Jan Steckel's Blog: Horizontal Poet Sings Bidyke Blues, page 3
August 6, 2012
"The Sunny Side of Being Bi"
That's the title of a delightful blog by Sara Chittenden, a bi woman who plays bass in the indie band Soundmeetsound. If you want to learn more about bi people (or get a shot in the arm of pride!), check out her inspiring and beautiful Tumblr at http://thesunnysideofbeingbi.tumblr.com
You can find her great review of The Horizontal Poet at
http://thesunnysideofbeingbi.tumblr.c...
Soundmeetsound's first album is coming out soon.... I can't wait.
*****************************************
I'll be doing at least three San Francisco Bay Area readings in September. Save the dates:
September 5 PM I'm featured at Sacred Grounds Cafe Open Mic in San Francisco, hosted by Dan Brady, who recently read his own work at the SF Public Library.
September 8 PM I'm cofeatured with my friend and mentor Julia Vinograd at an open mic hosted by the lovely Tanka and performance poet Jeanne Lupton at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts in Alameda.
September 22 PM I'm featured with my husband Hew Wolff and several other queer and/or kinky erotica writers at Perverts Put Out, San Francisco's literary smut salon hosted by Carol Queen and Simon Shepard at the Center for Sex and Culture.
Details and invitations to follow!
You can find her great review of The Horizontal Poet at
http://thesunnysideofbeingbi.tumblr.c...
Soundmeetsound's first album is coming out soon.... I can't wait.
*****************************************
I'll be doing at least three San Francisco Bay Area readings in September. Save the dates:
September 5 PM I'm featured at Sacred Grounds Cafe Open Mic in San Francisco, hosted by Dan Brady, who recently read his own work at the SF Public Library.
September 8 PM I'm cofeatured with my friend and mentor Julia Vinograd at an open mic hosted by the lovely Tanka and performance poet Jeanne Lupton at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts in Alameda.
September 22 PM I'm featured with my husband Hew Wolff and several other queer and/or kinky erotica writers at Perverts Put Out, San Francisco's literary smut salon hosted by Carol Queen and Simon Shepard at the Center for Sex and Culture.
Details and invitations to follow!
July 7, 2012
Journal Round-Up and Reading
Last week received my contributor's copy of Askew, a Southern California (Ventura)-based literary journal in a newspaper format. I enjoyed the poems a lot, and I liked the way the editors presented my poem about my mentor ("Julia Vinograd Turns Canned Food into Poetry") and its final line "She does not deign to eat the peach" right under another poem that ended with the word "peach."
Askew is edited by Phil Taggart and Marsha de la O with the help of Friday Lubina. Phil and Friday also host readings in the Ventura area. I was scheduled to read on July 31 at Phil Taggart's reading at the Artists Union Gallery there. Unfortunately the gallery just lost its lease and the reading its venue, so I'll have to wait for another opportunity to hear the editors of Askew read.
I also received my contributor's copies of Assaracus: Lady Business, with five of my filthiest queer poems bringing up the rear, so to speak, at the end of the volume. Assaracus is a gay male literary journal edited by Bryan Borland. This was their issue of poetry by lesbian and bisexual women, and I absolutely loved it. My favorite poetry in the volume was by Maureen Seaton. Couldn't find her on Facebook -- hope to run into her work again soon.
Editor Michael W. Jones of the online journal The Eloquent Atheist was kind enough to print my poem "Downsizing the Solar System" at http://www.eloquentatheist.com/2012/0....
As I've mentioned here before, I'm not an atheist, actually. I just know that I don't know what the cosmic story is, but I acknowledge that you might, so I'm not really even a proper agnostic. (That is, I understand agnosticism to be the belief that one cannot know whether God exists.) The thing is, I have a physician's attitude that if the answer to a question doesn't change the plan of action, then I don't need the answer. Since I'd behave the same way toward other people whether I knew that God existed or not, I figure it's best just to get on with the good works and try to be as decent a person as I can. I respect the faiths of others, and also the agnosticism or atheism of others.
