Cedric Tillman's Blog, page 5

Cave Canem Reading, Impact Hub Baltimore, Dec. 2

It was great seeing old friends and meeting Cave Canem family I didn't know last week in Baltimore. This was my first non-open mic reading in the Baltimore/DC area since I moved back in November '16. I read with Saida Agostini, Alan King, Jadi Omowale, and Cherese Pollard, ahead of featured poet (and fellow '11 groupmate and graduate) Khadijah Queen. Her latest, "I'm So Fine..." is mostly a collection of prose poems-stream-of-consciousness reminiscences on her youth and famous people she encountered growing up in LA. Her memory of what she had on during these episodes is remarkable. The book is a great Christmas gift, especially for that person you'd like to get into poetry who's not a fan. More on Khadijah is below.
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Khadijah Queen is the author of Conduit, Black Peculiar, and Fearful Beloved, and I'm So Fine: A List of Famous Men & What I Had On. As part of the Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women Performance Writers, Litmus Press published her verse play Non-Sequitur in 2015. Individual poems and prose appear in The American Poetry Review, Fence, Tin House, Buzzfeed, Hyperallergic, Gulf Coast, and widely elsewhere. Queen is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at University of Colorado in Boulder, and serves as core faculty in poetry for the Mile-High MFA in Creative Writing at Regis University.

http://calendar.prattlibrary.org/even...

8/14 Reading in Hickory, NC, Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse

I'll be reading August 14 at 7 pm back (near) home in Hickory, NC. Come by or tell a friend if you know somebody down there!

https://www.focusnewspaper.com/poetry...

Poetry Hickory is a monthy reading series held the second Tuesday of each month from 7:00 – 8:30 P.M. at Taste Full Beans Coffee House (29 Second St. NW) in downtown Hickory, NC. Each reading is preceded by Writers’ Night Out, beginning at 5:30 also at Taste Full Beans, coordinated by Scott Owens as NC Writers’ Network Regional Representative. These meetings and readings are open to the public and free of charge.

The series was founded by Scott Owens in September 2007 and is sponsored by Taste Full Beans and Main Street Rag. Each reading includes two featured writers followed by a 30-minute Open Mic. Open Mic participants must sign up by 7:00 and will be given 3 minutes for their reading.

https://poetryhickory.wordpress.com/a...

New Poems: Barzakh Magazine, Vol. 10

Thanks to Barzakh Magazine for publishing 3 poems of mine in its 10th issue. Glad to join some folks I'm fans of in seeing my work here.

"Bad Haiku Workshop," "Safe Space," "PrEP"

https://www.barzakh.net/2018-poetry/2...

Pleiades Press Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Poetry

Honored to have been named a finalist. Congrats to all-congrats to Ashley (and Darrel Alejandro Holnes!) I have some friends who are big fans of both, and I've seen Ashley's name everywhere over the last couple years.

We are pleased to announce dark // thing by Ashley M. Jones was selected by Marcus Wicker and will be published next year. Marcus Wicker praised this book, saying “dark // thing explores the operating costs incurred when blackness—black hair, black bottom, black diction and excellence—are perceived, but not uniquely seen. Ashley M. Jones has penned towns like Birmingham, Alabama and Flint, Michigan; penned America through the lens of Harriet Tubman, Dwayne Wayne, and the Emancipation Proclamation in a pitch tuned for everyone, whether you’re jonseing for sonnets, sestinas, or mathematical proofs. It is imperative that you read these poems, teach these poems, breathe deep this gift of a book.”

We also would like to commend the other finalists and semi-finalists, whose manuscripts in our opinion were all outstanding and publishable.

Finalists: Kimberly Andrews, Scott Beal, Torrin A. Greathouse, Judy Halebsky, Rebecca Hazelton, Kate Partridge, Jennifer Perrine, Cedric Tillman, Michael Torres

Semi-finalists: Dilruba Ahmed, Christian Bancroft, Ralph Burns, Robert Evory, C. R. Grimmer Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Peter Kline, Becka Mara McKay, Andrea Martin, Kyle McCord, Susannah Nevison, Osel Jessica Plante, Christa Romanosky, Molly Spencer, Kathleen Winter, Felicia Zamora

http://pleiadespress.org/congratulati...

