Susan Rich's Blog, page 61
November 4, 2011
It's Almost Here! Free Reading at Seattle Public Library, Saturday!
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Come ride the cool elevator this Saturday at SPL
Please consider coming out and enjoying an afternoon of stellar readings from Jack Straw 2011 from 2:00-3:30 pm at the downtown Seattle Public Library. A total of ten prose writers and poets will read for six minutes each. It's like speed dating for the literary types (some of the writers are even single!) and the staff of Jack Straw will also be on hand. If you are applying to be a Jack Straw Writer in 2012, this is the event for you. Seattle writers Nassim Assefi, Anne McDuffie, Deborah Jarvis, Robert Larimande, Don Fells, Ann Teplic, Harold Taw, and Maritess Zurbano are just some of the writers that will be on hand. Elliott Bay Books will be on hand selling the Jack Straw Anthology as well as books by featured readers. Come join us for 90 minutes of literary love!
Please consider coming out and enjoying an afternoon of stellar readings from Jack Straw 2011 from 2:00-3:30 pm at the downtown Seattle Public Library. A total of ten prose writers and poets will read for six minutes each. It's like speed dating for the literary types (some of the writers are even single!) and the staff of Jack Straw will also be on hand. If you are applying to be a Jack Straw Writer in 2012, this is the event for you. Seattle writers Nassim Assefi, Anne McDuffie, Deborah Jarvis, Robert Larimande, Don Fells, Ann Teplic, Harold Taw, and Maritess Zurbano are just some of the writers that will be on hand. Elliott Bay Books will be on hand selling the Jack Straw Anthology as well as books by featured readers. Come join us for 90 minutes of literary love!
November 3, 2011
A Home Without Books is ...
A home without books is a body without soul. Marcus Tullius Cicero
I love this photograph! I want to climb in the bath right now with a book, but instead more student midterms await me.
November 1, 2011
Bonnie and Clyde: Another Look
Clyde Barrow and Bonnie ParkerI've been screening the film Bonnie and Clyde for my Film Studies class. Directed by Arthur Penn, the film was released in 1967 and is one of the rare examples of a film panned by TIME magazine and then six months later, publishing a long and glowing review. In 1967, Roger Ebert wrote that Bonnie and Clyde was the film that would come to epitomize the 1960's. He was right.Today the idea of bank robbers who rob banks but believe in love of family and in treating the 99% with respect has some cache. Although the violence is exceptionally well done, violence is still a hard sell for me. Sometimes stretching oneself is a good thing. I hope my students will agree.
Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty as Bonnie and Clyde
October 31, 2011
Meet Jack Straw Writer: Maritess Zurbano
Please join Maritess Zurbano as well as other Jack Straw Writers: Nassim Aseffi, Anne McDuffie, Ann Teplick, Robert Lamirande, Harold Taw, Nora Wendl, and others 2:00 pm, this Saturday, November 5th in the auditorium at Seattle Public Library. This is the final event for Jack Straw Writers 2011. Kathleen Flenniken will also be on hand. Please join us. That's MagicAug 8th, 2011 by jennie
In her writing, Maritess Zurbano depicts the little known world of a female magician. Her work brings to light racial and gender issues surrounding the art and captures the intrigue of performance. Original subject matter and dramatic delivery make for a captivating read.Zurbano has been a practicing magician for 19 years, has competed internationally and performed around the world. Her memoir-based play, "Rites of Enchantment," has won entry into the New York International Fringe Festival and the NYC Ars Nova Theater Festival. Her short stories have been published in The Chicago Reader as well as the literary magazine Snowbound. She is a contributor to Magic Magazine and has been profiled by Newsday, Lifetime Television, The BBC News, Epoch Times, and The Village Voice providing commentary on magic and the occult. Her literary awards include a 2010 Washington State Artist Trust Grant and a 2011 Jack Straw Fellowship.SoundPages was produced by Jack Straw Productions as part of the Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at http://www.jackstraw.org/.Music performed by the Owcharuk Sextet and recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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In her writing, Maritess Zurbano depicts the little known world of a female magician. Her work brings to light racial and gender issues surrounding the art and captures the intrigue of performance. Original subject matter and dramatic delivery make for a captivating read.Zurbano has been a practicing magician for 19 years, has competed internationally and performed around the world. Her memoir-based play, "Rites of Enchantment," has won entry into the New York International Fringe Festival and the NYC Ars Nova Theater Festival. Her short stories have been published in The Chicago Reader as well as the literary magazine Snowbound. She is a contributor to Magic Magazine and has been profiled by Newsday, Lifetime Television, The BBC News, Epoch Times, and The Village Voice providing commentary on magic and the occult. Her literary awards include a 2010 Washington State Artist Trust Grant and a 2011 Jack Straw Fellowship.SoundPages was produced by Jack Straw Productions as part of the Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at http://www.jackstraw.org/.Music performed by the Owcharuk Sextet and recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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October 30, 2011
October 29, 2011
Boston, You're My Town: January O'Neil reports from Occupoets
OccuPoets Boston
Read below to hear how poets January O'Neil, Martha Collins and others are doing their share to support the peaceful protesters in my hometown of Boston.
Yesterday, I was part of a weeklong effort by OccuPoets Boston to support the Occupy Boston movement. Organized by Peter Desmond, the weeklong series of afternoon poetry readings were held in support of the hundreds of people camping out, talking to passersby on the street, serving food, organizing events, talking to media, etc.