Lastly, I wanted to remind San Francisco Bay Area readers that I'll be featured at Caffe Greco in North Beach in SF with Julia Vinograd on Monday, July 9th. Sign-up for the open mic is at 6:30 PM. 423 Columbus Ave., between Vallejo and Green. Hope to see some of you there! Bring a little work of your own to read at the open mic if you'd like to.
Julia Vinograd is my poetry mentor. You can find a lot of her books here on Goodreads. Here's her short bio:
Julia Vinograd is a Berkeley street poet. She has published 56 books of poetry, and won the American Book Award of The Before Columbus Foundation. She has three poetry CD collections: Bubbles and Bones, Eye of the Hand, and The Book of Jerusalem. She received a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. She has a Poetry Lifetime Achievement Award from the City of Berkeley. She won a Pushcart Prize for her poem “The Young Men Who Died of AIDS.” She was one of the four editors of the anthology New American Underground Poetry Vol. 1: The Babarians of San Francisco— Poets from Hell.
Askew is edited by Phil Taggart and Marsha de la O with the help of Friday Lubina. Phil and Friday also host readings in the Ventura area. I was scheduled to read on July 31 at Phil Taggart's reading at the Artists Union Gallery there. Unfortunately the gallery just lost its lease and the reading its venue, so I'll have to wait for another opportunity to hear the editors of Askew read.
I also received my contributor's copies of Assaracus: Lady Business, with five of my filthiest queer poems bringing up the rear, so to speak, at the end of the volume. Assaracus is a gay male literary journal edited by Bryan Borland. This was their issue of poetry by lesbian and bisexual women, and I absolutely loved it. My favorite poetry in the volume was by Maureen Seaton. Couldn't find her on Facebook -- hope to run into her work again soon.
Editor Michael W. Jones of the online journal The Eloquent Atheist was kind enough to print my poem "Downsizing the Solar System" at http://www.eloquentatheist.com/2012/0....
As I've mentioned here before, I'm not an atheist, actually. I just know that I don't know what the cosmic story is, but I acknowledge that you might, so I'm not really even a proper agnostic. (That is, I understand agnosticism to be the belief that one cannot know whether God exists.) The thing is, I have a physician's attitude that if the answer to a question doesn't change the plan of action, then I don't need the answer. Since I'd behave the same way toward other people whether I knew that God existed or not, I figure it's best just to get on with the good works and try to be as decent a person as I can. I respect the faiths of others, and also the agnosticism or atheism of others.
Lastly, I wanted to remind San Francisco Bay Area readers that I'll be featured at Caffe Greco in North Beach in SF with Julia Vinograd on Monday, July 9th. Sign-up for the open mic is at 6:30 PM. 423 Columbus Ave., between Vallejo and Green. Hope to see some of you there! Bring a little work of your own to read at the open mic if you'd like to.
Julia Vinograd is my poetry mentor. You can find a lot of her books here on Goodreads. Here's her short bio:
Julia Vinograd is a Berkeley street poet. She has published 56 books of poetry, and won the American Book Award of The Before Columbus Foundation. She has three poetry CD collections: Bubbles and Bones, Eye of the Hand, and The Book of Jerusalem. She received a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. She has a Poetry Lifetime Achievement Award from the City of Berkeley. She won a Pushcart Prize for her poem “The Young Men Who Died of AIDS.” She was one of the four editors of the anthology New American Underground Poetry Vol. 1: The Babarians of San Francisco— Poets from Hell.
June 18, 2012
*The Horizontal Poet* Won a Lambda Literary Award!!!
I'm delighted to announce that my first full-length poetry book, The Horizontal Poet (Zeitgeist Press, 2011), recently won a Lambda Literary Award. The "Lammies" are the premier annual international awards for LGBT writing.
While they were announcing the award before mine in Manhattan two weeks ago, a beautiful blonde woman said something to me that I couldn't hear. I didn't realize until she was introduced onstage that she was our own Amy King, moderator of the Goodreads Poetry group! Luckily, I got to shake her hand and thank her when I went onstage to accept my award. What an honor.