Reading at THE BLOCK off biltmore, Asheville, NC, February 19, 2018

I'm back from hiatus. I'll be doing my first non-open mic reading in a bit over a year next week back home in NC over in Asheville at The Block off biltmore (their capitalization, not mine :) Show starts at 7:30-I'll do about 30 mins, try to slip in some stuff from my latest ms., which will be followed by an open mic. Come through!

https://www.facebook.com/events/17861...

New poem up at Pleaides: "Supremacy, or The Black Lifestyle"

I'm super excited and thankful to have a new poem entitled "Supremacy, or The Black Lifestyle" up at Pleaides. The poem was actually created from the writing/feelings/ideas that came from out of the tragic shooting of nine Bible study attendees at Mother Emanuel A.M.E. in Charleston in 2015, as well as a quote from an article from the last election that came from an article written on a Ben Carson visit to NC. The first poem that came out of it all was "The Blood," which was published by Public Pool. The second is "Supremacy," here:

http://www.pleiadesmag.com/cedrictill...

Thanks for reading!

New poem up at The Manhattanville Review: "Respectability"

Happy to report that the folks at The Manhattanville Review have published a poem of mine entitled "Respectability." Have a look!

http://www.themvillereview.com/respec...

Thanks to Pleiades, University of Akron Press, and now Press 53

I want to say thanks to these presses for acknowledging my work this year. I was named a semifinalist for the Pleiades & Akron Prizes earlier this year, and found out today that I was named a finalist for the Press 53 Poetry prize.

I am so happy to see this manuscript get some love. I remember after finishing my MFA how I thought my thesis was so ready to go - thank God LILIES didn't see the light of day for 9 years. I sent it everywhere and got a couple of nice letters, but didn't place anywhere. This is the 6th semi/finalist placing for IN MY FEELINGS in the last 2 years (finalist for Akron last yr!), and it's cool to see the work pay off- but even more than that, it's cool feeling as if maturity and knowing what I want to put out in the world has improved my work in the eyes of unbiased observers.

I'm very happy to see a press from home (Winston stand up!) recognize this work. Hoping to come back to this space soon with news of some press taking a chance on this thing...

Cedric

A Way Belated Thanks to Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh, NC

I forgot to mention this here in the craziness of my move to the DC metro area that was going on at the time-but I had a great time meeting and reading with Janet Joyner and Sara Claytor (who I met at an earlier reading back in '16.) Thanks so much to Grace Ocasio (http://www.blazevox.org/index.php/Sho...) for making the introduction and to Quail Ridge for having me.
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http://www.quailridgebooks.com/event/...

Sara Claytor, Cedric Tillman & Janet Joyner - An Afternoon of NC Poets

Our Sundry Poets program presents a trio of talented NC poets on Sunday, Dec. 4, at 2 pm. Carrboro's Sara Claytor, author of Memory Bones, shares from her latest, Waiting on Unknown Roads.

Cedric Tillman shares Lilies in the Valley. “Cedric Tillman’s poems are straightforward and full of rich details. These poems unfold with rhythm and resonate with remembering; they have much emotional appeal, depicting pop culture, family life, blues, violence, love, religion and history. Lilies In The Valley is a serious and daring book.”–Lenard D. Moore, author of Forever Home.

Winston-Salem's Janet Joyner presents Waterborne, winner of the 2015 Holland Prize. "Janet Joyner, in these powerful, musically sensuous poems, reaches into our innermost hearts; and as a result we are, I think, both deeper and more honest than we were before." - Anthony Abbott (The Angel Dialogues).

Our moderator is Jo Taylor.

Event date:
Sunday, December 4, 2016 - 2:00pm
Event address:
North Hills
4209-100 Lassiter Mill Road
Raleigh, NC 27609

July 31 Interview with Rachelle Escamilla, KKUP's Out of Our Minds

So honored to be invited by my Willow Books pressmate Rachelle Escamilla (IMAGINARY ANIMAL, 2014) to chat about race and poetry recently on KKUP's venerable poetry show, Out of Our Minds.

Listen here:
https://soundcloud.com/rachelle-escam...

Rachelle's book:
https://willowlit.net/2015/03/31/imag...