About 15 poets read to a crowd of 40-50 people, including Fred Marchant, Martha Collins, Molly Lynn Watt, and me. I was incredibly nervous—I never know how my work will be received. But the audience was warm and appreciative of the support from the Boston-area writers community. Four of the five poems I read are from the new manuscript, all of which have to do with the downturn in the economy.
This Occupy effort is centralized at Dewey Plaza at South Station in downtown Boston. What was once a park is now a tent city. Except for the musicians in the background and the city noise, it was relatively calm there. And clean. A little smelly but very organized and orderly. There's even a library on site, that now has a copy of Underlifeon its shelves. I definitely got the sense that these 99 percenters are 100 percent committed to change by any (peaceful) means necessary. Click here to continue reading and see more images of the afternoon.
Read below to hear how poets January O'Neil, Martha Collins and others are doing their share to support the peaceful protesters in my hometown of Boston.
Yesterday, I was part of a weeklong effort by OccuPoets Boston to support the Occupy Boston movement. Organized by Peter Desmond, the weeklong series of afternoon poetry readings were held in support of the hundreds of people camping out, talking to passersby on the street, serving food, organizing events, talking to media, etc.
About 15 poets read to a crowd of 40-50 people, including Fred Marchant, Martha Collins, Molly Lynn Watt, and me. I was incredibly nervous—I never know how my work will be received. But the audience was warm and appreciative of the support from the Boston-area writers community. Four of the five poems I read are from the new manuscript, all of which have to do with the downturn in the economy.
This Occupy effort is centralized at Dewey Plaza at South Station in downtown Boston. What was once a park is now a tent city. Except for the musicians in the background and the city noise, it was relatively calm there. And clean. A little smelly but very organized and orderly. There's even a library on site, that now has a copy of Underlifeon its shelves. I definitely got the sense that these 99 percenters are 100 percent committed to change by any (peaceful) means necessary. Click here to continue reading and see more images of the afternoon.
October 28, 2011
Meet Jack Straw Writer: Ann Teplick - Poet, Playwright, YA Writer
I first met Ann Teplick in a "Speaking Pictures" workshop at the Northwest Museum of Art as part of the Skagit River Poetry Festival. She struck me at the time as passionate, smart, and playful. Ans she still does.Later, I published her poem "This is How I Want to be Kissed" in the "Beyond Ekphrasis: Poems of the Musical, Mathematical, and the Visual" portfolio of Crab Creek Review, 2010, volume 2. Ann is a poet I will be watching as I expect to hear much more from (and about) her very soon. Listen to her podcast below.By the BedsideSep 12th, 2011 by jennie
In her Jack Straw residency, Ann Teplick shares her grief, wrestling the difficulties and pain of losing parents. Her poetry imparts sorrow, beauty, love, and loss. Each word is chosen with courage, leaving the reader absorbed in the fragility of human life.Teplick is a Seattle poet, playwright, and prose writer, with an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College. For eighteen years she's written with youth in schools, juvenile detention centers, psychiatric hospitals and literary non-profits. Her work has appeared in Crab Creek Review, Drash, Chrysanthemum, Hunger Mountain, and others. Her plays have been showcased in Washington, Oregon, and Nova Scotia. In 2010 she received funding from Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs and 4Culture for a collection of poetry The Beauty of a Beet, Poems from the Bedside. In 2011 she will be a writer at Hedgebrook.SoundPages was produced by Jack Straw Productions as part of the Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at http://www.jackstraw.org/.Music performed by the Bird Tribe Orchestra and recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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In her Jack Straw residency, Ann Teplick shares her grief, wrestling the difficulties and pain of losing parents. Her poetry imparts sorrow, beauty, love, and loss. Each word is chosen with courage, leaving the reader absorbed in the fragility of human life.Teplick is a Seattle poet, playwright, and prose writer, with an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College. For eighteen years she's written with youth in schools, juvenile detention centers, psychiatric hospitals and literary non-profits. Her work has appeared in Crab Creek Review, Drash, Chrysanthemum, Hunger Mountain, and others. Her plays have been showcased in Washington, Oregon, and Nova Scotia. In 2010 she received funding from Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs and 4Culture for a collection of poetry The Beauty of a Beet, Poems from the Bedside. In 2011 she will be a writer at Hedgebrook.SoundPages was produced by Jack Straw Productions as part of the Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at http://www.jackstraw.org/.Music performed by the Bird Tribe Orchestra and recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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In Praise of Poet Tree: Secret Sculptor on the Loose in Edinburgh
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It looked like this was a one-off, a beautiful and delicate piece of art created by a fan of the Poetry Library. Until, in late June, the National Library of Scotland found themselves the recipient of a similar piece.Those of you who don't keep up with Edinburgh's literary world through Twitter may have missed the recent spate of mysterious paper sculptures appearing around the city.Guardian article, 3rd March 2011.One day in March, staff at the Scottish Poetry Library came across a wonderful creation, left anonymously on a table in the library. Carved from paper, mounted on a book and with a tag addressed to @byleaveswelive - the library's Twitter account - reading:
It started with your name @byleaveswelive and became a tree.… ... We know that a library is so much more than a building full of books… a book is so much more than pages full of words.… This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas….. a gesture (poetic maybe?)To continue reading this article and seeing the rest of these lyrical and dreamlike sculptures, click here
October 27, 2011
Happy Birthday Sylvia Plath -- She Would Have Been 79...
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"And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt." ― Sylvia Plath
"And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt." ― Sylvia Plath
October 26, 2011
The Joy of Not Being Sold Anything - A Poem Prompt For Sure
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Seen in Norway this fine morning
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