The Horizontal Poet is now available on Amazon and at the following fine independent bookstores: The Laurel Bookstore in Oakland, California; The Beat Museum in San Francisco, California; Chaucer's Books in Santa Barbara, California; and Bluestockings in New York City.
You can also order the book directly from its indie publisher Zeitgeist Books at www.zeitgeist-press.com. If you prefer a signed copy, you can order one from me for $14 plus $2 shipping ($16 total) as a check or money order sent to Jan Steckel/PO Box 18797/Oakland, CA 94619, or for $16 sent to me via PayPal to Jmsteckel at aol dot com. Be sure to include your mailing address and to whom you want the book signed.
The cocktail reception before the Lambda Literary Awards Ceremony was a gas. I knew I should be running around trying to meet publishers or agents, but I was mesmerized by all the different sparkly eyeliners people were wearing. I got interviewed for some sort of promotional video for the Lambda Literary Foundation and tried to say all the right things.
Just before the awards ceremony started, someone kicked my husband out of his seat in the auditorium so Kate Millett could sit in it. Of course, he was happy to give it to her. I lay on the floor in a little alcove to the left of the stage where they had put me, and nearly got tripped over by Armistead Maupin. Kate Clinton shook my hand, and I decided never to wash it again. In her remarks, she said that the Republicans wanted to shrink government down small enough to fit inside her uterus.
When they announced that The Horizontal Poet had won an award, I swore softly to myself in shock and mounted the stairs to the stage. They had projected a thirty foot image of the book's cover on a screen behind me, so there I was stammering in front of a Brobdingnagian image of my seminude buxom self while four hundred people applauded. Except now I'm forty pounds lighter and have chopped off my hair, so I looked like a skinny-assed white boy in a black leather jacket and glasses. It was kind of like one of those dreams where you forget to wear any clothes to school.
I thanked all the requisite people and staggered off the stage into the arms of a six-foot-tall Olympian goddess, her bare shoulders rising from her brocade peplum bodice like Venus on the half-shell: my heroine Susie Bright. Then a long clinch with my husband Hew. The rest of the program had an air of unreality, but since the bisexuals and the transgendered people usually come last at queer events, there wasn't too long to wait. Then tons of hugs, congratulations, photos, handshakes, more awkward thanks, and into the cool night air.
I have two bags full of swag, mostly books by other queer writers that I'm really looking forward to reading. I have an enormously dense hunk of glass in the shape of a book, engraved with the relevant particulars. If I ever win another of these, I can use them for bookends. I have the knowledge that I really moved those judges with words on a page, without any junkets or publicist or connections. I know what my beautiful hunk of glass is. It's a license to write.
While they were announcing the award before mine in Manhattan two weeks ago, a beautiful blonde woman said something to me that I couldn't hear. I didn't realize until she was introduced onstage that she was our own Amy King, moderator of the Goodreads Poetry group! Luckily, I got to shake her hand and thank her when I went onstage to accept my award. What an honor.
The Horizontal Poet is now available on Amazon and at the following fine independent bookstores: The Laurel Bookstore in Oakland, California; The Beat Museum in San Francisco, California; Chaucer's Books in Santa Barbara, California; and Bluestockings in New York City.
You can also order the book directly from its indie publisher Zeitgeist Books at www.zeitgeist-press.com. If you prefer a signed copy, you can order one from me for $14 plus $2 shipping ($16 total) as a check or money order sent to Jan Steckel/PO Box 18797/Oakland, CA 94619, or for $16 sent to me via PayPal to Jmsteckel at aol dot com. Be sure to include your mailing address and to whom you want the book signed.
The cocktail reception before the Lambda Literary Awards Ceremony was a gas. I knew I should be running around trying to meet publishers or agents, but I was mesmerized by all the different sparkly eyeliners people were wearing. I got interviewed for some sort of promotional video for the Lambda Literary Foundation and tried to say all the right things.
