This just in — the 2009 national Poetry Out Loud champion is 18-year-old William Farley of Arlington, Va. Click here to check it out. His final reading was a poem called “Danse Russe” by William Carlos Williams.
Thanks to Kate Long, Colleen Anderson and Debbie Haught, who each read a poem by Louise McNeill for MountainWord to celebrate National Poetry Month and to highlight a new release of McNeill’s selected poems called Paradox Hill: From Appalachia to Lunar Shore, Revised Edition. The book is edited and with an introduction by A.E. Stringer. It’s published by Vandalia Press at West Virginia University. We hope you enjoy the sounds of these remarkable Louise McNeill poems:
Kate Long reads “Snow Angels.”
Colleen Anderson reads “Threnody for Old Orchards.”
Debbie Haught reads “The Martian Box.”
Click here to order the book.
“Louise McNeill had a voice, both in person and in the poems, that was direct and forceful. Her toughness came from her resistance to the merely decorative or folksy. We still need such a voice. Her poems project a powerful presence: it is resonant with character. It is the sound of the griefs and meanings and dignities of the land and the people. It strikes me as absolutely authentic.”
Irene McKinney, Poet Laureate of West Virginia and author of Vivid Companion and Unthinkable
West Virginia Writers Inc. has a weekly podcast that began on Friday and will update on Fridays. Cool. You’ll hear interviews and lots of good information about the conference coming up this summer at Cedar Lakes. One of the many highlights of the conference this year is Poet John McKernan of ABZ Press and Marshall University fame. Click here to check out the first episode. I also highly recommend WV Writers podcast primer posted this week.
Teen poetry, open mic: Thursday, April 23, 2009, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Teens can celebrate National Poetry Month by reciting favorite poetry, song lyrics or original poetry. Chai tea, hot chocolate and scones will be served. Cross Lanes Public Library, 5449 Big Tyler Road. Call 304-776-5999.
Poetry Out Loud National Finals take place on April 27-28 in Washington, DC. Representing W.Va. will be Jasmine Lewis, a junior at Spring Valley High School in Huntington, W.Va.
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Noteworthy books:
A Coney Island of the Mind. 50th Anniversary Edition (with CD) by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. A million copies in print, and now this special edition, with sound!
The Best of It: New and Selected Poems, by Kay Ryan (Grove Press). A collection from the U.S. poet laureate.
Bianca Spriggs is hosting an Affrilachian poets reading 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., Friday, April 17, 2009, at the Third Street Stuff Cafe on Limestone Street in Lexington, Kentucky. The event is sponsored by Transylvania University, and participating poets are Frank X Walker, Keith Wilson, Bianca Spriggs, Marta Miranda, Crystal Good and Ricardo Nazario-Colon.
Click here to take a look at some of the Affrilachian poets in a video I and M.K. McFarland put together of last month’s Affrilachian stop at Capitol Market.
I tipped off MountainWord readers about this reading in advance, but for any of you who were unable to make the trip to Morgantown, W.Va., here’s part of Michael Blumenthal’s April 6, 2009, poetry reading at WVU.
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More and more universities are embracing multimedia. There’s enough referred to on one blog I read to keep anybody busy for a long time:
http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/
I read it on a Focus front in the Saturday Gazette-Mail… an AP story headlined “College too expensive? Give YouTube a try” … and it seemed very odd at first, and then I thought about it: Get an education on YouTube … a click away at http://www.youtube.com/edu. Some of the coolest people in history were self-educated.
Continue reading »
Enter MountainWord’s Poetry Contest to win a new book of poems by a West Virginia poet. Click here to send a short poem via e-mail to MountainWord by 10 a.m. Wednesday, April 15. Type “MountainWord” in the subject line, and be sure to include your name and mailing address. Keep checking back with MountainWord for more chances to win.
I mentioned this recently, but I want to give it another plug: Mark Brazaitis, associate professor and director of creative writing in WVU’s Department of English, has a first book of poems about to be released titled The Other Language.
