix by the god L.A. Shawnte has a good time with his writing, and happily, so do the rest of us.
Anyway, if you weren’t there in 2008, I hope you’ll be inspired to come listen in 2009. Monsoon Voices is a great time. Treat yourself to it.

Red Silk iPod

Wow, the fall semester's almost over. I've been in a couple of classes and always feel said when good classes end. These classes have been very compelling and motivated a lot a writing on my part, and some of it might even be good.
I'll be test-driving one essay, 'The Red Silk iPod' at Monsoon Voices on Friday, December 19th. If you'd like to come(and we'd love to see you) a link for information/directions is on the left. I wrote this piece as part of an assignment, but it's been spruced up and it makes me smile, so I hope it will make others smile as well. I'm going to offer up a poem, too, called 'Dieting at Christmas.' I am dieting this Christmas, and much more seriously than I was when I wrote this piece. If all goes well this week, I'll have bookmarks of this poem to share. I hope you come Friday night so I can give you one!

Seven Talented Writers Read

I took part in a reading at Phoenix College this week, as one of the students in the college's Creative Writing Certificate Track. We had such a good time! I don't think that most disciplines arrange a time for associates in a program to experience each other's art, but that's essentially what happened Wednesday night. We invited other people to listen, but the great thing was to share each other's work. It made me want to work with these people much, much more.
I read a fairly humorous piece called "Mosquitoes." I had a charming scene in which my family gathered around me while I screamed. People laughed in many of the right places, and I remembered how to breathe again.
My fellow writer and their work took my breath away again and again. They are:

Traci Moore, who read "The Wonder of Wonder," in which a man gets too involved with the bread of life;

Debby Mitchell, whose web-like poetry brings nature to the page;

Sandra Yee, who told us secrets about locker rooms and the strange compassion of young girls;

Dawn Marie, who took us into the world of a woman becoming divorced;

Jim Griffin made us all think about “The other 5%”;

and Janet Burruel’s compelling truths danced in fiction and poetry.

Tonight, Friday the 7th, Dawn Marie will read again at Monsoon Voices, a live literary event hosted by Traci Moore and her husband Patrick.

The desert is alive with the sound of literature!

My Fall Classes

Apparently I am a poor blogger. I look at other people's blogs, and they post nearly daily. I'm hitting a rate of one a month at the moment. Shabby.
I meant to write about the classes I'm taking long since. Maybe this is better. I can tell you how much I'm enjoying them.
Literature and Film began in the last week of August, and Non-Fic Chick Lit began in the last week of September. They are both online classes.
I took Literature and Film because two of the three required movies were Stephen King golden oldies: Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption. The other movie was Jaws, which I watched for the first time because of this class. Let me say this: Stephen Speilberg is a wizard. The film mesmerized me.
So far the class has been relatively easy, if a little light on the literature end of the equation. The second half of the class is swathed in mystery: even the schedule ends midway and says "The remainder of the schedule will be posted later." That later should be soon. I hope I like what happens.
Non-Fic Chick Lit intends to create Sarah Vowells and Mary Roaches of us all. Despite the horrible, horrible name (only oldies like me dispair of the use of the term 'chick.' But I say I can put up with chick lit as long as we can also discuss dick lit. Discussion in this class is lively and writing we've seen so far from class members shows promise. We're only in week 4.
On 'class days' I can hardly wait to sign in and see the new lectures, the reading questions, and the exercises. And I get to do it in my p.j.s and have coffee during class! Not all online experiences are great, but so far I've got a good semester going.

Ballistics!

Billy Collins' new book of poetry, Ballistics, is out, and my darling husband Jack bought it for me right away. I've had it in one hand or the other pretty much ever since. How kind of him to send out 68 more nearly perfect spaces into the world. It seems to me that the voice in this book is a little less joyous, a little more in touch with all the things that go wrong, but it is still a voice I could listen to every day.
One of the best things about poetry is the infinite variety, and that there is space in that variety for all of us. Billy can't be every man's cup of meat, but if you're not sure where your poetic stick floats, he's a very good place to start.
One poem, called January in Paris, seems to say everything I feel about poetry, and everything I hope poetry feels about me.
I hope you find joy.

Free Rice!