Just before the awards ceremony started, someone kicked my husband out of his seat in the auditorium so Kate Millett could sit in it. Of course, he was happy to give it to her. I lay on the floor in a little alcove to the left of the stage where they had put me, and nearly got tripped over by Armistead Maupin. Kate Clinton shook my hand, and I decided never to wash it again. In her remarks, she said that the Republicans wanted to shrink government down small enough to fit inside her uterus.
When they announced that The Horizontal Poet had won an award, I swore softly to myself in shock and mounted the stairs to the stage. They had projected a thirty foot image of the book's cover on a screen behind me, so there I was stammering in front of a Brobdingnagian image of my seminude buxom self while four hundred people applauded. Except now I'm forty pounds lighter and have chopped off my hair, so I looked like a skinny-assed white boy in a black leather jacket and glasses. It was kind of like one of those dreams where you forget to wear any clothes to school.
I thanked all the requisite people and staggered off the stage into the arms of a six-foot-tall Olympian goddess, her bare shoulders rising from her brocade peplum bodice like Venus on the half-shell: my heroine Susie Bright. Then a long clinch with my husband Hew. The rest of the program had an air of unreality, but since the bisexuals and the transgendered people usually come last at queer events, there wasn't too long to wait. Then tons of hugs, congratulations, photos, handshakes, more awkward thanks, and into the cool night air.
I have two bags full of swag, mostly books by other queer writers that I'm really looking forward to reading. I have an enormously dense hunk of glass in the shape of a book, engraved with the relevant particulars. If I ever win another of these, I can use them for bookends. I have the knowledge that I really moved those judges with words on a page, without any junkets or publicist or connections. I know what my beautiful hunk of glass is. It's a license to write.
May 24, 2012
Are You an Atheist?
I'm not an atheist, but I'm not a believer, either. Nor am I an agnostic, if you take the definition of agnostic to mean someone who believes it's impossible to know if God exists or not. I just know that I personally don't know if God exists. I don't have any problem with other people's beliefs in God. Evangelical, militant atheism mildly annoys me.
Nor do I find it as important to be sure about God's existence as many people do, because I'm pretty sure that the humanistic morality my parents taught me leads me to behave in the same way as I would if I were sure about God's existence. Don't treat others the way you wouldn't want to be treated, as Hillel put it. Safer and less prescriptive than the Golden Rule,
Want a quick turnaround time for a poem, essay or story to be published? I woke up to find four poems I had submitted last night to The Eloquent Atheist were posted this morning! The last poem in the group is about Joie Cook, one of the best performers and poets I know personally. She's another Zeitgeist Press author and lives in San Francisco.
http://www.eloquentatheist.com/2012/0...
What is the basis of your conscious behavior and morality, whether you believe in God or not?
Nor do I find it as important to be sure about God's existence as many people do, because I'm pretty sure that the humanistic morality my parents taught me leads me to behave in the same way as I would if I were sure about God's existence. Don't treat others the way you wouldn't want to be treated, as Hillel put it. Safer and less prescriptive than the Golden Rule,
Want a quick turnaround time for a poem, essay or story to be published? I woke up to find four poems I had submitted last night to The Eloquent Atheist were posted this morning! The last poem in the group is about Joie Cook, one of the best performers and poets I know personally. She's another Zeitgeist Press author and lives in San Francisco.
http://www.eloquentatheist.com/2012/0...
What is the basis of your conscious behavior and morality, whether you believe in God or not?
May 18, 2012
Best New Poets
I'm no longer eligible for this competition/anthology, but if you have not published a full-length poetry book yet, you should consider entering.
http://bestnewpoets.org/
They've just extended their deadline to May 25, 2011.
Is it possible to rank poems? What makes a poem better than another poem?
http://bestnewpoets.org/
They've just extended their deadline to May 25, 2011.
Is it possible to rank poems? What makes a poem better than another poem?
May 9, 2012
Famous Bisexuals Born in the 1960s
Okay, I admit it. I spent way too much time yesterday indulging in the unspeakable vice of auto-Googling. What I want to know is, how did I end up #6 on this list of "Famous Bisexuals Born in the 1960s?
http://www.ranker.com/list/famous-bis...
It's an honor, truly.
Who's your favorite personality born in the 1960s?
Thanks to reporter Sheila D'Amico and my local free newspaper, the MacArthur Metro, for profiling several writers from my neighborhood in East Oakland, including me:
http://www.sffind.com/201205//4177
I'm enjoying my 15 minutes of fame!
http://www.ranker.com/list/famous-bis...
It's an honor, truly.
Who's your favorite personality born in the 1960s?
Thanks to reporter Sheila D'Amico and my local free newspaper, the MacArthur Metro, for profiling several writers from my neighborhood in East Oakland, including me:
http://www.sffind.com/201205//4177
I'm enjoying my 15 minutes of fame!
May 7, 2012
Video, poeticdiversity poem, Picks of the Week
Thanks to Evan Karp for posting a YouTube video of the April 24 Lambda Literary Finalists reading at the San Francisco Public Library. Here’s the video of me reading four of my poems from The Horizontal Poet: “Dios le bendiga,” “Twenty Thousand Vaginas Under the Sea,” “The Rose Grew Round the Briar,” and “The History of our Love.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chWLAn...
Thanks to Marie Lecrivain of the Los Angeles Lit Zine poeticdiversity for reprinting my poem “Fourteen Crossings” from my book. The poem appeared previously in Red Rock Review. You can find it here:
http://www.poeticdiversity.org/main/p...
Picks for this week:
I’m attending Oakland poet Cassandra Dallett’s featured reading at Poetry Express at Priya Indian Restaurant in Berkeley tonight. I first heard Cassandra at Paul Corman Roberts’ and H. K. Rainey’s by-submission-only reading Anger Management at Viricocha in the Mission in San Francisco. My husband Hew Wolff will be the featured reader at Poetry Express next week, Monday, May 14. Bring a poem of your own to share, and get 20% off your delicious Indian meal if you’re there to hear poetry. 7-9 PM every Monday night, 2072 San Pablo Ave, (between University Ave & Addison St), Berkeley, CA 94702. (510) 644-3977
This Wednesday, June 9, Jeanne Lupton and I are going to hear my poetry mentor and friend Julia Vinograd featured at Sacred Grounds coffeehouse in San Francisco. Should be a terrific show. Jeanne and I will both read at the open mic, I expect. Open Mic signups begin at 7 PM every Wednesday night, with readings from 7:30 to 10 PM. 2095 Hayes Street, San Francisco, CA 94117. (415) 387-3859
Next weekend, Saturday, May 12, I’m going to Works in Progress, a Women’s Open Mic in Piedmont, a neighborhood of Oakland. I’ll be one of several readers at this bimonthly womens’ reading, but the most exciting action for me this time is singer-songwriter/looper Irina Rivkin’s beautiful, complex music. Shar Bacchus will play recorder. Contact me for details at jmsteckel at aol dot com if you want to go.
Hope to see you around!
Warmly,
Jan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chWLAn...
Thanks to Marie Lecrivain of the Los Angeles Lit Zine poeticdiversity for reprinting my poem “Fourteen Crossings” from my book. The poem appeared previously in Red Rock Review. You can find it here:
http://www.poeticdiversity.org/main/p...