Freerice.com is a vocabulary building site that fights world hunger. It's one of the best things on the web. If you love words, if you love humans, if you have ten minutes and are looking for something to pass the time, this is a great site.
The creators of the site arrange for rice to be purchased with the money paid for adspace on the main page. Players earn 'rice' each time they guess the correct definition for a word. Words become increasingly more difficult as you play.
If you look around the site, you'll find a page that show the total amount of rice they have donated by date. First, be amazed that people playing a word game have helped distribute more than 14 billion grains of rice in about 10 months. But then, notice that donations have dropped since last December. I imagine that there has not been a great publicity push for the site since then. So this post is my little publicity push for them; and if you like the site, maybe you'll push a little, too.

August Writers' Magazines

Great articles and advice abound in this month's issues of Poets & Writers, The Writer, and Writer's Digest:

My favorite living poet, Billy Collins, is on the cover of Poets & Writers' September/October issue. His new book, Ballistics, releases September 9th. P&W looks at Collins' career and life, and how he succeeds by focusing on his readers.
Even if Mr. Collins doesn't make you dive headlong into this issue, P&W is always worth a look. Besides the cover story, this issue contains articles on making your own chapbooks, getting an agent, and 100 Writing Contests with Upcoming Deadlines.

After you've made your chapbook by hand, you'll need a website to promote it, and that's what Writer's Digest promises this month: a how-to for turning a website into a wonder. They also show off the winner and finalists of their website contest, and we can all visit and learn from those sites. I have friends whose only website success so far has been to even try -- that puts them ahead of me!
Writer's Digest also offers an interview with Isabel Allende, advice from Debbie Macomber, and more get-an-agent tips.

The Writer for September drew me in with a screaming cover story on 104 Worst Cliches. This list-type article hit the heads of many a nail. But what really impressed me was the magazine's willingness to follow that story with one on exploiting the hidden power of cliches! They present possibilities positively.
There's also a good interview with Tess Gerritsen, tips for successful collaborations, and overall, the you-can-do-it push I always get from The Writer.

We have all of these magazines here at the library (although I'm going to buy P&W; Billy's really my guy, poetically) and I hope you come and enjoy them.

Good news all around

Two exciting bits of news:
Jed Allen, poet and faculty member here at PC, stopped by the library this morning to mention that Jack Evans will be reading on Thursday, August 21st, at Copper Star Coffee. Should be good times; hope you can come by. There's nothing about it on the Copper Star site, but I imagine the evening will get going about 7:30. If anyone out there hears a more definitive time, let me know!
The second bit of news is less exciting to the general world, but I did want to say that I got the CRW Distribution List up and running. Hooray!

Technology blues

I've been trying to update the Creative Writing Distribution list for the English Department here at PC. The list was a long running success that in the last year or so just stopped working. We looked into it last year and Tech support said that there were duplications and misspellings that were causing the creature to crash. Just this week Marty transferred 'ownership' of the list to me and I took the list apart, emailing each name on the list, removing the names that bounced back, and inviting people to let me know if they wanted to be removed or preferred another email address, etc. Made all those corrections, tested the list again, and bang! Failed. I've emailed the tech people for help.
For people who think that writers just sit around scribbling and dreaming: it may be that that's all we're fit for. No, I don't mean that. But technology -- yecchh!

A Live Literary Magazine?

Monsoon Voices is a live literary magazine. You might be scratching your head, wondering how that works -- the answer is, wonderfully! Two crazy Phoenix writers met in a coffee house, confessed their love of literature, fell in love with each other, and started Monsoon Voices. Most evenings end up as a cross between a Paris Salon and a hootenany. Readers, singers and audience members meld into a creative riot. Such madness needs time to simmer, however, so events occur only every six weeks or so. Here is a link to Patrick and Traci's nascent blog: http://monsoonvoices.blogspot.com/
I hope you'll visit the blog, and try to come to a reading. I hope I see you there.

To Blog Anew

It's been 11 months since the last post. I'd started the blog with the idea of featuring Phoenix College's writing classes and events, but several things went wrong: due to money issues, the college cut back on classes and strictly enforced minimum class sizes, so that few of the classes I wanted to take actually occurred; the Microburst Writers' conference here on campus coincided with a diabetes complication, so I didn't get much out of it; and generally, I felt a bit of disappointment with all things PC/writing for the past year.
So on returning to the blog I'm going to focus on writing in general, family in small, and people I know and like, specifically. There are several writers I'd like to talk to and then tell you about. Some friends of mine have a 'live literary magazine' that makes me very happy. And my husband and kids have some news that, while not literary, makes me want to write. And so I will.
Soon.