Picks for this week:
I’m attending Oakland poet Cassandra Dallett’s featured reading at Poetry Express at Priya Indian Restaurant in Berkeley tonight. I first heard Cassandra at Paul Corman Roberts’ and H. K. Rainey’s by-submission-only reading Anger Management at Viricocha in the Mission in San Francisco. My husband Hew Wolff will be the featured reader at Poetry Express next week, Monday, May 14. Bring a poem of your own to share, and get 20% off your delicious Indian meal if you’re there to hear poetry. 7-9 PM every Monday night, 2072 San Pablo Ave, (between University Ave & Addison St), Berkeley, CA 94702. (510) 644-3977
This Wednesday, June 9, Jeanne Lupton and I are going to hear my poetry mentor and friend Julia Vinograd featured at Sacred Grounds coffeehouse in San Francisco. Should be a terrific show. Jeanne and I will both read at the open mic, I expect. Open Mic signups begin at 7 PM every Wednesday night, with readings from 7:30 to 10 PM. 2095 Hayes Street, San Francisco, CA 94117. (415) 387-3859
Next weekend, Saturday, May 12, I’m going to Works in Progress, a Women’s Open Mic in Piedmont, a neighborhood of Oakland. I’ll be one of several readers at this bimonthly womens’ reading, but the most exciting action for me this time is singer-songwriter/looper Irina Rivkin’s beautiful, complex music. Shar Bacchus will play recorder. Contact me for details at jmsteckel at aol dot com if you want to go.
Hope to see you around!
Warmly,
Jan
May 4, 2012
Gather Ye *The Horizontal Poet* While Ye May!
Welcome to May! For this week only, through May 11, I'm offering free shipping for *The Horizontal Poet.* I'm trying to raise money to pay for my trip to New York in June to attend the Lambda Literary Awards ceremony, where *The Horizontal Poet* is a finalist. From now through May 11, you can order signed copies of the book for $14, with free shipping, by sending a check to me at Jan Steckel/PO Box 18797, Oakland, CA 94619. You can also order by PayPal at Jmsteckel at aol dot com.
Here's what Out in Print (reviews of queer authors) had to say about the book:
http://blog.outinprint.net/2012/04/23...
Thanks to AskGayWrites for featuring the book on their blog here: http://blog.outinprint.net/2012/04/23...
I'll be one of several readers at Works in Progress, an all-women's open mic, on May 12. Here's the skinny on that evening:
CHECK OUT THE NEXT WORKS IN PROGRESS,
An Open Mic for Women :
at the Fireside Room, Plymouth United Church of Christ ,
424 Monte Vista, Oakland, CA, USA
Saturday, May 12, 6:30-10:30 pm
Featuring: Irina Rivkin – Original old-world OutMusic Awardee layers poetic lyrics, rich textured harmonies and vocal beats, all created on-stage through live-looping. Her compelling, powerful songs blend jazzy folk & rhythmic world music with an all-original sound. www.irinarivkin.com.
and Sharlana Bacchus playing her recorder and sharing her poetry with us.
Plus Eight other artists to thrill and delight you!!
Come enjoy the magic!!
$7 - $10 Admission includes a raffle ticket for a chance to win one of five $25 certificates to a local restaurant.
6:30 – 7:30 Pot Luck --– Bring your favorite dish to share.
7:30 - 10:30 Performance, Fireside Room
Hosted by Feminist Author & Poet Linda Zeiser, Produced by Linda Zeiser & Carolyn Stull Zeiser. For information, contact Linda at (510) 701-1022, ZeiserpoetMC@aol.com.
Works In Progress is a creative space for women's art: Poets, Musicians, Comediennes, and Performance Artists. All are encouraged to share their works, completed or evolving. WIP is scent free and wheelchair accessible.
Here's what Out in Print (reviews of queer authors) had to say about the book:
http://blog.outinprint.net/2012/04/23...
Thanks to AskGayWrites for featuring the book on their blog here: http://blog.outinprint.net/2012/04/23...
I'll be one of several readers at Works in Progress, an all-women's open mic, on May 12. Here's the skinny on that evening:
CHECK OUT THE NEXT WORKS IN PROGRESS,
An Open Mic for Women :
at the Fireside Room, Plymouth United Church of Christ ,
424 Monte Vista, Oakland, CA, USA
Saturday, May 12, 6:30-10:30 pm
Featuring: Irina Rivkin – Original old-world OutMusic Awardee layers poetic lyrics, rich textured harmonies and vocal beats, all created on-stage through live-looping. Her compelling, powerful songs blend jazzy folk & rhythmic world music with an all-original sound. www.irinarivkin.com.
and Sharlana Bacchus playing her recorder and sharing her poetry with us.
Plus Eight other artists to thrill and delight you!!
Come enjoy the magic!!
$7 - $10 Admission includes a raffle ticket for a chance to win one of five $25 certificates to a local restaurant.
6:30 – 7:30 Pot Luck --– Bring your favorite dish to share.
7:30 - 10:30 Performance, Fireside Room
Hosted by Feminist Author & Poet Linda Zeiser, Produced by Linda Zeiser & Carolyn Stull Zeiser. For information, contact Linda at (510) 701-1022, ZeiserpoetMC@aol.com.
Works In Progress is a creative space for women's art: Poets, Musicians, Comediennes, and Performance Artists. All are encouraged to share their works, completed or evolving. WIP is scent free and wheelchair accessible.
April 28, 2012
All About Hew
Oh boy! Going tonight to hear our poet-friends Dale Jensen and Judy Wells read in celebration of their 10th wedding anniversary at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts tonight in Alameda. Jeanne Lupton will host. Can't wait! My husband Hew Wolff and I will read at the open mic -- I wrote a special tribute poem for Dale and Judy. 7 PM.
Hew's out hanging paintings. Wanted to invite anyone in the SF Bay Area to his reading Monday, May 14 at Poetry Express at Priya Indian Restaurant on San Pablo Ave. in Berkeley, California. It's hosted by Jim Barnard, Nance Wogan, Jan Dederick and Odilia Galván Rodriguez. There's an open mic, and poetry fans get 20% off their delicious Indian Food. 7 PM - 9 PM. Hew's formal poetry is lilting, clever, conversational and lovely.
Right now Hew's hanging a painting in the Pro Arts Gallery at Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, California. We'll attend the free reception there at 7 PM on Friday, May 4.
On Saturday and Sunday, June 9 & 10, from 10 AM to 5 PM each day, we'll be having an open studio in the back yard. We'll hang Hew's paintings all along the fence, serve snacks and drinks, and hang out with anyone who shows up. I'll get the details up on Facebook soon, or, if you aren't on Facebook but want to come, just message me on Goodreads or email me at jmsteckel at aol dot com for details.
Happy end of National Poetry Month!
Hew's out hanging paintings. Wanted to invite anyone in the SF Bay Area to his reading Monday, May 14 at Poetry Express at Priya Indian Restaurant on San Pablo Ave. in Berkeley, California. It's hosted by Jim Barnard, Nance Wogan, Jan Dederick and Odilia Galván Rodriguez. There's an open mic, and poetry fans get 20% off their delicious Indian Food. 7 PM - 9 PM. Hew's formal poetry is lilting, clever, conversational and lovely.
Right now Hew's hanging a painting in the Pro Arts Gallery at Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, California. We'll attend the free reception there at 7 PM on Friday, May 4.
On Saturday and Sunday, June 9 & 10, from 10 AM to 5 PM each day, we'll be having an open studio in the back yard. We'll hang Hew's paintings all along the fence, serve snacks and drinks, and hang out with anyone who shows up. I'll get the details up on Facebook soon, or, if you aren't on Facebook but want to come, just message me on Goodreads or email me at jmsteckel at aol dot com for details.
Happy end of National Poetry Month!
April 25, 2012
Readings, Readings, and more Readings
WOW! What a National Poetry Month it's been. Started out reading a friendly acquaintance's poem at his memorial -- a very moving and beautiful day. Had a three-reading weekend when I read at The Poetry Zone at the Karpeles Manuscript Museum in Santa Barbara, then got to hear host Suzanne Frost read in two more readings at the California Arts Forum and the Mission Poetry Series, both of which were excellent. Heard poet Michael C. Ford of Los Angeles at the Mission reading -- what a force he is!
Enjoyed reading with Jeanne Wagner at Expressions Gallery in Berkeley on Friday night-- the open mic was just as exciting as the features, with my publisher Bruce Isaacson putting in an appearance with his son Alan Isaacson -- both very fine poets and performers. Co-feature Jeanne Wagner's poetry made fireworks go off behind my eyelids.
Last night was the high point for me -- the Lambda Literary Finalists reading at the San Francisco Public Library. I got to meet Daphne Gottlieb, whom I've admired from afar for years. Her reading about her mother's dying was very moving. Also got to hear my friend Christina Hutchins read from her new book *The Stranger Dissolves* (Sixteen Rivers Press, 2011). I was scared to follow both of them, but I felt my poetry was well received. Such a wonderful, energizing event! Enjoyed meeting the other SF finalists as well as Ellery Washington(Lambda Literary Foundation Board Member), Tony Valenzuela (Executive Director of Lambda) and Karen Sundheim (Program Manager for the San Francisco Public Library). Everyone was so kind, and the event was so well executed.
Now I get to rest a bit before going to my friends Judy Wells and Dale Jensen's 10th Anniversary Reading at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts this Saturday evening in Alameda. If you live in the SF Bay Area, this is one reading not to miss.
I'll be one of several readers on May 12 at Works in Progress, a women's reading in the Piedmont neighborhood of Oakland. Irina Rivkin will be singing her wonderful Russian lesbian looping folk-rock. Write me for details if you're a woman in the SF Bay Area and you want to go. So much great queer energy! Reminds me why I moved back here.
After that, it's off to New York City the first week in June, where I'll visit the Ginsberg estate offices, read in Bi Lines at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in the East Village with the other Bi finalists for the Lammies on June 3, and attend the 24th Annual Lambda Literary Awards Ceremony at the Graduate Center, CUNY, on June 4. Heavens. What does one wear to the Oscars of LGBT writing?
Enjoyed reading with Jeanne Wagner at Expressions Gallery in Berkeley on Friday night-- the open mic was just as exciting as the features, with my publisher Bruce Isaacson putting in an appearance with his son Alan Isaacson -- both very fine poets and performers. Co-feature Jeanne Wagner's poetry made fireworks go off behind my eyelids.
Last night was the high point for me -- the Lambda Literary Finalists reading at the San Francisco Public Library. I got to meet Daphne Gottlieb, whom I've admired from afar for years. Her reading about her mother's dying was very moving. Also got to hear my friend Christina Hutchins read from her new book *The Stranger Dissolves* (Sixteen Rivers Press, 2011). I was scared to follow both of them, but I felt my poetry was well received. Such a wonderful, energizing event! Enjoyed meeting the other SF finalists as well as Ellery Washington(Lambda Literary Foundation Board Member), Tony Valenzuela (Executive Director of Lambda) and Karen Sundheim (Program Manager for the San Francisco Public Library). Everyone was so kind, and the event was so well executed.
Now I get to rest a bit before going to my friends Judy Wells and Dale Jensen's 10th Anniversary Reading at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts this Saturday evening in Alameda. If you live in the SF Bay Area, this is one reading not to miss.
I'll be one of several readers on May 12 at Works in Progress, a women's reading in the Piedmont neighborhood of Oakland. Irina Rivkin will be singing her wonderful Russian lesbian looping folk-rock. Write me for details if you're a woman in the SF Bay Area and you want to go. So much great queer energy! Reminds me why I moved back here.
After that, it's off to New York City the first week in June, where I'll visit the Ginsberg estate offices, read in Bi Lines at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in the East Village with the other Bi finalists for the Lammies on June 3, and attend the 24th Annual Lambda Literary Awards Ceremony at the Graduate Center, CUNY, on June 4. Heavens. What does one wear to the Oscars of LGBT writing?
Horizontal Poet Sings Bidyke Blues
Bidyke writer and disabled former pediatrician Jan Steckel writes about poetry, fiction, sexuality, doctoring, poverty, and what it feels like to remember what kind of socks everyone at her readings w
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